This sermon is from the Rev. Charles G. Dennison sermon archive, part of the “Christmas” series, and was preached at Grace Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Sewickley, PA, during a worship service on Sunday, December 26, 1993.

Our reading is from Luke 1. We are beginning at verse 26. Listen to the word of God. And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary.

And the angel came in unto her and said, Heal thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God.

And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of And behold, thy cousin Elizabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month with her, who was called Baron.

For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. 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 greeted Elizabeth.

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 my salutation sounded in mine ears, 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.” Mary said, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.

For he hath regarded the lowest state of his handmaidens. 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 shewed 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 seed forever.” And Mary abode with her about three months, and returned to her own house. Let’s pray together now. How dramatically, Lord, your word came to Mary, and how willing she was found as that word was delivered. Lord, we pray that we who receive the word presently would also be found willing submissive to your will, and this to the glory of your name. Help us in this regard as we worship you and as you set your word before us. For Jesus’ sake, amen.

Surely the beauty of Luke’s Christmas story cannot be restricted to the account of Christ’s birth in the second chapter of Luke. We have read this morning from the first chapter in Luke, a chapter that sets before us extraordinary beauty in its own right, and also sets before us great truths, great truths of doctrinal value to us.

I have specifically in mind the section verses 39 through 56, and the story of these two gentle women. Mary and her cousin Elizabeth, and specifically Mary’s visit to Elizabeth. This story divides into four parts. First we have Mary’s journey and her greeting, verses 39 and 40. Then we have Elizabeth’s Welcome, verses 41-45, followed by Mary’s song, called the Magnificat, verses 46-55. Finally, we have Mary’s stay with Elizabeth and her departure, verse 56. The purpose of this story and these episodes that we have listed here is in keeping with Luke’s intention, as he is directed by the Holy Spirit and inspired by that Spirit, namely, to preach the gospel. Even here, he will preach the gospel, and we do well to look for the gospel in what we have heard, what is set before us. First of all, then, the first episode, Mary’s journey and her greeting to Elizabeth, verses 39 and 40. There are two things here that catch our eye.

If we think on them If we reflect on this passage with depth, you see Mary is of the tribe of Judah. She is espoused to a man who is also of the tribe of Judah. Do you know where the homeland of the tribe of Judah was? Well, it certainly wasn’t in Galilee. Mary is living in Nazareth, a town in the territory of Galilee, far to the north of her patrimony, her homeland, the inheritance of the tribe of Judah. This means, then, that Mary is living outside of that territory in which she should have been living, married to the man that she was or engaged to him, belonging to the tribe of Judah.

It’s almost as if, even within the territory of Israel, for Galilee was within the territory of Israel, she was an alien. She was an alien. And in this, you see, she reflects the condition of the people of God. The people of God are described in many places as aliens and strangers. Compounding the power of this point is the fact, as we have already noticed, that she is living as an alien even within the boundaries of the promised land, suggesting to us that that land, that physical land, that geographical land of Israel, was not the true homeland for the people of God. the aliens of the tribe of Judah, living apart from the homeland of the tribe of Judah, reflecting the condition of the people of God. They also, aliens and strangers, and this true of God’s people, even though they may live in the land of promise. For in the end, that land of promise, that geographical land of promise, will not be the inheritance, will not be the homeland at all for which they are bound.

But now Mary, secondly, enters the territory of her patrimony. She enters the land of Judah, she enters the territory of Judah. She comes from the outside of that territory, enters into that territory, comes to those who are truly her kin’s people. In this, then, we note that she is reflecting the movement of the one she presently carries in her womb. He, too, comes from outside. He, too, journeys as it were. He, too, will come to his own, to his own family. Note the rapport that exists now as Mary makes entrance into this territory, from which she lives, as it were, as an alien, an outsider. The rapport is friendly and gracious. She comes to Elizabeth, her cousin.

Elizabeth is the wife of Zechariah, who is a priest, an official in the temple of God, and one who is a superintendent of the law of the Lord and the ancient order established within Israel under that law. In Mary’s greeting to Elizabeth, is heard also the greeting of the child within her, who himself now greets through Elizabeth the representative of that older administration and its legal order. In fact, greets in Elizabeth even Moses and the prophets. greeting them as those persons and these things in the administration of the old order to which he is friendly and kindly disposed. When Mary greets Elizabeth, the gospel greets the law. Jesus greets Moses, and it is a friendly greeting. Next we have Elizabeth’s welcome, verses 41-45. Elizabeth’s welcome is a happy acknowledgment.

Hers is a happy response, even as she gives expression to the subordination of the old to the new, and that through the response of the child who is in her womb. As Mary, in some fashion, proves to be an extension of the child she carries, Elizabeth also proves to be an extension of the child she carries.

That child carried by Elizabeth is John the Baptist, as you know. But understand, John the Baptist He is the greatest that the old order has presented to the world. There is none born of women greater than John the Baptist, so says Jesus. John the Baptist is the son of a priest. He is the son of one who superintends the old order of the law. He is as well a prophet. He is in fact the embodiment of the law and the prophets, reaching out towards the fulfillment that both the law and the prophets have envisioned.

