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| The Visitation, Jacques Daret |
1:39 Having arisen, [1] Mary in those days went into the hill country with haste into a city of Judah. 40. And she entered into the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
We do not know exactly where Zechariah and Elizabeth are from, but it is not Jerusalem. They are from a "city of Judah," in the hill country. Mary's connection with them may suggest that Mary had a priestly lineage. In chapter 4 will we encounter the suggestion that she also had a royal one.
Hebrews 7 does not indicate that Jesus had a priestly lineage, but certainly as Christians we think of Jesus as prophet, priest, and king. The Gospels and Paul are explicit about his kingly role. Luke will explicitly call him a prophet. And Hebrews 7 calls him a priest, whether he descends biologically from Levi or not.
Elizabeth is sixth months pregnant, and Mary will stay with her till she is nine months pregnant. The Gospel does not say whether Mary stays all the way to the birth of John the Baptist. It is the first trimester of Mary's pregnancy.
41. And it happened as Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was full of Holy Spirit.
The model of Spirit-filling in the Old Testament is that the Spirit of God comes on individuals to give them the power to do specific tasks (e.g., Samson) or to prophesy (e.g., Saul). In such cases, the power of God's Spirit is not necessarily associated with goodness or godliness. On the Day of Pentecost, it will become normal for all of God's true people to receive the Holy Spirit and the expectation of godliness and purity will become universal for those filled with the Holy Spirit.
Elizabeth is still under the old covenant, although Luke does not make that pattern clear here. She is filled with the Holy Spirit and called for a special purpose, to give birth and raise "Elijah," who will prepare the way for the Messiah. Interestingly, we are never told that Mary gets "filled" with the Holy Spirit, but we can assume she is both because Jesus is greater than John the Baptist and the Holy Spirit has overshadowed her (1:35).
We have already seen in this chapter that the coming of the Spirit is not always connected to an act on the part of an individual. John the Baptist is filled with the Spirit from his mother's womb (1:15). The Spirit can come on a person before the person has any real understanding of the Holy Spirit. John the Baptist will later confirm his membership in the people of God. Elizabeth's faith in what God is doing through Mary confirms hers.
42. And she called out with a great cry and said, "Blessed [are] you among women and having been blessed [is] the fruit of your womb!
Elizabeth recognizes Mary's honor among women. God has shown her favor and honored her. Blessedness is honor language, something it is difficult for Western minds to understand. Picture a room of people clapping while giving a standing ovation.
Yet blessing goes beyond honor for something you do, although you can do things that bring you honor. Blessing is a gift of favor. A person can be blessed without doing something. They can be favored by God beyond their faithfulness.
Mary is a faithful young woman, yes, but there were no doubt many faithful young women at that time. She is favored and honored and blessed beyond them not only because she was faithful but because God chose her beyond her faithfulness. She is blessed among the faithful. She is highly favored by God, chosen to do something no other woman in history will ever do.
The fruit of her womb is obviously blessed beyond all other humans. As Christians, we believe that Jesus was the eternal second person of the Trinity, God himself come to earth. We have the benefit of the Gospel of John and centuries of unpacked Christian understanding. In that light, the greeting seems like an understatement. Of course Jesus is worthy of honor!
43. "And why to me [is] this, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For, behold, as the sound of your greeting came into my ears, the baby in my womb leaped in rejoicing!
The baby John the Baptist leaps in the womb as a sign of what Mary represents. Mary is the "mother of my Lord." This is the first time in the Gospel of Luke that Jesus is referred to as "Lord," although he has already been referred to as the "Son of God" (1:32, 35). The title has been used ten times previously in the chapter but in every case in relation to God the Father.
Acts 2:36 will use "Lord" and "Messiah" as royal titles like "Son of God" and locate Jesus' assumption of them most poignantly after his resurrection from the dead and exaltation to God's right hand in heaven. That moment is like Jesus assuming the throne of the cosmos. The use of the term Lord in relation to Jesus comes especially from Psalm 110:1--"The LORD said to my Lord, 'Sit at my right hand.'"
45. "And blessed is the one who has believed that there will be a fulfillment to the things that have been spoken to her from the Lord!"
