Zacharias’s prophecy ends on a glorious note of the “knowledge of salvation” that John will give to God’s people (v. 77).
This salvation is what John is born to preach. And this salvation is what Jesus is born to offer to all and accomplish for “His people.”
And not only did Gentiles need salvation, but the Jews did also. They could not be saved by their righteousness or their race. They needed, as we all do, the forgiveness of their sins.
That is the core problem of humanity. We have sinned against a holy God. We have stolen glory from Him. We have not submitted ourselves to Him. We have gone astray theologically, spiritually, and practically. We are all sitting in darkness and the shadow of death – all because of our sins.
But what Advent, and what this prophecy’s conclusion, teaches us is that the holy God has tender mercy brimming over in His heart. A tender mercy that forgives and saves undeserving, hopeless sinners.
A tender mercy that shines in darkened hearts in “the Sunrise from on high” – a lovely name for and description of Jesus Christ. He has come to shine upon us, to shine in our hearts the very Light of the glory of God in His own person work (2 Cor 4:6). The very God who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness” (2 Cor 4:6), has illumined our sin-dark souls with the divine Sunrise, with Christ Himself, in all His radiant glory.
John was not the Light. He was born to testify about the Light (John 1:8). The Light that would pierce through the shroud of darkness and death enveloping the world (and our hearts) so that we could behold divine glory, turn from our sins, and be forgiven and saved. So that we could be at peace with God once and for all.
We are now children of Light, sons of the day. So, let’s keep bathing our hearts in that Light. Let’s keep meditating on our salvation. Let’s keep rejoicing in the peace Christ has made for us. Let’s be in awe and wonder that the Most High would have and unleash tender mercy at the expense of His glorious Son.
