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6. Both of them were righteous before God,
living blamelessly according to all the commandments and
regulations of the Lord.
In today’s passage,
Gospel writer Luke presents an older adult couple, Zechariah and
Elizabeth, as someone who provides historical perspective, sense of
continuity, prayer support, and wisdom. This older adult couple
paints a picture of God’s unfailing love for those who are well
advanced in years. Once again this older adult couple reminds us
that age is not a factor for God to include anyone in His plan of
salvation history. In this passage two important things that matter
helped them to face their older adult years with grace and joy.
Spirituality and community support were integral part in
their old age years.
Spirituality matters : Even though they were
old and well advanced in years they still walked blameless before
the Lord. They regularly attended temple worship. Blameless
does not imply sinlessness, but someone who faithfully responds to
their understanding of God’s will and ways. In the Old Testament we
see the examples of Noah and Job. This phrase is included to show
that this couple is experiencing childlessness because of physical
problems and not spiritual ones. The scripture says that they are
righteous couple. No matter what happened in their lives,
they still walked with the Lord. Whether we receive what we want or
not, can we still walk with the Lord in all seasons of lives? Later
in this chapter we see that Zechariah and Elizabeth became
righteous not because of law but by faith. Apostle Paul says, “For
in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith;
as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”
Romans 1:17. We too can become righteous by faith in the living God
who sanctifies, redeems, and sustains us.
Community
matters: In
the old age, a sense of belongingness to a community matters,
because they want to be loved, respected, listened to, and
protected. Luke is presenting these older adults in a community
setting with clear identities. Zechariah’s name meant “remembered
by YAHWEH”. He was one of the priests of the Abijah division of
Levites. Only four of the twenty- four divisions of Levites
returned from the Exile (1 Chr. 24: 7-18) and Abijah’s division was
one among them. Elizabeth in Hebrew means ‘my God is an oath or God
fully satisfies’. She was also from the priestly family of Aaron.
Today we live in a busy world where the elderly people are
neglected. Today’s culture is to use everything and throwing away
the useless. Elderly people are very often considered as useless.
Many of the elderly people spend their last days of life in nursing
homes and destitute homes where they feel emotional emptiness due
to lack of relationships. Our life is a debt to many people.
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