Living with Loss
We all live with loss. Loss is part of life. There are different kinds of losses in our lives.[1] We lose identity and status when we lose a job or have trouble finding one or when we become disabled through accident or injury or suffer from chronic illness. We can lose our identity through dementia or Alzheimer’s or mental illness or traumatic brain injury. Immigrants and refugees experience the loss of identity as they leave or evacuate their home countries and look for a better life in a place where the language and customs are very different.
We can lose possessions or property. Fires, tornados, and broken pipes during a freeze can damage or destroy our homes or businesses. In the blink of an eye, we can lose cars, phones, savings, IRA’s, 401(k)s, or other assets. Kathleen Nielson says, “We spend our lives trying to keep things. To keep things safe. To keep things from being spoiled…Ultimately, we can’t.”[2] No wonder Jesus says, “Do not lay up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Mt. 6:19-21).
And of course the greatest loss is the loss of human life, the loss of those we love. Relationships are the best part of our lives, but death takes from us all those we love and then takes us from those we love. Whether it’s the loss of the unborn through miscarriage, or parents, grandparents, spouses, children, siblings, friends, or church members, nothing hurts more than losing those we love.
We all live with loss. Loss is part of life. How are we to live with loss? How do you live with loss?
An Elderly Couple that Lived with Loss
This morning we’re going to meet an elderly couple who lived with loss.
Zechariah was an old country pastor nearing retirement. He and his wife Elizabeth served faithfully in ministry for decades. The only thing missing in their life was a child. They were unable to have children and now were too old to have children. Their loss was the loss of something they never had but deeply desired.
How did they live with this loss? As we’ll see, they didn’t let their circumstances define them or keep them from serving and obeying the Lord. They stayed faithful to God even when they didn’t get what they wanted. They kept trusting and obeying God, and God met them where they were and called them into something much bigger than themselves. As the hymn we sang earlier says, “Not a burden we bear, not a sorrow we share, but our toil he doth richly repay; not a grief or a loss, not a frown or a cross, but is blest if we trust and obey.”
Surprising Grace
We meet Zechariah and Elizabeth in Luke 1. As we saw last week, Luke is about the fulfillment of God’s plan of salvation (1:1). The fulfillment of the plan begins with two miraculous births, first John the Baptist, then Jesus. Today we’ll look at the backstory to John’s birth.
Into the pain and loss of Zechariah and Elizabeth’s lives came God’s surprising grace, grace for them and grace for God’s people. The main point of this text is that God surprised them with a baby so that he could surprise the whole world with a Savior. In Luke 1:5-25, we’ll see John’s parents (vv. 5-7), John’s calling (vv. 8-17), and John’s conception (vv. 18-25).
John’s Parents
First, in verses 5-7, we meet John’s parents. Luke is the only Gospel writer who gives us the backstory to John the Baptist’s birth. He wanted to start with the beginning so he knew he had to start with John because the story of Jesus begins with John, not Jesus.[3]
The ancient prophecies said that there would be someone who came to prepare the way for the Messiah, a forerunner or messenger of the Lord. John the Baptist is this someone! He’s the herald who announced the coming of the Christ. John was sent to get people ready for Jesus.
“Sent” is the right word because John was sent from God. Luke gives us his birth story to prove this. He, like Jesus, was born in a miraculous way. We know this because of how Luke introduces us to his parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth.
Luke tells us several things about John’s parents. First, they’re both from priestly blood (v. 5). Second, they’re both faithful followers of God (v. 6). And third, they don’t have children and they’re old (v. 7). They come from a priestly family and walk faithfully with God, but one thing is missing. They’re childless, and worse, they’re old.
Elizabeth was past menopause and so all hope of having children was lost. The acute sadness that she felt was the pain of losing something she never had, the pain of a hope being unfulfilled (Pro. 13:12). And to make it worse, in that culture, if you didn’t have children people assumed you were under God’s judgment. This is why Elizabeth says after she conceives that the Lord has “taken away her reproach among people” (v. 25). So she struggled with the loss of childlessness and the loss of respect from her friends and community. And because Zechariah was a priest they had a public ministry, making the shame of their childlessness all the more profound.
Remember how I said last week that one of the main themes of Luke is God’s saving work among “the least, the lost, and the left-out”? The first story that Luke gives us is a story about the Lord drawing near to the hurting, a story about a couple dealing with serious loss in their lives. Luke wants us to see that God loves the weak and loves to use the weak to do his work.
