The Visitation
Beloved. How about “Christmas in July”? The Church celebrates “Christmas in July today as we celebrate the Visitation—St. Mary visiting her relative Elizabeth. Let us use this “Christmas in July”—away from all the usual hub-bub of Christmas, a time of year that is usually more relaxed, a time when we can sit in a boat on a lake and think, or even a time cutting grass or weeding flower beds—let us use this time away from our usual distractions to ponder all the events surrounding that greatest of miracles: the true God became true man to be our Savior.
Our text this evening describes St. Mary’s actions right after she had heard from the angel Gabriel [Lk 1.35]: The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. Can you imagine the feelings Mary was experiencing—certainly feelings of confusion, unworthiness, joy, gratitude, awe, etc. And so what does she do? Now Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth.
Why would Mary go to her relative? The angel had told Mary [1.36]: Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. For with God nothing will be impossible. The conception by St. Elizabeth of John the Baptizer, the Forerunner, was also miraculous because she was past child-bearing years; it was a miracle the opposite of Mary’s—she conceived as a virgin; Elizabeth conceived in old age. Mary trusted the Lord to protect her, traveling about 100 miles to see Elizabeth. As she was greeted by her pregnant elderly relative, Mary would see her own faith strengthened as she saw what the angel said was true and that, indeed, there is really nothing that God will not be able to do. Mary sought reassurance for her faith and was not disappointed!
What makes the events of the Visitation so remarkable is not so much St. Mary and her actions but the fact that Jesus was with her; that she was carrying in her womb the eternal Son of God Himself, who had taken on human flesh and blood and become true man. We read in our text: When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary…the babe leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. Then she spoke out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! But why is this granted to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? At this point, there is no way that Elizabeth would have known the blessedness of the Child in Mary’s womb and that this Child is the long-promised Messiah, who is also the Lord, the God of the OT. The only way that she knew is because of His grace: God filled her with His Holy Spirit.
Doesn’t this help teach us that when Jesus comes, His coming is secret/ hidden? Jesus came that day hidden/ concealed –small—in the womb of His mother. Don’t forget: already at that time Jesus is the God-man; from the very moment of His conception and into all eternity the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the holy Trinity is also true man. Who would have ever thought that the almighty, eternal, God, whom the universe cannot contain would come in the womb of His human mother? –But that’s the Christmas miracle; that’s what we ponder and marvel at: at a certain point in human history God became also man and remains so into all eternity.
Not only was Jesus’ coming hidden when He was in Mary’s womb, but even during His earthly ministry Jesus was not recognized as the God-man. People recognized Jesus as true man, saying [Mt. 13.55]: Is this not the carpenter’s son? Is not His mother called Mary? St. Paul writes [Ph 2.6 ff.]: although [Jesus] was God, He, did not consider His being equal with God as a prize to be displayed, but He emptied Himself, made Himself a slave, became like other human beings, and was seen to have the ways of a man. When Jesus was in the midst of people, who He really was, was hidden because He looked like any other person. Only occasionally, like during His preaching, in His miracles, at His Transfiguration, did He show glimpses of His divinity. So much was Jesus’ divinity concealed by His humanity during His earthly ministry that, as St. Peter says to the Jews [Ac 3.15], You killed the Prince of life.
Although Jesus’ coming was hidden, the Holy Spirit still revealed who He is! By the work of the Holy Spirit, people recognized Jesus. Think back to our text. Mary merely greets Elizabeth and could hardly have told her of all the marvelous things the angel Gabriel told her, when Elizabeth called out with a loud voice: Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. Elizabeth knew exactly who Mary’s Child was because, as our text tells us, she was filled with the Holy Spirit. On top of that, Elizabeth said, As soon as the voice of your greeting sounded in my ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy. This was no ordinary kick of a baby; that baby, St. John the Baptizer, leaped for joy because he knew that the Savior, Jesus, whose way he was to prepare, was there! But how could an unborn baby know this? This, too, the Holy Spirit revealed to him because as the angel told John’s father, St. Zacharias, when he announced to him John’s birth said [Lk. 1.15]: He will also be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.
This is always the case—only by the Holy Spirit’s work can we know Jesus rightly, Who He is and what He has done for us. By ourselves, none of us could ever come to know Jesus and believe on Him. Left to ourselves, Jesus’ coming would still be a mystery, would still be hidden to us. St. Paul writes [1 Cor. 2.9]: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things God has prepared for those who love Him. But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit…Now we have received…the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. Jesus tells His disciples [Jn. 15.26]: But when the Helper comes, Whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.
