Pregnant with Life from God
Luke 1:39-56
December 22, 2024 anno Domini
It’s three days before Christmas and we’ve got two pregnant women who are praising God, not only for what He has done for them, but what He is doing for you.
Is it any wonder the world cannot say Merry Christmas? Christmas is about a pregnant woman giving birth to a son and those are vile words to a godless culture. First, we have a woman, and the world doesn’t even know what that is. Perhaps the Bible should have said, “a birthing person.” Second these women are pregnant and that is the last thing any real woman (if we know what a woman is) would want. Where’s Planned Parenthood when you need them? And finally, both of these women are pregnant with sons. Could anything worse come into the world than another man, a member of the oppressive patriarchy?
How important that we know God’s Word, that we hear of the visitation of Mary to Elizabeth. While this story does give us God’s definition of what is good, more importantly this is the story of life, of life with God, of your life and of the world’s life. If you’re going to rejoice with Mary and Elizabeth at God’s gift of life, then you’re also going to have to believe and rejoice in women getting pregnant with sons.
God created life where there wasn’t any life. That’s what He did in Elizabeth’s womb. She was old. She was barren. She was not going to have any children. Zechariah the Priest would be the last priest in his line. He had no son to go into the ministry after him. Mary didn’t have life in her womb either. She was a Virgin, engaged to Joseph, but for some reason, God favored her. He looked down on Nazareth, not Jerusalem, not Rome, not Damascus, but Nazareth, the Buckman or Babbitt of the Holy Land. God didn’t choose Herod’s daughter or the High Priest’s fiancé, He chose Mary, a poor teenager from the backwoods up north.
Life is the Lord’s doing. It is His work. It is His gift to you. Giving life is the first item on His resume. He gives life to Elizabeth’s womb. He gives life to Mary’s womb. John will prepare the way for Jesus and Jesus will accomplish life for you by taking away your sins. You like Mary and Elizabeth are dead without God, dead without Jesus and alive by His grace. He gives life to you. Life you don’t have. Life you don’t deserve.
Hence Mary “magnifies the Lord” and Elizabeth asks, “Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” There is no boasting. This is all gift and the women know it. The barrenness of Elizabeth and the low estate of Mary paved the way to receive God’s gifts. The more you think of yourself the less likely you will appreciate God’s favor. The more you have going for you the less likely you will need the Lord’s strong arm to lift you up. Perhaps we should pray for less in our lives, that our faith might hold more to the Lord. Instead of bemoaning our losses, we should thank God for the gift of life we have through the Savior who was born of the Virgin Mary.
Being the mother of God was not going to be easy for Mary. Her fiancé Joseph may not have known of her pregnancy, but in three months he would see it. He would need an angel’s visit to spare Mary’s life and to accept being the Guardian of God. Mary needed assurances too. The last word the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary strengthened her faith with more news of God bringing life into the dead world, “Behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has conceived a son, and this is now the sixth month with her who was called barren.”
Mary’s first thought was to take the last word of Gabriel and run with it. Her beloved cousin Elizabeth received God’s grace. She too carried a miracle child. Mary would help Elizabeth and perhaps Elizabeth could help Mary. Learn from this dear Christians, don’t neglect the counsel and comfort of your brothers and sisters in Christ. You are not the only child in God’s house. You have a large and loving family. It’s called your congregation. God’s Word encourages this – younger women rely on older women. Young men on older men. You’re not the first mother to grieve over a child. You’re not the first man to have marriage trouble. Talk to your sister. Sit down with your brother. This is good and well pleasing to God.
When Mary greeted Elizabeth God gave both them and us confirmation of His life bestowing work. When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Mary’s word brought faith to John and the Holy Spirit to Elizabeth. That sounds like church. Where Jesus is present bodily His Spirit works through the Word to bring infants to faith and open our mouths in confession. The skeptic might say John’s leap in Elizabeth’s womb was the normal somersault of a six-month-old, but it was more. The same word is used for Jacob and Esau wrestling in Rebekah’s womb. I like to imagine that John’s leap in the womb was a Justin Jefferson celebration in the endzone after catching a Sam Darneld touchdown pass to defeat the Green Bay Packers in overtime to advance to the Super Bowl. It was even more than that because without Mary giving anything away Elizabeth confesses, “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” Elizabeth knows that Mary is carrying God in her womb and that God in her womb will be the fruit that brings life to the world.
Here’s the Bible trivia question of the sermon. You get this and it’s 10,000 bonus points. I might even given you one excused absence from Bible Study. Do you know which woman of the Old Testament was declared blessed in the same way that Elizabeth declared Mary blessed? In the days of the judge Deborah there was a woman named Jael. Following a battle, the general of the enemy came to Jael’s tent and Jael told him she would hide him. After she hid him, she drove a tent stake through his temple and killed him. For defeating this enemy of God, Deborah sang, “Most blessed of women be Jael.” In one of the apocryphal books there is a woman named Judith who is also declared blessed because she beheaded an Assyrian general about to destroy her hometown.
These women are considered blessed because they are taking off the heads of their enemies. Mary is blessed because the Son born to her would crush the Serpents head. The nails that pierced the Son of God on the cross were at the same time the nails in the Devil’s coffin. When Jesus takes away your sin He beheads the Devil. He can no longer spew His poisen or bite you with his words. He l cannot shame you anymore. He cannot accuse you. He cannot drag up your old and great sins and say, “God couldn’t love someone like you.” You have Jesus. You have His death for your sins. You have His resurrection for your justification.
Finally, Elizabeth tells us how we can be blessed like Mary. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. It is possible that Elizabeth was not looking at Mary when she said those words. It is likely that Zechariah was in the house because he was off work. Do you remember why Zechariah would not be carrying out his priestly work at the temple? When Gabriel announced that Zechariah and Elizabeth would have a son, Zechariah doubted and Gabriel said he would be mute until their son was born. Perhaps old Elizabeth spoke these words to Zechariah giving him the look. Blessed are those who believe God’s promises, that He does what He says. Don’t you think so Zechariah? Oh, I’m sorry. God’s has your tongue doesn’t He?
God keeps His promises. He promised a son born of a woman and the Virgin Mary is with child conceived by the Holy Spirit. But God is not merely faithful and true He is merciful. He sends His Son to save you, to forgive you, to set you free from the prison of sin and raise you up from your grave. He uses women giving birth to sons, a barren woman and a virgin woman. A woman was the first to sin and a woman named Elizabeth was the first to confess her Savior had come as she was greeted by another woman Mary who carried God in her womb. The world couldn’t imagine a more ridiculous or even disgusting way for God to work, but for us who believe this story brings blessing upon blessing, for the unborn Son in Mary’s womb is our Savior and He has come, as God always comes, to bring us life. In the name of Jesus. Amen.