Luke 1:61-66: a reflection

61They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name.” 62They made signs to his father, what he would have him called. 63He asked for a writing tablet, and wrote, “His name is John.” They all marveled. 64His mouth was opened immediately and his tongue freed, and he spoke, blessing God. 65Fear came on all who lived around them, and all these sayings were talked about throughout all the hill country of Judea. 66All who heard them laid them up in their heart, saying, “What then will this child be?” The hand of the Lord was with him.

Zechariah had been struck silent for months, unable to speak, because he had doubted the angel's promise that he would have a son. Now the child is born, and when the time comes to name him, the relatives assume he will bear a family name, but Zechariah, obeying the instruction he had been given, writes on a tablet: His name is John. And immediately, in the moment of that obedience, his mouth is opened and his tongue freed, and, the text says, he spoke, blessing God. Obedience broke his silence into praise.

Notice the connection between his obedience and his restored voice. Zechariah had been silenced because of his doubt; now, at the moment he acts in simple obedience, naming the child as God had said rather than as tradition expected, his voice returns, and the first thing it does is bless God. His long silence ends not in complaint but in praise, and it is his obedience that opens the door to it. He does what God said, and worship pours out.

There is a quiet lesson here. Zechariah's season of silence, imposed by his doubt, gives way to praise at the point of his obedience. Sometimes our own voice of praise, our joy, our sense of God's presence, is restored precisely as we move from doubt into obedience, as we do the thing God has said rather than clinging to our own assumptions or our doubt. If you have been in a kind of silence, distant from praise, consider whether there is a simple obedience God is asking, a place to do what he has said. Obedience has a way of opening the mouth to bless God. Do what he says, and let praise return.

Lord, Zechariah's long silence, brought on by his doubt, gave way to praise at the very moment of his obedience, when he named the child as you had said. When I am in a kind of silence, distant from praise, show me where there is a simple obedience you are asking. Help me move from doubt into obedience, doing what you have said rather than clinging to my own assumptions. Let obedience open my mouth to bless you, as it opened Zechariah's. Restore my praise as I obey.