This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Luke’s Christmas Story” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 14, 1997.
About this sermon
Elizabeth is Israel in her glory and her shame at once. Luke 1:39-56 moves in four stages: Mary’s journey, her reception, her song, and her service to Elizabeth. In Mary’s song the New Testament overtakes the Old.
Sermon transcript
Luke chapter 1, we are at verse 39. This is Luke 1, verse 39. Give your attention to the Word of God. And Mary arose in those days and went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah, and entered into the house of Zacharias and saluted Elizabeth.
And it came to pass that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. And she spake out with a loud voice and said, Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb. And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ear as the babe leaped in my womb for joy.
And blessed is she that believed, for there shall be a performance of those things which were told her from the Lord. And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour, for he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaiden For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is his name.
And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation. He hath showed his strength with his arm. He hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts. He hath put down the mighty from their seats and exalted them of low degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away. He hath opened his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy, as he spake to our fathers, to Abraham and to his sea forever.
And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house. Our text this morning progresses in four stages. First of all, Mary’s journey and greeting, verses 39 and 40. Then her reception, verses 41 through 45. Her song, verses 46 through 55, and finally her sojourn and return home, verse 56. Now, obviously, Mary stands front and center to this text. Even more so does the child she carries, our Savior Jesus Christ. However, the one we will have to come to grips with, if we are to understand this passage best, is Elizabeth.
Who is Elizabeth? Well, of course, Elizabeth is the barren wife of Zacharias the priest, the Levite. Elizabeth has just conceived in her old age a child, no less a figure than John the Baptist, the forerunner to the Messiah. But is that all Elizabeth is, the wife of Zacharias, the mother of John, John the Baptist? Can we see in her more than a woman visited by a miracle, be it even as extraordinary a miracle as this one responsible for the conception of John the Baptist? we do see more in Elizabeth.
If you are to understand our text in the best way, you must see that Elizabeth is Israel. She is the people as a whole, the nation as a whole. Specifically, she is Israel positively considered, living proximate in Judah to God’s promises to David, within reach of and devoted to Jerusalem, bound in her husband to the service that God has prescribed for his sanctuary in the temple. In short, Elizabeth is an extension of her husband, Zacharias. In short, Elizabeth is Israel, described together with her husband as those righteous in the sight of God, walking uprightly in all the commandments and requirements of the Lord, verse 6 in Luke 1.
But as positively as we might see Elizabeth and her husband, for that matter, as much as we might see Elizabeth in this positive light and in relationship to Israel, she at the same time sets before us Israel subject to limitation and, yes, even corruption. Elizabeth, like Israel, is aged and barren. and not even her observation of the law, not even her righteousness which is according to the law, will deliver her from her barrenness, from her condition. And Elizabeth, like Israel, is also being bound to her husband, an extension of the Levitical system, but also inclusive of Levitical unbelief. as Zacharias, her husband, failed to believe the angel Gabriel in his message to him. And Elizabeth, like Israel, is caught, is caught despite her best intentions in a bitter dissatisfaction over God’s ways and means. Her response to God’s action, to this conception that has come to her in her old age, is to seclude herself, to hide herself away in shame, and then to explain, this is the way the Lord deals with me. Both Israel’s best and Israel’s tragic failure, therefore, reside simultaneously in Elizabeth. Her best cannot save her, her failure condemns her. that God has worked in her and for her as he does for old Israel.
And in her, he has established hope. By his work, John is conceived in her womb. And even in the womb, this child, this child will be effectual in ministry. even as a fetus in the womb, this child will move Elizabeth, his mother, just as he will then lead through Israel later, by the grace of God, into repentance and into faith in the coming of the Son. It is in this context, within this frame of reference, that we are to understand the various stages of the text we have before us this morning. First of all, Mary’s journey and her greeting, verses 39 and 40.
Mary is no less the figure for the new than Elizabeth is the figure for the old. Mary is no less the figure for the new than Elizabeth is the figure for the old. It is underscored in her physically. She is a virgin she is young. In contrast to Elizabeth in her age, Mary’s pregnancy now by the Holy Spirit speaks of further and even greater fruitfulness. Yes, we may speak of that spiritually, but think of it even physically.
Mary will yet bear other children, and this in contrast to Elizabeth who receives one child to resolve her bareness, and then no more. Mary carries within her the Son of God, and she, in her person, represents those bound to him, those in whom he comes to live.
If Elizabeth is the Old Testament, Mary is the New. If Elizabeth is Old Israel, Mary is New Israel, aligned in her meaning with the Church itself. But while Mary is the New, aligned with the Church, and here is the point. she is vitally bound to, she is vitally connected to. No. Mary herself is a Jew.
