The Word That Changes Everything
Why did Mary run to Elizabeth when she found out she was pregnant?
[This is a sermon for tomorrow, the Fourth Sunday of Advent. Pastors, if you’re overwhelmed, feel free to use it. Congregations without pastors or whose pastors are sick or who have been called away, feel free to use it. You can also use it, maybe, for your personal devotion.]
Luke 1:39-45
Our gospel lesson from Luke today tells us that when Mary of Nazareth heard that the Savior of the world, the Messiah or Christ, the One she was to name Jesus, was arriving in the world by way her virgin womb, she rose up and ran into the hill country of Judea to see her relative Elizabeth.
Mary had heard this Word preached to her by the angel Gabriel and, despite its implausibility in worldly terms, believed that Jesus was actually coming to save sinners like her and you and me from sin, death, and condemnation.
Mary heard the Word of the Gospel–also called the Good News–and she believed. She had saving faith in her Savior Jesus.
But that’s not all she had.
She had a message to preach.
She had a Gospel to proclaim.
She had a Savior to tell the world about.
So Mary ran to Elizabeth.
The prophet Isaiah wrote seven hundred years before the birth of Jesus: “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns.’” (Isaiah 52:7)
Mary had good news to share, the good news of which the apostle Paul speaks, that “in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them…” (2 Corinthians 5:19)
And this is good news–Gospel!--for you and me too.
You and I are born in sin. We want nothing more than to be gods to ourselves.
We chafe under God’s command that we love Him and love others.
We honk impatiently in the parking lots of places like Sam’s Club, Costco, and Target.
We gossip about children of God Who are as loved and as precious in God’s sight as we are.
We lust and commit adultery, whether in thought, word, or deed.
We covet and resent the wealth with which others have been blessed.
We look down on those who don’t look like us, worship like us, or think like us.
We turn away with indifference toward the poor, the homeless, and the foreign.
Instead of writing people in authority respectfully about grievances, some even applaud the cold-blooded murder of an insurance executive on a Manhattan sidewalk.
We are sinners by inclination and practice who deserve condemnation and hell.
But it is for sinners who do not know what we do that Jesus Christ came to die on a cross, the sinless human being, God in the flesh, the perfect sacrifice for our sin, and Who came to rise from the dead so that all people who believe in this Gospel Word about Him are forgiven their sins and given eternal life with God. Paul confesses of Jesus and His Gospel: “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” (1 Timothy 1:15)
This is the Gospel that Mary runs to share with Elizabeth.
But why Elizabeth? We don’t know exactly why Mary feels called by God to go preach to the mother of John the Baptist.
But we do know this: At this point, Elizabeth is in the sixth month of her pregnancy.
And we know this from our own experiences: Unless we regularly hear, the Gospel, the words of the devil, the world, and our own sinful selves can begin to drown out the Gospel Word which, in a world afflicted with tragedy, selfishness, war, disease, and death seems too good to be true.
How many times have you felt sky-high with faith in Christ on Sunday morning, maybe even Sunday night, only to find it falter on Monday?
The old hymn has it right: “I love to tell the story / For those who know it best / Seem hungering and thirsting / To hear it like the rest.”
The Gospel Word about Jesus gives the gift of saving faith, it justifies sinners, making righteous and holy even the most notorious of sinners and the most discouraged of saints. “...faith [saving faith] comes from hearing,” the Bible says, “and hearing through the word of Christ…” (Romans 10:17) And this Word is given to us by visible means too, making us God’s own children and making us holy in His sight, in both Holy Baptism and Holy Communion. The Bible tells us that God sanctifies us–makes us holy, day by day–because we’ve been cleansed “by the washing of water with the word.” (Ephesians 5:26)
So Mary goes to Elizabeth to encourage her with the Gospel.
And what happens?
Mary greets her and John the Baptist, the baby–not simply a fetus, but a baby; not simply genetic tissue, but a baby–John the Baptist leaps for joy. Don’t tell me that babies can’t receive the Word of the Gospel and believe!
John knew that His Savior had arrived and in Elizabeth’s womb, he was already celebrating Christmas!
He was already preaching Christ and the Gospel!
Now it was time for Elizabeth to preach. She too, through Mary’s greeting and her son’s preaching, knew that the Jesus and His Gospel had arrived. “Blessed are you among women,” she says to Mary, then, speaking of Jesus, her Savior and Lord, she says “and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” She goes on to say why it is that Mary is so blessed. It’s not because Mary was sinless; she was a sinful human being just like you and me. Elizabeth says: “blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” (Luke 1:42-45)
Mary was blessed because when she heard the Gospel Word–the Word that in the crucified and risen Jesus, our sin is forgiven and we have life with God that never ends–and, by the power of the Holy Spirit, she believed.
That is the source of our blessing too.
If you’re someone who wants to believe in the Gospel about Jesus, but look at the world and its fallenness, its suffering and death, and find it hard to believe, you can believe.
How?
By partaking of the means of grace, the means by which Jesus Christ graciously gives you both Himself and saving faith in Him. You can receive His saving Word and believe.
One of these means is Holy Baptism. In Baptism, God gives you the Holy Spirit who enables you to believe. If you haven’t been baptized, get baptized at a church near you soon. If you have been baptized, lean into your relationship with God and partake of the power to believe in Christ already given to you in Holy Baptism.
Another means is the Gospel Word. Read it on your own and hear it and study it together with others in the Church.
Another means is Holy Communion. Through it Christ gives you Himself, His forgiveness, His life, and strengthened faith.
All these means are ways in which the Gospel Word is preached to you, enabling you to believe.
And believing in Jesus is everything!
God’s Word tells us, “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
Jesus promises, “Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live,and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11:25-26)
And John the Baptist, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb in today’s gospel lesson, would later point to Jesus and say, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29) That includes you.
Then, friends, when you have received the saving Gospel Word of Jesus and been empowered by the Spirit to believe it, keep receiving this Word in all the ways Jesus offers it and to be like Mary, running to tell it to others who, just like us, need Jesus.
“Go tell it on the mountain, over the hills and everywhere / Go tell it on the mountain that Jesus Christ is born…” and died and rose and is alive and is coming back one day to usher all who believe in Him into His eternal kingdom!
Amen
