Mary Visits Elizabeth
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!"
Mary's Song
46 And Mary said:
"My soul glorifies the Lord
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
48 for he has been mindful
of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
holy is his name.
50 His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
55 to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors."
56 Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home.
Dig Deeper
Just this morning as I was studying over this passage and considering it, I looked down at my dog who was half-sitting, half-crouched at my feet. He was waiting in eager anticipation for me, looking for any little sign that I might be moving. This is actually not weird behavior for him in the mornings. I usually get up long before he does because he is lazy but when he finally does get up he comes to my feet while I’m working and he waits. He watches my every move, looking for some sign that it might be his time to go outside and take care of his business. It’s amazing how he sits and studies me so carefully and seems to be at the point when he knows my every move. He knows the difference between me simply adjusting my sitting position or even getting up to get a different book. But if I make even the slightest move that he interprets to mean that his time has come, he gets unbelievably excited. He begins to celebrate in his own little doggy way as he spins around in circles and jumps up and down. He waits for that moment so intently that when it finally comes he can hardly contain himself. The time he has been waiting for has finally arrived and he has no thoughts of all that time that he might have waited. He’s just full of doggy joy.
Not to demean the biblical story at all by comparing it to my dog, a rather ignoble dog at that, but it does make a certain point. Quite frankly, this story doesn’t make a lot of sense if you don’t understand the incredible anticipation behind it. Mary and Elizabeth certainly have the joy of learning that they will have babies that will be very special in God’s purposes somehow, but they don’t have many details beyond that. So why the incredible excitement and joy that clearly extends beyond the normal joy of having a child? It is because even though they might not understand everything or have all the details, they know that they, and all of Israel with them, have been waiting for a very long time for God to act on the promises that he gave to Abraham so long ago. They’ve been waiting in eager anticipation looking for the slightest sign that it is finally that time. These dual birth announcements have given them that sign. God has finally acted to fulfill their expectations. And they are full of joy.
As Luke describes the intensely personal scene between Elizabeth and the arriving Mary, he seems to stress the relationship between Jesus and John. Normally, because she was older, Elizabeth would receive the honor and respect, but instead it is Elizabeth who honors and gives a blessing to Mary. Inspired by the Holy Spirit she recognizes the significance of the baby that Mary is carrying. Elizabeth’s child will play an important role in God’s salvation purposes but Mary’s child will be even greater. Even her baby, again inspired by the Holy Spirit (This is of the same type of Spirit action as in the Old Testament when the Spirit would “come upon” someone and should not be confused with the New Covenant actions of the Spirit or the indwelling of the Spirit that someone receives when they enter into Christ.), leaps with joy, showing that the baby Mary is carrying is even greater than he. There seem to be echoes here of Genesis 25:22-26, but in that this passage is like the film negative opposite of that passage. Rather than battling in the womb for supremacy as Jacob and Esau did, John is inspired by the Spirit to recognize and rejoice in the supremacy of his younger cousin.
Immediately following Elizabeth’s blessing, Luke gives us Mary’s song. This doesn’t, however, imply that Mary uttered these words right at the moment of this meeting. Luke is not writing an historical account but is, rather, ordering historical events in such a way as to explain their theological significance. The song itself is known as the Magnificat which is the first word of the Latin translation of this passage. As we look at her song, however, it seems out of place at first glance. It is all about the mighty God of the universe overthrowing the powerful and the mighty and exalting the humble. It is a fiercely nationalistic song. But what has this got to do with the coming birth of her son?
It only makes sense if we understand the underlying anticipation. Mary and Elizabeth shared the anticipation that had been passed down in Israel since at least the time of the prophets. God had promised Abraham that he would have a family of many nations and that one day the entire world would be blessed through his descendants. Mary, like her fellow Israelites, knew that the prophets had spoken of a time when God would finally act and would deal with the evil that was in the world. He would bring a time of mercy, justice, reversal, freedom, and victory over evil.
