A tale of two women (2)

At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!...” Luke 1:39-42

We thought last time about the dramatic meeting between Mary the mother-to-be of Jesus and Elizabeth the mother-to-be of John the Baptist: a tale of two women, I called it. We focussed on the moment when Mary greeted Elizabeth, and the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaped as if in joyful greeting of the one whose forerunner he was destined to be. No mere coincidence in the timing there!

Thinking about the two couples, the elderly Zechariah and Elizabeth and the young Joseph and Mary, we saw how God loves to reward humble, obedient and determined faith, and also how he delights to work through very ordinary people – people, perhaps, just like you and me.

But there is more to enjoy in this little episode, so I felt I wanted to return to it.

For one thing, it is a story of human friendship.

To call Elizabeth and Mary “friends” is of course to understate the nature of their relationship: in Luke 1:36 Elizabeth is described as Mary’s “kinswoman” or “relative”, and given the difference in their ages, they were hardly a couple of contemporaries, “friends” as we tend to think of it.

But Luke makes a point of telling us that Mary’s visit lasted for three whole months (1:56), which suggests a truly intimate closeness, even allowing for the much deeper nature of extended family life in their world.

Wouldn’t we love to know what they talked about! We can only guess. But we can be sure that they were good for one another - Mary no doubt offering practical support, and Elizabeth, after her long life of trust in God, offering Mary the reassurance she may have needed as she came to terms with the staggering thing that was happening to her.

(And anyway, why shouldn’t people belonging to different generations also be genuine friends?)

I especially like the fact that Elizabeth shows not a scrap of jealousy of the younger woman who is very shortly to take centre-stage while she fades into the background. She exclaims “in a loud voice… Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (1:42-3).

How generous-spirited am I - are we - towards others whose destiny is to outshine us?

Whatever, those three months together speak to me of the beauty and value of friendship - of the fact that none of us can negotiate the twists and turns of life alone, but need the support and love of others. And I find myself thinking, as I get towards the end of my life, of the many people who have been wonderful friends to me.

The Bible doesn’t have a lot to say about friendship. But there is a touching little observation in Ecclesiastes 3:9-10: “Two are better than one… if one of them falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity anyone who falls and has no-one to help them up”. Yes, pity them indeed!

Two very obvious questions arise: Do I value my friends as much as I should? and, How good a friend am I to others? Jesus said to his disciples “I have called you friends” (John 15:15). We could not wish for a better role-model, could we!

A second strand in this story is the role of the Holy Spirit.

That loud shout that I have just quoted came after “Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (1:41). When the angel Gabriel had visited Mary to tell her what was going to happen, he put it down to the work of the Spirit: “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…” (1:35). And when John was born and Zechariah’s tongue was released (he had been struck dumb as a rebuke for his unbelief) we read that he “was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied” (1:67). The Holy Spirit is at the heart of everything.

Of all the Gospel-writers Luke perhaps shows most interest in the Holy Spirit – it was he, after all, who went on to write the Acts of the Apostles (which could very well be entitled the Acts of the Holy Spirit) and described that momentous Day of Pentecost when the Spirit was poured out on the infant church (Acts 2).

The Holy Spirit is an enormous topic over which Christians may not always agree. But if he (I find it impossible to say “it”!) is about anything, that thing is life. The Spirit is in fact the very life and energy of God himself, the very breath and power of God. And apart from him everything is dead.

It is for want of the Spirit that churches shrivel and die, that prayer goes cold, that preaching bores and leaves its hearers unmoved.

So as we soak our minds in this lovely story of God at work in these two women, bringing miraculous life by the power of the Holy Spirit where none could be expected, why don’t we pray…

Father, I recognise that all I am and all I attempt is worthless and dead apart from your Holy Spirit. Please, in your generosity, grant me a fresh outpouring of your Spirit – even more, please grant to your church another Pentecost, a fresh baptising of your Spirit. Amen.