Christmas meant Missional Transformation: Luke 1:76-79
\nJohn (Yohanan)\u2019s task is clear: Zechariah tells him, at his birth, that he is to be a prophet who will prepare the way for Someone Else \u2013 the Messiah.
\nJohn\u2019s life is a life for Another: here is a prophet who, simply because he was a prophet, ought to be given some consideration for heroism, but the words of Zechariah are all shaped to give John a missional life \u2013 a life shaped by preparing others for the Messiah. I know of no other prophet with more of a missional focus than John.
\nZechariah then specifies what the Messiah\u2019s coming will mean:
\nThe knowledge of salvation.
\nThe forgiveness of sins.
\nThe gift of light and enlightenment.
\nThe path of peace.
\nIt is pious and superficial to look at Zechariah and Elizabeth as parents who \u201cgave their son away\u201d for the work of God \u2013 which they no doubt did. It also just as pious and superficial to look at John as little more than an example of a person \u201cwho lived for Christ.\u201d The place to begin is to observe that what Zechariah and Elizabeth realize is that the entire sweep of biblical prophecy and history are rolling into a dramatic moment where time will be transferred from BC to AD, from the pre-Messianic age to the Messianic age, from expectation of Kingdom to Kingdom itself, and John plays the crucial role of pointing to the one who will make all this happen. Still, John\u2019s entire life is \u201cmissional\u201d as a pointer. And the One to whom he will point will be the one whose mission will be complete, will be hyper-relational, and will bring about what God has promised for his people.
\nNolland is suggesting in his commentary in Luke that John\u2019s part in the Benedictus is 1:76-79 while the Messiah\u2019s part (to which John points) is 1:68-75. In fact, John\u2019s part is really only 1:76. I\u2019m not sure I can agree that Zechariah\u2019s praise is so singularly focused on Messiah; instead, I think he is praising God for his son who is destined by God to introduce the messianic salvation.
\nWhat happens, though, is this: the Messiah will transform Israel \u2013 top to bottom \u2013 and it is the \u201cmissional\u201d focus of God to bring this about through John\u2019s introduction of Jesus and then, more importantly, through the Messiah\u2019s missional work that provides a template of what God is doing in this world in the Way of Jesus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Christmas meant Missional Transformation: Luke 1:76-79 John (Yohanan)\u2019s task is clear: Zechariah tells him, at his birth, that he is to be a prophet who will prepare the way for Someone Else \u2013 the Messiah. John\u2019s life is a life for Another: here is a prophet who, simply because he was a prophet, ought to…<\/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-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-advent"],"yoast_head":"\n