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What Lies Beyond “It Wasn’t Supposed to be Like This”
Luke 1:5-25
Mari Ikeda
In the church calendar, the four weeks of Advent has started from today. Today I’d like to pick up the story of Zachariah and Elizabeth in Luke’s Gospel 1:5-25.
Have you ever felt about your life, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this?” Perhaps for some of you it is exactly how you feel now, while there should be people who have gone through such feeling in the past. It might be a loss of health, a loss of someone important, or a loss of dream. In anyone’s life, we all sometimes face the moment in which we feel, “it wasn’t supposed to be like this.” It is just natural for anyone to get overwhelmed by the feeling of powerlessness and hopelessness, in facing the harsh reality that we have nothing we can do to change. It involves a grief in itself just to be forced to change the path of our life we once envisioned. However, there is no one who can get everything they wanted in their life. Therefore, if we place our hope only in our wishes to come true or in our situations to get improved, our life will become just a succession of disappointments one after another.
Today I’d like to read the story of Zachariah and Elizabeth from a little more different angle than usual. What is recorded in the text of the bible is only a chapter towards the end of their lives. There is a long walk of their lives prior to it that is not written in the bible, which is characterized by “it wasn’t supposed to be like this.” I’d like to focus on that part today. Let’s read through the whole text, although it’s a bit long.
5 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. 6 Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly. 7 But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old.
8 Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, 9 he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. 10 And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside. 11 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. 12 When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. 13 But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. 14 He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, 15 for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before he is born. 16 He will bring back many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. 17 And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the parents to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”
18 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” 19 The angel said to him, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. 20 And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their appointed time.” 21 Meanwhile, the people were waiting for Zechariah and wondering why he stayed so long in the temple. 22 When he came out, he could not speak to them. They realized he had seen a vision in the temple, for he kept making signs to them but remained unable to speak. 23 When his time of service was completed, he returned home. 24 After this his wife Elizabeth became pregnant and for five months remained in seclusion. 25 “The Lord has done this for me,” she said. “In these days he has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”
A. Zechariah and Elizabeth
1. Two people whose lives were characterized by “It wasn’t supposed to be like this”
If we read only the surface of this story, it is the story of God giving a long-awaited child to an old couple who had no child but lived a righteous life.
However, I was concerned with the last word of Elizabeth. She said in v.25, “In these days (the Lord) has shown his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”。 They lived in the time when infertility was often considered as God’s curse or punishment. We can easily imagine that people talked behind the back of Zechariah and Elizabeth for not having a child.
Therefore, I suppose it is their desperateness reflected in v. 6, “Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commands and decrees blamelessly.” Perhaps they needed to try harder than others in order to be accepted as good and righteous, because people saw them flawed as a person just because they had no child.
In addition, we can read a sense of resignation in Zechariah’s word. When the angel told him that he would be given a son, he asked back, in v.18, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” They had lived a long time without a child, with their earnest prayer unheard. 。 I assume they had already given up because they thought they became too old to have a child. Perhaps they had come to the point where they gradually changed their feeling from “It wasn’t supposed to be this way” to “It was the way it should have been.” They had no lie in their trust in God and in their worship to him even thought God gave them no child.
Therefore, this story of these two persons is not telling us that God will make our every wish come true only if we keep asking. Neither it tells us that God will reward us for our righteous acts.。 Rather, it is the story of two persons who felt about their lives, “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” but did not stop trusting in God.
2. Did God send these trials?
But I think there still remains a question. Why did God not answer to their earnest prayer and not give them a child for a long time? They must have had some friends of the same age who had not only their children but also even some grandchildren already. Even if we know it is pointless to compare with others, it’s sometimes hard to see the happiness that many people get easily, but we ourselves don’t have. We may feel that way when our relationship with our family or important friends breaks or when we lose our health by sickness as well. In such times, we feel uneasy doubting, “Does God love me less than others?” or “Is God ignoring my cry?”
