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December 21, 2003
4th Sunday of Advent
Luke 1:39-45
Pastor Robert Raasch

MARY, THE MOTHER OF OUR LORD

1. Identified by John
2. Honored by Elizabeth

It's a question that sometimes causes problems for good Lutherans, especially during this season of nativity scenes and religious Christmas cards. The question centers on a woman by the name of Mary, the mother of Jesus. What are we supposed to do with her? How are we to regard her? I think you know how the Roman Catholic Church regards Mary. They consider her to be a saint, in other words, someone who lived a holy life, someone who has earned a higher standing with God by that life. Within the Catholic Church Mary is regarded to be an intercessor between God and man. Mary is someone we are to direct our prayers to. In fact, in 1854, the Pope ruled that Mary was immaculately conceived. That is, Mary was born without any original sin. And in 1950, it was decided that Mary's body never experienced decay. Instead it was assumed directly into heaven.

Well, I hope you realize that those are some teachings about Mary which simply have no basis in God's Word. Mary was not conceived without sin any more than we were conceived without sin. Mary is not God, so she is not worthy of our worship or our prayers.

And yet, just because some people overplay the Virgin Mary, that doesn't mean we should underplay her. Let's remember, Mary still played an important role in God's plan of salvation. God used Mary as his instrument to bring his Son into the world. Out of all the women in the world, God chose Mary to be the mother of our Lord. Even though Mary didn't deserve that honor, even though that was an act of pure grace on God's part, still that's what God did. God sent the angel Gabriel to announce to Mary that even though she was physically a virgin, she would give birth to a Savior. And it was that announcement which set into motion a whole series of events surrounding Mary-events which help us appreciate what God did for this woman and still does for us today. This morning, on this Sunday before Christmas, let's take a moment to consider:

MARY, THE MOTHER OF OUR LORD

1. Identified by John
2. Honored by Elizabeth

Now, to get the full effect of Luke's narrative here, we need to add a little context. You notice that our text begins with the words, "At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea.…" The question is, "At what time?" What had just happened to send Mary hurrying on her way? Well, if we were to look back a few verses in Luke's account, we'd see that what has just occurred was that the Angel had appeared to Mary to tell her that she was going to give birth to a son. And the angel minces no words about who that son would be. Listen to the angel's announcement, "Mary, you will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High." Later the angel gets even more specific, "So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God." In other words, Gabriel is telling Mary that her child will be more than human. Her child will be divine. Mary is going to give birth to a child who will be God's Son.

Yet, not only does the angel announce who the baby will be. He also announces what the child will do. Luke 1:33 says, "He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." The angel is making it clear that Jesus would be the promised Messiah, who would rule over a spiritual kingdom forever.

Of course, that's a lot of information for Mary to digest. Mary has questions not so much about what is going to happen, but rather, how is will happen, given her current level of sexual activity. Mary asks, "How will this be, since I am a virgin?" Mary knows her birds and bees. How exactly is going to conceive all by herself? The angel's answer? "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you." In other words, "Mary, this will be a miracle. The Holy Spirit will conceive this child in you." The angel then goes on to say, "Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God."

Now just for a minute, put yourself in Mary's shoes. Imagine how you would have reacted if some angel would have come and told you what Gabriel told Mary. Wouldn't you be thinking to yourself, "Oh my goodness! I'm going to be pregnant without having relations with a man? And this child inside of me is going to be God?!? Man, who is going to believe this? Everyone will think I'm nuts. Who can I share this news with? Oh wait, the angel said that my cousin Elizabeth is also pregnant. Maybe she'll believe me. That's who I'll go talk to." And that's exactly what Mary does. She hurries off to the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth, not knowing that God has plans to give her two more signs to further assure her (and us) that Mary would be exactly who Gabriel said she would be, namely, the Mother of God.

What I find amazing is the fact that the first person who bears witness to Mary's true identity as the mother of our Lord was at this point still an unborn child. Listen to Luke's account, "Mary entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb." In this case, the baby that leaped is in Elizabeth's womb. Do you know who that baby is? It's John, as in John the Baptist, the child whose birth was foretold by the Angel Gabriel months before this. The question is, "Was there any significance to the child jumping in the womb? Couldn't this just be coincidence? Couldn't it be that maybe Elizabeth just got excited and that excitement riled up the baby too?"

