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Luke 1:57-66 English Standard Version (ESV)
The Birth of John the Baptist 57 Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.58 And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59 And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father, 60 but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.” 61 And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.” 62 And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called. 63 And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered. 64 And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God. 65 And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea, 66 and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him. |
As Gabriel promised, Zacharias begot a son who was mostly unexpected, even by himself at the beginning, for he doubted the words of God. Knowing God has always been powerful and faithful from the scriptures, he still doubted: How shall I know this? Or we might ask sometimes in our life: How could it be? We just cannot help doubting, more or less, in our minds no matter how well we know God. Nevertheless, we also know deeply in our hearts that He is gracious, He understands us, as well as He understood Zacharias, and still had mercy on him.
The name of John means: “The Lord has been gracious”, which is probably the best knowledge we could ever possess. But having that knowledge is not enough, what else shall we do to respond? Well, we trust in Him, obey His words, and praise His grace! All of these are what Zacharias and Elizabeth did. They called the boy John as God commanded, even though they were facing the misunderstanding of their relatives. The first thing Zacharias did after recovering from dumbness was bless God. Is the dumbness that makes him introspect necessarily a punishment? From another perspective, it might as well be a blessing.
Joe Y