Elizabeth's words began with a blessing to Mary and here they end with that same blessing again. Mary is the one on whom God has not only shown unmerited favor and blessing. She is the one who has believed or had faith in the things spoken to her by the angel.
There is a tendency in Protestantism to make faith and works into opposites or contradictories. The New Testament knows nothing of that. The favor shown Mary is not earned but her actions are consistent with that favor. She is worthy without deserving. Her honor fits her faithfulness although she could have never earned it.
Grace is unmerited favor. We think of it especially when God forgives our sins. It does involve a "work" of sorts, because we normally "trigger" grace by our prayers and faith. [1] Blessing is a specific kind of grace, not one that relates to our sin but to our faithfulness. It is God's gift beyond our faithfulness.
Mary's Song
46. And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, 47. and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...
This is the "Magnificat." Both Luke's Gospel and Acts are filled with songs and sermons. Magnificat is the Latin for "it magnifies." This hymn has been set to various music over the centuries.
This hymn is in the style of Hebrew poetry, which utilized "parallelism." The most basic form of parallelism is synonymous parallelism, where you say something and then say it again in similar terms. So "my soul magnifies the Lord" is very similar in meaning to "my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."
This parallelism helps us with interpretation. For example, if we wonder which "Lord" Mary is thinking of, the mention of "God my Savior" in the second suggests she is thinking of God the Father. Interestingly, expressions that describe God the Father and Jesus the Son are often interchangeable, sometimes making it difficult to determine which is in view. Jesus is the "Savior, Christ the Lord" (2:11), but God the Father is also our Savior and the LORD.
The word soul would be difficult to interpret without the parallel. In the Old Testament and Hebrew, "soul" refers to the whole living being, so we would be tempted to translate this verse as "My person magnifies the Lord." But the parallel of the word spirit suggests Mary is referring to her inner being rather than her whole person, a part of her rather than the whole.
Her soul in this case is her truest self inside, who she really is. It is the essence of her personhood, the part of her that makes choices. It is the part of her where the longings that aline with her choices come.
That inner essence of her praises the Lord and rejoices in God's goodness. God alone is deserving of worship, and she gives God some small bit of what God deserves--God's "worth-ship." God alone is truly worthy of our honor, praise, and glory.
48. "... because he looked upon the humble state of his servant girl. For, behold, from now all generations will bless me.
God in himself is worthy of our praise. Yet we can also praise God in the context of things he has done. Mary magnifies God not only for who God is but for what he has done in relation to her. All generations will now "bless" her, give her praise and favor. And to this day her prediction has come to pass.
One of the major themes of the Gospel of Luke is an emphasis on God's favor toward the poor. God seems to have chosen Mary not least so that he could exalt the humble. He intentionally did not choose a famous or wealthy girl. He did not choose a woman of privilege from a powerful family. It is clear from the rest of Mary's song that he chose her in part specifically to take someone who was marginal in society and exalt her.
We will see time and time again in Luke that Jesus targets those on the edges of society. He targets the "sick" not the "healthy." He focuses on the "lost sheep," the poor. He ministers to those society does not see, like women and the sick. He looks on Mary in her "humble state" and exalts her above the most "significant" of people in that day, including the Herods and Pilates.
The parallelism here is more "synthetic" rather than synonymous. The second line builds on the first one. God favored a humble girl, therefore, all generations will call her blessed.
49. "... because the Powerful [One] did great things for me--and holy is his name-- 50. and his mercy [reaches] into generations and generations to those who fear him.
The parallelism of these two verses centers on the fact that God is a God who does great things for his people. He has done something great for Mary and blessed her--she will be the mother of the Messiah. Similarly, God's mercy reaches to generation after generation to those who "fear" him like Mary did. And of course his mercy continues to our generation today.
Three characteristics of God are featured in these two verses. God is powerful. God's name is holy. God is merciful. The first two with out the last would definitely be fearful, and we are to "fear" the Lord. God is a God who can "fry us alive." An elephant may mean us no harm, but we might "fear" it if it is prancing around. A million volt fence would have nothing against us, but we would not dare touch it.
