Zechariah in the Temple

Sweet smoke curls up in the half-dark of the holy place. An old priest stands alone, his hands trembling as he scatters incense on the glowing coals. Then he looks up, and he is not alone any more.

Luke begins his Gospel in the days of Herod, king of Judea. There was a priest named Zechariah, from the priestly division of Abijah. His wife Elizabeth was also from a priestly family, descended from Aaron. Luke tells us they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the Lord's commands. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both of them were now well along in years. Priests in Israel were divided into twenty-four groups, and each group served in the temple for a week at a time, twice a year. Now it is Zechariah's group's turn. He has travelled up to Jerusalem from his home in the hill country to serve.

There were many priests, and only one could burn incense in the holy place at a time. So they cast lots, and the lot falls on Zechariah. He will enter the sanctuary of the Lord, the room just outside the most holy place, and burn incense on the golden altar. This was a moment a priest might wait his whole life for. Outside, at the hour of incense, the whole crowd of worshippers is praying in the courts. Inside, Zechariah is alone with the lampstand, the table, and the smoke rising before the curtain. And suddenly there appears to him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. Zechariah is shaken. Fear falls on him.

But the angel says, “Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.” Thy prayer is heard. Perhaps it was a prayer Zechariah had prayed for years and had almost stopped praying. Perhaps it was the prayer for Israel's redemption that he had just been offering with the incense. Either way, God had heard. And the angel goes on. You will have joy and gladness, and many will rejoice at his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He must never drink wine or strong drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb.

Then the angel tells Zechariah what his son's life will mean. He will turn many of the children of Israel back to the Lord their God. And he will go before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, 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. Zechariah knew his Scriptures. Those were the words of the prophet Malachi, the last promise before four hundred years of silence. The messenger Malachi had promised was coming. And he was going to be Zechariah's own son.

Luke's detail about the lot matches what we know from Jewish tradition. The Mishnah, a collection of Jewish teaching written down around two hundred years after Christ, describes priests casting lots each day to decide who would offer the incense. It also says that this duty was given to priests who had never offered incense before. There were thousands of priests, so for many, like Zechariah, it was a once-in-a-lifetime honour.

You'll find this moment in Luke chapter one, verses five to seventeen. After centuries without a new word from God, the silence broke in the temple, beside the altar, in answer to an old man's prayer. So here is a question to carry with you. Is there a prayer you have stopped praying because you think God has forgotten it?