Expecting the Unexpected - December 22
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 66, 67; PM Psalm 116, 117; Isa. 11:10-16; Rev. 20:11-21:8; Luke 1:5-25
Today’s Reflection
Advent is a season of expectation. It’s that liturgical season in which we recreate the original waiting for the Messiah—both the centuries of waiting by the people of Israel, as well as the months of waiting by Mary for her baby to be born. Oftentimes when we wait for or anticipate something or someone, we think we know what we are waiting for—but then sometimes we find that whatever or whomever we were expecting ends up not being what or who we were anticipating. When this happens enough times, we may even learn to expect the unexpected or to anticipate the unanticipated. But I have also found that when what I had been expecting unfolds differently, that oftentimes that different outcome ends up being even better than what I had anticipated.
While Matthew introduces us to John the Baptist when he was a grown man, out in the wilderness of Judea, if we look at Luke’s Gospel account, we learn much more about John’s parents and how John came to be. John’s father was Zechariah, a temple priest, and his mother Elizabeth, also from a priestly family, was a descendant of Aaron. As Luke describes, Zechariah and Elizabeth “were both righteous before God, living according to all the commandments and regulations of the Lord. But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were getting on in years.” Elizabeth and Zechariah were at the point in life when they were no longer anticipating having children—they expected to continue as they were, a family of two.
So, imagine how unexpected it was for Zechariah, as he went into the inner sanctum of the temple to burn incense, to encounter an angel of the Lord. That’s unexpected enough, but then what the angel told Zechariah was even more unexpected: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you will name him John.” And not only that, but he learned from the angel that this as-yet-unborn son John “will be great before the Lord… and will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb. And he will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.” And all that the angel said they should expect, as unexpected as it was, came to pass.
Several months later, when Elizabeth’s young cousin Mary came to stay with them, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb, whom we would later know as John the Baptist, “leaped” in Elizabeth’s womb. Baby John leapt in the presence of the other baby, the one in Mary’s womb, Jesus—and by this sign Elizabeth recognized that her cousin, Mary, was the theotokos, or the God-bearer. What could be more unexpected than that—that the long-anticipated Messiah would come to the people of Israel as a baby born of a poor young woman from Nazareth in Galilee.
Elizabeth and Zechariah’s baby, John, “grew and became strong in spirit” (1:80). Rough around the edges, John did not proclaim a gentle or easy-to-digest Gospel. This is consistent with the way he presented himself visually as well. As Luke describes later, “Now John wore a garment of camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.” That the coming of the long-expected Messiah, whose sandals John said he was not worthy to carry, would be heralded by this rough sounding, poor man of the desert, may have seemed unexpected. Surely the coming Messiah would be expected to be heralded by someone of higher social standing, someone with more polished appearance and demeanor.
And yet, the one preparing the way for the Lord was John—an unexpected son who became an unexpected prophet of a much-anticipated Messiah. Looking back from our vantage point now, John makes senses as Jesus’ precursor, because Jesus, too, was a most unexpected child who grew into a man who would save the world in a most unexpected way, giving up himself for our sake.
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
Think of something that has happened in your life, whether momentous or mundane, that has not gone to plan. What had been your expectation of how it would go? How did this event actually unfold? Reflect on how you navigated and made sense of the difference between reality and your expectations at that time. Then reflect on how you make sense of it all looking back now. What do you think you learned?
Daily Challenge
Take a few minutes to learn more about who Elizabeth was and how the experience of “barrenness” is often portrayed in Scripture as “a harbinger of the miraculous birth of a divinely chosen male leader.” Or take a look at the Visual Commentary on Scripture to see three artists’ depictions of Elizabeth with her cousin Mary.