Elizabeth and Zechariah were quite old: certainly beyond child-bearing years. They had spent their lives serving God. They had spent years praying for a child. They had been faithful to the Law of Judaism and had participated regularly in worship. The years had turned into decades and still they hadn’t received the blessing from God they so longed for. They had no doubt watched friends and family settle down into domestic life and their hearts would have been torn between rejoicing for them but always feeling a deeper sense of loss for themselves.
And it’s hard, isn’t it, when we long for something in life but it seems to stay continually out of reach? The child we have longed for, the dream job we have longed for, the good health we long to enjoy, the stable relationship or happy marriage that may seem so elusive. When we have been praying and praying and praying for something for so many years and yet it fails to materialise, it is so hard to keep going and remain faithful. We may be tempted to cut back on our spiritual engagement at the least or even give up the faith altogether. After all, we may have been so faithful for so long but what have we got out of it? What’s the point? Why should I take God seriously when he doesn’t seem to take my pain seriously?
But Zechariah and Elizabeth show us a better way: they remained faithful to God. Even though they had not had their prayers answered, they still remained faithful because despite the pain of their circumstances, they knew in their heart of hearts that God had remained faithful to them.
When we are hurt in life, we may be tempted to walk away from God. But we know deep in the core of our being, even if we are unable to find the words to express it, that we can’t walk away because we have experienced too much of God’s love to ever be happy elsewhere. At the end of the day, it is never a question of whether God loves us or remains faithful to us: we know he loves us and we know he remains faithful to us. The question is whether or not we can accept God’s timing for our lives, even when we don’t understand the reasons.
You see, with Zechariah and Elizabeth, it was all about timing: they did receive the blessing of a child in the end - but it was in God’s timing, not what they had expected. It was God’s timing, not theirs. And sometimes, God’s timing in our lives doesn’t result in us getting what we want, but only the realisation that what we want isn’t what we need. But that is still God’s timing…
There are times in my life when I have prayed, often with desperation and over a long period of time, for a certain event to happen: for me to get a particular job, or for a particular relationship to change or for some other major life circumstance to happen. And on those occasions, I have been absolutely convinced that it is the right thing to happen. But then it doesn’t happen and I have been left feeling quite desolate, questioning God’s purposes. But maybe months later, even years later, I have looked back at the course of events and realised that what I had been praying for would not have been right after all and that God knew better than me - and that if I had received the thing I was praying for, in the long run, I would have been less happy, less fulfilled.
Of course, it is much easier to hold to this theological view when you are in your teens or early-20s because the world is still so full of possibilities and if one choice doesn’t work out, well, there are 1,000 more! To be absolutely honest with you, I think this feels a different theological view for me now that I am in my mid-40s and life choices are more limited. Perhaps that is increasingly the case as we move into our 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s. Life funnels down our choices quite naturally, so there may become an increasing sense of frustration or anxiety attached to that; particularly as we see certain dreams, certain opportunities pass us by and we know that they will not come our way again because of our age.
And that’s why it is so important to me that this story happens to Zechariah and Elizabeth who were both quite elderly. Because it shows that, no matter what our age, no matter how much our choices are reduced, God is still able to bring quite miraculous blessing to us that defies the natural order of things. God is not limited by my age profile and he will pour his blessings out in the way he wants at the time he wants. No matter where we are at in life, with regard to age or any other circumstances, God is not finished with us yet. God is always in the process of doing exactly what he wants to in you and through you.
Zechariah and Elizabeth must have felt that the clock was ticking and that they’d lost their chance of fulfilling their dreams: they had remained faithful to God, but it seemed he didn’t have many plans for them. But they were wrong: because God’s timing and God’s will is always perfect.
And this brings us to our second reflection from this passage:
2. We should be ready to be surprised by God
Now, I find this quite a painful thing to talk about, actually, because I know the right answer, I know the religious answer, but my own spiritual life often seems far removed from what I know is right and perhaps that is true of some of you too. I know that the Scriptures are full of stories of people constantly surprised by God; people who live their lives in such a way that God is able to break in and transform their own experiences in a way they could never have dreamt possible. But when I reflect on my own life, I wonder how much, in reality, I am expecting to be surprised by God…
But the truth is that God is a God of surprises and can break into our lives and bring transformation when we least expect it and in a way that we least expect it. And that is what we see in this story about Zechariah and Elizabeth and we need to really set the angel’s visitation within the context of what we read in verses 5 and 6.
