Advent 4 – December 17th and 18th, 2022 – Luke 1:39-56
In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +
In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. Thus far the text. As we begin, I'd like to ponder just two very important words that shift how we understand the setting for our Gospel lesson. With haste. If we do something with haste, that means that there is an urgency, a quickness to it. A desperation. It needs to be done and it needs to be done now. Next Saturday afternoon many husbands will be shopping with haste – for there is no more time, and woe be unto them if they incur the Christmas wrath of their wife. And generally, haste isn't a good thing. When it comes to making a decision we are told, “let's not be hasty.” “Haste makes waste” is old, old wisdom. Better to be able to take your time, contemplate, and work well.
And yet, here we see young Mary going with haste. Mary is high tailing it to the hill country – and why? Well, just before our text the Angel Gabriel had come and visited her – told her that she would be the mother of the Messiah, that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and she would be the mother of God. And Mary piously and famously says, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.” Fantastic, faithful words. God has said it; that's how it will happen to me. And yet, consider who Mary is as she says this. A young girl, engaged to be wed but not married yet. And she's pregnant, and not with Joseph's kid, and this is in a day and age when they would stone people for that. We hear in Matthew that Joseph is worried about this – that he thinks he'll have to divorce her, call off the marriage – and he's worried about how he can pull of the divorce without getting her killed. And then, just beyond that – even when Mary and Joseph are sorted out after Gabriel visits Joseph, too – you know your relationship is in an odd place when God has to send an angel to both of you – even when Mary and Joseph are good... there's still the simple fact that she's going to give birth to the promised Messiah. The whole of human history has been leading to this moment – all the promises of the Old Testament, promises to Eve, to Sarah and Abraham, to Judah, to David, to Solomon, promises to all the heroes of the Old Testament – and they are happening now, they are being fulfilled inside of Mary. There in her womb, He is growing every so slowly – Jesus, the Savior, God become Man, Emmanuel. Can you imagine how heavy, how intimidating that would be? We get nervous just handling things around the altar, did I light candles the right way, oh, don't let me spill something at communion – now put yourself in Mary's shoes.
And so with haste, off to visit Elizabeth. Gabriel had mentioned that her cousin, her relative, Elizabeth was 6 months pregnant with John when she was already old. And so Mary runs to her cousin – she's older, she's wiser, she's had 6 months to deal with a miraculous pregnancy of her own – maybe she can put this in perspective. And Elizabeth most certainly does! And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. So Mary gets to the door, peaks her head in quietly - “Auntie Beth?” And then, wherever in the house she had been, suddenly Elizabeth springs into action. John in her womb starts preaching and kicking – go mom, go! And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit – I told you last week John was a good preacher – he preached a humdinger of a sermon to his mom before she was even born – and she exclaimed with a loud cry. Okay, pause. This conversation that follows between Elizabeth and Mary sounds so... formal. So pristine. So... bible-y. And that's simply because we speak English and not Aramaic and Greek, and the Scriptures are read in Church where in there's some decorum and primness and you better be on your best behavior. This is not a prim and proper moment. This is Elizabeth bubbling over with joy and excitement and the words spilling out 100 miles a minute with joy and delight. We've all seen it – the two hand grab oh I'm so excited for you this so great firehose of joy, possibly some bouncing around with excitement. That's the loud cry that is going on here.
And what does Elizabeth say? Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the Fruit of your womb! First off, Elizabeth sets the stage perfectly. You are blessed. You might be scared, you might be nervous, you might have all the typical fears and more besides, but let me spell this out. You are blessed. Let's frame this properly, Mary – scary or not, problems or not, hardships or not – this is nothing but an unbridled blessing from God to you. Period, end of story. God grant that the women who find themselves with child in our day and age would be so well reminded that they too have been blessed to be bearers of new life. But even beyond that, Elizabeth says: Mary, you are more blessed than any other woman whose ever found herself pregnant, more blessed than me even. Because your baby is the Savior, is the Messiah. This Kid's not just a blessing for you, He's not just going to be a blessing for His town for a few decades – He is a blessing for every man and woman that has ever lived or ever will live because He is the Messiah.
And Elizabeth gushes a bit – And why is this granted to me, that the mother of my LORD should come to me? I can't believe this is happening – the Messiah – right there Mary, your Baby, the Lord – how did I live to see this amazing thing happen? This is not refined talk, this is bubbling over. For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. The Pharisees and the Scribes thought John came kicking when he was preaching by the Jordan – that's old hat for John. This is God's plan of salvation kicking in sort of stuff, and it is dumbfounding.
