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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Amen.)
You may know about—and maybe even have seen—Netflix’s new movie about the Virgin Mary. We talked about the movie a little bit last Sunday at the beginning of Adult Bible Class, including how, when they depict Biblical accounts, artists of all media have to make decisions that can go beyond what the Bible says. For example, did Joseph go with Mary to see Elizabeth, and was Zechariah there when Mary entered his house and greeted Elizabeth? Were both women equally showing their “baby bumps”, as depicted on today’s bulletin cover, when Elizabeth’s son John the Baptizer was five or six months further along than Mary’s son Jesus, and Jesus may have been at most only three months along when Mary left Elizabeth? Of course, when they preach on Biblical accounts, preachers also have to make decisions that can go beyond what the Bible says. For example, why did Mary go to see Elizabeth in the first place? Was she obeying an implicit command to her from the angel Gabriel, or was she availing herself of what amounted to a sign of the power of the Word of God that Gabriel spoke to her (Luke 1:36-37)? Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, even asked why it was granted to her that the mother of her Lord should come to her, and then Elizabeth spoke a blessing on Mary, as we heard it translated, “blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.” And, as we realize considering today’s Gospel Reading this morning, so also for us in our time, “Blessed are those who believe that there will be a fulfillment of what is spoken from the Lord”.
In today’s Gospel Reading, the Divinely‑inspired St. Luke’s preceding narrative about Gabriel’s announcing John’s birth to his father Zechariah (Luke 1:5-25) and St. Luke’s preceding narrative about Gabriel’s announcing Jesus’s birth to His mother Mary (Luke 1:26‑38), in a sense, naturally come together (confer Plummer, ad loc Luke 1:39-56, p.27). In their respective preceding narratives, Zechariah had asked Gabriel how he could know what Gabriel had said about Zechariah’s and Elizabeth’s conceiving John, since he was an old man and Elizabeth was advanced in years, and Gabriel “answered” by explaining his being sent from God and saying that, behold a sign of judgment, Zechariah would be silent and unable to speak until the day that the things took place, because Zechariah did not believe Gabriel’s words, which, he said, would be fulfilled in their time. On the other hand, Mary asked how she could conceive Jesus, since she was a virgin, and Gabriel answered by explaining how she would conceive and saying that, behold a sign of grace, Mary’s relative Elizabeth, who had been called “barren”, had also conceived a son.
Mary is usually understood as then submitting to God’s will as expressed by Gabriel’s word and so conceiving Jesus right then and there, likely before the angel departed from her. Then, as we heard in today’s Gospel Reading, in those days, Mary arose and went with haste to see Elizabeth, reportedly a journey of 80 to 100 miles, which may have taken three to four days. Depending in part on how quickly Mary left, Mary may or may not have known yet from her own body that she was, in fact, pregnant (SSMHealth). When Mary saw Elizabeth, no pregnancy tests or human birth announcements were necessary! Mary got the “sign” that Gabriel had spoken of in order to strengthen Mary’s faith, and Mary got much more (Roehrs-Franzmann, ad loc Luke 1:39-56, p.60)! The Spirit‑filled John and Elizabeth (confer Luke 1:15) effectively stated the fulfillment of, and Elizabeth declared Mary blessed for her having believed, what was spoken to Mary from the Lord. If Mary was anything like us—and she was like us, not “immaculately conceived”, but also sinful by nature—she probably at the same time both believed and, in some sense, did not believe—she doubted, questioned, needed reassurance, which she got and which we also get. Like Mary, we, who are at the same time sorrowful‑sinners and believing‑saints, rejoice in God our Savior—our Savior from the sin and death that we otherwise deserve.
With today’s Gospel Reading, we Lutherans may have to suppress some of our anti‑Roman Catholic instincts! The Holy Spirit led Elizabeth to call Mary the mother of the Lord, and so the Holy Spirit also should lead us to call Mary the mother of the Lord. In carrying Jesus, Mary carries God; she is the “God-bearer”. Out of God’s great love for even fallen humanity, the Son of God took on human flesh in her womb, and Jesus was sinless not because Mary was sinless but because He was the holy Son of God and so incapable of sin. As prophesied in today’s Old Testament Reading (Micah 5:2-5a), from Bethlehem came One Whose coming forth was from of old, from ancient days, and He is our peace with God. As described in today’s Epistle Reading (Hebrews 10:5-10), He offered Himself “once for all”—one time, for all people, in our place. When we, enabled by the Holy Spirit, trust God to forgive us for Jesus’s sake, then God does just that: God forgives our sinful nature and all our sin, whatever our sin might be. Like Mary, we are blessed, not because our womb bore Jesus or our breasts nursed Him, but because we hear the word of God and keep it (Luke 11:27-28). Like Mary, we are blessed, as God works through His miraculous signs, not signs that we demand, but signs that He freely gives us.
With today’s Gospel Reading’s so clearly giving evidence of what is called “infant faith”, even while the infant is still in the womb, we might especially think of the sign that is God’s Word with water in Holy Baptism. There, whether a person is eight days old, eight years old, or eight decades old, the Holy Spirit is still the One Who leads a person to be sorry for his or her sins and to trust God to forgive him or her for Jesus’s sake. Similarly, individual Holy Absolution and the Holy Supper of Christ’s Body and Blood can strengthen faith as they give forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation to those who receive them with contrition and faith. We might pray, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24), and in all of these ways—by His Word and His Sacraments—the Lord does help our unbelief, and, like Mary, we are blessed by Him, and, in turn, we live out our God‑given vocations.
As much honor as Mary deserves for being the mother of the Lord, and even as we grant, in at least one hymn, that she in some sense leads the Church in praise and is higher than the cherubim and more glorious than the seraphim (for example, Lutheran Service Book 670:2), she neither took upon herself the Office of the Holy Ministry, nor are we told that she encouraged other women to seek that Office (Stephenson, CLD XII:85). Rather, in keeping with Jesus’s wishes, the apostle John cared for his likely “Aunt” Mary (John 19:26-27), as Christ’s ministry cares for His Church. As God gives spouses and children to them, Godly women love and serve their families, and they are saved, not because of their good works, but, like the rest of us, they are saved by grace for the sake of Jesus Christ, through faith in Him (1 Timothy 2:15; Apology of the Augsburg Confession XXIII:32). We have the joy of salvation for which the infant John the Baptizer leaped and in which Mary rejoiced. We who believe have that joy and, in some sense, are saved already now, but we will have that joy most fully and be saved finally on the Last Day. As we have been considering, “Blessed are those who believe that there will be a fulfillment of what is spoken from the Lord”.
One of Pilgrim’s members, who saw Netflix’s new movie about the Virgin Mary, told me that the movie completely missed the point at the end, focusing on Jesus’s death as the fulfillment of Simeon’s prophecy to Mary that a sword would pierce through her soul also (Luke 2:35), instead of focusing on Jesus’s death as the sacrifice for the sins of the world, including your sins and my sins. On this Fourth and final Sunday in Advent, let us not miss the point that our Lord’s humble coming in the flesh, which we celebrate beginning on Tuesday night, assures us that He both comes to us now in His Word and Sacrament in order to forgive us and will come a final time in glory to judge the living and the dead. Only then does our at the same time believing and not believing become the absolute and undeniable certainty of sight (confer John 20:29; 2 Corinthians 5:7; Pfatteicher, Journey, 66-67).
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen. + + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +