"His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied..." Luke 1:67
Zechariah, in some ways, has become synonymous with failure. His doubt in the face of a miracle is endlessly used as a cautionary tale. Whatever else can be said of him, most often the emphasis is on his lack of faith and how that compares to Mary's faith-filled response to the angel. In our humanness we tend to focus on the negative, on what's broken, on failure. We define people by their sin and shame, rather than by the grace of God. We all fail; no one is exempt. Upon close examination, all of our lives could be used as warnings, as red flags alerting people to the dangers of doubt, of rebellion, of pride - of any sin in which we have been entangled. There is great wisdom in learning from mistakes - ours, and those of others. But, if we only characterize people by their failure we not only condemn ourselves, we also miss the beauty of the redemption and restoration that flow out of grace.
At the beginning of their story, Zechariah and Elizabeth are given a glowing introduction. He is a priest, they are both from the line of Aaron, and, most importantly, they are both upright in the sight of God, faithful in obeying his commands and regulations. God chose to introduce Zechariah in terms of his overall life, not his moment of failure. Here is a man whose entire life up to this point testified to his great regard for the Lord and his whole-hearted commitment to the ways of God. This as much as anything can be a cautionary challenge to us. If our stories were told, would our lives be described in such exemplary terms? But oddly, these character traits are not what we focus on in Zechariah's story. It is what comes next that captures our attention and preoccupies our minds. We almost cringe each time we read it because we know what's coming - the question. He asks the angel Gabriel, "How can I be sure of this?" And then comes the silence.
Zechariah lost his ability to speak for the better part of a year. His life was completely altered because of his sin. Something he had likely taken for granted was taken from him, and he had to find a new way of functioning, a new way of communicating, a new way of relating. Whatever he wanted to say took longer to get across, whatever thoughts and ideas he had were not easily conveyed. His voice was silenced. But there is much grace in his silence. In the silence of his shame and the painful consequences of his sin stood a Savior. And this is true for us as well. Our Savior does not abandon us, but instead gives us more and more of himself. He surrounds us with his love and mercy, and out of his kindness leads us to repentance. He not only restores us, but redeems our failure, and in the process, we come to know him more deeply than we ever have. This is grace. And this is the message of Zechariah's story, not his failure.
There are no greater words in his story than these: "....Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied..." Grace upon grace. God did not just restore Zechariah's voice, but he filled him with the Spirit, choosing him to prophesy about his son John and the coming Savior. There is something personal and powerful in the prophetic words of Zechariah, not only because they were God's, but because they came out of a long, deep silence. It was through his failure and subsequent muteness that he was confronted with the person of God in a way he had never been before. The God he served, the God of Israel and the Law, was now known to him personally as the God of mercy, forgiveness, and redemption.
We tend toward extremes. We swing from heartless judgmentalism to careless disregard for righteousness. Neither is good nor right. Somewhere in the middle lies grace. When we view Zechariah through the lens of grace not only do we see his heart and life as God does, we are able to see his failure through God's eyes as well. We don't excuse it, but we don't define him by it, either. We can understand him, because we are him. We can empathize with him in the midst of the consequences, find hope in his restoration, and rejoice in how God redeems his failure. God, in his love and grace, chooses to still use Zechariah to declare his word, and he likewise chooses to use us and our brokenness for his eternal glory. When all is said and done, the greatest gift that God gives us in the midst of the sin, failure, and yes, the goodness of our lives is himself. Zechariah's life is less a cautionary tale and more a story of the defining, redeeming, and restoring glorious grace of God.