We can see one difference in the very first thing each says upon receiving the glad tidings. Zacharias says "How shall I know his?", while the Mother of God replies, "How can this be?" At this critical point, Zacharias thinks only of himself - his certainty, his belief (or lack thereof). The Theotokos, on the other hand, accepts at once that what St. Gabriel has said would come to pass, and does not question her own belief or seek proofs for surety of the event promised her. So also we should be. We all have so many cares and worries in our daily lives in the world: work, family, environment... and so forth. All of us pray in our daily Rule "Give us this day our daily bread" - that is, what we need to live for each day. But how many of us really believe it, and take to heart what our Lord Jesus Christ meant when He said, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." (St. Matthew 6:28-29) It is true, we do need many things to get along in this world, to live and act towards our fellow men both within and without the Church as we ought. But it is also true that our "heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things" and if we "seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, all these things shall be added unto you." (St. Matthew 6:32-33) This is the promise given to each of us, and we know that even as the Lord God fulfilled the promise to the Theotokos so will He fulfill this promise to us - as long as we make our own the answer of the Virgin to the angelic being, "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word." (St. Luke 1:38)
We have seen that Zacharias was wrapped up in his own concerns when he answered the archangel's message. That he is so concerned but wih himself at this point can well be a cause of surprise to us. For the Holy Fathers tell us that it was precisely because Zacharias was not self-centered, was not merely involved in his own concerns, that the precious joy and awesome gift of the Forerunner was vouchsafed to him. Blessed Theophylact writes, "What was the prayer of Zacharias whch caused the angel to say, 'thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabth shall bear thee a son?' Surely Zacharias was not praying for a son. Was he not praying for sins of the people? Some say, therefore, that on account of his prayer for the sins of the people, he would beget a son who would cry out, 'Behold the Lamb of God, Which taketh away the sin of the world!' Thus it is altogether fitting that the angel says to him, 'thy prayer is heard', meaning, 'Thy prayer for the forgiveness of the sins of the people.' You will beget a son through whom there will be forgiveness of sins."
Herein is an important lesson, and warning for us all. Zacharias was a holy man, righteous in the sight of God, walking in all the commandments and judgements of the law blameless. (St. Luke 1:6) Moreover, he was one who exercised the office and dignity of the priesthood before the Lord God. The angel had just praised him on account of his doing good, on account of his selflessness for which the reward was the promise of being the father of him who would baptize God and provide opportunity for the manifestation of the All-Holy Trinity. Yet how like the rest of us is he in what he does immediately afterward! How quickly and easily do we succumb to temptation and turn away to do evil, even after having just done good and with the memory of that good still fresh within us! It is an admonishment to all of us that we must be constantly on our guard, prayerful and dilligent lest we allow the Evil One to twist our good thoughts and deeds awry.
Here, perhaps, we can also see a warning against pride, against taking too much comfort in the good we have done. Perhaps Zacharias became puffed up with pride after having been praised, and so dared to think only of himself, to doubt and to address the archangel thusly. Perhaps. It is something we should watch for, whether Zacharias so succumbed or not.
At this critical point, Zacharias is concerned only with himself. Not so the Ever-Virgin Mary, whose first response is 'How can this be?' She does not think of herself at all, but of the wonder and majesty of the event God's messenger had just related would come to pass. As Blessed Theophylact writes, she 'was wise and astute, and sought to understand the manner in which this would take place.' Not, would this take place, but how would this take place.
Here is another important lesson for us. Living, as we do, amongst a plethora of fundamentalist Protestants, how often do we hear such things as, 'You mustn't question God!' And, 'Don't question God's will; accept it!' As usual, there is a grain of truth in these sayings, overlaid with much error and confusion - like a pearl in reverse. The Theotokos, as we have seen, accepted GodŐs will unconditionally. Yet she questioned, and was not punished for it. And does not God Himself, through St. John the Theologian, bid us try the spirits whether they are of God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world? (I John 4:1) What is this trying of the spirits, if not a form of questioning? There is a right and correct method of questioning in our Holy Orthodox Church, and it is the difference between Zacharias' question and the Theotokos' which illustrates for us that correct method.
The single most important point involved in this proper method of questioning is precisely what we have already seen: we do not question to ascertain if God will do what we need. We know He knows that and will do it. But it is fair to seek to know how God will accomplish what He intends - if we approach Him with true humility, and do not seek to dictate to Him how He ought to do things for us. But how many times do we slip, and do that very thing? More times, probably, than any of us would care to admit. But the genuine search to know how God will order things for us men and for our salvation... this is no sin, and is even beneficial and necessary for us. For we know that our salvation and deification is not accomplished by God alone, acting with irresistible grace (as the Calvinists would have it), but requires our active participation. This is the doctrine which the Fathers call synergeia, which means 'working together.' If we genuinely seek to know how God will work His will, it is only so that we can then mold our will and acts to assist in it, to provide the necessary human element in God's dispensation for us.
When we seek to know how God will bring things about, one thing which we must not do is limit His activity by imposing our understanding of the world and the way it works upon that activity. Zacharias did just that, when he said, 'for I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.' (St. Luke 1:18) He knew that, according to the normal course of human life, elderly couples neither conceive nor bear childen. Which is true. But he forgot, as we all do either consciously or unconsciously, that with God nothing shall be impossible. (St. Luke 1:37) He forgot, notwithstanding - as St. Theophylact says - that he had many examples of just this event in the history of Israel. "It was fitting that Zacharias was chastened," the Archbishop of Ochrid writes, "for he knew many examples of barren women who had given birth." The pre-eminent example, of course, being the holy patriarch Abraham and his wife Sarah, vouchsafed Isaac in their old age. We too must not be despairing when we see no earthly way out of whatever predicaments we are in, no way in which our prayers and supplications to God for othersŐ troubles - as well as our own - can be answered. Rest assured that there is a way, and that God will bring it to pass in the fullness of His (not our) time. But we must not rely solely on material cause and effect, the physical processes of this world, when struggling to know how God will accomplish what is best for us. It may indeed be (and most often is) that God works through mundane means. Indeed, as a certain Bishop of the Russian Church has said, we ought not to look for showy miracles or supernatural occurrances as answers to our prayers. Doing so, he says, is but tempting God. But He can do so if He desires, and we must not deem it impossible for Him to effect what He wills, though worldly wisdom decrees otherwise.
What's in a question? A lot. But nothing more so, ultimately, than the reason behind the question: Faith, or doubt?