Amy C Walters

The Birth of John the Baptist Foretold – Luke 1:18-25

Elizabeth, an elderly woman, suddenly finds herself pregnant with her first child, something she’s been wanting for decades. How does she respond? “I deserve this”? No! She recognizes that every good gift comes from God.

There’s one major character in this story that we have not heard from yet: Elizabeth. Let’s take a moment to think about this story from her perspective.

The angel, he shows up to Zechariah, while Zechariah is at work. Elizabeth is back home, she doesn’t know what’s going on. And after Zechariah meets with this angel, he is struck with the inability to speak. He’s mute. So he returns home from his week at the temple, completely silent.

And he’s also had this incredible vision of an angel making this incredible promise. So he’s trying to sign language this out to Elizabeth, and she’s trying to interpret what must have been a really crazy game of charades. We don’t know all that Zechariah was able to communicate through all of that.

But let’s stop and think what Elizabeth could have been thinking and feeling in that moment. Certainly there’s confusion. I mean, even if you are able to speak, it’s a pretty unbelievable story to have this vision of an angel to deliver such incredible news.

So there’s confusion over what’s going on. There’s confusion over why is he unable to speak? How long is this gonna last? Will this jeopardize his work at the temple?

There’s probably some fear involved related to that confusion. What’s going to happen to us now? What will people think of us? They already think we’re under God’s judgment because we don’t have any children. And now Zechariah can’t speak.

There’s probably worry bound up in this too. What does this mean now? What are we going to do now?

So Elizabeth might have all of these thoughts and feelings stirring around in her.

And then we get to that amazing little snippet in the story that tells us that a little while after that, Elizabeth became pregnant. And what does she do?

We’re told that she stays in seclusion for five months. She is hiding out in her house.

The story doesn’t tell us why she’s hiding out in her house for all that time. But I think it’s possible that she is trying to protect this pregnancy. I think a woman who has been trying for decades unsuccessfully to have a child has probably had a few miscarriages along the way. And maybe this is her effort to protect that baby.

And then we get this beautiful glimpse into what’s going on in Elizabeth’s mind, and she says this beautiful statement.

“The Lord has done this for me. In these days, he has shown me his favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

Let’s think for a moment of what her reactions could be, because I think looking at those options show us even more starkly the beauty of her statement.

She doesn’t say, “It’s about time.” And in a way, right, that would be understandable to say that. She has been waiting for decades. It’s about time.

She doesn’t say, “I deserved this. You know, I’ve been waiting, I’ve been praying, I’ve been doing all the good things that I’m supposed to do, so yeah, I deserve this.”

No, instead, she acknowledges this pregnancy as a gift from God.

We are bombarded every day, all day by marketing messages, and so many of those messages are founded on this idea of, you deserve it.

Buy this for yourself, because you deserve it.

Take that break. You deserve it.

Only pay attention to yourself. You deserve it.

We’ve heard that message so often, that it can be easy to forget how dangerous it is, because it takes our eyes off of God’s mercy and his grace. God’s mercy to not give us the punishment that we do deserve, and God’s grace to fill our lives with blessings that we don’t deserve.

That’s why Elizabeth’s message is so important, because she recognizes and acknowledges that this pregnancy, this baby is a gift from God.

She goes on to say that, “In these days, God has shown me His favor and taken away my disgrace among the people.”

We’ve already talked about how so many people in those days saw childlessness as judgment from God. And here’s Elizabeth acknowledging herself that she has been disgraced among the people because of her situation.

But instead of disgrace, God is showing her His favor. And the cool thing here is that it’s God who’s taken away her disgrace among the people. Not her. She didn’t go in and defend herself. She didn’t have to go in and protect her honor or try to regain it.

God did that for her.

So these ideas come together to give us our key truth for today, and that’s every good gift comes from God.

It’s not something that we’ve worked to deserve. It’s not something that he owes us. It’s his grace.

Think back to the earlier part of our story, when Zechariah expresses his doubt in this promise. Does God take that promise away? No, because that promise is based on his grace, not on Zechariah deserving it, not on Zechariah believing it.

It’s based on God’s grace. And that’s exactly what Elizabeth acknowledges in her response to God.