But that is not the case. The reason why we can be sure of this lies only in God, not in the situation by which we are surrounded. It lies in the fact that God is good, and He loves us in any situations. It is Jesus who teaches us why it is the fact, but before we get into the topic, I’d like here to point out more that we should not be deceived by seeing how good or bad our situation gets from what followed the story of Zechariah and Elizabeth.
3. Their son, John the Baptist (Reference: Mark 6:14-29)
Gabriel, the angel, told Zechariah in v.14, “(The child) will be a joy and delight to you.” At first when I read this, I felt very sad because I knew how Joh the Baptist died. John, who became a joy and delight to Zechariah and Elizabeth, would die by being caught by a ruler of the time and beheaded for a silly reason. John taught people justice, but was caught and killed by the unjust person in power. His life seemed a tragedy, a life of “It wasn’t supposed to like this,” to people’s eyes.
However, Jesus said once about John, “I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John.” (Luke 7:28) John died after fulfilling the great task he was given by God. Even if people saw his life as a tragedy, God saw his work a great achievement.
That’s why it is pointless for us to compare our life with others’ and try to judge which is better or happier. In an extreme example, even when people see our life full of challenges but no returns, it might be a great achievement to God’s eyes. We can say the opposite, too.
Now let’s go back to the previous topic. Where can we find the reason why we can be sure that God is good and He loves us in any situations? It can be found in the fact that Jesus is a God who knows despair.
B. A God who knows despair
1. Jesus’ life
Jesus is a God who has been forsaken by both men and God. The authority accused him for a false cause. His disciples betrayed Him. The crowed mocked him and made his crucifixion like a show. Moreover, God did not answer Jesus’ cry, and He died in despair on the cross. Jesus has experienced both heartaches and physical pains as a man. It was all for Him to share in suffering with us. That was God’s love for us and what it means that God loves us.
This may sometimes seem to us too abstract and useless, because we seek a specific solution of our problems and a concrete answer for our situations. While God tells us that He doesn’t make our wishes come true but share our suffering of bearing the reality of our wishes not come true, we may yell, “We are not seeking God for such an end!”
However, we must understand that God takes away the sufferings of all people of this world only when the world comes to an end. Until then, we will remain as imperfect beings. Until then, God has chosen to the path of sharing in suffering with us. It looks very passive and inactive at a glance that God does not take away our suffering but only accepts it. But after all it was the way He prepared the path for us to be gradually transformed and understand Him by our own will. It was the way we get to understand that God suffers with us in our suffering, and also that we suffer with God in His suffering.
2. Let’s seek God’s will more than our desires
It is when we face the reality that we can’t do anything about, that we get to know the love of Jesus, who suffers with us right in the middle of the trouble. While there is nothing wrong in asking God to make things better, it’s important for us to keep in mind that His love for us will never change whether our prayer is answered or not. He may do something only when we accept that our prayer need not be answered, just like in the case of Zachariah and Elizabeth. Even if we ourselves give up and think it’s no longer possible, He may perform a miracle and give us a joyous surprise. Or perhaps no miracle happens. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter whether our wish comes true or not, as it does not affect the fact God loves us anyways. Moreover, even when we can’t make any things better around us, it doesn’t hinder us from loving God and people around us. This is the new way of life that Jesus made possible for us to live though his sacrifice on the cross, to seek after God’s love rather than our own wishes.
（Prayer） Dear our Lord Jesus, we need your help as we are weak. You know very well what’s in our heart, what we long for. Help us always remember that You are good and loves us and suffers with us in every situation we may e in. Lead our hearts to the right path by your Spirit. Dear Lord jesus, we pray this in your name, Amen.
Summary
In all of our lives, we have moments when we think: “It wasn’t supposed to be like this,” and we find ourselves feeling powerless and full of despair. When our lives stray from what we envisioned, we struggle with a sense of loss and grief. If our only hope is in our situations changing or in our desires being fulfilled, our lives will be marked by discouragement and disappointment. Our true hope is in the assurance that God’s love will not change in any situation.
For Discussion
- When in your life have you thought: “It wasn’t supposed to be like this”?
- Do you believe that God’s love will not change in any situation? Why can you believe this? What should you do when you can’t believe this?