The Journey: 3. Elizabeth of Judea – Encouragement
by Pastor Steve Purdy
[Preached December 11, 2011; Based on Luke 1: 5-17, 39-45]
I was truly blessed this week to travel to Dallas to spend a day with a small group of colleagues. For the last five years we have met to share about life as Senior Pastors – what it is like to go through the challenges of ministry: stewardship campaigns, capital campaigns, staff management issues, you name it. And we also share about our personal lives. Some of the group members have gone through incredibly difficult times over these years – deaths in the family, moves, children in college, depression, divorce, two have transferred Conferences, and one has even turned to the Dark Side – she became a District Superintendent!
Someone to talk to; someone who will listen; someone who will encourage you; someone who will care! We all long for someone who will do their best to understand us and accept us. Mary was pregnant and faced many difficult questions, but she wasted little time in traveling to see Elizabeth, a woman also pregnant in a most miraculous way. Elizabeth was an elderly woman unable to have children, or so she thought, but she was pregnant and she would give birth to John the Baptist, the one who would prepare people for the arrival of the Messiah.
What was this special relationship between Mary and Elizabeth? Scripture says that they were related, but whether they were cousins, aunt or great aunt and niece, we can’t be quite sure. What is obvious however, is the close bond they had with one another. Do you have someone like that in your life? If you do, it is a blessing. If not, perhaps you will be blessed by a new ministry we will begin next year – Stephen Ministry, a caregiving ministry.
A real life journey takes place as Mary travels about 80 miles from Nazareth in Galilee to the hill country of Judea to visit Elizabeth. The journey probably took something in the neighborhood of 8 to 10 days. Travel would have been rugged. It would be the equivalent of walking from here to Georgetown. The terrain was hilly and brutal. It was also a dangerous trip as bandits combed the hillsides.
Mary was overwhelmed and needed someone for support, someone who would understand, and someone who would believe her story and who would share her joy. For a number of reasons she turned to Elizabeth. Both women were pregnant in a most remarkable and unconventional fashion. What a pair they were.
Now, notice how Elizabeth focuses first on Mary, because that’s the kind of woman that Elizabeth was – she knew the emotional turmoil Mary was in. When Mary’s greeting reached Elizabeth’s ears, Luke tells us… the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord." (41-45)
Now, there is much that could be said here, but I would just have you notice a couple of things:
- Before Mary has told Elizabeth what has happened… I’m sure she had been rehearsing just how to say it… Elizabeth says in verse 43, And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? Now, that would be enough right there to make me drop into a pool of tears or faint! “How could you know that I was going to be a mother much less that my child would be the Messiah?” That was God’s mercy in action!
- Twice in these few verses Elizabeth calls Mary blessed! Now, Adam Hamilton in our text, “The Journey,” spends some time dwelling on what William Barclay calls “the paradox of blessedness.” Our American concept of being blessed usually includes money, power, and prestige, if not comfort and ease, but Mary’s pathway involves much hardship and adversity… just think of the difficult journey she would make from Nazareth to Bethlehem while nine months pregnant… giving birth in less than first class accommodations, then she would have to move to Egypt for several years for Jesus’ protection and then another move to Nazareth.
Hamilton summarizes by insisting that being blessed includes a joy of being involved in God’s work, being “used by God for God’s purposes, and being accompanied by God’s presence, particularly in the face of adversity.” God’s blessing is an assurance of God’s peace within regardless of what is transpiring around you. How does that sound?
Perhaps you would agree that Elizabeth was quite a woman because thus far we see that she has focused entirely on Mary even though Elizabeth was on quite a journey herself! Imagine the joy and the anxiety that Elizabeth must have felt. She was having a child when she should have been having grandchildren. Would she survive the childbirth? Would her husband be any help? All the exhausting duties of motherhood lay before her as an older woman. Could she manage?
But this remarkable woman was able to lay her anxiety aside to be in ministry to Mary who had received stunning news that not only is she pregnant, the child she is carrying is the Messiah. What would Mary’s life have been like without Elizabeth? Mary’s time was well spent and she left better prepared to handle the rough journey that was before her.
My imagination tells me that Elizabeth needed Mary as well. After all, her husband had been unable to talk for six months – ever since the angel gave the wonderful news that he and Elizabeth would conceive a son. Yes ladies, I’m sure that a silent husband would be a blessing for a while, but I would think that just maybe Elizabeth needed a little verbal reassurance herself! By being willing to open her heart and home to Mary, I believe that in addition to Mary being encouraged, Elizabeth was strengthened as well.
Let me ask you (and I’m not limiting this to women): Do you have an Elizabeth in your life… someone to encourage and support you… someone to lift you up when you’re in the dumps… someone to help you remember that God is always near? We all need someone like Elizabeth, a mentor to help us grow and stay grounded. And we all need to be a mentor to someone else. Each of us has people in our lives that can use our friendship, our encouragement, our love. There are people who have made mistakes and they need understanding and support. They need people in their lives to encourage them and walk with them as they journey down new paths.
Often we read this story and wonder what it must have been like to be in Mary’s shoes, but ponder for a moment what it was like to be in Elizabeth’s shoes. When was the last time someone came to you needing a little help, perhaps nothing more than a willing ear to just listen? When was the last time you were a place of refuge for someone else?
Whenever our pastors’ group gets together, we admit that hearing the hurts of others takes a toll on each of us but as we help each other work through the nicks and scratches, we reaffirm that ministry is exactly what we are called to do… ministry is exactly what we long to do!
When we take turns being both Mary and Elizabeth, so to speak, it is then that we are healthy enough to return to our real world settings and know as Mary expressed: My soul, my soul magnifies the Lord. And He has done great things for me. Let all the earth rejoice. That message will make a difference for others!
God’s love for us is not dependent upon our education or lack of it. Your bank accounts, marital status, social position or achievements play no role in your relationship with God. God favors us in our humility, and in our willingness to simply trust and lean on him. That’s good news that has nothing to do with the stock market or the price of gasoline.
Mary announces that God’s mercy is from everlasting to everlasting. But that’s not a Christmas gift for us to keep for ourselves. Look around you. Is there someone around you who needs you to be a mentor to them? Of course you have problems and issues of your own, but don’t let that stop you!
Don’t let your circumstances dictate your attitude this Christmas! Rather, let Elizabeth create a new vision this year. Don’t convey: “I don’t want to hear your problems; what help could I possibly be?” This year convey, “Even though I don’t have it altogether, if you are in a hard place, I will be your friend.”
This Christmas, what do you say that we take turns being both Mary and Elizabeth, so to speak, and be healthy enough to help each other so we can then return to our real world settings and convey to others as Mary expressed: My soul, my soul magnifies the Lord. And He has done great things for me. Let all the earth rejoice. I guarantee that is a message that our world needs to hear from others – who believe it!