Operation Restoration: Blessings

Offertory

God of love and light: just as John the Baptist came long ago in Judea to witness to your light, we remember that the offering you seek is that what we have and how we live should also witness to the light. We admit that there are times when we feel the darkness is just too prevalent, too strong, then we realize that we are ignoring the call to witness to the light. May we witness through our giving and our compassion, through what we say and what we do. In Christ’s name, we pray. Amen. (John 1:6-8, 19-28)

Introduction

Review

Good morning Wesley family!

We are now in the 3rd Sunday in Advent. This year we have been looking at the unlikely characters, the unlikely heroes that God is using in his plan to restore humanity, and all creation, to their original intent. In Advent, we see the beginning of the final phase of God’s rescue plan. A plan designed to correct the effects of our fallen and broken nature: in particular sin and death.

Two weeks ago, we look at a young girl from a backwater town called Nazareth. Mary is her name and she is to become the mother of God’s son. His name is Jesus, Yeshua, God saves. You may recall that one thing we noted about Mary was that a crazy as the angel Gabriel’s visit to her must have seemed, her response was “let it be as you say.”

Last week we looked a Joseph. We noted how little information there was about Joseph in the biblical narrative. He is another unlikely hero in God’s story, but he is to be the earthly father of God’s son. And we believe he had a profound influence on the child Jesus.

Today, Mary returns to our story and we add two more characters: Zechariah and Elizabeth. We’ll be looking at the Gospel of Luke again, Luke 1:39-45 and I’ll be reading from the NIV this morning. As always, I encourage you to follow along.

Luke 1:39–45 (NIV)

39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

The Scripture

There are quite a few interesting things that are happening in this brief passage, so let get to it.

First we see that very shortly after Gabriel visits Mary, the got ready and hurried to the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth. We don’t really know why Mary went there, and we certainly don’t know why she was in a hurry. We’re not quite certain where Zechariah and Elizabeth lived other than it was in the hill country of Judea. Estimates for how long it would take Mary to get there from Nazareth range from 3-9 days. What we know for certain is that it was a dangerous journey with bandits on the roads. Mary may have found others, perhaps a caravan, to travel with for safety, but we do not know for sure.

As I’ve already mentioned, we don’t know why Mary was in a hurry to get there, or for that matter why she went at all. Most of the commentaries I read suggest that she went to help Elizabeth during here pregnancy. This is certainly a possibility, but it doesn’t really explain the hurry Mary was in. I suspect that there is more to the story than Luke sees fit to tell us. My guess, and it is just my guess, is that Mary would have gone to Elizabeth because of the shame her pregnancy would have caused her parents (and perhaps Joseph). You may recall from last week I noted that according to Jewish law an unwed mother was to be taken outside the town and stoned to death. I also noted that Joseph’s decision to divorce Mary quietly would have put all the blame and shame upon himself, saving Mary from being stoned. Chances are that nobody would have known Mary or her circumstances where Zechariah and Elizabeth lived. I have to tell you that this is purely conjecture on my part. I couldn’t find a single commentary that suggested this was the reason. But it makes sense to me knowing the culture, the law, and Joseph’s response. Because Matthew and Luke tell different aspects of the story, we don’t know at this point whether Mary has told Joseph.

We do know more about Zechariah and Elizabeth than we do about some of the other characters in the story. We know that up until this time they were childless because Elizabeth had been unable to conceive and they were both very old. We know that Zechariah was a priest who served in the temple in Jerusalem. One day while Zechariah was serving in the temple and angel appears to him and tells him that Elizabeth will conceive and bear him a son, and that he was to name the child John. And John is going to be something special. He is going to fulfill Isaiah prophecy, “A voice of one calling: “In the wilderness prepare the way for the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God.” (Isaiah 40:3, NIV). So, Elizabeth is also a recipient of an angelic promise. Let’s keep these things in mind as we move forward.

Luke 1:40–45 (NIV)

41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”

When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb! That baby is John. He will be know as an adult as John the Baptist and he will indeed fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah because he is the voice in the wilderness preparing the way for the Lord by telling the people of the one who is coming after him. Even before he is born John is fulfilling this role! Elizabeth hears Mary’s greeting and John leaps from inside her womb and suddenly Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaims loudly, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”

This is certainly the main point that Luke wants to get across to his readers. Let’s remember that Luke is writing a story, and that story is all about Jesus! John the Baptist recognizes Jesus from the womb! He leaps for joy and when he does his mother is filled with the Holy spirit. Filled with the Holy Spirit, God gave Elizabeth the words she spoke to Mary, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!”

But there is more going on here. Of all the people who are going to believe Mary’s story about the angel it is Elizabeth. She is the recipient of an angelic promise as well. Her son is a miracle too. You can almost hear her say, “Come on child, tell me all about it. What did Gabriel say?” It must have been an exciting time for these two blessed women. Mary stays with Elizabeth for the next three months. I bet they had some really interesting conversations.

But lets take a few minutes and look at the last verse in this passage. Elizabeth says to Mary, Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!” One has to wonder whether Mary saw herself as blessed prior to this moment. She is going to have a child, her husband Joseph is contemplating quietly divorcing her, she has made this dangerous journey to see her relative Elizabeth, perhaps These women don’t know it yet, but both of their sons will see an untimely death. John will be beheaded by King Herod, and Mary will watch her son be crucified. This doesn’t really sound like blessing to our modern ears, does it?

What’s this mean for us?

It doesn’t sound like blessing to us because we sometimes get confused as to what blessing really means. Too often we equate blessing with happiness or material gain or positions of importance. And these things can be blessings, but they are not the true test of whether we’ve been blessed. The true blessing is knowing that God, as Elizabeth states, has and is fulfilling his promises and that we are participating in God’s plan. To be blessed is to be happy because God has touched our lives.

And what is really cool is that our blessings bless others! You and I are blessed because Elizabeth and Mary were blessed. You and I are blessed because we know that God is fulfilling his promises and we are part of it. We are blessed because we know how the story ends and Advent is the season where we remember the beginning of God’s final phase to rescue us from sin and death. In this time...

Benediction

“May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.” (2 Thessalonians 2:16–17, NIV)