What are you celebrating this Christmas season? Deliverance from sickness? A new baby in the family? A better job? In today’s passage, Zechariah gives us lots of reasons to celebrate.

In the first place, he celebrates God’s faithfulness. Throughout this passage, he points to the promises that God had made to His people throughout the years, promises of salvation and mercy, promises of deliverance and forgiveness. Because God had kept His promise to Zechariah and Elizabeth that they would have a baby, Zechariah was sure that God would keep all the other promises He had made to His people through the prophets.

Zechariah also celebrates God’s calling on John’s life. He rejoices that his son would be God’s messenger, the one coming in the spirit and power of Elijah to prepare the way of the Lord, the one who would restore the hearts of the fathers and children to each other (Malachi 4:5-6). He looks forward to the time when John’s prophetic ministry would shine the light of truth into the darkness of sin (v. 79), exposing all the ways in which God’s people were failing to love God and failing to love each other. He anticipates John’s ministry which pointed to Jesus as the Lamb of God, through Whose sacrifice His people would have salvation and forgiveness of their sins (v. 77 – see John 1:29-34; 3:28-36)

But Zechariah also celebrates the purpose of God’s promises of salvation and forgiveness – not so that His people would be happy, but so that we would be holy. He looks forward to the time when God’s people will be free, not to please ourselves, but to please God. His greatest desire is that God’s people be able to serve Him without any more fear of misunderstanding or humiliation. He longs for deliverance from foreign rulers so that the people of God might be able to pursue righteousness, living according to God’s law of love for Him and for His people.

So, this season, let’s celebrate how God has kept His promise to send us a Savior to die for us, and a Messiah to rule over us. But as we celebrate, let’s seek to please Him in all we are and all we do, loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, even as we love our neighbors as ourselves. For could there be any better way to celebrate Christmas?

Luke 1:67-80 (NASB)

67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying:
68 “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people,
69 And has raised up a horn of salvation for us In the house of David His servant–
70 As He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old–
71 Salvation from our enemies, And from the hand of all who hate us;
72 To show mercy toward our fathers, And to remember His holy covenant,
73 The oath which He swore to Abraham our father,
74 To grant us that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear,
75 In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days.
76 “And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; For you will go on before the Lord to prepare His ways;
77 To give to His people the knowledge of salvation By the forgiveness of their sins,
78 Because of the tender mercy of our God, With which the Sunrise from on high shall visit us,
79 To shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death, To guide our feet into the way of peace.”
80 And the child continued to grow, and to become strong in spirit, and he lived in the deserts until the day of his public appearance to Israel.