And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,

“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel,
    for he has visited and redeemed his people and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old, that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies,
might serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death,
    to guide our feet into the way of peace.”

And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

Luke 1:67–80

If there is one thing we can agree on as a country, it’s that the worst part about

Christmas are the advertisements. Everywhere you look, someone is trying to sell you something. And whatever that something is, it promises to change your life. Everybody’s product is the cure for all your problems. It’s not just something you want, but it’s what you need. The commercialization of Christmas has promised all the same thing - Christmas is the time to get whatever you want, so get it right now.

And so every year, as Christmas rolls around, we get antsy looking for “the thing”. The

thing that is going to change our lives and fulfill us right now. Maybe it’s a product.

Maybe it’s a person. Whatever it is, we all expect to have it by December 25th. But despite our longings, many of us wake up December 26th feeling the same way -

that despite getting things we think we wanted, not everything is right. There is still

something missing. There is still someone to wait for.

To leave Christmas and still feel like you are waiting is an uncomfortable feeling. It can

feel like we have missed the point. Wasn’t all this stuff supposed to make me feel

better? Wasn’t getting together with people supposed to make me feel less lonely?

Wasn’t the joy and hope of the message of Jesus supposed to revitalize my faith? Why

do I still feel like I’m waiting on something?

It’s in this emotion that we meet Zechariah. Zechariah is the father of John, who we

would come to know as John the Baptist. He was the promised forerunner to Jesus, the

prophet who would proclaim who Jesus was to the masses and prepare them for his

ministry. But before we meet John, we meet Zechariah. If you have heard any part of

Zechariah’s story, it is probably that he was made mute by an angel when he was

overcome with disbelief that he and his wife would have a child in their old age. But after

this child is born, Zechariah is freed from his muteness, and uses his voice to lift up a

song in worship. It’s through this song that we find this uncomfortable truth: despite the

births of John and Jesus, the people still have some waiting to do.

Jesus’s birth was the fulfillment of the Savior that God’s people had long waited for. This

baby boy in a manger was the King, but for now, he was still a baby. His ministry on

earth had not yet fully begun. Everything was not quite set right. He had a life to live.

The first Christmas arrived and left with the people still waiting.

Zechariah’s song is beautiful, but notice the verbs. Phrases like, “we should be saved,”

or, “will be called,” or, “will go before,” all clue us in on the same truth - John’s birth and

Jesus’s birth are worth celebrating, but don’t forget that more is coming. Zechariah

reminds us that, yes Christmas is a time of joy and fulfillment, but it’s also a time of

waiting. Waiting for more to come. Waiting for complete fulfillment. Waiting for Christ to

finish the work that has already started.

As you leave this Christmas season, and perhaps still feel a tug of unfulfilled desires, or

just like you are still waiting on God to do something, may I encourage you to lift up

Zechariah’s song. Be reminded that Christmas is not the celebration of the end, but the celebration of the beginning. Don’t be fooled by advertisements - our satisfaction comes not through a product, but through a baby boy who would reign forever. That reign has started now, but has not set everything quite right, yet.

And so we wait.

Ean Snell