Christmas meant a New Name for a baby: Luke 1:57-66
\nThe neighbors were thrilled for Elizabeth (they do not mention Zechariah), and they understood her pregnancy and birth as the \u201cgreat mercy\u201d of the Lord. On the day of circumcision, the name is to be given \u2013 and the inevitable, traditional, customary, time-without-end practice of naming a boy after his father was suddenly interrupted by a word, once again, from Elizabeth. Zechariah is still silenced.
\n\u201cHis name is to be John,\u201d she says. This is not a family name. John will instead by covenanted with a new name: \u201cYHWH has given grace.\u201d Since Zechariah was not yet speaking, we have to ask how Elizabeth knew to call the boy \u201cJohn\u201d \u2013 either Zechariah wrote it out for her, too, or this is a collusion of miracles \u2013 the Gabriel who told Zechariah what to name the boy also told Elizabeth. Hard to know; no reason to be dogmatic. Still, the text itself creates the tension and invites us to think about it.
\nZechariah is not permitted to speak until he writes words down that confirm Elizabeth\u2019s choice of names: he then has a tongue that is set free.
\nThe sheer marvel of it all made everyone in the neighborhood wonder just what kind of role John might play in Israel\u2019s history. No destiny\u2019s child, John will be history\u2019s child \u2013 the one God will use to announce the Messiah.
\nOne cannot but help to reflect on John\u2019s name: he will be a manifestation of God\u2019s grace. How so? Not only do Zechariah and Elizabeth have a child after waiting all these years, but he will point the way to the one Who is Grace, he will point others into the Waters of Grace, and he will offer all Israel the Opportunity for Grace through repentance. In John, God begins to open the curtains of grace for Israel \u2013 the long-awaited days will now come to an end as a new era begins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Christmas meant a New Name for a baby: Luke 1:57-66 The neighbors were thrilled for Elizabeth (they do not mention Zechariah), and they understood her pregnancy and birth as the \u201cgreat mercy\u201d of the Lord. On the day of circumcision, the name is to be given \u2013 and the inevitable, traditional, customary, time-without-end practice of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent"],"yoast_head":"\n