“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.
He has raised up a mighty savior for us
in the house of his child David,
as he spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
that we would be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us.
Thus he has shown the mercy promised to our ancestors
and has remembered his holy covenant,
the oath that he swore to our ancestor Abraham,
to grant us that we, being rescued from the hands of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness
in his presence all our days.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High,
for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
to give his people knowledge of salvation
by the forgiveness of their sins.
Because of the tender mercy of our God,
the dawn from on high will break upon us,
to shine upon those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:68–79 NRSV)
Of all the angles and characters we usually consider around the story of Christmas, John the Baptist and his father, Zechariah, are not high on that list. In fact, Zechariah’s spoken prophecy that Luke describes comes just on the heels of Zechariah being struck mute by the angel Gabriel because of unbelief concerning his son’s conception and birth. “My wife and I are too old,” Zechariah says, which sounds much like Abram’s reaction in Genesis to a similar prophecy.
And so, these Holy Spirit-inspired, prophetic words are spoken by Zechariah, with many of them being about God himself and the soon-to-be-born Messiah, Jesus, rather than the recently born John the Baptist.
Zechariah’s words about God speak to his sovereignty and greatness (vs. 68–75):
- Redemption for God’s people
- A mighty Savior for the house of David to save the Jews from their enemies
- Showing mercy that was promised and remembrance of the covenant sworn to Abraham
Zechariah’s words about newborn John speak more to vulnerability, submission, and tenderness and are comparatively few (vs. 76–77):
- He will be a prophet to go before the Messiah to prepare his ways.
- He will be a prophet to provide knowledge to the people and forgiveness of sins.
And then, finally, more of Zechariah’s words in this prophecy return back to being about God as tender and vulnerable (through the Messiah), even as Zechariah’s previous words spoke of God’s sovereignty and greatness (vs. 78-79):
- God’s tender mercy points to the coming dawn (of the Messiah).
- God will give light to those in the darkness and in the shadow of death.
- God will guide his people into the way of peace.
What should we understand about a relatively tangential character like John the Baptist’s father Zechariah, the loss of his voice, and the prophetic words he then utters upon regaining his speech?
Simply put, Christmas is about Jesus.
As fun and festive as the holidays are with exchanging gifts, parties, family gatherings, and red-nosed reindeer, and as interesting as it can be to try to come up with different ‘angles’ to understanding the story of Christmas through tangential characters such as the wise men, the inn-keeper (who is not actually mentioned), and Zechariah, the ‘angle of the angel’ Gabriel, and the God Gabriel speaks for, is to render silent any attempt to force someone other than Jesus to the forefront of the story. Like Zechariah, we are met with a gentle, or not-so-gentle, finger to lips as a sign of silence when we intentionally, or unintentionally, attempt to move the attention of Christmas away from Jesus.
Even the entrance of Jesus himself into our world does not happen with a shout, but rather with vulnerability, tenderness, and the gentlest of intentions that could be imagined: the birth of a newborn. Interestingly, the words Zechariah ends up saying coming out of his muted experience focus ultimately on the same vulnerability and tenderness Zechariah succumbed to in losing his speech.
It seems that the ‘angle of the angel’ in the side-story of John the Baptist and Zechariah, God’s angle, if you will, is that no one will steal the attention away from Jesus at Christmas, or at any other time. Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords, at Christmas and always, and he doesn’t need to force himself to the front or shout it from the rooftops to prove it.
Randy Schmor is interim VP of International Missions for the North American Baptist Conference and the director of NAB Gateway.