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In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron.\xa0Both of them were righteous in the sight of God, observing all the Lord\u2019s commands and decrees blamelessly. But they were childless because Elizabeth was not able to conceive, and they were both very old. (Luke 1:5-7)

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One of the most significant threads of Old Testament Israel gets picked up here by Luke in the opening verses of his Gospel.\xa0 It is an early and important indication of why Jesus came.\xa0 And, perhaps surprisingly: it isn\u2019t about sin.\xa0 It\u2019s about death.

When we think of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we think: salvation from sin.\xa0 But the Gospel is bigger and richer than that.\xa0 Throughout the Old Testament, and especially through the early books, the major threat is not sin, but death.

The Creational blessing and command given by God to humanity in Genesis 1 is \u201cBe fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.\u201d\xa0 This Creational, life-generating fruitfulness humanity has been entrusted with is immediately placed under threat, however.\xa0

Adam and Eve are not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil because if they do, they will die, and indeed death becomes their punishment. \xa0Through them, death becomes a threat to the command and design of Creation: not only for human life, but for plant and animal life as well.\xa0 The ground is cursed.\xa0 Animals die to make skins for the man and woman.

Death remains a threat throughout the Old Testament account. \xa0God promises Abraham that he will make him fruitful and multiply his descendants until they become a great nation.\xa0 It\u2019s a promise of Creation\u2019s intent, fulfilled. \xa0But this time God himself takes the reigns as he offers his promise to Abraham.\xa0 But Sarah is barren, and both of them are very old.\xa0 Death looms over the narrative as an ever-present threat.\xa0

The same goes for Isaac and Rebekah, Jacob and Rachel, Joseph, the Israelites under the threat of Pharoah, and Israel again under the threat of the wilderness.\xa0 Constantly again and again death hangs over the stories of the Old Testament, reminding us again and again that if it were not for the grace of God intervening in promise, redemption, and life: death would surely be our end.\xa0

There\u2019s another thread here too, though.\xa0 In some of the wisdom books of the Old Testament, like Proverbs, there is a cut and dried ethic: if you\u2019re righteous, you\u2019ll be blessed.\xa0 If you\u2019re wicked, you\u2019ll be cursed.\xa0 But it\u2019s not always so cut and dried (as other wisdom books, like Job and Ecclesiastes, recognize).\xa0 What about the Zechariahs and Elizabeths of the world?\xa0 They were both upright and righteous people: so why had they not been blessed?\xa0 Why were they not fruitful?

Our story is set right smack in the middle of these Old Testament troubles: death looms over righteous people who did everything right.\xa0 They long for the life and blessing from the Lord they were Created to have and to bring.\xa0 It\u2019s not a question of sin: they are blameless.\xa0 It\u2019s about death.\xa0 Death has come for them anyway: stealing away their fertility and their youth.\xa0

I can think of so many of our own stories that death looms over in just this way, undeserved.\xa0 Miscarriages, infertility, separations, illness, accidents, addictions, and death itself as loved ones are taken from us.\xa0 Before we can rejoice, first Luke invites us to sit in the ash heap with the Old Testament people of God and cry out with them: How long, O Lord?\xa0 How long?

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