Luke 1:57-62 57Now the time was complete for Elizabeth for her to give birth, and she bore a son. 58And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown his great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her. 59And it happened on the eighth day, they came to circumcise the child. And they were going to call him Zechariah after his father, 60but his mother answered, “No, but he will be called John.” 61And they said to her, “No one among your relatives is called by this name.” 62And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted to call him. 63And after asking for a writing tablet, he wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered.
Luke moves on to give the account of John’s birth. A quick calculation concludes that Mary left at about the time John was to be born, though Luke does not state that she was actually present at the birth. The birth of John was a great miracle in the pattern of Abraham and Sarah. After five months, Elizabeth could no longer remain quiet about her pregnancy. When the time for giving birth came, it was a whole community celebration with neighbors and relatives joining in the celebration. John’s birth was a testimony to God’s great mercy. The idea of mercy is repeated five times in this context: verses 50, 54, 58, 72, and 78. The miracle of John’s birth was seen as an answer to the long prayers of sincere people who were asking God for intervention and rescue from troubles and foreign domination. The answer came not in the way of political salvation but spiritual revival.
Elizabeth and Zechariah were pious Jews and had John circumcised as prescribed in the law (Genesis 17:9-14). The relatives, friends, and neighbors all came for the special rite. The Jewish practice was to name the child on the eighth day upon circumcision. Everyone expected the child to be a “junior” and carry the name of the father, but that was not to be. Zechariah had communicated to Elizabeth at some point what the boy’s name would be. She had become Zechariah’s mouthpiece since he could not speak. She had to stand up to the pressure of the relatives and neighbors who had their ideas about the situation.
The people did not want to accept her word. Women were often looked down upon in that culture and did not carry the authority of the men. This cultural prejudice shines through in this passage as the gathered people turn to the real authority, Zechariah. It is almost like a child going from one parent to the next to its way. The people must have used some type of primitive or basic sign language to get their point across to Zechariah. If this were a modern context, it would have been quite embarrassing and demeaning to Elizabeth, but in that time, it was the expected thing to do. Zechariah would have the final say about the matter, but the problem was that he could not speak. He could still write, and so he made it very clear to everyone what the baby’s name would be. What exactly amazed the people is not stated. It could have been Zechariah’s insistence on what his wife said, surprise at the choice of name, or that the two parents agreed on the matter. This story is as much about Elizabeth as it is about John or Zechariah. She is honored by her birth yet suppressed by her relatives. In the end, she was a testimony to God’s mercy not just to her but to all people through the future ministry of her son.
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