Why is the name “John” so important? To us it is one of the most common of names, and likely was among the people of Jesus’ day. But names in Scripture are rich with meaning; there are no arbitrary names in Scripture. For example the name of John’s mother, Elizabeth, means “My God is an Oath”: God keeps His promises, and He made a promise to Abraham that he would be the father of a great multitude. Elizabeth, long barren, thought herself forgotten, left out of this promise; in the birth of John she is a witness to God keeping His promises. Zechariah’s name means “God remembers,” calling to mind the beautiful moment early in the Book of Exodus when the people of God, enslaved in Egypt, cried out to God, and "...God heard their moaning and God was mindful of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the Israelites, and God knew…” (Exodus 2:23-25). The people of God are now oppressed in their own land by the Romans, in the very Promised Land in which they were to dwell in freedom and prosperity; had God forgotten them?
No: for our “…God is an oath” who “…remembers…” and thus is born the forerunner of the Messiah, the messenger: John, whose name means “God is gracious.” In Exodus, when Moses is atop Mt. Sinai cutting the tablets out of the rock on which God would etch His Law, God passed before Him, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, a God gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in love and fidelity!” (Exodus 34:4-6). On a day to come the Son of God will pass before John, who will declare, “Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world!” (John 1:29). When we consider the sheer graciousness of God, and God who so loved us that He gave His only Son (John 3:16), what other name could be given to the one who would announce Him to the world?