“Mary and Elizabeth” on Luke 1:39-45 by Joe Ellis – 4th Sunday in Advent, Dec. 22, 2024
It is helpful to contrast the passage in Luke 1:39-45 with the story that comes immediately before. By way of reminder, the passage in Luke 1:26-38 is the story of The Annunciation in which Gabriel declares to Mary that she will be with child by the power of the Most High. It is a powerful, magnificent scene full of mystery and wonder. Whereas the vignette between Elizabeth and Mary has this gentle, tender but exuberant human connection of joy and celebration.
Thinking back on my own walk with God — I have often desired for spiritual moments of powerful revelation characterized by mystery and wonder — like an encounter with the Angel Gabriel who stands in the presence of God Himself. I want that experience, yet what I need is what Mary receives in the home of Elizabeth. A God-ordained encounter with human kindness. And it is in these experiences of a kind and present human that we can deeply comprehend what God has caused to grow in our hearts.
Let’s look a bit at that first vignette, between Gabriel and Mary. Mary has been lauded across the generations for her humble, receptive response to God’s Word: “Yes, I am a servant of the Lord; let this happen to me according to your Word.” She is a model for all believers as to how to respond, albeit with fear and trepidation, when God begins to disclose his intent for your life the ideal response is: “Yes, I am a servant of the Lord; let this happen to me according to your Word.”
I wonder how easy it was for Mary to say those words. I wonder how overwhelmed Mary felt as she responded with such faithful, trusting obedience. I wonder how frightened Mary was as Gabriel declared what would soon unfold before her. Remember what happened at the beginning of their encounter: Gabriel suddenly appears to her and says: “Greetings, favoured one, the Lord is with you!” At this, Mary would respond like any normal human with being “greatly troubled!” Of course, she was greatly troubled! She is encountering Gabriel — the one who stands in the presence of God. Her response is the same response as all humans who have encountered angels: great fear! Gabriel, bless his heart, attempts to reassure her, as he always does whenever he suddenly manifests to human beings and finds they are terrified of him. Gabriel says, “Do not be afraid.” I’ve often wondered if there is a power in those words that can over-ride a person’s nervous system. Maybe his ‘do not be afraid’ is like a spiritual shot of morphine that suddenly fills the fearful person with an overriding sense of peace. Because if not, I could imagine Mary hearing those words of comfort, “Do not be afraid” while remaining still at the uttermost edge of what the most well adjusted human could handle. Yet, Mary does seem to be able to stay grounded in her conversation with Gabriel. After all, she can even be in conversation with him instead of running for her life or collapsing on the floor in a puddle.
Despite Gabriel’s words of reassurance and comfort — I wonder if the words he then says to her keeps Mary at the edge of what any human can reasonably be expected to handle. Imagine yourself in Mary’s sandals, hearing the Archangel Gabriel say to you: “Listen. You will become pregnant and give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end.”
These words are truly inspiring when we hear them from the safety of happening 2000 years after the fact. Hearing them as an adolescent girl encountering an angel informing her that the culmination of God’s promises throughout the Old Testament Scriptures are all going to become conceived within her womb — that would be a whole different experience entirely. I am moved between wonder at the promise of God’s incarnation — and in total awe that Mary had presence of mind to comprehend Gabriel’s words enough to say, “How can this be since I have not had sexual relations with a man?” Gabriel’s response “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God,” continues to hold her right at the edge of human capacity for experience. Gabriel then tells her about her relative Elizabeth becoming pregnant in her old age — nothing is impossible with God. Again, Mary is able to somehow respond with presence of mind to utter those immortal words which have become a model of obedience for all God’s people. ”Yes, I am a servant of the Lord; let this happen to me according to your word.” Then the angel departed from her.
The angel had left and there Mary remains. I wonder what her heart was like as she inhabited that space Gabriel had just left. It probably took her heart a long time to return to normal.
Yet the reality for many followers of Jesus throughout the ages is that whenever God is conceiving something new in a person’s life it’s a bewildering experience. Whatever it may be, whether God brings a person into a new calling, a deeper level of maturity, a greater risk in faith, or growth and trust in the Spirit — whenever God is birthing something new in a person, the process is seldom straightforward, clear, easy or fun. Yes, for some Christians the process can seem clear, easy and fun — and they drive some of us nuts when things seem really easy for them and we’re stuck in a mire of confusion and bewilderment in trying to find out what God is doing in our own life. We might want to try to respond with Mary’s faith, saying: “Yes, I am a servant of the Lord; let this happen to me according to your word.” Yet we might want to respond like her while at the same time experiencing a profound disorientation around what God is developing in our life.