God is all-powerful. There should be a healthy fear of him. His name is holy. It is set apart from all other names. To say that something is holy is to say it belongs to God and should be treated special, not like something that is common or ordinary. To say God is holy is to say that God is God and as a result to fall on our faces in unworthiness.
Yet God is a God of mercy. God wishes us well. As one of my Old Testament professors once said, "The God who can fry me alive loves me." As God we should fear him. As God has revealed himself to us, we need not.
51. "He performed strength with his arm. He scattered the proud in the intention of their heart.
The alignment of God with the humble instead of the proud becomes clearer and clearer as we proceed through the song. Pride was specially offensive in the ancient world, because it suggested that a person was on the same level as the gods. A proud person was just asking for a god to put them in their place by knocking them down a notch.
God is the one with true strength. The proud might be tempted to think themselves strong or lofty. They might make plans thinking that they are in control of their fate. But the intentions of their hearts cannot bring blessing or certainty of outcome. It is God's arm that performs strength. The "arm of the Lord" is a theme in the later chapters of Isaiah (e.g., Isa. 53:1).
52. "He brought down powerful rulers from thrones and exalted humble [ones].
Rulers are among the proud. You probably know the saying, "Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely." It is indeed difficult not to let power go to your head. Often you do not realize it until the time comes to step down from power. Many struggle to give up power and do so too late, after they have begun to unwind the legacy of their good years. Others try to resort to immoral means to try to maintain power after their time is up.
God is always in power. Rulers fall at God's hand, yet he remains forever enthroned. Meanwhile, God loves to exalt the lowly. David was the least of Jesse's sons when God anointed him. God loves to take the lesser and make it the greater.
53. "Those hungering he filled with good [things], and those who are wealthy he sent away empty.
This verse may sound downright socialist, but we should resist interpreting the New Testament through modern lenses and categories. Nevertheless, the statement means what it seems to say to us. The Gospel of Luke repeately emphasizes God's favor on those who lack and his general displeasure with those who have too much.
The economy of the ancient world was quite different from ours. They dealt more with goods, with coinage less central to the world's operations. The basic unit of Greek money, the drachma, was linked to a day's wage, and a day's wage was largely linked to the subsistence needs of a day. Your average person lived from hand to mouth.
Those who stored wealth were unusual and often thought as a more grandiose kind of thief. An old Arab saying suggests that, "every rich man is either a thief or the son of a thief." It is no surprise that the New Testament has very little positive to say about the wealthy. The Gospel of Luke is especially this way, all the more striking since it is dedicated to Theophilus, who was probably a wealthy Roman official.
Mary celebrates that God reverses the fortunes of people in this world. God is portrayed as a sort of divine Robin Hood, who takes from the rich and gives to the poor. There is no sense that the wealthy deserve or actually own their excess. There is a sense that it is unjust for anyone to be hungry. God is a God who sets these imbalances straight.
54. "He helped Israel, his servant, mercies to be remembered, 55. just as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his seed forever."
Lest we take these comments in an overly individualistic way, Mary's song ends with a reminder that all these words have to do with the restoration of Israel. God is keeping his promises to Abraham long ago. In Israel, all were meant to prosper. None were meant to be knocked off track into poverty or abject humility. Israel was never meant to be overcome by powerful outside political forces.
In Jesus God was remembering the faithful of the past. In Jesus God was showing mercy to Israel to bring everything back into balance. The lost sheep will be found. The poor and humble will be brought back to economic health. Those who have hoarded power and wealth will be brought down to size.
56. And Mary remained with her about three months, and she returned to her house.
Mary stays with Elizabeth up until the time she is ready to deliver. Luke does not say that she is there when Elizabeth gives birth, but the months add up to nine. Perhaps there is something symbolic here. John the Baptist is preparation for Jesus. When Jesus begins, John the Baptist ends. So Mary leaves as the preparation ends, and John the Baptist begins.
[1] aorist participle, feminine nominative singular
[2] Theologically, both Wesleyans and Calvinists believe that there is grace prior to our prayers, faith, and repentance. This construct makes sense, although it goes beyond what the biblical texts say.
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"God in himself is worthy of our praise. Yet we can also praise God in the context of things he has done."
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