In a small, probably one room, cottage, two women met, one probably
in her teens, the other well past menopause, at least 50 years difference in
age. Animals were standing and sleeping in one part of the room too. The smell
of olive oil was all around them. A lighted oil lamp was in the corner and some
stools to sit on.[2]
At the very entrance of this cottage, Mary stood after having
traveled about 3-4 days up the hills of Judah, saying something like: “Peace
be with you, kinswoman Elizabeth.”
And, as Elizabeth heard Mary at the door, two people were filled
with the Holy Spirit: the unborn baby John and Elizabeth.
Sometimes pregnant woman can feel the baby move in the womb. For
example, do you remember how Rebekah felt— two babies leaped within her, when
she was about to bear Esau and Jacob? (Gen. 25:22). She found it agonizing!
But the angel Gabriel had warned Zechariah that the child he and
Elizabeth would have would be filled with the Holy Spirit even before his birth
(1:15). Thus, it was the Holy Spirit who communicated to the unborn fetus in
Elizabeth’s womb that caused the baby to leap or spring about. This is what
young calves do in the grass when they leave the stall (Jer 50:11; Mal 4:2; Ps
114:4, 6). And, when the baby was filled with the Holy Spirit, so too was
Elizabeth filled with the Holy Spirit.
The picture
above is an unborn baby between 6-7 months old, the same age as John the
Baptist. At 6 months the fetus’s immune system starts to develop and the baby
has reflexes of seizing & wincing. At 7 months the eyes begin to open &
the baby can cry. The fetus is very agile. The movements become considerably
noticeable and the baby starts using legs & hand muscles. The baby is
active and also still, can cough or hiccup and even see by the 28th
week. The appearance and behavior of a baby at the end of the 6th
month fully corresponds with the way the baby is at birth. The baby can
distinguish the timbre of Mom’s voice & tunes and react to music and sharp
sounds. The embryo can open its mouth. Thought begins at 7 months.[3]
The embryo John may have heard Mary’s greeting and he leaped in joy
in Elizabeth’s womb. The Holy Spirit helped John, even as an unborn child, proclaim
Jesus as Messiah (Luke 1:15).
Once our family all asked ourselves what is the earliest experience
we remember. I remember some experiences before I began kindergarten, in the
Dominican Republic, our school called it “Funtolearn”— that was one word! I
remember that in Sunday school, we were studying Abraham and David and I thought,
“I wish we could learn more about Jesus because there is something very
attractive and important about Jesus that I want to learn more about.” Not till
many years later did I get my answer. Jesus is God incarnate who loves us. I
still find Jesus attractive and important!
At that time, we asked our son what he remembered. He said he
remembered seeing lights and someone holding him and then someone took him away
and he cried. Then he was brought back to that person who held him again.
The only time all that happened was when Steve was born. We did the
Lamaze method where soft lights were used at birth. After birth, the nurses
gave Steve to his dad, Bill, to hold, but when the nurses took him into another
room to weigh him—he cried—and then they brought him back quickly to Bill to
hold him again. They did it so quickly, they may have erred on his initial
weight!
So, unborn babies may be much more advanced than we may imagine. John’s
reactions were heightened by the Holy Spirit.
Then, Elizabeth shouted out with a great loud voice: “being
blessed are you [Mary] among women and being blessed is the fruit of your
womb!”[4]
Mary was blessed because of the
child that she was bearing.
Elizabeth added: “and why has this happened to me that the
mother of my Lord might come to me? For behold, as the voice of your greeting
came to my ears, the child in my womb leaped in joy” (1:43-44).
What a conversation!
What miracles at the very entrance, in the midst of such a humble
setting!
The Holy Spirit gave Elizabeth a phenomenal perception. She
recognized the unborn child that Mary was carrying as the Lord God! She perceived
that this child would be a great blessing to others!
And she was not jealous. “Why should this young girl’s child be
greater than my own child?!” She was told that her child would: bring them joy
and gladness, and many would rejoice at his birth, for he would be great in the
sight of the Lord. He must not drink wine or strong drink because he would be
filled with the Holy Spirit. (The Holy Spirit and intoxication do not mix!) This
child would turn many of the people of Israel to the Lord their God. The spirit
and power of Elijah would go before him, as Malachi predicted (4:5-6), in order
to turn the hearts of parents to their children, and the disobedient to the
wisdom of the righteous, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. That is
what she had heard from her husband Zechariah.
