[Machine transcription]
In the name of Jesus. Amen. Elizabeth, dear saints, the cousin of Mary, receives this visitor, Mary. Both of them are pregnant. And Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, knows exactly who is visiting her. She says these astonishing words: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
With those words, Elizabeth confesses to us and to all the world who is there in the womb of the Virgin Mary. That child is none other than the Lord and the Savior. And there’s so much contained in that word, “Lord.” It would be astonishing enough. I think that Mary kind of unfolds it for us in her song. You see the first lines of her hymn that she then goes on to sing: “My spirit rejoices, my soul rejoices in the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” So that that word, “Lord,” means both God and Savior.
Now, just one would be enough. Could you imagine if Elizabeth knew that the one who was there in the womb of the Virgin Mary was her God? That already is enough, more than enough, more than you could ask for or even imagine that God would be in human flesh, that God would humble himself to be in the womb of the Virgin and to be born and laid in a manger and go through all the excruciating stuff that it means to be a man, a boy first, and then to grow and to be afflicted.
So has the Lord taken up into himself our humanity that now the things that apply only to man, we can say apply to Christ. And further, the things that apply to Christ apply to God. So that… so that Elizabeth here is talking about Mary as the mother of God. Now, how astonishing, in some ways, how ridiculous to think that God has a mother. And yet, when Jesus takes to himself our humanity, now we can speak of the mother of God. We can speak of the birthday of God, who is eternal. We can speak of the suffering of God, who does not change. We can speak of the learning of God, who knows everything. We can even speak of the blood of God and the death of God and the tomb of God, because this child is God in the flesh. In him the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily.
This is the phenomenal mystery of the incarnation, the second great mystery of the Christian faith. But Mary, and you say, that’s already enough. I mean, just, you know, give me a couple of thousand years to think about that. I mean, that is astonishing, that God has joined himself to our humanity, and that Elizabeth recognizes in the womb of Mary that, how has it been granted to me that the mother of my God should come to me? But more than that, because Jesus is God in the flesh, not for himself, not because he wanted to accomplish something for himself, not because he would come down to the earth so that all the world would serve and adore him and be able to see him. They could offer him gifts and care for him. No, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.
This God in the flesh, this Jesus, is not just God there, but God come to save us. For us men and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, so that Elizabeth also recognizes there in the womb of the Virgin Mary, is not just her God, but also her Savior. Now, this means that Elizabeth here in the Spirit sees that this pregnancy of Mary is the fulfillment of that long-expected promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent and that that seed is now waiting to be born in a few months here in the womb of her cousin who comes to visit.
Elizabeth knows, and imagine this. I mean, it’s pretty amazing to think about it. That when Elizabeth is there and opens the door and Mary steps into the house, and Elizabeth, who’s pregnant then with John the Baptist, feels John leaping in the womb and preaching with his feet that this is the Savior. And then Elizabeth proclaims, “There, your child.” And as soon as I heard your greeting, I knew that that child in your womb is my God and my Savior, that my salvation depends on this child. That’s an astonishing confession. Right? But it’s our confession as well.
That the one whose birth we celebrate on Thursday morning, the one whose birth we remember this week, that Jesus is our God and our Savior. The one who takes upon himself all of our sins, who stands under the wrath of God and endures the punishment that we should have because of our wrongdoings and lawbreakings. He endures all of that for us so that He can forgive us our sins. He’s the one who takes upon Himself our death so that He can give us His life and our suffering so that He can give us His joy. Our uncleanness so that he can give us his peace, our unrighteousness so that he can give us his perfection, our corruption so that he can give us the new heavens and the new earth. He takes all of that on himself.
And Elizabeth confesses it, and we do too. And all of that is there in this little word, “Lord.” That Jesus is Lord means that Jesus is God. And that Jesus is Lord means that Jesus saves. Amen.
Now there’s one other little word that I don’t want us to miss in this confession of Elizabeth. “Why is it granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” Elizabeth knows that this child, to be born of Mary, is not just the Savior of the world, which he is, but that he is also her Savior. And this is the thing that I think the Holy Spirit wants to press into our ears and to our hearts this morning.
I mean, we celebrate this week the birth of Jesus 2,028 years ago. And we remember all the things that happened and the angels preaching to the shepherds and visiting the Holy Family in Bethlehem. And we hear about the story of the wise men who traveled by star to see and to worship the child. And we hear about the history of Herod, that wicked king who was trying to destroy the child but failed and all of these sorts of things. And it seems maybe so long ago for us, so far away.
But here’s the marvelous truth: that when Mary comes to visit Elizabeth, the Lord Jesus shows us what he wants to do for each and every one of us, to come to us, to come to you. And Jesus says, “I am not just God and Savior and Lord. I am your God and I am your Savior and I am your Lord. It’s your sin that I suffered and died for. It’s your death that I endured today. It’s your name that I have written in my book of life. It’s you that I long to save and bring through the troubles of this life to be with myself in heaven.”
And in this way, we rejoice that Jesus, again, is not just God and not just Lord, but that he’s my Lord and he’s yours. This is the confession of Elizabeth that she gives to us: “Why is it granted?” We could say the same thing. When we open up the scriptures and hear the kindness of God, “Why is it granted that my Lord should come to me?” Or you can ask the same question when you kneel at the rail in a few minutes and the Lord feeds you his true body and blood with the promise of the forgiveness of sins. “Why is it granted that my Lord should come to me?”
Well, not by your own reason or strength, but because he loves you, because he forgives you, because he delights in you, because it is the desire of our Lord Jesus to be your Lord. May God grant us this confidence and this faith through Christ our Lord. Amen.
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, guard your hearts and minds through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.