When I was a kid, our family would pile into the car for long road trips to national parks. We’d barely be out of the driveway (fifteen minutes, maybe) before one of us kids would ask, “Are we there yet? How much farther?”
After 273 days walking through the Old Testament, we have finally arrived. It’s like passing through the entrance into Yosemite. Today we open Luke 1 and John 1, and the story we’ve been traveling toward since Genesis comes into view.
Two Writers, Two Lenses
The four Gospels come to us from eyewitness testimony, but each writer views Jesus through a different lens. Luke was a historian. As a Gentile writing a few decades after the resurrection, he set out to explain Jesus the man, rooted in Jewish tradition, to a Gentile audience. He tells us his method right up front:
“Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us, just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word have delivered them to us, it seemed good to me also, having followed all things closely for some time past, to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, that you may have certainty concerning the things you have been taught.” (Luke 1:1–4)
John, a Jew, writes to show us Jesus as God. That was a sharp left turn from what his people expected. They were looking for a Messiah who would be a military leader and king, one who would drive out Rome. John shows them someone far greater.
The 400 Silent Years
I’ve been thinking about the roughly 400 years between Malachi and the arrival of Jesus. No prophet spoke. No scripture was written. History records a great deal from that time, but none of it was received as God’s Word. And yet those silent years were anything but idle. God was setting the stage.
Alexander the Great conquered most of the known world and spread a common language, Greek, across it. The Romans came behind him as builders, laying a network of roads that would one day carry the message of Jesus to the ends of the earth. Rome also refined crucifixion into its cruelest form of execution. And a religious party called the Pharisees, unknown in Malachi’s day, rose up with deep devotion to the Scriptures but also built “fences” of rules around them. Those fences turned faith into religious duty and made it hard for ordinary people to approach God. Jesus would spend much of His ministry tearing them down:
“They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger.” (Matthew 23:4)
That conflict with the religious leaders would lead to the cross. Paul sums up all of this preparation in one phrase:
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4:4–5)
The silence wasn’t absence. It was God arranging the world for His Son.
The Sun Rises
Here’s a connection I had never noticed before. The Old Testament closes with this promise:
“But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.” (Malachi 4:2)
Malachi’s last words also promise a forerunner: “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children” (Malachi 4:5–6). Then, after four centuries of silence, the very first words from heaven in Luke pick up right where Malachi left off. The angel tells Zechariah his son John
“will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children… to make ready for the Lord a people prepared.” (Luke 1:17)
When John is born, Zechariah breaks into praise. What strikes me is that he doesn’t get carried away about having a son. He’s overjoyed that God is ushering in a new era, and he knows his boy has a part in preparing for it:
“And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways… because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” (Luke 1:76, 78–79)
Malachi’s rising sun becomes Zechariah’s sunrise from on high.
Back to the Beginning
John the disciple takes us even further back, all the way to creation:
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:1–3)
He’s echoing Genesis on purpose:
“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light.” (Genesis 1:1–3)
All three persons of the Trinity are present at creation: God the Father creating, the Spirit hovering, and God speaking, the Word that John identifies as Jesus, the active agent in creation. And notice the thread of light running from the first page to this one. “Let there be light” in Genesis. The rising sun in Malachi. The sunrise from on high in Zechariah’s song. And now John:
“In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:4–5)
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
We’re Here
Everything written before has been moving toward this moment. Over a hundred prophecies point to Jesus, and now God sovereignly sends Him, the Lamb of God born as a man, to die a death that opens the door for anyone who will call on Him:
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29)
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:12)
We’re not fifteen minutes out of the driveway anymore. We’ve arrived. I am ready for this adventure.
For reflection: God’s people waited through 400 silent years while He was quietly arranging everything for the coming of His Son. Where in your life does God seem silent right now, and what might He be preparing in that silence?