There are a number of facts which lead us to conclude that John's leaping in the womb was more than just coincidence. First, let's understand that Elizabeth, speaking by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, draws a cause and effect relationship between Mary's arrival and the baby's movement. Elizabeth says, "As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy." Elizabeth is saying that the child recognized Mary and reacted with a physical expression of joy.

But how could that be? How could this unborn baby know who Mary was? How could the baby know that this woman was the mother of the Christ? Well, remember who this unborn child is. This is John, the forerunner of Christ. And in Luke 1:15, Gabriel says something very special about John. He says that John "will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb." You think about that a moment. Holy Scripture makes it clear that children are not born with the Holy Spirit already in them. Human children come into this world without the Holy Spirit in them. It's not until a child is baptized that the Holy Spirit comes on them.

But John is different. The Bible says that he was filled with Holy Spirit even in his mother's womb. He was set apart for a special purpose even before his conception. And what was John's purpose? What was John's job? To point people to Jesus. To announce the coming of the Messiah. Well, isn't what John did in this scene? When Mary arrives in the room, John is busy kicking his mom as if to say, "Hey, Mom, look who's here. It's the baby Jesus and his mother Mary. Already at this point, John is doing his job, even before he's born. (That's what I'd call getting a jump on your career.)

By his actions, John helped identify Mary as exactly whom God had chosen her to be, namely, the mother of our Lord. But John is not the only one who is revealing Mary's true identity. Elizabeth also is used a mouthpiece for God. Let's consider how Mary the mother of our Lord was not only identified by John but also II. Honored by Elizabeth.

Luke tells us that after the baby leaped in her womb, then Elizabeth was "filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed, 'Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" I want you to notice three things about Elizabeth's words. First, notice that Elizabeth speaks as a result of being filled with the Holy Spirit. That means that she speaks by divine inspiration. She speaks what God wants people to hear and believe. In this case she announces that "Mary is the mother of her Lord." Chances are, that's something that Elizabeth could have known only by divine revelation. I don't expect that Mary called up her relative and said, "Say, I'd like to stop by your house-and by the way, I'm going to be the mother of God's Son." No, God revealed that fact to Elizabeth directly.

Secondly, notice that Elizabeth refers to Mary as "blessed among women." Now why did she say that? Did Elizabeth believe that Mary had lived a life without sin, or that Mary by her good behavior or pure heart or sincere devotion had somehow been promoted into this role as the mother of God's son? Absolutely not. Elizabeth recognized as Mary did, that her selection to be the mother of Jesus was an act of pure grace on God's part. In fact, a few verses later, Mary confesses that she was a sinner who needed a Savior as much as anyone else did. Mary was not blessed because she was better than anyone else. She was blessed because God had shown her mercy, the same mercy he has shown to you and me today.

Finally, notice one more thing about Mary. Elizabeth says, "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished." Notice that the focus there is not on the fact that Mary will be the Mother of God's Son. Rather the focus is on the fact that Mary believed God's remarkable promises. Remember, when God made a similar promise to Elizabeth's husband Zechariah, he didn't believe it, and he was struck dumb for 9 months. Mary, on the other hand, believed God's promise through the angel Gabriel. She took God at his word, no matter how impossible it may have sounded.

If you think about it, the things which God said would happen to Mary are things which are still regarded as humanly impossible today. Human reason rejects the idea of a virgin giving birth to a baby who's true God and true Man. But that's what God said would happen. Mary believed God. And now God asks us to do the same. To trust that what he says here in his Word is the truth. And that applies whether we're talking about believing in the Bible's account of a virgin birth, or in some other seemingly impossible event like the 6 day creation of the universe, or Christ's bodily resurrection, or for that matter, God's promise to forgive all of our sins, or to make all things work for our good, or to provide for all of our bodily needs. Elizabeth's words to Mary still apply to you and me today, "Blessed are you who have believed that what the Lord has said to you will be accomplished."

So what role should Mary play in our lives? Is Mary the object of our worship? Is she the source of our salvation? No, those things can only be said of her son, Jesus Christ. And yet, is Mary an example of someone who humbly acknowledged the grace God had shown to her? And is she someone who believed God's promises to her, even if she could not fully understand them? You bet she is. And for that reason, we still can honor her today. We can use her as an example for our lives. And pray that God will give us the faith that he also gave to her, for the sake of her Son as well as her Savior, and ours. Amen.