As we’re about to see, God singles out this elderly, priestly, childless, faithful couple to be the ones who begin his work of redeeming the world. Their son is the one who’ll break the prophetic silence in Israel that’s lasted 400 years! God is going to surprise them with a baby so that he can surprise the whole world with a Savior.
John’s Calling
Second, in verses 8-17, we see John’s calling. Notice some of the details around why Zechariah is in the temple. It says in verse 8 that he was serving at the temple because “his division was on duty.” At that time there were 24 divisions of priests. Zechariah was of the division of Abijah (v. 5; cf. 1 Chron. 24). Each division served one week twice a year. There were around 18,000 priests, so many that there weren’t enough duties to go around, so as Luke says in verse 9, they cast lots to see who did what. The greatest task was the offering of incense. Once a priest did this, they could never do it again. Because there were so many priests, many of them never got to do it all. The altar of incense was just before the holy of holies, the closest anyone but the high priest got to the presence of God. The priest would take hot coals from the altar of burnt offering, place them in the alar of incense, and then pour the incense over the hot coals. The sweet aroma of the incense rose to the Lord with the prayers of the priest.
This is a dramatic moment for Zechariah. Everything in his priestly career led up to this moment. This was the most important day and moment of his life.
While he was in there, the worshippers were outside praying (v. 10). They likely would’ve had their hands outstretched to heaven as their priest interceded for them, expectantly trusting that God was hearing his prayer.
This reminds us that there’s a difference between people who want to be where God is worshipped and people who want to worship God. It’s one thing to come to church because it makes you feel good and because you connect with friends. That’s all good. But it’s another thing altogether to come to church to worship God, to be with him. These people were engaged with what was happening. They were participants, not spectators.
As if things couldn’t get more dramatic for Zechariah, they do (v. 11). An angel appears to Zechariah and his response is that he’s troubled and afraid (v. 12). The angel starts by saying, “Do not be afraid” (v. 13). This is almost always the first thing an angel says to someone.
Than the angel says, “Your prayer has been heard” (v. 13). What was he praying for? A son? Unlikely, because he knew how old he and his wife were. He’s most likely praying for the salvation of Israel. He’s the priest chosen to go before God on behalf of the people, so in that solemn moment it’s unlikely that he’s praying for a son. He knows that ship has sailed. His job in that moment is to pray for God to bless and rescue and preserve his people.
Which makes what the angel says all the more surprising, “Your wife Elizabeth will bear a son” (v. 13). Zechariah must’ve been flabbergasted. “Son?,” he thinks, “I’m not even praying for that anymore.” But the angel says, “You shall call his name John,” which means “The Lord is gracious.”
Do you see what’s happening here? By promising Zechariah a son, the Lord is tackling two problem at once. He’s dealing with the personal loss of never having a child. And he’s dealing with Israel’s need for a Savior. The Lord is answering all the prayers Zechariah and Elizabeth prayed over the years, the kind of prayers they probably stopped praying a long time ago, by promising them a son. But he’s also answering his prayer of intercession for the people for their deliverance. The answer to his prayer is a son, a son who’ll initiate God’s plan of salvation. As Darrell Bock says, “God’s answers sometimes come at a surprising time, in a surprising place, and in a surprising way.”[4]
“He Will Be Great Before the Lord”
But what will John be and do? We learn in verses 15-17 that John will be a great prophet. The angel says in verse 15 that John “will be great before the Lord.” What does it mean to be “great in the sight of the Lord”?
John MacArthur says that Mohammed Ali’s “I am the greatest” statement in 1964 “was a social launch point. It unleashed a flood of tolerance for blatant egotism in athletics as well as in society and generally true across our culture.”[5] Saying you’re great is common place.
But what does it mean to be great? The word for “great” in verse 15 is megas, where we get our word “mega.” John wasn’t a mega star in the world’s eyes. He was from an ordinary family, grew up in the hills of Judah (1:39), spent lots of time in the wilderness (1:80), wore a garment of camel’s hair and ate locusts and honey (Mt. 3:4). He wasn’t a king, didn’t dress nicely, and he actively tried to convince his followers to follow someone else. The people who were great hated him because he called them snakes! His head ended up on a platter because he said what was true. His star fell as fast as it rose.
Yet Jesus says, “I tell you, among those born of women none is greater than John” (7:28). This must mean that greatness in God’s eyes is reserved for a category of people unlike those we consider great. In our culture, greatness is often self-declared, assertion without achievement and associated with fame and celebrity, money and looks. We measure greatness based on intelligence or accomplishments or abilities or position or power.
