New Thoughts (6/9/04-6/11/04)
Were I following Luke's narrative, this verse would mark a sudden shift in the story line. He has given us a foreshadowing of Christ's coming through this tale of his relative John. In the course of relaying John's peculiar birth story, he has given us a teasing introduction to Mary, but an introduction only, as she has exited the stage, and her older cousin taken the limelight for a time. Luke has been skillfully building anticipation as he lays out the record. We get the sense of that same anticipation building in those who witnessed the events of which he writes.
However, having raised this anticipation to a crescendo with Zacharias' incredible announcement, Luke rather suddenly closes this scene, moving John's story off to the side as he prepares to turn his attention to another couple. Even as he turns our view from this young child, though, he ratchets up the anticipation yet again. For a time, he tells us, John was left to mature, and mature he did. He was being prepared by God for the plan of God, and when God's timing determined that John was ready, it is hinted at that we shall be seeing him again. There is a time determined in God's wise counsel at which John is to come minister to Israel. That which was spoken over him by his father was indeed the word of God, and it will be done!
As I look at the events of John's birth, it becomes clear that Luke is not the only one who is skillfully building anticipation in his readers. God is also building anticipation amongst those who witness the unfolding of events in Israel. The signs are there for those who can understand them. Hints have been given in the public experience of the people. Zacharias, emerging from the Temple unable to make a sound - this was witnessed by thousands, and they understood from his silence that he had seen a vision of some sort. Impossible that nobody thought to ask him what that vision had been. Elizabeth, a woman of good lineage and doubtless well known in her community is suddenly absent, thoroughly and completely absent from the sight of all. Some among her neighbors must surely have noticed this. John, born to a couple whose age could not help but put folks in mind of Abraham and Sarah. Finally, this incredible scene at John's circumcision.
This prophecy, as has been seen, was an unmistakable declaration that Messiah, the long awaited Salvation of Israel, was come. No man or woman in Israel could hear what was prophesied over John and miss that point. The Forerunner, who had taken up his office even in the womb, was born. His purpose was clear. His mission was already determined. What remained was his preparation, and God's timing.
Talk about anticipation! Here is this crowd of folk who came to share in the joy of Zacharias and Elizabeth. I still think it clear that these were not exactly intimates of that couple, but acquaintances and relatives who perhaps felt they must be present for the sake of honor and decorum. It was not necessarily a crowd of the most spiritually attuned folks in the land, the hungriest to see God's hand move once more on behalf of his people. It was just ordinary folks pursuing the ordinary course of their ordinary lives. But it was given to them to be witness to the extraordinary, and they knew it! They heard the message loud and clear. And, while they grasped the gist of it, knew of Whom the announcement was being made, there remained many questions to chew on. Where was He? When would He make Himself known? Now that the one in the spirit of Elijah was come, what would he do, and when?
For days this was the talk of the town. One can picture the men sitting in the gates of the city debating, discussing, imagining what it must mean. Many doubted the message, questioned the veracity of the witness, reasoned that the power of Rome was too strong, and too many had already tried revolt. It always ended the same. The revolutionaries died, the Romans became angry, and the common people suffered retribution at the hands of their overlords. These were the same voices that occupied the slave camps of Egypt as Moses began his work of liberation, the same voices that complained that all his misguided self-importance was accomplishing was to make their burdens ever more unbearable.
Those who had been present, though - they must surely have been convinced, mustn't they? Could any be so dull of senses to have heard this announcement and simply disregarded it, written it off as the babblings of a senile old man? It seems impossible. Yet, as the course of John's maturation went on, and he was out of sight, how many of these witnesses continued to hold onto the vision God had laid out before them? It would be some thirty years or so before John was officially placed in that office for which he was born. How many still recalled the message at his birth when he came out to the Jordan? It is impossible, of course, to say, but I can imagine that some few at least held fast to hope. Some few among those they had discussed this with in the ensuing days must also have caught the spark of hope and with it lit flame to their hearts. There was, even then, a faithful remnant in Israel. God had not left Himself without a witness upon the face of the earth. That faithful witness, if told of these events, would hear with understanding, and would hold fast to the news with earnest and patient hope. Indeed, I find it hard to imagine, knowing my God, that there was any 'if' about this. The remnant would hear, because His plan would make certain of it. The pretenders to leadership in the Temple might not hear. Those who were the self-declared authorities on matters of spirituality might not hear, but the remnant, the faithful few who knew God in Spirit and truth, these would hear, and would lay hold of the good news they heard.
