Old Parents

(The audio link to today’s podcast is found here on FAB’s Podcast.)

During the rule of Herod, King of Judea, there was a priest assigned service in the regiment of Abijah. His name was Zachariah. His wife was descended from the daughters of Aaron. Her name was Elizabeth. Together they lived honorably before God, careful in keeping to the ways of the commandments and enjoying a clear conscience before God…But they were childless because Elizabeth could never conceive, and now they were quite old. But the angel reassured him, “Don’t fear, Zachariah. Your prayer has been heard. Elizabeth, your wife, will bear a son by you…. Zachariah said to the angel, “Do you expect me to believe this? I’m an old man and my wife is an old woman.” (Luke 1, various verses, including 5-7, 13-15, and 18)

~~~~~

“Sarah, did you hear the news? Well, let me tell you…Elizabeth is pregnant!”

“Oh, come on, you expect me to believe that?”

“No, I’m serious! I just got off the phone with her. I can’t believe it. She is beside herself!”

“Yeah, right. And I’m the Easter bunny…”

“No, hear me out…an angel told her husband she was going to have a baby.”

Silence on the other end. Sarah was trying to decide if this was a bad joke or something to pay attention to; especially now that ‘angel’ had entered into the conversation. She gathered herself. Deep breath, hard swallow. Try again.

Reality and sobriety were settling in, and Sarah’s change in tone of voice reflected that. “What happened? I mean, Elizabeth is not a spring chicken.”

“Not a spring chicken? She’s not even a septuagenarian anymore! She didn’t have a lot of details, but just that Zachariah got a visit from this angel and he brought the news—I guess he was a ‘he’, I don’t actually know—anyway, the angel said it was happening.”

Silence again while the friends digested this.

Then Sarah started back with, “Zachariah? Not the youngster he once was, either!…Stop! You’ve got to be making this up!”

~~~~~

Thanks for indulging me in a conversation between friends, complete with anachronisms, when the news dropped: a really old couple is having a baby—and not just any baby, but the one who would be named John, as is in Baptist or Baptizer, and the one who would proclaim to any who would listen that Jesus of Nazareth was the long-awaited Messiah—and John’s upcoming birth is announced with a supernatural, angelic visitation. I’m trying to imagine the conversations that went around their family’s and friends’ connections. I wish we had a record of those! No doubt priceless.

Here’s what we do know: the couple was a priestly family, Zachariah himself a priest who worked in the temple, and his wife Elizabeth from the priestly line of Aaron. They were apparently wonderful, God-fearing, commandment-keeping people. But noticeably absent from their life experience and cumulative joy was a child descendant coming from their marriage. Elizabeth was “never able to conceive” but we aren’t told any more medical details or related biological reasons than that. We just leave it there, that was the fact. They tried and tried to have a baby, but couldn’t. And now, the sands had run out from the top of the hourglass. So were the days of their lives.

It also seems that this is something that husband Zachariah prayed about quite often. The angel, identified in connected verses as Gabriel, assured Zach that “your prayer has been heard; your wife will bear a son.” He is also told not to fear!

I wonder about that bit of the announcement. Was it “don’t fear” because:

“a baby will soon appear”, or

“don’t fear that any disappointment (or shame?) at not having a baby will remain to the end of your long lives”, or was it

“don’t fear; I know you are getting old for this baby business, and are not sure if you even know how to change a diaper, but soon there will be a bundle of crying, squirming joy in your house and it will all be good!”

We aren’t told. It could be any of those or something not in this short list. But “don’t fear” was a good word for an old man and old woman preparing for an unchartered life experience.

Then, I admit I love the “guy response” (which eventually left him dumb-founded, more on that later): Zachariah said to the angel, “Do you expect me to believe this? I’m an old man and my wife is an old woman.” He knew that biologically-speaking, they were past their prime. Old ladies don’t have babies. Old men don’t become new papas. Child-bearing days were behind them. They were thinking of peacefully living out their last days, coping with bodies that didn’t work anywhere near as well as they once did. Bodies that felt more like fixer-uppers than fully renovated. The text says Zach had prayed, and from the angel’s answer we assume that means prayed for them to have a baby, but it doesn’t say that he was still doing so. I assume that praying for a baby was well in the rear-view mirror by now. From Zach’s response, the reality of the equation had long ago set in: old-age equals no possibility of conception.

But God was intervening. By God’s decree and help and over-riding of this impossible-situation, God adds one more delightful, supernatural, unexpected piece of the Advent story: The Virgin Mary’s cousin Elizabeth is going to find herself pregnant, and that by natural means. There are some amazing conceptions taking place!

God is using normal people, young and old, to write this Advent story. These are continuing signs of the Father’s one-of-a-kind delivery of the one-of-a-kind Savior. Yet again, we find ourselves in awe and we marvel at his creativity! This is no fairy tale, but a true story that leaves us shaking our heads at God’s plan which is unfolding to the world.

“Father, thank you for the way things continue to add up around the birth of Jesus, including your intervention and special delivery of a special messenger who in years to come would announce the launch of the ministry of this coming King. Your creativity in making this happen leaves us in amazement and wonder. We pray for those today in our lives that need to see you work in a special way during this Advent season, a way that leaves them struck by your power and aware that what you are doing is not explained by human means. Do it again, Lord!”