Name

Luke 1:57-66 (The Message)

When Elizabeth was full-term in her pregnancy, she bore a son. Her neighbors and relatives, seeing that God had overwhelmed her with mercy, celebrated with her.

On the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child and were calling him Zachariah after his father. But his mother intervened: "No. He is to be called John."

"But," they said, "no one in your family is named that." They used sign language to ask Zachariah what he wanted him named.

Asking for a tablet, Zachariah wrote, "His name is to be John." That took everyone by surprise. Surprise followed surprise—Zachariah's mouth was now open, his tongue loose, and he was talking, praising God!

A deep, reverential fear settled over the neighborhood, and in all that Judean hill country people talked about nothing else. Everyone who heard about it took it to heart, wondering, "What will become of this child? Clearly, God has his hand in this."

Let's just stop for a second and ponder the deep, comical beauty of this passage of scripture.

Remember Zachariah? When last we left, he was stumbling his way out of the temple. his mute button had been pressed by the angel he'd encountered.

He was playing charades to help the people understand his blessed predicament. That's good stuff.

This is even better.

Fast-forward 9+ months later, and the baby has been born. In the Jewish tradition, he is presented for circumcision (and to be named) on the 8th day.

Zachariah has been silent all this time.

To honor Zachariah, his family plans to name the baby after him. Elizabeth has been given other instruction.

Zechariah took the tablet, to write his opinion.

"His name is to be John," Luke says, politely.

I can't help imagining that Zachariah wrote something more like this:

HIS NAME IS TO BE JOHN!!!!!
JOHN!! JOHN!!! JOHN!!!!!!! JOHN!!!!!!!!!

You see, we can do things the easy way...or the hard way.

Lots of times we choose the hard way when God would prefer the easy. Cooperation with God, submission to God...that's the easy way.

"Giving over" may look harder at first, but once we've tried it for a while on our own, and with our own repercussions, going with God starts to look pretty good.

Have you ever found yourself spiritually "mute" because you knew you weren't in the right place with God?

Have you ever finally given up, and given in, and then suddenly found yourself released and free?

Zachariah did.

After all those months of silence, what did he finally have to say?

Wait and see tomorrow...

Prayer: God, we ask that you free us from silence when disobedience has closed our hearts. Help us to learn your will and follow you in freedom and submission.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be. World without end. Amen. Tomorrow's Scripture: Luke 1:67-80