Elizabeth certainly was different from the mother who stole another
woman’s baby when her own died and was willing to have the baby cut in two,
when King Solomon suggested this action as one way to discover the child’s real
mother (1 Kings 3:16-27).
Elizabeth was so humble that she was surprised that Mary even
came to visit her. Mary may have had to sleep in the open air as she traveled.
Travelers were often in danger of robbery or assault. In the hills of Judaea
lurked unemployed shepherds, beggars, mercenaries, escaped slaves, fanatical
political killers, and other bandits.[5]
And then Elizabeth uttered what some[6]
have called the first beatitude: “Blessed is the one having believed that
there will be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord”
(1:45). ¿How did Elizabeth know that the Lord spoke to Mary? There was no
internet or telephone with which Mary could have in minutes or seconds
text-messaged what had happened to her: “Liz, angel told me I will bear Son of
God—coming soon! Mary.” Plus, who could have believed such a message??
When Mary heard that Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant, she left in a
rush to see her so that she could be there when the pregnancy became
self-evident and she would then spend 3 months with her and be present when
Elizabeth’s baby was born (1:36).
Moreover, Mary may have wanted to leave her hometown of Nazareth.
Joseph might not be the only person with doubts about the parentage of Mary’s
baby.
What a different reception Mary got from Elizabeth! Somehow the
Holy Spirit gave Elizabeth comprehension of what was promised to Mary:
“she would conceive and bear a son and would name him Jesus.
32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most
High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David.
33 He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his
kingdom there will be no end.”
“The Holy Spirit will come upon Mary, and the power of the Most High will
overshadow her; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called
Son of God.
36 Moreover, her relative Elizabeth in her old age has also
conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren” (1:32-33; 35-36
NRSV paraphrased).
Elizabeth also knew that Mary had answered: “Behold! The Lord’s
slave! Let it be with me according to your word” (1:38).
Did Elizabeth remember that there are at least two prophecies in
the Old Testament about Mary, both around the same time? Isaiah told King Ahaz
that “the virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and will call him
Immanuel” (Isa 7:14 TNIV).
God also told Micah, a contemporary of Isaiah and Hosea:
And you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, the smallest among thousands of
Judah, from you—to me—shall go forth a ruler in Israel; and his origins are
from ancient times, from eternity. Therefore, he will give them until the
time when she who bears has brought forth; and the remainder of his fellow
citizens will return with the children of Israel. And he shall stand, and shall
feed his flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the
Lord his God; and they will return because then he will be great unto the ends
of the earth; and this one will be peace” (5:1-4a).
God told Micah about 700 years before Jesus’s birth where he
would be born: Bethlehem, a small village in Judah, and that he would be a
ruler in Israel whose origins are from eternity. “She who is in labor”
refers, of course, to Mary (Mic 5:3).
The rest of Jesus’s fellow citizens “shall return” with the
“children of Israel” (5:3) alludes also to John the Baptist’s ministry.
Remember how Gabriel told Zechariah that “many of the people of Israel will
[John] bring back to the Lord their God”? (1:16). John the Baptist was
supposed to “make ready a people prepared for the Lord” (1:17).
The Lord also told Micah that the Messiah “shall feed his flock
in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God”
and he “shall be great to the ends of the earth and he shall be the one of
peace” (5:4-5a). Jesus, of course, called himself “the good shepherd” who
lays down his life for the sheep (John 10:11, 15, 17).
Why do I mention all this?
Many times we have heard of Mary’s beautiful responsive Magnificat
where she shares her joy upon being used by the Lord and she identifies with
all other humble people, including the hungry and the poor, those who fear
God’s holy name (1:46-50), but we do not always appreciate, as well, Elizabeth.
Elizabeth, too, was filled with the Holy Spirit.
She proclaimed the truth boldly.
She was humble and she was prophetic.
She would participate in fulfilling these great Old Testament
prophecies in her own time.
(application)
1.
We too need, like Elizabeth, to
share boldly this good news now with our own family and friends. For example, we
can make sure the Bible is read before presents are opened;
2.