Did Mary experience a profound sense of disorientation as Gabriel left her? I’m cautious to read too much into Mary’s personal experience — but she is human, after all. She has just been informed that her child will inherit the throne of David, He will be called Son of the Most High, whose Kingdom will never end — yet she is not even married. It would be understandable if she experienced an ever present sense of fear and bewilderment after Gabriel left.
Gabriel said that God has done something similarly strange in her relative Elizabeth’s life — so Mary gets up to go see Elizabeth, perhaps she will be able to understand. Now, this is the first human encounter Luke tells us what happened after the Angel left Mary. Notice what happens when Mary steps into Elizabeth’s home. Notice that her exchange with Elizabeth (apparently normal as it is) is just as much a divinely orchestrated moment as Mary’s encounter with Gabriel. God is no less involved. As soon as Mary steps into Elizabeth’s house she is filled with the Holy Spirit and Elizabeth’s baby begins leaping for joy in Elizabeth’s aged womb.
It was deeply important to God that this encounter between Mary and Elizabeth unfolded as it did — God was as involved in this very human moment between this elderly woman and this young woman as he was in the awe-inspiring majesty of Gabriel’s visit. Yet, rather than fear, bewilderment and an overwhelming reaction as with Gabriel, this exchange between Mary and Elizabeth is filled with joy, delight, laughter and praise. Picture this young woman, Mary, who’d travelled so far on foot to see her relative, all within her first trimester — which no doubt entailed some form of morning sickness and being acutely sensitive to smells — picture her making this long, long journey, bewildered and uncertain — picture how would it might feel for her to set foot in her relative’s house and be received with so much joy and welcome. Imagine how Mary must have felt to hear Elizabeth’s kind voice: “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the child you will bear.” Picture taking in with your eyes Elizabeth’s joyful face. Feel, if you can, Elizabeth’s loving embrace as Elizabeth enfolds Mary into her loving presence — all this was orchestrated by God through His Holy Spirit. God wanted and willed for this moment to happen — He knows that we, His people, need people who love us to help give us stability in life’s confusing disorienting moments.
Elizabeth does just that. Notice what Elizabeth says next: “But why am I so favoured, that the mother of My Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” Notice what Elizabeth has done in these short sentences — Elizabeth confirms for Mary what God is unfolding within her. Elizabeth has distilled the essence of Gabriel’s message to Mary. Instead of Gabriel saying, “You will give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end…” Elizabeth distills that message down to, "Why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Whether Elizabeth realized the full truth of “The Mother of my Lord” is beside the point. What Elizabeth has done is clothed Gabriel’s message with humanity, human warmth, kindness, gentleness, safety and security. The Holy Spirit guided Elizabeth into translating God’s powerful Word into human gentleness, compassion, kindness, joy, and love.
There was an Anglican Priest, Margaret Guenther, who wrote a beautiful booked called, “Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction.” Throughout her book, Margaret makes an analogy between spiritual direction — which is helping someone hear what God is unfolding in their lives — she makes an analogy between spiritual direction, and being a midwife. Margaret suggests that spiritual directors are like midwives — who come alongside women and men who are confused, bewildered, wondering, questioning at what God has conceived in them. Spiritual directors are like midwives who come alongside those who feel like something deep is shifting, changing, unfolding, developing and growing in their life. Often there is uncertainty as to what that looks like and how one should respond. There is a sense of “I am not who I was before, but I don’t know where to go from here.”
Margaret says that it’s in those times that spiritual midwives are so necessary — someone to come alongside and listen, observe, pay attention to what the Holy Spirit is conceiving in the hearts of people like Mary — people who want to be obedient to what God has done and is doing — but may be overwhelmed, unsure, or just plain scared. And this is what Elizabeth does for Mary. Elizabeth is able to speak with a very human kindness about what God is doing in the heart of her kin.
Many of us may want to have powerful encounters like what took place between Mary and Gabriel — yet all of us need what took place between Mary and Elizabeth. A loving presence to sit with us, to help frame what God is doing in our lives in the context of a safe loving relationship.
Notice how Mary responds to Elizabeth — so different than her clipped response to Gabriel. It is God speaking through human kindness that finally enables Mary to give voice to what God has conceived in her. Mary is able to burst out in joyful song because Elizabeth shows loving kindness to her:
My soul glorifies the Lord
and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour
For he has been mindful
of the humble state of is servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
for the Mighty One has done great things for me —
holy is his name.
His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
To Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.
This is a very different sort of birth narrative than we have in Luke chapter 2. In Luke 2 we hear about Mary and Joseph's journey to Bethlehem, the baby in the manger, the song of the Angels and the arrival of the shepherds. We have a different sort of birth narrative between Mary and Elizabeth — through the touch of human kindness, orchestrated by the Holy Spirit, Elizabeth becomes Mary’s spiritual midwife. Elizabeth comes alongside Mary in such a vulnerable time and gives Mary the assurance she needs to give full voice to the Good News that God has born in her.