Day 9 - Luke 1:39-45
08 Dec 2023
You can listen to an audio version of this blog here -
“In those days Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country, to a town in Judah and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “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? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”
God’s people always have a God given desire to be together to enjoy his blessings, and Mary and Elizabeth are no different. After she heard that her cousin was also pregnant, Mary made the journey into the hill country to see her.
Although this sets the scene for what Mary says next, there are a couple of points to notice which are very relevant to some controversies both in society and the church as a whole.
First, don’t miss how Elizabeth talks about and to Mary. She describes Mary as “the mother of my Lord". She feels highly honoured that Mary should come and see her - even though there is at least one generation between them. This shows the fact that she recognises who is in Mary’s womb.
In 451 AD there was a council of the church called to discuss and reassert who Christians believe Jesus Christ is. This was because there were false teachers around who were denying that Jesus Christ was fully God and fully man. They agreed a summary of the Bible’s teaching that Jesus is “truly God and truly man……..acknowledged in two natures without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.”
Strikingly (and perhaps jarringly to our ears) they also referred to Mary as the theotokos - “mother of God”. This was an important consequence of what they had already asserted. This does not say anything about Mary other than the fact she had a great privilege and was the recipient of great grace. That title did not give Mary divine status. Instead it underlined who it was that was in her womb. Jesus Christ, even in the womb, was fully God as well as fully man.
It is important we recognise this. Don’t let the fact that the Roman Catholic Church later misrepresented this and continues to teach error here lead us away from truth. Mary is not a co-mediator with Christ. But she did bear the one who is fully God and fully man.
Second, this incident shows us that life begins at conception. We are told twice that John lept in Elizabeth’s womb. Elizabeth recognises that this is John somehow recognising the presence of his saviour. There is mystery here, but the point is clear. Both John and Jesus are present even though they have not yet been born. This has important implications for how we view every unborn child.