In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
Dear Fathers, brothers and sisters: Spraznecom! Happy Feast!
This Sunday after several weeks of hearing our Lord’s parables we finally transition from the Gospel of Matthew that we have been working our way through these past weeks and months to the Gospel of Luke. Our first Resurrectional Gospel returns to the beginning of the Gospel and the miracle which preceded the calling of the disciples. As it is the Feast of the Conception of St John the Baptist, however, today I would like to take the opportunity to meditate further on our second Gospel reading also from St Luke’s Gospel on the miraculous circumstances surrounding the conceiving of the Lord’s Forerunner. To help us interpret our Gospel reading, let us turn to the Venerable Bede, the 7th and 8th century monastic Father of Monkswearmouth and Jarrow Monastery in Northumbria.
Our Second Gospel begins –
There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
When our Lord and Redeemer was about to come in the flesh, he sent on ahead many witnesses and heralds of his divinely-arranged plan … The last of them and a kind of dividing line between law and gospel, figure and truth, was John [the Baptist].
There is something mysterious about the whole life and identity of the Lord’s Forerunner. He is a hinge between the Old and the New Testaments, the Old and the New Covenants. He brings to an end the series of Righteous men and prophets who had foretold the coming of the Saviour. Yet he also in an extraordinary way inaugurates the beginning of the Kingdom of God in the coming of our Lord and God and Saviour, Jesus Christ.
He arose from priestly lineage so that he could more powerfully proclaim a change in the priesthood as it was apparent that he himself belonged to the priestly class.
Whilst St John was of priestly lineage, descending from the priestly families of Aaron and also Abia/Abijah, as we see in his life, he did not make his spiritual focus, the service of the Temple and the endless succession of animal sacrifices. Instead, we see him retreat into the deserts, living out a life of asceticism, prayer and fasting to inaugurate the coming of a new priesthood, a bloodless sacrifice, and a new covenant between Man and God.
And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elisabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years.
A few weeks ago we were celebrating the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God and recalling how her godly parents, the Righteous Joachim and Anna, were also not blessed with children and how much pain and grief this had caused them both. In the Old Testament, it was mistakenly seen that to be childless was to be in some sense cursed by God. If we think of the Holy Patriarchs the sign of God’s blessing was them being granted a multitude of offspring. Thus, by Tradition we hear that when the Righteous Joachim went to the Temple, his offering was rejected by the High Priest due to his childlessness. However, with what grace and humility of heart did St Joachim receive this insult.
It was an act of divine decision that John should be born of a mother who was barren and of parents who were both of an advanced age, so that it would be evident even by the miracle of his origin that the one born would be a man of great virtue.
And it came to pass, that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course, According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense.
As described in the Book of Chronicles in the Old Testament, St Bede helpfully clarifies that David had ordained that the priests serving in the Temple should serve for 8 day shifts from Sabbath to sabbath day. During their shift they should be entirely focussed with Heavenly things and would remain in the Temple precincts not returning home at all. Although Elisabeth comes from the very well-known priestly family of Aaron, Zacharias came form the line of Abijah who was one of the priests who served in the Temple. At the time that Zacharias was called to serve in the Altar, Bede also identifies, with reference to Leviticus 16:33 – 34 that this was the feast of Propitiation or Expiation, or as it is known today ‘Yom Kippur’
‘you should pray for the children of Israel and for all their sins once during the year.
‘Let there be no person in the tabernacle when the high priest enters the sanctuary to pray on behalf of himself and his household and for the entire assembly of Israel, until he comes out.’
This feast was a thus a special one in the liturgical year when the High priest would pray for the sins of the people of Irael.
This was very appropriate to both the life and the preaching of blessed John. He was free from earthly work and gave his mind solely to heavenly pursuits and desires; and when the crowds gathered around him, he taught them to abstain from evil works, to be expiated through penance and faith, and to be consecrated to Christ.
And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
Again, it is important that we recognise that there is nothing accidental in the Scriptures, even minor details can carry great meaning and significance.
He appeared at this time of offering, as the one which John would announce would himself be the sacrificial offering.
There were two altars in the Temple, which expressed the two covenants in the Church.
