Blessed Are You Among Women

Mary arose and went with haste. That is how our Gospel reading begins. She had just received the announcement from the angel Gabriel: that she, though a virgin, would conceive and bear the Son of the Most High. She asked, “How can this be?” and the angel pointed her to a sign: her elderly relative Elizabeth had conceived in her old age. “For nothing will be impossible with God.”

And so Mary goes. Not out of doubt, but in faith. In haste, with joy. Faith is never content to sit still. It moves; it acts. It runs to the Word of God, clings to His promises, and seeks out the fellowship of the faithful. And what a meeting this is! Mary, newly pregnant with the Son of God, and Elizabeth, six months along with John the Baptist.

The moment Mary enters the house and greets Elizabeth, the child in Elizabeth’s womb leaps for joy. Already, John is doing what he was called to do: preparing the way of the Lord, pointing to Jesus even from the womb. The Holy Spirit fills Elizabeth, and she cries out with that beautiful confession we still confess today:  “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!”

This is a Spirit-filled confession of faith. Elizabeth calls Mary “blessed” not because of anything Mary had done, but because of what God had done for her and through her. Mary is blessed because she bears the promised Savior. And she is blessed even more because she believed in the Lord’s promise. That is what Elizabeth says: “Blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

To find out more, listen to this sermon for the Visitation from St. John's Lutheran Church of Oakes, ND!