Let me turn my attention back to John. He continued to grow, we are told, which is hardly surprising. What is of far greater import is that he was becoming strong in spirit - not 'strong in the spirit,' or 'strong in the Spirit,' but strong in spirit. What should be made of this? I think the message certainly speaks of John's developing powers of thought. As the growth speaks of his physical progress, strength of spirit speaks of his inward growth. Powers of thought, of emotion, will and determination, these things were developing in him even as his body was developing. Yet, if this is the whole of Luke's meaning, then the message is pretty vacuous. He tells us no more of John than is common to all mankind. He was born and he matured.
As I write this, it occurs to me that there is something to be said for that message. It is easy for us to look back on the giants of faith and think they were somehow unusual in themselves, that there was something larger than life about them. Thus have our entertainments taught us to think. John was a great man of God, and as we will see later, he did some amazing things. He stood before the most powerful man of Israel in his day and told him that as powerful as he was, he had much to answer to God for. He was imprisoned, yet used this as opportunity to declare the message God had given him. He gave his life in service to his King, faithful unto death. It takes a special man to do this, we think. But Luke reminds us that he was a man like any other of us. He was born, he grew, and he matured.
Luke will tell us the same of Jesus. He was born, He grew, and He matured. In the flesh, He was as any other among man. His experience of the human condition was a full-fledged experience. How comforting to know our Savior, our High Priest, is not one so removed from our own experience as not to understand it. While perfect in holiness, He is yet acquainted with our sorrows, our temptations, and yes, our sins. He experienced our weakness fully that we might believe the fullness of His compassion towards us. The experience of life among us did not somehow make His compassion more compassionate, make Him more inclined towards mercy. How can the perfect be improved by experience? It was not needful on His part for Him to come live among men. It was needful for us! Without this experience of God with us, we could not really comprehend His mercy and His compassion. We could speak of it, we could declare its truth, but we could not really believe it. Deep down inside, we would remain convinced only of His wrathful vengeance in pursuit of justice, except that He has been with us. He knows our side of the story, and His mercy is made more believable to us for knowing that.
So, Luke tells us that John experienced the typical course of human growth. But, I think there is more than this to that matter of becoming strong in spirit. Had it been no more than an exercising of the mental faculties, John would not have done anything of note. Nothing would have distinguished him in such fashion as to suggest his inclusion in the story of Jesus. Yet, something made him so noteworthy that not one writer of the four evangelists neglects to speak of him, to explain his part. What made the difference in John? It was precisely this matter of becoming strong in spirit, but not in the basic sense of mental prowess. Intellect is fine. Will and determination is fine. Balanced emotions are fine. But if they are not turned towards an understanding of divine matters, they are nothing. This is the most important aspect of John's maturation. He was becoming adept at perceiving the divine import of events around him - rather a critical skill for a prophet. He could see God's providence in action, understand where it was headed, and purpose in himself to pursue the course God was pursuing. He could turn his intellect towards the purpose of his will, using the powers of speech and reason to persuade others to the cause of Christ. This was the critical preparation. This was the need that drove him to dwell in the desert, and until that work was complete in him, God was not prepared to announce his office to darkened Israel.
