Luke 1:18. "And Zechariah said to the angel, 'How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." This is Zechariah's response to the Angel Gabriel, who has just announced that Elizabeth, Zechariah's wife, will bear a son to be named John, who will "turn many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God " and "make ready for the Lord a people prepared." (Luke 1:16-17.)

At our weekly Bible study group, we were recently talking about the difference in the treatment of Zechariah, who is punished with muteness until John's birth for asking this question, and Mary, who asked "How can this be, since I have no husband?" (Luke 1:34), and was not punished, but glorified greatly. The official answer to the disparate treatment is that Mary asked a clarifying question, while Zechariah doubted. We can see that difference in the words they each use - Zechariah asks "How shall I know this?" Well, for one thing, you have an angel standing before you telling you! Zechariah was a priest, he knew that when God speaks to His people, it is often through his angels, and he had just been given a most detailed and wonderful message from an angel about having a son, but his initial response is doubt. The word of the angel was not good enough for him, he wanted to know how he could know that the angel's words were true.

Contrast that with Mary, who asked "How can this be?" Gabriel was delivering a wonderful message to Mary, as well, but a somewhat frightening one, since she was not married, and one of biological impossibility - she would be a virgin mother, something impossible, as far as she knew. So Mary's question was not asked in doubt but in wonder, and the angel answered her that nothing is impossible with God, something that Zechariah should have known, as well.

Putting aside these differences, though, I also think these two encounters are indicative of how God knows our hearts. Perhaps God knew that Zechariah was, in his heart, a bit proud and doubtful of God's power. Perhaps Zechariah needed a small lesson in humility and trust, while Mary, being sinless, did not. God doesn't punish us for the sake of His own pride or hurt feelings, like we would do, rather He lets us suffer when it ultimately will be for our greater good. We know, then, that God's differing treatment of Zechariah and Mary was right and just, because that is the only way God ever is.