She is engaged to Joseph, a descendant of David, and the angel has described her as a cousin or a relative to Elizabeth, verse 36. Mary may reside in Galilee, outside her ancestral territory of Judah, in a region alien to Judah and Jerusalem, but both she and the child she carries find their destinies bound to Judah and Jerusalem. In fact, Mary’s journey to Judah with Jesus in the womb is but prelude for the later journey ending at the tomb. Now, you ought to be able to remember that, because it rhymes. What is happening here with regard to the womb anticipates what’s coming at the tomb.
Notice now further that Mary, upon her arrival at Elizabeth’s home, or the home of Zacharias the Levite, the home of the law, if you will, that upon arrival Mary greets or salutes Elizabeth. We have already said Elizabeth is the Old Order of Israel, particularly associated with the Law. Mary’s greeting is a greeting from the New. In other words, the New Testament, the New Order, is greeting the Old. The Church, if you will, is greeting Israel when Mary greets Elizabeth. The gospel is greeting the law.
Now, I trust that it is not difficult for you to see the significance of all of this. Mary, in greeting Elizabeth, speaks to us about the Church’s continuing attitude towards the Old Testament. to the older order, toward the law, toward Israel itself. The Church must always acknowledge her connection to all that has gone before her in the plan and history of salvation. She must always acknowledge. Her love for the Old Testament, yes, for the Old Testament, for the law of God, and for Israel, who as a people prepared the way for the new.
Don’t go through life with half a Bible. and go to that church that encourages you to do just that. The church must not then embrace a contempt for the Old Testament, a disdain, a disinterest, as many have proposed, who have claimed to speak for the church. But neither can the Church justify an antinomianism, that is, an anti-law attitude, an anti-Moses attitude, as if the law had not been given by God to Moses on Sinai. At the same time, the Church must not gouge out her eyes when it comes to the Old Testament.
Instead, it is imperative that she openly confirmed her dependence upon Israel and Israel’s history. Paul will go so far in 1 Corinthians 10 to tell these Gentile Christians gathered that the Jews in the Old Testament were their fathers. Mary was a guest in old Israel’s house, and so are we, the Church. Remember, not just Mary, but Jesus was a Jew. and no amount of racist banter, be it white or black, can change that fact.
But if the new greets the old in Mary’s greeting of Elizabeth, then secondly, the old, by the grace of God, receives the new as Elizabeth receives Mary. Nothing less is in view here other than Israel graciously led to embrace the gospel. Elizabeth, left in herself, left to herself, will not, cannot receive the gospel. Her self-imposed seclusion, verse 24, and her residual bitterness, verse 25, are not expressions of gratitude and joy for the role that she now plays in the plan of salvation. Change comes for her through Mary’s grieving, and through the leap of the babe within her own womb.
Just as change will come for many in Israel through John’s preaching later and through his announcement of the Messiah, John’s later joy will be to hear the Christ’s voice as the best man rejoices at the voice of the bridegroom. That here, even now, before the ministry of either John or Jesus commences, even here, before John will publicly explode with his joy over Jesus, he leaps in the womb. John’s leap proves the old is not hostile to the new. We have seen that the new greets the old, but the old is not hostile to the new, but rather the new is the fulfillment of the old, the old welcoming the new. even confessing the new to be the superior and superlative administration, the very goal for which the old existed.
John’s joy then translates into a transformation for Elizabeth, as if you are witnessing here a conversion. The movement from old into new, she is filled with the Holy Spirit, and her mouth overflows with blessing. Formerly she was filled with rancor and sarcasm, if not cynicism. Now she is filled with the Holy Spirit and with thanksgiving. Indeed, Elizabeth anticipates the transformation in store, so all the elect in Israel, who through the witness of John and then the preaching of Christ, are led to the glorious for the day of Pentecost and the fullness of the Spirit, together with all the blessings of the kingdom of God. Elizabeth’s blessing of Mary and her blessing of the fruit of Mary’s womb, verse 42, is the blessing generated graciously by God in which the law and the prophets of Israel, the old administration, glory in the Messiah and in the gospel of the Church. Here is Israel’s true delight, here is her true destiny and goal. But here also is her confession of genuine, abject humility, in which the old order now, through Elizabeth, declares its subordination to the new.
For Elizabeth explains, how has it happened to me? How has it happened to me? I’m an Israelite. I’m a Jewish woman, why wouldn’t it happen to me? How has it happened to me? How has it happened to Israel, that the mother of my Lord, that is, the Church, the fullness of all my expectations, should come to me?