Note well the place of preparation! It was not in his parents house that he matured, it was not in the synagogues or the temple. It was not even in a place pleasant in any way. It was to the desert that God sent him for his learning and for his strengthening. A brief survey of the Scriptures will show that this has commonly been God's choice. Moses was sent to the desert for 80 years to prepare for the work God had appointed him to do. The people of Israel wandered that same desert for another 40 years, until they were purged of those who would not come to spiritual maturity, and until those born along the way could come to their own maturity. Jesus would also have His own desert time, in which His spiritual maturity would be tested and shown strong and true.
If there is something we can stand to learn from this verse, I think this is it: As much as we love those 'mountaintop' experiences, they are not the things that will help us to grow. Don't despise those experiences, but recognize that they are the vacations, if you will, from God's training. They are a break for blessing, a dinner out, a spring break. God's training comes in the desert, because the desert requires that we put our trust in Him. There is nothing else to trust. The desert requires that we be attentive to our Guide, for the trail that we must follow to survive that waste is invisible. The Lord disciplines those He loves (Heb 12:6). The desert is a discipline, and because of that discipline with which God prepares us, we endure. He disciplines us for our good (Heb 12:10), preparing us to share His holiness.
The challenges of the desert teach us of God's providential care. The trials of desert living require that we trust in Him, and train us to know that our trust is well placed. The desert is a place of temptations, a place where we are at our weakest and our enemy at his strongest. He will do his utmost to take us down, but if we are growing spiritually, we will not fall to his attack, but will see the chariots of heaven coming to our defense. We will learn just how real is the promise that the Holy Spirit will bring to mind the Scriptural foundations upon which we can stand against this attack. In the desert we will experience God's power most directly. This runs counter to our notions. We think that mountaintop experience was the most direct. We think the times of blessing at the altar, when the presence of God is thick all around, are the times when we most experience God. But He says otherwise. He says that we shall find Him in the desert, shall experience Him in the desert., shall build a tower of the knowledge of God - not such knowledge as can be derived from books, for such knowledge may yet be challenged and we convinced of its error. No! This is knowledge experienced, found true because we have walked in it, by it, and through it. Argue as they will, no scholar will ever be able to refute that truth in us!
We may become convinced that those spiritual outpourings we have seen around the altar were no more than excited emotions. However, when we have walked with God through the desert, when we have experienced the hardships through which He alone could bring us, and seen His hand move on our behalf - nothing can convince us then that we have been with Him. The presence of God that we experience in those most difficult times is much sweeter, in the end, than what we experience in the mountain top times. Then, all is wrapped in awe all is recognition of God so beyond our ken. But in the desert, this same ineffable God bows down to us, not by way of submission, but by way of reaching out to us at our level. He makes Himself available, accessible.
When Peter and John saw Jesus transfigured on the mountaintop, it most certainly gave them a charge. But, it was the exact opposite situation. They were seeing Jesus exalted, lifted from their level back closer to His own. Their reaction was quite appropriate: awe and reverence. How else can one react in the presence of Holiness? It did not, however, do much for their spiritual strength. These two would run just as quickly as the rest when trial came. They had just as many failings as the rest, for having had this unique experience.
Moses, too, was not strengthened by that time on the mountain, not in any permanent fashion. Far more was accomplished in him while he was biding his time in the desert. It was the desert time that established him as God's man. There, his own weakness and uncertainty were worked out of him, as he learned that it was not his own strength on which he must depend, but God's. It was a man secure in this understanding who faced Pharaoh. It was a man secure in this understanding who led the children of Israel out of captivity and through the desert once more.
David spent years wandering in the deserts as Saul sought his life. He surely knew his Lord before that experience, but he knew Him more thoroughly for having had the experience of dependence upon God. All around him he saw the signs of Israel's spiritual weakness. He need look no farther than the nearest mountaintop to see it, the pagan altars were there for the looking. But his desert experience had taught him to look above and beyond those mountains from whence his Help came.
The same truth holds for us today. However much we may enjoy the mountaintop times, it is the desert times that will give us the strength to persevere. It is the desert times that will train us to stand and stand some more. It is in the desert times that we will see the power of God moving on our own behalf, will learn of His love for us, and will establish in permanence our trust in Him.
