Amy C Walters

Mary Visits Elizabeth – Luke 1:39-56

Have you ever had big news you wanted to share but not known how to say it or who to share it with? Mary faces that dilemma after an angel tells her she’s going to have a baby. Who will believe her? Will she have to face this alone? No! She’s got Elizabeth.

In our previous story, Mary was visited by an angel, and he gives her overwhelming news that she, as a virgin, is going to be mother to the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of the world.

This is huge news.

If I were Mary, I would want to tell someone, “There’s been an angel, I’m gonna have a baby! I know I’m not married yet, but I’m gonna have a baby, and not just any baby. Son of Most High God, can you believe it?”

The problem is, probably most people would not believe it.

So Mary, if she’s thinking, “Yes, I want to tell somebody,” she might start thinking through the people she could tell. But wow, who’s going to believe this news with her? This is not just news you could share with anybody. This needs to be someone you trust and someone who trusts God with you for the impossible.

But the angel has mentioned somebody like that to Mary. When Mary’s asking about “How will this be since I’m a virgin,” the angel says that “the power of the Most High will overshadow” her and “that nothing is impossible with God.” He also says that “even Elizabeth, your relative, is having a child in her old age and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month.”

Elizabeth, another woman with an impossible pregnancy that God has made possible. This is someone who would maybe believe Mary, someone that she can share this incredible news with.

So at the start of this story, we see Mary hurrying to the hill country of Judea. That’s where Zechariah and Elizabeth live.

As Mary’s traveling there, I wonder if she’s thinking, “Okay, how am I going to tell Elizabeth? How do I tell her this news?”

If that were me, I’d be plotting out exactly the words I would say, how I would say them, maybe figuring out the best time and way to present this information.

But Mary doesn’t need to worry about that, does she?

We’re told in this story that as soon as Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leapt for joy. Her child leaps in her womb, and then Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, and she says in a loud voice, she’s not shy about this, she is shouting, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear. But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”

Elizabeth somehow knows. Mary doesn’t have to say a word other than to say hello.

And at hello, Elizabeth senses her baby leap and is filled with the Holy Spirit and talks about Mary being pregnant without Mary ever saying it and the fact that this baby is special.

She says, “the mother of my Lord.” So she knows that Mary is pregnant and she knows that it’s not just a regular baby. Something exciting and miraculous is happening here.

Elizabeth then tells Mary about the baby in her womb leaping for joy. And then she says, “Blessed is she who believed what the Lord said, he will do.”

I love this–this reminder about the blessing in believing God.

How do we know that Mary believed that God would do what he said? She obeyed. She went to visit Elizabeth. She said, “Okay, let’s go, let’s do this.”

How would this message from Elizabeth have been an encouragement to Mary? How do you think this helped her?

I think it’s a confirmation that yes, this is really happening. The angel did visit. He did tell me this. I am going to be part of this miracle. It is confirmation of the work that God is doing.

It’s a reminder to Mary that she is not alone in this. Yes, she has a very unique role in what’s happening, but her relative Elizabeth knows and understands and believes with her. How comforting to know that she is not alone, that she’s got somebody on her side, excited with her, ready to share in this miracle!

We’re told that Mary stays there for about three months. Now Elizabeth is six months pregnant when Mary visits, so it’s possible that Mary stayed through the delivery of the baby. We don’t know, we’re not told, but the timing would match up.

But you’ve got Elizabeth, a woman who is past the age of childbearing, so she’s older in years, and she’s in the late stages of pregnancy. She probably needs some help. Think of the practical help that Mary must have been for her at that time.

So they’ve got each other to share this excitement of their different pregnancies and what’s happening there. They’re able to share in the joy of what God is doing in their lives. And Mary is even able to help in practical ways as Elizabeth needs it in those late stages of pregnancy. What a help they were to one another.

Years ago, I was serving at a church with my husband. He was the youth pastor, and I had started to help in the Women’s Bible Study. And there were two women that were leading that study that let me come in and help with them.

We had been doing a number of different book studies where we would read a book by an author and discuss it and do the Bible studies that they had created. But I had the desire to write a study myself.

I was young, and even though I was excited by this idea, I was also overwhelmed by it. But I shared it with these women, and they encouraged me in it. They believed God with me, that yes, let’s pursue this, let’s go this direction.

They reviewed the study materials that I was creating, and they gave me feedback on it, encouragement on it, ideas on how to push into it. They prayed for me and with me. They kept me accountable to stay on schedule and to get that Bible study done. And then they were co-leaders with me as we went through that Bible study material with the other women in that study.

I could not have done that without them. I needed that fellowship and that community with those women for encouragement and accountability to get that done. 

They were my Elizabeth.

Who do you have as an Elizabeth in your life?

Do you have someone who encourages you, who points you to Jesus, who confirms the work that God is doing in your life? Because we’re made for community.

When God gave this incredible task to Mary, he didn’t give it to her in isolation to do on her own. He orchestrated things so that Elizabeth would be going through a miraculous pregnancy of her own, so that those women could come together and share the excitement and share the burden together as well.

God puts us in community for a reason. We need it. And that is our key truth for today, that we can find encouragement in community.

We were made to go through this Christian life with other Christians. We weren’t made to carry all the burdens by ourselves. We weren’t made to watch church on a screen. We were made to be in church, face to face with one another, shoulder to shoulder, working together, sometimes rubbing off each other’s rough edges as we have our own rough edges.

We were made to be together.

If you don’t have an Elizabeth in your life, if you don’t have that kind of community that points you to Jesus, that encourages you, you need to find that community.

God has given us many ways to connect with one another. Take advantage of those. The most important one is to be face to face with people. Find a small group, find a mentor, find a church that you can be a part of where you are serving, where you are in community in each other’s lives together.

If for some reason that is not possible, reach out to someone with your phone. But find a way to connect with other people because there is encouragement in community.