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In our haste to get to the story of Jesus, his apostles and the establishment of the church we fly right past the fact that the New Testament opens and closes with aged people: Zechariah and Elisabeth in the opening of Luke’s gospel and John the apostle in the closing book of Revelation. Older characters play significant roles from the beginning to the end of the New Testament. In the unfolding drama of the coming of the Son of God the opening scene features the priest Zechariah and his wife Elisabeth, who were both "advanced in years" (Luke 1:7).
Aged Zechariah and Elisabeth were
"righteous before God, living blamelessly according to all the commandments and
regulations of the Lord," but they were unfulfilled in their own minds for they
were childless (1:6-7). Then the angel Gabriel appears to Zechariah in the
Temple scene and promises that Elisabeth will bear a son named John who is to
play the role of Elijah in calling Israel to repentance (1:13-17) and we get a
flashback to the Old Testament stories of the elderly Abraham and Sarah (Gen.
18:1-15; 21:1-7) and of aged Hannah and her husband Elkanah (1 Sam. 1:1-20). In
these mental scenes the fulfilling grace of God shines through the promise and
birth of a child to previously barren couples. The advanced age of these three
couples only highlights the power and freedom of God: "Is anything too hard for
the Lord?" (Gen. 18:14; cf. Luke 1:37).
Zechariah, like Sarah, finds the announcement of Gabriel almost
unbelievable and to seal the promise Gabriel strikes him temporarily speechless
(Luke 1:18-23). Then as an aside statement of fact Luke records: "After these
days, his wife Elisabeth conceived" (1:24). As the plot unfolds, there is a
continuing emphasis on the advanced age of the prospective parents in Gabriel's
speech to Mary”: he states "your relative Elisabeth in her old age has
also conceived a son" (1:36).
In the closing scenes of this story both Zechariah and Elisabeth, are shown as prophets who understand this marvelous thing that God is doing. Here, two aged people of are said to be "filled with the Holy Spirit" (1:41, 67). Elisabeth gives a soliloquy in which she acknowledges Mary as "blessed among women" and describes her prophetically as "the mother of my Lord." It was this older woman who first used the Greek term kyrios (Lord) as applied to Jesus (1:42-43). Zechariah’s speaking ability returns following the birth of John and he uses his prophecy to summarize the entirety of the Old Testament biblical narrative and declares that God's promises to redeem Israel are now being brought to fulfillment (1:67-79).
Following closely behind this amazing use of two aged people of God we soon
encounter two more aged characters who are used by God for His purpose: Simeon
and Anna become leaders of the prophetic chorus celebrating the coming of the
Savior and the time of his purification in the Temple (Luke 2:22-38). Simeon,
an old man, has long been hoping for “the consolation of Israel” which he
probably thought of as its deliverance from oppression. He had been promised by
the Holy Spirit that he will not see death until he has seen the Lord’s Messiah.
When Simeon saw Jesus he recognized him as God’s chosen one and praying to God
movingly declares, “Master, now you are releasing your servant in peace,
according to your word; for my eyes have seen your salvation, which you have
prepared in the presence of all the peoples, a light for revelation to the
Gentiles and a glory to your people Israel. (Luke 2:29-32). He then pronounces
to Mary a foreboding prophecy of the Passion, including both her own suffering
and the role of her child Jesus as a predicted sign “for the falling and the
rising
of many in Israel” (Luke 2:34).
The elderly lady, Anna, was an eighty-four-year-old prophetess who
spent her time in the Temple worshiping, fasting and praying, night and day.
While Simeon could work in many areas of the Temple, it is likely that pious
Anna was limited to the Women’s Court area of the Temple. It was probably here
that she recognizes Jesus and gives thanks to God announcing the news about him
“to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem” (Luke 2:38). It seems
significant that God chose to use both a man and a woman to acknowledge the
Messiah, and from the aged.
“Luke’s narrative provides a
matched pair of older male and female witnesses
prefiguring Jesus’ messianic vocation and the conflict that his mission will
engender. The advanced age of Simeon and Anna signifies their time-tested
wisdom, while at the same time symbolizing Israel’s long-suffering expectation
of deliverance. These two aged figures also suggest that radical openness to the
redeeming power of God may be found among elders— perhaps particularly there.”
(Richard and Judith Hays, Growing Old In Christ, Eerdmans, 2003, p. 7.)
Four other prominent elderly characters are featured in the New Testament, Peter, John, Paul and Luke. We have the advantage of knowing much about the first three men from their early adult life to their old age. Their close association with Jesus during His ministry and the empowering of the Holy Spirit enhances the value of studying their long lives.
The first appearance of Peter is found in John 1:35-42 when Andrew brings his brother to Jesus and Jesus changes Peter’s name to Cephas. Here Jesus also calls Peter to discipleship, a relationship that lasted a lifetime. Likely, the low point in Peter’s life was his denial of Jesus and perhaps the highpoint his sermon delivered on Pentecost. The scriptures detail some events worthy of note in the long life of Peter including his healing the lame man, his arrest and imprisonment, and his appearance before the council in Jerusalem. When the book of Acts takes up the life and work of Paul little more is said of Peter. We know that he traveled more or less extensively accompanied by his wife (I Cor. 9:5)and that he wrote two epistles, the second of which was penned as he approached the end of his life (2 Peter 1:12-15). Tradition holds that Peter died a martyr at Rome about 67 AD, when he was about 75 years old. Jesus had had predicted a violent death for Peter (John 21:18, 19) which some think came to pass by crucifixion under Nero. According to tradition he said that he desired to be crucified head downward, feeling himself unworthy to be crucified like Christ.