The first altar was that of the sacrifice – bronze and situated opposite the entrance doors. As Bede said, ‘it signified the fleshly-minded worshippers of the Old Covenant’. Whereas the angel appeared on the right side near the Altar of Incense –
Altar of incense which was covered with gold and set near the entrance of the Holy of Holies … this signified the interior and more perfect grace of the New Covenant and its worshippers.
And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son,
Interestingly, Bede highlights that Zacharias must have switched from praying for the sins of the whole people of Israel to praying for his own personal needs and situation as a childless man. Yet – in this particular case these two intentions are not miles apart, for it would be through St John the Baptist that the identification of the Lamb of God would come. We can also contrast the different reactions of Zacharias and the Virgin Mary to the Archangel Gabriel: Zacharias is terrified whereas the Mother of God is not scared in the least, as she had seen him to many times in the Altar.
and thou shalt call his name John.
In the Holy Scriptures names and naming is a divine action and there is always a special nad mystical siginifiance ot the name which each one of us bears.
The name John means, the grace of the Lord,’ or ‘in whom there is grace’. He received a special grace beyond other saints, that of being Christ’s precursor, and he came to proclaim a heretofore unheard of grace to the world, that of entry into heaven.
And thou shalt have joy and gladness; and many shall rejoice at his birth.
For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother’s womb.
The reference that he ‘shall drink neither wine nor strong drink’ St Bede interprets that this means that not only would he not partake of alcohol but more broadly that ‘he was going to be exempt from all the vices and allurements of the world’. Gabriel’s final reference that he would be filled with the Holy Spirit – ‘even from his mother’s womb’ was fulfilled in that beautiful scene a few verses later where the infant John the Baptist leaps for joy in the womb when he recognised the proximity of His Master and Lord.
And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God.
And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.
John is said to go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijha, because just as Elijhah will precede his second coming with great power of the Spirit, so John, gifted with no less might of the Spirit, preceded his first coming; and just as Elijha is going to be his precursor as judge, so John became his predecessor as Redeemer.
And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.
And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.
And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.
Luke wants it to be understood that if a man promised such a thing, it would be permissible to demand a sign with impunity, but when an angel promises, he should surely not be doubted.
Whereas the Virgin Mary would struggle to understand a far greater miracle, how she – a virgin – would conceive God in her womb, Zacharias not only doesn’t understand but asks for a sign – ‘Whereby shall I know this?’ thereby displaying his doubt.
And the people waited for Zacharias, and marvelled that he tarried so long in the temple.
And when he came out, he could not speak unto them: and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple: for he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless.
And it came to pass, that, as soon as the days of his ministration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. And after those days his wife Elisabeth conceived,
In his Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, St Bede refers to St John Chrysostom who identified that the Conception of St John occurred after Zacharias returned home from his 8 days of duty in the Temple when the Jews celebrated the Feast of Tabernacles. On this day an equinox takes place in which the hours of darkness begins to exceed the hours of daylight. This astronomical shift is entirely appropriate for the identity of the one conceived on this day, for St John himself says – ‘He must increase, but I must decrease’.
And indeed, light had diminished in favour of darkness on the day when John was conceived, when the Jews used to offer sacrifices to God in accordance with the Law and the prophets. For these are the sacrifices that were offered hitherto for the sins of the people, and which now had to cease, when John, that is the Baptist , was conceived. And therefore, his father Zacharias, the priest of the Jews, became dumb, because their sacrifices that used to be offered for the sins of the people now had to cease and fall silent. For the unique priest was coming who would offer from the slaughter of his own special Lamb a sacrifice to Go for the sins of all.
and hid herself five months, saying, Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.
And so Elisabeth with such joy and gratitude to God would join the ranks of Sarah, Anna and so many of the righteous people of the Old Testament in miraculously bearing a child despite advanced age and barrenness.
Dear Fathers, brothers and sisters: let us rejoice today in the conception of the Lord’s Forerunner, St John the Baptist and see that with his coming, humanity is brought closer to its Saviour. In these difficult and complicated times in which we are called to live, let us pray that St John the Baptist will continue to precede us, and in those beautiful words of Zacharias, that he may ‘guide our feet into the way of peace’.
Amen.