Dear Christian, we are Christians because the Holy Spirit revealed Jesus to us. Just as Sts. Elizabeth and John knew that the One in Mary’s womb was the God-man and the Savior of the world, so too, by the Holy Spirit’s working—and only by His work—do we know that He who was born of Mary is the God-man and our Savior from sin and death. As glorious as that gift was that Elizabeth and John recognized Jesus, just as glorious is the Holy Spirit’s gift to us—faith. In His grace, God sends us His Holy Spirit so that we recognize Jesus and His coming is not hidden to us.
By the Holy Spirit’s work, we recognize Jesus as He continues to come to us today. When Jesus came to Elizabeth and John, He came concealed in the womb of His mother. Today when Jesus comes to us, He comes to us in His holy word and Sacraments. By the Holy Spirit’s work, we recognize that in Holy Baptism, Jesus comes to us and washes away our sin and covers us with His robe of righteousness and brings us into His holy family. By the Holy Spirit’s work we also recognize the truth of Jesus’ promises [Mt. 18; 28.20], Where two or three have been brought together in My name, there I am among them and I am with you always, even to the end of the age. By the Holy Spirit’s work, we also recognize that Jesus is coming to us concealed under the simple forms of bread and wine, giving us His very body and blood for the forgiveness of sins and the strengthening of our faith. Just like Jesus was rejected during His earthly ministry when He came concealed in His humanity, so too can He be—and is—rejected today when He comes to us in the Word and Sacraments. But here we have great cause to rejoice—the Holy Spirit has come and revealed to us the concealed Christ!
By the Holy Spirit’s work, we recognize that Jesus has come to us personally, the very God Himself has come to us in His Word and Sacrament. Not only has He come to us, but He dwells in us, in our hearts. As He tells us [Jn 14]: If you love Me, you will keep My word, and My Father will love you, and We will come to you and make Our home with you. As we ponder that, how Elizabeth’s words ring true: And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? She felt herself so unworthy of her Savior coming to her—even if He is in the womb of His mother. But come to her He did—in grace! In the same way, how unworthy we must feel because of all our sin, and yet Jesus comes to us in grace and mercy; He comes to us in blessing. What have we done to deserve it? Nothing! And not only does He come to us, but He comes to us giving us the greatest blessing possible—the forgiveness of sins!
When Jesus came the first time, He came precisely to bring about our salvation; precisely to bring us the forgiveness of sins. Elizabeth recognized this as she said to Mary: Blessed is the fruit of your womb, Jesus. Here she prophesizes and confesses that God’s favor rests upon this Child in Mary’s womb and all people will be blessed by His saving/ redeeming work. To bring us the forgiveness of our sins, Jesus had to pass through every stage of our existence to remedy our sinful conception and birth. Because we are conceived in sin, Jesus had to be conceived without sin; because we are sinners already in the womb, Jesus had to go those 9 months in the womb living them without sin for us. Then, of course, He had to go throughout His earthly life without sin, keeping every single Law of God perfectly for us. Not only did Jesus come to keep the Law for us, but He also came to suffer God’s wrath for each sin we commit by dying on the cross to atone for them. His work was successful! –Jesus perfectly kept God’s Law for us; He perfectly paid the price for our sin. We see that when He rose from the dead Easter Sunday. When He came, born of Mary, He came to bring about the greatest blessing for us. When He comes to us today in His Word and Sacrament, He comes giving us the blessing of His work.
In our text, Elizabeth and John looked forward to the day that Jesus would bring about the forgiveness of sins and the salvation of the world by His life, suffering and death! That was John’s task to prepare the people for and to announce Jesus’ coming. We, though, look back on it as an accomplished fact. Elizabeth and John looked forward to that day in faith, just as we look back on that day in faith. And just as Sts. Elizabeth and John did, we place all our trust and confidence for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life in Jesus and His work.
This glorious, joyful, blessed faith in Jesus is a gift of the Holy Spirit that He worked in us—just as He did in Elizabeth and John. Is it any wonder that the baby St. John leaped for joy in his mother’s womb? He was filled with the Holy Spirit already then, and in Spirit-worked faith knew that the Savior of the world—his Savior—had come. How can our joy be any less? Jesus has come to bring us salvation. He has come and continues to come to us personally in His word and Sacrament. He is with each of us with His gracious presence!
When Jesus comes, He always comes to us giving us the blessing of His work. St. Elizabeth said of her relative and fellow saint, Mary: Blessed is she who believed that there would be fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. Mary was blessed because in faith worked by the Holy Spirit she believed. We, too, are blessed as we, too, in Spirit worked faith, believe in Jesus—Son of God and Son of Mary—as our Savior from sin and receive in that faith the blessings of forgiveness of sin, life and salvation Jesus gives us.
Jesus comes to us! His coming may be hidden but when He comes, it is in grace and blessing for us. INJ Amen.