And to wrap it up Elizabeth exclaims – And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the LORD. A fulfillment. Mary, you and I, we're passive. This isn't because of what we do – but God has spoken, and He has spoken a wonderful promise, a promise to you and to me for all people, and God is doing it. His Word is being fulfilled, because God is awesome – and we benefit from that, we get all the goodness of God being awesome.
And there in that hill country town, Mary hears precisely what she needed to hear. Mary had seen fear and trouble and confusion – and Elizabeth just slides it all into place. It's good, it's blessing. Why? Because God has spoken, God has promised, God is at work doing great things for you and for me. The Messiah is coming. Jesus is coming, and it is good. And hearing that, Mary is ready to respond, her faith refreshed and bolstered by the Spirit and the Word – My soul magnifies the LORD, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. It's all God. It's all stuff that Jesus has done and is doing. I'm humble – He has elevated me. People will praise my name, but that's because His name is holy. And He comes with mercy, with strength to save and rescue, to fulfill the promises of God. The Magnificat – Mary's song here, it's all praising God for His goodness. And then we hear And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. Mary hangs out and helps Elizabeth for the rest of her pregnancy, and then she heads off to handle the rest of her own pregnancy along with Joseph.
So, what do we make of all this? Let me say this. Sometimes we today are assaulted by a wicked and demonic idea that Satan has sowed among the church today – the idea that if we only had enough faith we would always be happy and joyous and we would always be confident and rearing to go... all on our own. And so when we see fears and doubts, there's that push, that temptation to curl into ourselves, to pretend that there are no fears, to bury those fears, to never share, to never get help, to struggle and try to do it all by ourselves and get stuck alone and isolated and crushed. That's a horrible lie of Satan. The Christian faith, the Christian life, is never mean to be an isolated thing. It is not good for man to be alone. You see, when we are in a situation, we are overwhelmed by what we can see of the situation, the fears, the troubles, the doubts that have grown. We need to hear what others have seen – we need commiseration, we need encouragement, we need the experience of those who have gone before – and most importantly, we need faithful Christians to speak the love and mercy of God to us. Which is what Elizabeth, guided, filled by the Holy Spirit, does for Mary.
And that is indeed the purpose of this place – my job as your Pastor is to be that person who you can know will speak Christ's Word of forgiveness and life whenever you see the burdens of life. That's why we confess our sins and receive forgiveness here, week in, week out. We need Jesus. But this pattern isn't supposed to be just a once a week in this room thing. It's also training. Worship is training you for every day of your life – training you to confess, to be honest about the hardships in your life, whether they are because of sins you have committed – where you've messed up - or whether it's because stuff has happened to you and the messes of others land on you. Be honest about that all week long. And worship is training you to know, to speak the Words of Christ's Jesus comfort to whoever's confession and lament that you hear in this week. When someone comes to you, and their heart is rent in two, or the burdens of life weigh upon them – you don't have mere platitudes – you have Jesus and His Word. You have the Holy Spirit. No, your suffering doesn't mean that God hates you – Jesus came and He suffered too, He knows and is with you. Ah, you have sinned – well, Jesus went to the Cross to take away that sin from you and crucify it, so that's not your sin, it's Jesus', He took it from you, and you are forgiven. Yes, this is scary – but Jesus is with you, and He will support you with what you need for all the days He gives you. When people see all this junk, you get to speak forth Jesus, so they hear again Jesus... because faith always comes by hearing. Even for Mary and Elizabeth.
This is why Jesus came. This is why we celebrate His coming in Advent. Because Jesus continues to come – He comes to you here in His Church – in preaching, in the Supper – but He comes to you also by the Word proclaimed to you by faithful friends, and He comes through you when He has you speak to those in need. And Jesus keeps on coming, the Holy Spirit keeps working through the Word – and this is what it will be, even until He comes again on the Last Day and we all exclaim with wonder “why is this granted to me, that the Lord should come to me” and enter into the joys of life everlasting with Mary and Elizabeth and Adam and Eve and all the saints of God. Jesus is coming to give you this gift, this victory. Come quickly, Lord Jesus! Amen. In the Name of Christ Jesus, our Advent King +
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