DECEMBER 3rd, 2023 PASTOR DON PIEPER
The Return Of Elijah LUKE 1:11-17; 66-80
“THE RETURN OF ELIJAH!”
When I was growing up, my mom was a big fan of musicals. Oliver, Oklahoma, Fiddler on the Roof, My Fair Lady, Scrooge, and her favorite, The Sound of Music. My mom was a big fan!
Me? Not so much! I didn't get it. It seemed so unrealistic. People would be milling around and then someone would deliver the song cue, and everyone, including bystanders, would break out in song
So it is that I embraced characters like Shrek who interrupts Donkey when he starts telling his sad lonesome story by singing it. “Stop singing, Donkey! No wonder you don't have any friends!”
Or Charlie Brown in the Peanuts Christmas special. He's trying to organize the Christmas pageant when someone suddenly cues the music.... “Stop the music...!” Charlie Brown yells!
My favorite is a scene in Monty Python's Holy Grail. A father is trying to marry off his reluctant son to a rich man's daughter, who has huge tracks of land. But his son protests, “But I don't want any of that. I'd rather...” “You'd rather what?” his father demands. “I'd rather.... just.... sing....!”
But as the music starts, his father interrupts: “Stop that! Stop that! You're not going to do a song while I'm around!” Such was my reaction to musicals: “What's with all the singing?”
The same could be asked of Luke's gospel... First, it's Mary, singing her Magnificat..., then it's Zechariah here, then the angels outside Bethlehem and until supporting cast member, Simeon breaks out with a little ditty that is still sung out of our LBW! That's no less than four songs in two chapters!
What's with all the singing? Consider the context of Zechariah's song. He's been chosen to serve as priest in the Holy of Holies inside the temple, a once in a life time opportunity, and while he's there interceding for his people the angel Gabriel visits him and informs him his elderly wife is to bear a son.
Zechariah has a hard time buying this and so he winds up being struck silent for the duration of his wife's pregnancy. Nine months he's unable to utter a word. I bet his wife, Elizabeth, found that a bit amusing. His colleagues surely did. “Hey, Zak, how about buying us another round? Yah, ma'am if he doesn't protest just put it on his tab! What was that, Zak? We couldn't hear ya?”
When their miraculous son was born, everyone assumed they'd name him after his father..., but instead they name him, John. What kind of name is that, Lizzie? - 'It's what God told us to name him!' His name reflects their obedience to God's word, the supernatural nature of their son's birth and the legacy he represents. After all, John, in Hebrew means, 'The Lord is gracious'/'The Lord shows grace'
Cue the music, strike up the band, I feel a song coming on! What follows is a prophetic song, known as the Benedictus, Latin for, 'praise' or 'blessed'. It comes from the first word Zechariah utters as his song appears in the Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate. Whoever named these songs was not very creative. They just named them after the first word as was the case with Mary's Magnificat.
But the first words sung are not about his son at all, but about the arrival of one to follow, one far greater than his exceptional son. He sings: “Praise the Lord, the God of Israel, for He has visited and redeemed his people. He has sent a mighty Savior from the royal line of his servant, David!”(Luke 1:68-69)
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Somehow Zechariah knows that the arrival of his promised sons heralds the arrival of someone that fulfills far more ancient promises, a child that will bring salvation to a people who've lost their way
“He has sent a mighty Savior...just as He promised though his holy prophets long ago!”
(Luke 1:69-70)
How can he be so sure? Luke has just told us: “Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit.” (Luke 1:67) He's been given divine insight. Not only that, he's had a change of heart. Instead of struggling to buy in to the angel's message, now he's totally invested. He recalls what he was told: “Your wife will give you a son..., and he will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord.”
(Luke 1:13,17)
Zechariah's song echoes that prophetic promise and, in that promise, comes another layer of the story. The angel Gabriel has quoted from the very last prophet sent to God's people, Malachi. Sent to those who'd return to Israel following their exile, Malachi brought a message of warning to the priests, and those following their lead, for their complacency in worship, idolatry, refusal to tithe & vanity.
Malachi is the last prophet to Israel and thus the last book in the Old Testament. Following his words of warning comes a promise: “Look I am sending my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. He will be like a blazing fire that refines metal.” (Malachi 3:1-2)
It is this prophecy that Zechariah refers to in singing praises to God on the occasion of his son's miraculous birth: “And you, my little son, will be called the prophet of the Most high, because you will prepare the way for the Lord.” (Luke 1:76)
Zechariah has embraced what the angel told him in the temple, that his son would be a fore-runner to someone far greater, that he would come to prepare the way for the Lord. When Malachi prophesied over four hundred years earlier, he had placed this promise in the trajectory of God's great plan unfolding through historic events and people. Malachi had foretold that Zechariah's son would be so great as to be on the level of that prophet Israel considered to be the greatest.