But none of those things are great in God’s sight. How could they be? God owns everything, has all power, and made everything, so what could we do or bring that would be impressive in his sight?
What’s greatness in the sight of the Lord? Humility. Jesus said, “He who is least among you all is the one who is great” (9:48). Those who know they’re nothing are everything before the Lord. When people asked John who he was, he said he was the one pointing to someone else (Jn. 1:15).
If we want to be great, we need to become like John, understanding that we’re nothing and the Lord is everything. By living for ourselves, we render ourselves mostly useless in God’s hands. You can’t live for God and yourself simultaneously.
A Prophet Like Elijah
The angel goes on to say that John will be a prophet like Elijah. He’ll abstain from alcohol so people will know his message is from the Lord and not the result of drunkenness. He’ll be filled with the Spirit from birth meaning that he’s a prophet but “more than a prophet” because, unlike the Old Testament prophets who were given the Spirit intermittently, he’ll have the Spirit perpetually.
Verse 16 says that he’ll turn many Israelites back to the Lord. Israel was chosen by God, but many of them weren’t believing in, loving, and obeying God. Israel’s problem was a heart problem (v. 17). People needed to be converted to be saved. Conversion was what God was after through John.
Even today, many people in churches sit for months and years listening to the word of God preached and assume that they caught their conversion in the air, that it rubbed off on them from other church people or their parents, that their proximity to holy things makes them holy themselves, while never having understood their sinfulness before God and the necessity that they repent of their sins and put their faith in Christ. Those who give assent to the truth but don’t have new hearts that love Jesus are not converted and need to be if they want to be saved.
The angel says that John’s focus will be the conversion of God’s people. Through John’s preaching people would be brought back to the Lord, the disobedient would be brought back to godly wisdom, and families would be brought back together (v. 17).
On the most dramatic day of his life, the angel tells Zechariah that he’ll have a son who’ll be a great prophet preparing people for the Lord. God is going to surprise him with a son who’ll go before the Savior.
John’s Conception
In verses 18-25, we see John’s conception. In verse 18, Zechariah wants to know how he can know this will happen, he wants a sign. So in verse 20, Gabriel says, “You want a sign Zechariah, I’ll give you a sign, you’ll be silent till this happens.” This is short-term discipline to teach Zechariah to trust God and believe his word.
Zechariah, like many of us, wanted to believe, but struggled to get past his doubts. He couldn’t see past his old age. He couldn’t understand how he and Elizabeth could have a son. He forgot that his God was the God who created all things and so could do anything.
We all struggle with doubt in some way at some time. It’s natural and understandable. But when it comes to God’s promises, we have to decide if we believe them or not. Darrell Bock says it this way, “Doubt is not unbelief, but it is not faith either. When it comes to what God has promised, doubt hangs in a dangerous canyon between faith and unbelief.”[6]
Because he doubted God’s promise, Zechariah went home unable to speak. And, as they always do, God’s promise came to pass (v. 24), and Elizabeth knows why (v. 25). The Lord surprised her with a son who’d go before the Savior.
Faithfulness in Big and Small Things
As I’ve noted, two things are happening in this story. First, God is meeting Zechariah and Elizabeth in their loss. As Elizabeth says in verse 25, “The Lord…looked on me, to take away my reproach.” God met Elizabeth and Zechariah where they were, in their loss, with great care.
But the second thing happening is the Lord unveiling his plan to save his people. Yes, he gives them a son, but the reason he does so is so that their son can prepare people for the Son. The gift of their son was for the salvation of the world.
The story of Zechariah and Elizabeth teaches us that, as God unveils his saving plan, he also meets human needs. God surprised them with a baby so that he could surprise the whole world with a Savior.
God is faithful in the big things and the small things. Paul says it this way, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” (Rom. 8:32)
Because God experienced loss, we can trust him to meet us in our losses. He met our deepest need at the cross so we can trust him to meet every other need.
As we’re about to sing, “Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness! Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed, Thy hand hath provided; Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!”
[1]These three kinds of losses are from Matthew D. Kim, Preaching to People in Pain: How Suffering Can Shape Your Sermons and Connect with Your Congregation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2021), 129-31.
[2]Quoted in ibid., 130.
[3]Philip Graham Ryken, Luke, Volume 1: Luke 1-12, Reformed Expository Commentary (Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2009), 16.
[4]Darrell L. Bock, Luke, Volume 1: 1:1-9:50, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic), 83.
[5]The Greatness of John the Baptist
[6]Bock, 92, n. 52.