She asks this question especially in light of the superlative righteousness, even that righteousness which is by faith. Yes, there is the doctrine of justification by faith, even in the first chapter of Luke. She asks this question especially in light of the superlative righteousness, the righteousness which is by faith, demonstrated by Mary, by the Church, who, unlike Elizabeth, believed what was told her by the angel.” that if the old in Elizabeth acknowledges the superlative and even superior character of the new, and even announces her subordination to it in the third place and in Mary’s song, Mary now, as the new, exhibits her own genuine humility. by subordinating herself to the old. You see what’s happening in Mary’s song. Do you catch it? Do you catch the tone? Does it register?
Now, to be sure, we have in Mary’s song grand testimony to the superlative, superior character of the New and the subordination of the Old to the New. For example, in Mary’s song we find four explicit citations of Hannah’s song from the Old Testament, recorded in 1 Samuel 2.
Both Mary’s and Hannah’s songs begin on the same note. My soul magnifies the Lord, or exults in the Lord. Both songs celebrate the event of the coming of the kingdom. Hannah’s song celebrates the kingdom coming in David’s reign. Mary’s song celebrates the coming of the kingdom in Christ’s reign. Mary’s citation of Hannah’s song Honor the connection between the two mighty acts of God that Mary’s song celebrates the conclusiveness of God’s action now in the coming of Christ. David’s reign is but a mere shadow. Christ’s reign is real. It is the final thing.
Along these lines, Mary’s song evidences the superiority and superior character of the new and the subordination of the old in its use of Old Testament quotations and allusions. Over thirty different texts are cited in the Course of Mary’s Song. Over thirty, drawn from the Law, the Prophets, and the Old Testament writings. The effect of this massive yet magnificently compressed compendium of Old Testament revelation is to suggest that the whole of the Old Testament is not only fulfilled in the New, but interpreted by the New. The latter act interprets the former. Mary gathers all these Old Testament references in the interests of demonstrating that the Old Testament’s final interpretation is found as it is subjected to the light of God’s conclusive act in Jesus Christ and in his gospel.
But having said that, the subordination of the old to the new. One more time. Truly, the wonderful thing is this. As much as Mary’s song testifies to this superlative superior character of the new, Mary’s song, although representative of the new, carries the tone, the color, and the language of the old.
The relationship to the Hannah story and the thirty-plus citations from the Old Testament, evidence the servant character of the new, even as it subordinates itself to the old, even as it becomes like the old. Jesus, the embodiment of the new, becomes himself the servant to the old, that he might fulfill the old and save those in bondage under the old. Later, the Apostle Paul, in the spirit of Mary’s song and in the spirit of Jesus Christ, will say, To the Jew I become a Jew, so that I might win the Jews. To those who are under the law, as under the law there not being myself under the law, so that I might win those who are under the law.
1 Corinthians 9.20.
Mary’s song, therefore, caps the theme of humility woven throughout the text, not only will the old subordinate itself to the new, but the new humbles itself and subordinates itself to the old. And all of this, mind you, is grounded in God himself. will humble himself for the sake of the redemption that he is accomplishing. This humility in God shows itself in Mary’s song itself.
It is seen as you watch the development of the song and the progression in it. The specific titles and names for the Lord at the beginning of the song will disappear by the end. will not appear. Instead, the name Israel and Abraham appears. Mary, in her song, captures the condescension of God. where it would seem as if God moves out of the way for the sake of his people whom he intends to exalt.
The Lord becomes the servant for his people. By this humility and servanthood in God, we see also the playing out of that which is at work in the Incarnation. God most clearly taking to himself in that Incarnation human flesh to be born of a woman. But finally, Mary’s story and service to Elizabeth through her own humility is described to us in terms of a three-month stay, verse 56. In the final analysis, this stay and service by Mary for Elizabeth, this subordination of Mary to Elizabeth, speaks to us of God’s humiliation in Christ for us, in order to minister as he does during the course of his service. For he will minister to Israel, not for three months, but for three years, and then he will subordinate himself to death for three days. only to rise and return to his home, not to Galilee, but to glory. That place to which we all shall be brought, if we have that faith, when our days of service in a self-chosen subservience and subordination are ended in this world.
And may the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom your own service has been perfected, bless you in your journey home. O Father, may your Church stand strong in her witness to the coalescence of the Testaments in your Word, and how each Testament serves the other, but in the interests of the exaltation of the latter. May we be trained in our souls even as we observe this pattern, for it is the pattern that resides in you and is manifest in Christ. For surely the old order is to serve him that he makes himself the servant to it, that it might be saved and redeemed. Father, we have a journey, and in it, Lord, we have been given a responsibility for service.
May we serve with all humility, not such as the world admires, but such as glorifies you, such as is found finally in Elizabeth and in Mary, but principally in Jesus Christ. and in our God. We pray these things, O God, even as we look to you with joy for what you have provided us, trusting you for
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