Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, December 22, 2019
by Dr. Kimberly Leetch, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: A child (John) carried the hope of a weary nation, that they would one day soon be saved.
The time of waiting for Israel was nearly over. God had promised a savior from the line of David to redeem Israel. God had one more prophet to send to announce the arrival of the Messiah, and it would be Jesus’ cousin, John.
The arrival of the Messiah’s prophet was a big deal in itself. John’s father, Zechariah, a priest whose duty was to serve in the temple, was chosen by lot to bring the incense offering into the temple, and while he was there he encountered an angel proclaiming that he and his barren wife would have a son, and the son would reunite the hearts of Israel toward one another and turn the wicked toward righteousness. What’s not in today’s selection of the story is that Zechariah doubted the angel’s words, and so was struck mute until these things would come to pass.
When Elizabeth finally did conceive and bear a son, Zechariah’s tongue was set free and he announced that the son would be named, “John,” as Elizabeth (and the angel) had said. It was unusual to name a child outside the family name, but this was the name given to him by God. John would grow to become a prophet, preparing the way for the coming of the Lord.
This Advent, it is not the adult John that prepares the way, but the baby. (You’ll remember, Mary and Elizabeth were pregnant at the same time.) Not only would they preach and teach at the same time, but they would also grow up together, observing the same world with the same challenges and the same hope for the future.
Hope is the gift of today’s reading. A child (John) would carry the hope of a weary nation, that they would one day soon be saved and rescued from the tyranny of Rome.
Little did they know they would be saved from much more than that. As we would be saved, as well.
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