Also, Elizabeth and Mary model what
great events can be accomplished in humble settings. (We do not need a million
dollar grant to do God’s work!)
The Lord can work among us to accomplish great things today, as
well, because the Holy Spirit is still amongst us, helping us;
3.
Finally, Elizabeth and Mary can
model for us holy conversations between humble people: encouraging, perceptive,
holy, people-centered conversations because God moves us, looking for God’s
work in others’ lives and in our own lives too, glorifying and thanking God.
What did
Elizabeth not do? She did not say: What, Mary, you just rode
in on a donkey! Look—we have just bought ourselves a wagon on wheels so I can
travel in style. You can’t afford a wagon on wheels??
or
How come you get to be the big shot around here?! I have served the
Lord blamelessly more years than you can even imagine and what do I get? Second
best! How come you get the Messiah and I simply get the forerunner??
or
How come you get to bear a child and you not even married yet and
still a virgin and I had to wait, married and with a husband, till way
past menopause and suffer through all the disgrace from my family and
neighbors. They treated me like I was nobody! (1:25)
or
How come no angel ever came to speak to me! Zechariah gets an angel
and he doesn’t even believe him! He asks Gabriel for a sign, as if finding an
angel in the holy place of the temple isn’t sign enough! And you get an angel
who speaks to you directly, but not me—everything is second rate for me!
No! This was not the conversation between Elizabeth and
Mary! Mary sought Elizabeth out because Elizabeth was a righteous, humble and
bold woman who believed.
It was Elizabeth who would not let them name her child in the
traditional custom, after the father or grandfather. Some families still have
this custom today. For example, Bill (William David Spencer) was named after
his father (William Day Spencer) who was named after his own father (William
Douglas Spencer).
Instead, Elizabeth insisted: “Absolutely not!” The
baby must be called “John,” as the angel directed.
Her bold faith was then affirmed by her husband: “His name is
John” (1:60-63).
(By the way, “John” in Greek is iōánnēs and in Hebrew johanan.
It means “God is gracious.” And God indeed was gracious to Zechariah and
Elizabeth. God’s message to the Israelites through John was also a gracious
message. If they repented, God would forgive them. Also, God was gracious to send
Jesus through whom all could be forgiven.)
As a result of Elizabeth’s and Zechariah’s testimony, all their friends
and neighbors were filled with wonder and they spread the good news throughout
the mountains.
I entitled the sermon: “Miracles at the Gate” because this happened
at the gate, the entrance, to Elizabeth and Zechariah’s house.
“Miracles” because both Elizabeth & Mary had children through
the Holy Spirit.
As well, their conversation was a miracle and a model for us today.
This gate was also a gate that opened up to the future, to God’s
work among us, to the future coming of the Messiah: the forerunner John and the
Messiah Jesus.
May we too be able to
bless other people as God works in their lives, even to accomplish greater
things than we could ever do and affirm them as they believe in the Lord as he
fulfills great things in their own lives. We can do this because the Lord is
with us all and we each need the other.
Mary needed the loving and encouraging presence of Elizabeth, and Elizabeth
needed the excitement of being present and participating at the culmination of
prophecies hundreds of years in coming.
The angel Gabriel greeted Mary: “Greetings, favored one! The
Lord is with you!” (1:28). The Lord was also with Elizabeth. And the Lord
is with all of us today.
May we find favor with God by being obedient to our calling and by
encouraging others in their calling. Amen!!
Aida
[1]
This sermon was delivered at Pilgrim Church, 300 Cabot Street in Beverly, MA
December 23, 2018.
[2] Henri
Daniel-Rops, Daily Life in the Time of Jesus (Ann Arbor: Servant, 1962),
220-1, 226)
[3] http://fetus-pregnancy.com/7-months-fetus; http://infobaby.org/6-months-pregnant, accessed 4
Dec 2018.
[4]
The translations from the Greek and Hebrew are by the author.
[5] Henri
Daniel-Rops, Daily Life in the Time of Jesus (Ann Arbor: Servant, 1962),
264.
[6] A.T.
Robertson, Word Pictures of the New Testament vol. 2: The Gospel according
to Luke, rev. Wesley J. Perschbacher (Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2005), 31.