“For you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness will rise with healing in his wings, and you will go free, leaping with joy like calves let out to pasture, on the day when I act...
For look! I am sending you the prophet Elijah in advance of the Lord's arrival. His preaching will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and hearts of children to their fathers.” (Malachi 4:2, 5-6)
It is this prophecy that Gabriel quotes directly in his message to Zechariah. The story of this singing father is set in the story of the prophet Malachi, and before him, that of Elijah. Forever would Zechariah's son, John, be linked with that of the great prophet, Elijah. They not only would dress alike, both being seen as “hairy men” attired in the skins of animals, but they would be seen as wilderness, hillbilly prophets. What's more, both would prophesy to kings and countrymen alike, proclaiming an unswerving call for repentance, like a blazing fire refining metal, and both, unlike other servants of God who were anointed for a season, would be full of the Holy Spirit throughout their entire lives and ministries. In John the Baptist, God would make good on Malachi's prophecy.
As dangerous as hope may seem to some, as it always involves waiting & uncertainty, Zechariah now clings to it with all he's got and belts out a song of praise in the hope that others will embrace it as well. In doing so he makes it clear that Malachi was not promising the return of Elijah in the flesh as a means of hope but as the angel foretold, “He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah.” (Luke 1:17)
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Zechariah is pointing to the profound hope that will be at the center of his son's message – that salvation comes through the repentance and forgiveness of one's sins. So it is that this proud father sings: “Now we will be saved from our enemies... We have been rescued from our enemies so we can serve God without fear in holiness and righteousness for as long as we live.” (Luke 1:71,74-75)
How quick we are to identify those not like us as our enemies. How quick the world around us is at labeling one another and succumbing to hate. But for all the enemies that threaten us, none is more dangerous than the one that looks back at us in the mirror. We are, due to our fallen and self-centered nature, our own worst enemy. As a Chicago sports columnist put it, 'we are incredibly skilled at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory'. That sums up the Cubs, the Bears and oh, my, me!
(Mike Royko)
If we're honest, we all struggle to walk in Christ's victory. As Paul put it, “For everyone has sinned; we all fall far short of God's glorious standard!” (Romans 3:23) And yet, we are equally skilled at pulling the cover over our own eyes. Like pigs in the muck, we convince ourselves we're not so bad. Zechariah rejoices not only that he's, at last, a proud poppa, but that God is making good on his promises in sending a messenger to His people to help them see the lethal problem at hand – that we all need to be saved, not from our circumstances so much as from ourselves. Zechariah is ecstatic: “You will tell God's people how to find salvation through forgiveness of their sins!” (Luke 1:77)
God doesn't want us wallowing in the darkness of despair or disillusionment! He offers us a way out, the means by which “We (can) be rescued from our enemies, (that of sin, death & Satan), so we can serve God without fear, in holiness and righteousness for as long as we live.” (Luke 1:74-5)
Brennan Manning was an extraordinary person, especially in light of his past. He grew up in a cold, loveless environment. His anger with God resulted in a see-saw spiritual path that resulted in his living out the inner lies that plagued him, with lies and coverup of his own, culminating in a broken marriage and on and off again struggles with alcoholism. His was a life of failure punctuated by grace.
He began speaking to mostly evangelical audiences after his status as divorced, inactive priest, made him unwelcome in most Catholic gatherings. A small, trim man with a head of snow-white hair, his talks began slow until his passion for preparing hearts for the gospel message would take over, and with a strong voice and poetic rhythm of a rap artist would launch into a riff about God's grace.
“Why is Brennan Manning lovable in the eyes of God? It's because on February 8th, 1956, in a shattering, life-changing experience, I committed my life to Jesus. Does God love me because ever since I was ordained in 1963, I roamed the country and lately all over the world proclaiming the Good Nes of the gospel of grace? Does God love me because I work on skid row with alcoholics, addicts and those who suffer with AIDS? Does God love me because I spend two hours every day in prayer? If I believe it to be so I'm a Pharisee! That would lead me to feel entitled to be comfortably close to Christ because of all the good I do. But the gospel of grace says, 'Brennan, you're lovable for one reason only – because God loves you because He loves you. Period.” (from Phillip Yancey's Vanishing Grace)
It's the perspective the new Elijah articulated as well. Thank goodness our salvation, our good standing with God that makes it possible not only for us to reside in God's kingdom one day, but to enter it now and like John and Zechariah before, be filled with the Holy Spirit. “Because of God's tender mercy and grace, the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to guide us on to the path of peace.”
To be sure - that's a song worth singing, (Luke 1:78-79)