Luke 1:8-13

8 So it was, that while he [Zacharis] was serving as priest before God in the order of his division, ⁹ according to the custom of the priesthood, his lot fell to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. ¹⁰ And the whole multitude of the people was praying outside at the hour of incense. ¹¹ Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. ¹² And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.
¹³ But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your prayer is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.

It’s time. Zacharis and Elizabeth had lived many years without a son, but now God is to bless them. The Old Testament reader won’t find this surprising. The stories of Abram, Hagar, Manoah, and Hannah follow a similar pattern. Yet these figures had lived many hundred years before Zacharias and Elizabeth. The miracles that happened to them, even once accepted as true, could have been easily disregarded as belonging to another era.

But Zacharias doesn’t take that route. Instead he prays. Prayer saturates this passage. Outside, “the whole multitude of the people was praying”. Inside, Zacharias was burning incense. The rising incense was understood to symbolically carry the nation’s prayers to heaven, explaining why David sang “Let my prayer be set before You as incense” (Psalm 141:2a).

Thus when the angel arrived he declared “your prayer is heard.” Then, just like in the ancient stories, he gave the promise of a son. The lesson: Prayer bridges the many years that separate the miracles of the past and the realities of today.

Recognizing this power of prayer, perhaps a few more words are in order. In particular, we look closer as the symbolism of the alter of incense. It appears again in Revelation, this time with an angel in place of Zacharis the priest,

“Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the alter. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints ascended before God from the angel’s hand.” (Rev. 8:3-5)

Notice without the incense the prayers remain on the alter, powerless. Hence the necessity of the angel to add the incense.

Here prayer is revealed not as an action of people to control the will of God, but as a cooperation between the human and the Divine. God teaches us how to pray, when to pray, who and what to pray for. He guides us through our prayers. Then, by mingling our prayers with incense, God lifts our prayers to heaven that He might act in response. This is the power and the privilege of prayer.