And now this child in the womb at the greeting of Mary responds and acknowledges the arrival of the fulfillment of the law and the prophets in the child. that Mary carries. Yes, indeed, the new greets the old. Mary greets Elizabeth, but the old, properly disposed, welcomes the new as that for which it has longed. But at the same time, Elizabeth’s welcome is an acknowledgment of the older order’s weakness and failure. This comes out in a reference made by Elizabeth, you find it in verse 45, to her husband. Elizabeth here becomes the spokesperson who speaks most candidly and directly about the older order’s weakness and failure. That forty-fifth verse is a veiled comment about her husband Zachariah.

Do you remember his case? This administrator of the law? This superintendent of the old administration of Israel, the Temple at his order, he’s the one, you remember, who failed to believe the message of Gabriel, the angel. Verse 20 of that first chapter, you’ll notice that Gabriel says to him, You didn’t believe, The way in which Luke has structured his gospel makes it plain that he intends to contrast Mary with Zechariah.

He didn’t believe she did. She believed and submitted. The old order, then, is plagued by impotence, whether it’s Zachariah’s impotence or his wife’s, Elizabeth’s. They can’t produce a child. This is reflective of the weakness of the old order. But the impotence and weakness of that old order does not mean that the old in giving expression to its truest desire, fails to welcome the new. Indeed, the perfections of the new are already being spelled out, and that by Elizabeth as she speaks of Mary.

When the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy, and blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.” Now comes Mary’s song, verses 46-55. There are many things in these verses that we could observe in terms of their structure and their background, not the least of which is that some have pointed out that as many as fifteen Old Testament texts are cited or alluded to in the course of these verses in Mary’s song. But let me make two observations for you with respect to it.

This marvelous song gives confident expression to the conviction that the great turning point in salvation history has been reached. The salvation and deliverance longed for has come. Mary begins with a personal confession, and confesses that what has happened to her is signals the great turnaround in the fulfillment of the promise that was made to Abraham and to the Father. But I want you to notice also that this marvelous song helps us to exegete this great turning point.

One must see that the turning point also gives us a reorientation with respect to the inheritance for which the people of God have longed, and the blessings that they wished to be blessed with. We move through the song, the latter verses, and we hear there about the proud brought down and the humble exalted. We hear about the poor filled and the rich turned away. We hear about a great reversal, yet we look out upon the earth and we’re liable to say, in light of what we read here, that the turning point hasn’t been reached at all.

Yet Mary, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is saying that the turning point has been The things here being spoken of are a reality pushing itself upon the consciousness of the people of God. It will be the child, then, that Mary cares, that will finally and fully exegete this great turning point and these words which Mary speaks. for it will be by root of his ministry, by his death, by his resurrection, into a heavenly kingdom, into a heavenly inheritance that makes plain what Mary is speaking of.” Here is a deep meaning of that point with which we began with respect to Mary’s alien begins to settle in upon us. Yes, stranger and alien, even though she lives in the land of promise, yet the true inheritance is above, and that will be presented before us and to us in and through the child she carries.

Christ’s death and resurrection will make plain the true nature of the kingdom and our destiny. that we see the proud cast down and the humble exalted. It is in heaven, you see, that the poor and the hungry are fed and the rich are turned away empty-handed. This heaven into which Christ, by root of his death on the cross, Finally, we have Mary’s stay and departure, verse 56.

Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then returned to her home. This stay by Mary was a ministry to Elizabeth. And who is Elizabeth? The embodiment of the old order. Is this? Mary stays to minister to Elizabeth, who embodies the old order.

And she stays and ministers to her for three months. Could it be that three months are like three years? that we hear of in the case of Jesus Christ, the ministry that he shall perform in time. And having fulfilled the ministry, Mary returns to her home. We thought her home might well have been Judah. She might have wanted to get back to Judah. Her home is elsewhere, it is outside of Judah. Her home is a confirmation of the alien nature of her identity. And so it is for Jesus Christ.

He will minister to the old order for three years, and after that he will return to his home, being received into glory. the true inheritance, even that from which he has come. The beauty and doctrinal power of this portion of scripture, preaching even here for us the gospel which we hold dear.

We must understand ourselves, if we are to stand alongside of Mary, and under the tutelage of Christ, that we are aliens and strangers here, bound for another land. While we are here we must realize, as surely as Mary greeted Elizabeth, that gospel and the law and the prophets are not hostile to each other, but complementary, mutually supportive. At the same time, we must acknowledge the superiority of the full revelation that comes in Jesus Christ. We must not hold improperly to the old, and thus perpetuate its weakness and its impotence. We must accept the exposition of this story in terms of the gospel of Jesus Christ, his death and resurrection, by which then the true inheritance is put in front of us. to stand in the company of these two gentle women, we must give preeminence then to Jesus Christ, the child carried by Mary, and be like her, declaring our willingness to submit to Him in all things, and be the servants of the will of God.

Let us pray. Our God in heaven, may we not be satisfied until we have heard the gospel in every text, until we have seen the Lord Jesus Christ exalted in your word, as is its intention. Help us with our thinking and our reflecting our meditation upon that word. Help us also, our God, to profit from the valuable lessons that are set before us, so that we would not miss the gospel and the obedience that we are to offer in light of it. O God, your light shines forth, may it shine brightly in us, and in turn, Lord, may we be lights in a dark place. To the glory of Christ

The sermon text provided above is derived from the sermon audio recording making use of generative tools. It has not been manually edited. While transcription tools have a high degree of accuracy, the output may include generative textual, punctuation, and/or formatting errors.