My Lord! - Luke 1:39-45

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

This weekend is one of the busiest travel weeks of the year. The American Automobile Association estimates that from December 23 thru January 1, almost 110 million Americans will be traveling this year via planes, trains and automobiles. To put that into perspective, that’s roughly twice the population of Texas. For all of you who are traveling, whether it’s just into town or across the state or even across the country, we pray God’s speed and safe travels for you.

This morning’s Gospel lesson tells us of a family get together that was unlike any other, when Mary went to visit Elizabeth.   

It must have been a remarkable visit for these women. Two women, pregnant, at more-or-less the same time, just a few months apart in their pregnancy. Pregnant women, getting together to share pregnancy stories, isn’t all that unusual, I don’t think.  This is especially true of first-time mothers, I suspect. But the circumstances behind their pregnancies were most unusual.  

Elizabeth, for example, was advanced in years. That’s Luke’s polite and genteel way of saying she was an older woman, so much so that she was no longer biologically capable of having a child. And that was the problem, wasn’t it? Earlier in chapter one, Luke gives us the backstory. She and her husband Zechariah wanted a child desperately, but the Lord did not allow this blessing to come to them. The inability to have a child was, in the early Jewish world, a demonstration that you were in disfavor with God. If there was no child, the conclusion was simply obvious: either the husband or wife had done something to cause God to not bless them with a child, with an heir to carry on the family name. The family would die when the mother and father died. And now, by the grace of God, according to the angel’s message, Elizabeth was carrying the child who would be the forerunner of the Messiah. Her husband, not believing the angel’s message, was struck mute. I’m speculating here, but for that reason alone – to have someone to talk with - Elizabeth must have enjoyed the company of her fellow mother-to-be, Mary when she came to visit.

Mary was much younger than her relative. Tradition says that she was in her mid-teens – not much older than some of our daughters or granddaughters – but, to be accurate and fair, we must admit there is no Biblical evidence of her age at all. She could have been fourteen; she could have been twenty-four. We don’t know. And, the fact is, her age really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that she, by the grace of God and by the power of the Holy Spirit, is carrying in her womb the son of God. She had been told of this news by the Angel Gabriel. Hearing this remarkable news, she simply declares herself a servant of the Lord; may it be according to the word of the angel. Likewise, her fiancée, Joseph, was told by an angel of Mary’s pregnancy but, unlike Zechariah, who simply could not believe the news of Elizabeth, Joseph obeys the angel’s command and takes Mary into his home as his wife.

Perhaps there were whispers in Nazareth about Mary and Joseph, her being pregnant already before their wedding consummation. Perhaps she was tired of the community’s whispers; maybe Joseph agreed. Perhaps she heard of Elizabeth’s joyous news that she, too, would be a mother and Mary wanted to share the excitement with her relative. Whatever the reason, Mary goes to visit Elizabeth.

The Christian church rightly teaches that Jesus’ miracle at Cana, changing water to wine, is His first public miracle. This is true. But there are three, very powerful – but hidden – miracles that take place in this morning’s Gospel reading that are worth remembering.

The first miracle is that in the womb of Mary, God becomes man. You can accurately say Mary gives birth to a boy and at the same time you can say Mary gives birth to God. That Jesus is Immanuel, God With Us, is necessary so He is able to be like us in every way from birth to death with all emotions, feelings, needs, and even temptations that are ours. Yet, while He is fully man, Jesus remains fully God, always maintaining His divinity so He can be without sin and be the perfect sacrifice for the world He comes to save.

The second miracle is that Mary is a virgin. Her pregnancy is by the power of the Holy Spirit. There is no analogy, no metaphor that we can use to explain this because there is nothing else like this in the world. We cannot prove it or scientifically demonstrate it. We must take this in faith. It is not blind faith, though, for Matthew does quote Isaiah and remind us that, in Mary, “the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel.”  

The third miracle is that these two women share the similarity of faith: by the grace of God, enabled by the spirit of God, they are given the gift of faith, believing the angel’s message that Mary is to be the mother of God. Elizabeth, upon hearing Mary’s greeting, experienced John’s leaping in her womb and blesses both Mary and the unborn Baby Jesus.

Neither Mary nor Elizabeth know, at this point, what is in store for their sons – at least, not completely. Yes, the angel had spoken prophetically to Zechariah about how John would be a great servant of the Lord, Spirit-filled, and in the footsteps of Elijah, he will turn the hearts of many to the Lord and prepare the way for the Lord. And, yes, the angel had also spoken to Mary, telling her that she will miraculously conceive the Son of the Most High, in the line of David. No ordinary child, this baby will be the holy Son of God.

A moment ago, I said that without an heir, a family line will die. Without a male heir, a family name will cease. These are as true today as it was then. In the Biblical age, this was considered a curse of God. But because of a curse of God, spoken in the Garden long ago, this heir was infinitely more important. When God’s first son and first daughter, Adam and Eve, ate of the forbidden fruit, God spoke a curse upon them, and all of their sons and daughters, for their sins: they would die after a lifetime of toil, sweat, and tears. But, God also spoke a blessing: that His seed, His own child, would come to crush satan’s head underfoot. A second Son, a second Adam was needed – one who would perfectly fulfill God’s Law for us, and take our place under that Law, to redeem us from this curse of sin. The redemption price would be high – terribly high – and cost this Son his very life-blood, trading His holiness for the sins of the world. But in this death He would save. This Son, this fulfillment of God’s promise, was in Mary’s womb. His name would be Jesus, because He will save His people from our sins. Through Eve, sin came into the world and through Eve’s womb, hers and Adam’s sins are still passed on from generation to generation still today. But through the child of Mary’s womb, Eve’s sins, and Adam’s sins, and your sins and my sins, will be forgiven.

Visits last but a short time. A wise guy once said both family and fish start to stink after three days. We don’t know how long Elizabeth enjoyed Mary’s company. It really doesn’t matter, because the joyous news of this visit continues today, even here among us. Did you catch the two words Elizabeth used to describe the baby in Mary’s womb? They are easy to miss. Let me read this again: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” There it is: my Lord. Elizabeth identifies Jesus as her Lord, her Savior, Her Messiah who would rescue her into eternity.

You share that confession. You said it a minute ago in the Creed, albeit in the plural: “I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.” You, along with Elizabeth, empowered by the Spirit of God, know, believe, trust and rely that this Jesus, whom today we read about still in Mary’s womb, was already then, and still is now, our Savior. “For God so loved the world” - or as we might say in Texas, “For God so loved all y’all” - is absolutely true, don’t ever forget that from His conception to His life, death and resurrection, Jesus was and is entirely for you - second person singular – an individual child of God. And, so you have no doubt that Christ is your substitutionary sacrifice, you have been Baptized into Christ, clothed with Christ, and given the name of Christ.

Blessed is he and she – blessed are you - who believes that there was fulfillment of what was spoken to Mary from the Lord.

In the name of Jesus. Amen.