Difference in angel's response to Zechariah and Mary

[alaskazimm]

This is something that has needled at me for a while. When the angel makes the announcement of the impending births to Zechariah and Mary in Luke 1, their responses are virtually identical yet the angel's response to them is very different. See especially v18-20 and v34-38. Zechariah is punished but Mary is let off. Why is this? I've heard that Mary made a profession of belief (v38) whereas Zech didn't. But Zech never got the chance as the angel pronounced punishment immediately.

Maybe Zech is asking for sign out of disbelief but Mary is curious about the mechanics - and thus the differnce in the angel's response to them? What say ye?

This is just something that has bugged me for years and I'm curious more than anything about it.

[steve]

In my opinion, the muteness of Zechariah was not a punishment, but a prophetic sign. Zechariah's question was not necessarily offensive, and was not necessarily worthy of punishment, so I don't believe there was a punishment. The prophets of the Old Testament often had to be inconvenienced in order to give a sign to their generation, whether it is Isaiah walking around naked for three years, Jeremiah wearing an ox yoke, Ezekiel lying for forty days on one side and 390 days on the other, or Hosea marrying a woman whom he knew would cheat on him. None of these prophets were being punished. In fact, they were privileged to bear the burden of the Lord to their people and there was a price to be paid for that privilege.

Zechariah's dumbness, I believe, signified God's prophetic silence over the previous 400 years—a silence finally broken with the birth of John the Baptist. Zechariah's silence was broken with the birth of John (or at least the naming of John), and thus the father got to represent God in being mute for a noticeable period of time, so that the end of his silence my portent a significant event: God has broken His silence, and is now raising up another prophet.

Mary also had to pay a price in becoming a sign (the sign of a virgin conceiving—Isa.7:14). Both Zechariah and Mary bore the burden of their significance, but neither were experiencing punishment from God.

[TK]

Zechariah's response:

And Zacharias said to the angel, “How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.” And the angel answered and said to him, “I am Gabriel, who stands in the presence of God, and was sent to speak to you and bring you these glad tidings. But behold, you will be mute and not able to speak until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words which will be fulfilled in their own time.”

Mary's response:

“How can this be, since I do not know a man?”

This is one of the very few times I have disagreed with Steve, which means I am probably wrong.

I have always taken Zechariah's response as an expression of doubt, or "yeah, right," even though he knew that God had intervened in previous times in the lives of older couples.

I do not take Mary's response as an expression of doubt, but rather as a legitimate and reasonable request for more information.

I think it was a punishment for Zechariah, because the angel said it was BECAUSE of his expression of doubt.

TK

[alaskazimm]

Good points. Thanks for the answers. I think I would tend to go with TK's view although Steve makes a good point about the similarities with OT prophets. Maybe both are correct
What I mean is that Zechariah did respond in unbelief (or skepticism if you will) and thus had to bear a harder sign, so it was not a punishment per se.