In verse 5, we are told that Zechariah was a priest, “who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah”. Now, we have thought about that already, but one of the implications of his vocation, of course, is that he would have lived a well-ordered, rota’d, life where spontaneity and surprise would not have been a central focus for him! As a long-standing priest, he knew what his day would bring, he knew what his duties were, and he knew how to carry them out efficiently and appropriately and would have built his life around that sense of order.
And then in verse 6, Luke reflects on the spirituality of Zechariah and Elizabeth and writes, “Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.” That, of course, is completely commendable and they serve as a real example to us of how to live a faithful, dedicated life to God. But underpinning that faithfulness, I sense something coming through Luke’s words that both Zechariah and Elizabeth had God in a box; they led ordered lives, structured lives, according to the rota, according to the Festivals, they carried out the purity laws, they kept the Commandments, they knew the scriptural rules and regulations and they were absolutely single-minded in their commitment to obeying them all.
And through that ordered, ritualised lifestyle, they expected God to meet with them there. But God decided to meet with them in a completely different way that cut across their ordered world. God comes to them through an angelic visitation when Zechariah is a busy doing his Temple work. God comes to them and strikes Zechariah dumb. God comes to them and Elizabeth conceives way past her years to do so. There is something quite chaotic about how God meets with them and cuts across their well-ordered approach to religion.
Now, I want to be absolutely clear on this, so you don’t misunderstand me. I don’t think that God visited them in this surprising way despite their religiosity. I think that God visited them this way because of their religiosity. What I mean is that Zechariah and Elizabeth had shown themselves to be completely faithful; they had kept up with daily worship, they had attended the Festivals, they had kept the laws, they had obeyed the regulations, and all of this was a sign to God of their faithfulness and so he visits them in a surprising way.
That is a completely different thing from saying that God visits them in a surprising way, so it really didn’t matter whether or not Zechariah and Elizabeth had participated in rituals and Festivals and daily worship and so on…
I think they had proved themselves faithful in the small things and so God was able to trust them with the big miracle, as it were.
So what I don’t want to be heard saying is that this God of surprises comes to us however he wants to, so there is little value in traditional worship and rituals and so on. What I want to say is that I think there is deep value in traditional worship and rituals because they act as part of a developing spiritual discipline within us that brings us to a point of receptivity whereby we can recognise the God of surprises when he meets us in our lives.
So I believe that there is deep value in regular worship, regular church attendance, the discipline of daily prayer, daily Bible study, daily meditation, even when it seems like God is doing nothing through that because these are the times of heart preparation for us to meet with God. For that reason, when we face disappointments in life, or we feel confused by the course of events, it is absolutely crucial to continue with the spiritual disciplines so that we can hear God when he does speak to us and respond to him when he calls.
How do you cope with disappointment in life?
How did Zechariah and Elizabeth cope with disappointment in life?
Quite simply, they kept trusting, they kept worshipping, they kept praying, they kept obeying: despite all the odds, despite all the evidence to the contrary, they continued to believe that the hand of God was on them and that the way of discipleship was the only viable option. Worship of God was both their duty and their joy and for us, there are times when it is a joy and times when it is a duty. And both of those are OK.
How do we cope with disappointment in life?
There is no magic formula: sometimes we just need to grit our teeth and get on with it. But our God is a God of surprises: Scripture testifies to that and it is certainly the story of our lives that God comes to meet us in the most unexpected ways at the most unexpected times.
In a few months time, we will be celebrating Christmas and reflect on the joy of Emmanuel – God with us. But before we get to Christmas, we will need to go through Advent, which is a period of waiting, waiting, waiting…What we do with the waiting time in life will determine how we can respond when the God of surprises comes to meet with us.
Perhaps you are in a waiting time at the moment and you are trying to come to terms with the fact that life is not how you thought it would be. What will you do with that waiting time? Keep praying, keep worshipping, keep faithful, no matter what: and wait for the God of surprises to meet with you at the time you need it most…his time.
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