“Foreshadows”
By Rev. Michael Stonhouse
Meditation – Saturday, June 24, 2023
Luke 1:57-80 (Forward, p. 57) CEV p. 1055
No wonder the friends, family and neighbours were filled with eager anticipation and wonderment as to what the future of this newborn baby, the future John the Baptist, might hold. After all, his birth and his earliest years were anything but dull or ordinary. Indeed, as Luke points out, some of them were even a bit frightened at the turn of events. And yes, it has to be admitted, that they were mighty strange:
-first of all, Zechariah’s encounter with the angel Gabriel in the
Temple. That alone has to be a once in a lifetime event, if that. My
suspicion is that very few, if any, of his priestly colleagues had ever
had such an experience;
-Then, his being struck dumb, unable to speak, for a whopping nine
months. It must have been a very strange for him to emerge from
his priestly duties in that state, and a strangely silent household to
boot;
-And then, of course, there was the pregnancy and the birth
themselves, very strange and very unexpected, after all these years;
-Then there was the matter of the naming of the child: not any family
or familiar name, but John, ‘gift of God’;
-And finally, as if ‘to blow everyone away’, Zechariah’s sudden verbal
outburst, the Benedictus. What an impressive and surprisingly apt
prophecy and hymn of praise from one who’d been silent so long.
No wonder all those round about wondered about this and were astonished. No wonder they had the sense that God was at work, that God was with this infant lad. No wonder they ‘talked’ among themselves. No wonder they began to speculate as to what his future might hold—after such an unusual, spectacular and auspicious beginning!
So, I have to wonder (there’s that word again) about our time and place, our world today: are there any signs of God at work? Any signs that God is doing a new thing, about to intervene or act in a new way in our world?
And, further to this, would we even notice them, been aware of them? I suspect that very few people other than the residents of that small obscure Judaean village, Ein Karem, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, plus perhaps a few other relatives and some of Zechariah’s priestly colleagues, would have been even aware of the auspicious circumstances surrounding John’s birth. The rest of the world remained in the dark, until his ‘coming forth’ years later baptizing at the River Jordan. So, my prayer—and plea—is that we, you and I, be on the watch for God’s ‘breaking into’ our world. After all, He does promise ‘a new thing’ (Isaiah 43:19).
Forward notes: “The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel” (verse 80).
“One of the first things I want to ask Jesus when I meet him in person is what his childhood years were like. What was his routine? What formative experiences did he have? How was he preparing himself?
“We get one boyhood story about Jesus, but all we get about his cousin, John the Baptist, is that after growing up, ‘he was in the wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel.’ How enigmatic! It gives me images of anchorites and hermits and other monastic Christians who receive and follow a call to an extreme devotion to the spiritual practices of silence and solitude.
“I live alone, and I tire of a life in which so much of my existence goes unobserved and unaffected and unintegrated with others. Yet as I look at John who spent significant time in isolation, I am encouraged to do what I can to transform the built-in silence and solitude of my life into practices of spiritual intention.”
Moving Forward: “Imagine Jesus and John the Baptist as children. Share your thoughts with us at #ForwardDaybyDay.”