This all comes bursting forth in Mary’s song as nearly every line is an allusion or a direct quotation from the Old Testament Scriptures. Mary’s song has many scriptural predecessors of hymns sung to praise God in response to his merciful actions, including the song of Moses (Exod. 15:1-18); the song of Miriam (Exod. 15:19-21); the song of Deborah (Judges 5:1-31); and the song of Asaph (1 Chron. 16:8-36). The clearest echo, though, comes from Hannah’s song in 1 Samuel 2 as she rejoiced at the coming of her son Samuel. Hannah, Elizabeth, and Mary all shared in common an overflow of joy and anticipation of what God was going to do. We shouldn’t, however, read anything into Mary’s song beyond what is there. She was in great anticipation that God had finally acted but this doesn’t mean that she knew exactly what he was going to do. Luke has set the stage that these two boys really would be God’s agents to fulfill his promises of long ago but no one, including Mary, could have anticipated what Jesus was going to do and how incredibly God would bring his great reversal. Not even Mary likely understood that the great power that would be upended was not the Roman Empire but sin and death itself.
The song itself is full of a typical Hebrew parallelism in which the first line in a stanza is explained further by the second line. Thus: “Her soul glorifies the Lord,” and her “spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” As we go throughout this song we see that v. 49 echoes v. 48; v. 51b echoes v. 51a; v. 52 b echoes v. 52a; v. 53b echoes v. 53a; v. 55b echoes vv. 54 and 55a. The song is split somewhat in half as we see that the first half in vv. 46-50 deals primarily with Mary while vv. 51-55 have to with Israel. There is a clear parallel given between the role of Mary as God’ servant and Israel’s role as God’s servant. There are a number of repeated ideas and terms in the two halves of the song (such as “his servant; the object of his favor/ mercy; humble servant; and God’s ongoing mercy) that demonstrate the connection that God’s work in Mary’s life and God’s work in Israel will come through the same child that she is carrying
That is all coming soon but for now we are left with a story of an older woman showing humility and honoring her younger relative and the the young girl showing that she deeply clings to the word of God. What I love personally about this story is the way that we can begin to see that these two boys will reflect the characters of their mothers. John would carry with him the type of humility that his mother displayed as we can see when, many years later, he said of Jesus “he must become greater, I must become less” (John 3:30). John, like his mother, understood and embraced his role in God’s plan with no hint of selfish ambition. But it isn’t just John. If we look at the life of Jesus we see that much of his teaching echoes the sentiments of Mary’s song. Yes, this coming son would be the Son of God, but he was very much a human child who sat and listened like all Jewish children would as his mother taught him of God’s word and his promises. He listened and learned carefully that the rich and powerful should not trust in themselves and that God’s kingdom would be given to those who understood that they were poor in God’s sight.
What we see most clearly in Mary’s song is the hope that bursts forth in each word. Nothing had actually changed in the world but devout Jews like Mary had waited in such anticipation that at the first sign of God’s action, the hope bursts forth like a flood. God will perform mighty deeds with his arm, which was Old Testament language meaning that God’s power would be displayed in the world. The cause of all this excitement was that God had taken the initiative and had acted.
Perhaps the key to this whole section is verses 54 and 55. In many ways this is the thesis statement for Luke’s entire writing which spans the gospel of Luke as well as the book of Acts. God has finally acted and has remembered his servant Israel. His mercy to the world will be on display. God had given Abraham promises which he is now about to fulfill. It is the mark of biblical faith, as Paul declares in Romans 4:21, to believe and live as though God’s promises will be fulfilled. God’s promised one family through whom sin would be deal with and the world would be blessed has arrived. The coming birth of these two boys is the opening salvo of God’s mighty arm reaching into his creation and showing that he has not forgotten his promises. It is our task to follow Luke as he describes the significant details of the lives of John and ultimately Jesus and even beyond that to the family of believers that Jesus creates to see how this all works out. We would do well, however to pay attention to these two immanently important details. The journey on which we are about to embark is about God fulfilling his long-ago promises and they will be fulfilled through the descendant of Abraham’s family to create the ultimate covenant family that God had always promised.
Devotional Thought
Do you so well know God’s promises for his people that it could honestly be said that you wait in eager anticipation for them to be fulfilled? Do you so early await the expansion of God’s Kingdom that you burst forth in jubilant praise at the slightest signs of it moving forward towards God’s final destination of filling the whole earth with his presence when Christ returns and the resurrection comes?
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