John was one of the sons of Zebedee who became a disciple of Jesus and was then continuously with Him while He was on earth and remained faithful to Him until death. The name of John appears in all the lists of the apostles given in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 10:2). John is one of the most prominent disciples although his name appears rarely in a position by itself. He is present at the raising of the daughter of Jairus (Mark 5:37), at the transfiguration (Matthew 17) and with the Lord at the agony of Gethsemane. John accompanies Peter while the man at the gate was healed (Acts 3:1), on the mission to Samaria (Acts 8:14), at the interview with Paul recorded in Galatians 2, and is described by Paul as one of the pillar apostles (Galatians 2:9).
However there still remain many blank spaces in John’s life. From the time of these early references we know nothing of his life and activity until we read of his banishment in his old age to the isle of Patmos. In his early years John was one of the ones wanting to call down fire from heaven on the inhospitable village and although he is “the apostle of love” in his short epistles he displays his vehemence in his book of Revelation against those who refused to believe in, and to acknowledge, Jesus.
More is known about the life of Saul of Tarsus, the apostle Paul, than any other New Testament character with the exception of Jesus. Saul is "a young man" (Acts 7:58) when he is introduced at the stoning of Steven. It appears he entered upon his life’s work as a rabbi at the age of thirty. He may have been active for several years, especially as he was now in a position of leadership and may even have been a member of the Sanhedrin (Acts 26:10). From the time of Paul’s appearance in the book of Acts (Acts 7) through all of the epistles written by him we learn many intimate and provocative details of his life including his missionary journeys, establishment of churches and eventually imprisonment in Rome.
Paul refers to himself as an “old man” who is now a “prisoner for Christ Jesus” (Philem. 9) and as the “father” of his converts which may be his way of appealing for the respectful obedience due to an older parent (e.g., 1 Cor. 4:14-16; 2 Cor. 6:13; Gal. 4:19-20; 1 Thess. 2:11-12). Tradition claims that Paul, as a Roman citizen, was beheaded on the Ostian Road just outside of Rome. Nero died June, 68 AD, and evidently Paul was executed before that date, perhaps in the late spring of that year (or 67).
Because of the reference to Luke, the beloved physician, being with Paul in Rome (2 Timothy 4:11) we know Luke must have been an aged man at that time. Luke, having written both the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, fades from the limelight after the “we” passages in Acts and does not appear again until mentioned by Paul.
In the Epistles written by Paul only a few passages deal with aged characters. In Romans 4 there is the story of Abraham and Sarah where Abraham is portrayed as an exemplar of faith, not merely for elderly but for the whole world. Respect for the aged is replete in Paul’s writings, such as I Timothy :5:5 which may be translated, “Do not rebuke an older man, but exhort him as you would a father”. He also gives the command that the community should provide assistance to widows over the age of sixty, and that women recognized by the church as widows should devote their energies to prayer, hospitality, and service to the afflicted (I Tim. 5:3-16).
In his letter to Titus the aged apostle commands that older women should be instructed “to be reverent in behavior, not to be slanderers or slaves to drink” and that they should train the younger women in their domestic duties, so that “the word of God may not be discredited” (Titus 2:3-5). The older men Paul instructs to be “temperate, serious, sensible, sound in faith, in love, and in steadfastness” (Titus 2:2).
Aged people in the New Testament are held up with terms like honor and respect and are singled out for special care by the church. Any who fail in this respect is considered to have “denied the faith, and are worse than unbelievers” (I Tim. 5:8). For the aged, they are to be exemplary in faith, serving as role models of reverence and temperance (Titus 2:2-5). Their responsibility to the church is in leadership, teaching and counseling. They are to so live as to have their faith and commitment continue beyond their deaths as a witness to later generations (Heb. 2). “In old age they still produce fruit,” Psalm 92:14.
We should not need to be reminded that in neither the Old or New
Testament are the aged at any time vilified , presented as a problem, pitied,
patronized, or treated with condescension, irrelevance, or thought of as
being “behind the curve”, inactive or unproductive. Rather, they are seen as
the bearers of wisdom by virtue of their age. Although the inevitable end of
all the aged is death, which is treated as an enemy to be conquered by Christ (I
Cor. 15:24-26), never in the New Testament do the sacred writers characterize
the aging process itself as an evil to be overcome. Indeed, there will always
be the need for elderly men in the church both as overseers and followers.
There will be the need for elderly women to be “teachers of good things” (Titus
2:3-5).
Older men and women are needed in the church to provide
evangelization, edification, hospitality, benevolence and to proclaim God’s
strength to the next generation. (Psalms 71:17-18). All too frequently when the
need is greatest older people seek to “retire”, a position not offered to
Christians.