And I’ve been thinking about some of the ways we wait in darkness – Pt. 3
Zachariah understood what it meant to wait in the dark.
And like the many prophets who came before him who knew darkness was prevalent, he hoped it would not prevail. This hope came through in the announcement of his own son, John, “the dawn from on high will break upon us, to shine upon those who sit in darkness.” (Luke 1:78-79)
Zachariah’s prophecy not only remembers the story of God’s people who long waited in the dark, but also anticipates a coming darkness related to his own son.
The scriptures reveal a future for John the Baptist that is easy for us to amputate in our retelling. One reason why is because it can be difficult to feel the weight of what we read in the stories of scripture.
A classic example: We have turned the tragically dark and devastating tale of Noah’s Ark into a cute children’s story.
And there are others. Stories that are heavier than we allow them to be because we’ve sanitized them to make them more palatable. Maybe for our kids.
Probably for us.
When a friend or family member is about to die we feel the weight. When we know their days are numbered we lose our own strength. When we sense the inevitability of their last days we anticipate our impending grief.
Jesus knew this weight. He also had to wait for what he knew was coming.
In the fourth chapter of the gospel of Matthew, we read how Jesus returns from forty days in the wilderness, only to hear that his relative, John the Baptist, had been put in prison.
Like many of the stories in scripture that slip us by, John the Baptist going to prison can often become a side note.
But for Jesus, it is a driving factor for what he does next.
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Jason Martin 