A Community That Rejoices Together

“Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. When it was time for Elizabeth to have her baby, she gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.” (Luke 1:56–58)

As I meditate on these verses, I would like to receive the lessons God gives through them:

(1) Mary stayed at Elizabeth’s house for “about three months” [“for three months” (Modern Translation)] and then returned to her own home (Luke 1:56). The Bible also says that “the time came for Elizabeth to give birth” (v.57).

(a) If we calculate, the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary about three months earlier and said, “Look at your relative Elizabeth. She, who was said to be unable to conceive, is now in her sixth month of pregnancy, even in her old age” (v.36, Modern Translation). (See v.26, Modern Translation: “In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy…”) At that time, Elizabeth was already “six months pregnant,” so adding “about three months” makes nine months. Thus, the Bible says, “When it was time for Elizabeth to give birth” (v.57).

(i) I think that during those “about three months,” Mary lived with her relative Elizabeth, and her faith likely grew stronger and became more firm. The reason I think so is that Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah had already received God’s word through Gabriel: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah. Your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John” (v.13). And just as God promised, “Elizabeth became pregnant” (v.24, Modern Translation). As Gabriel said, “My words will certainly be fulfilled at the appointed time” (v.20, Modern Translation).

Elizabeth, who had already experienced the fulfillment of God’s promise, said to Mary, who had received the word from Gabriel, “You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus” (v.31): “Blessed are you among women… Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her” (vv.42, 45, Modern Translation). Because she was “filled with the Holy Spirit” (v.41, Modern Translation), she surely had a good influence on Mary during those three months, strengthening her faith.

• Elizabeth, who had been known as “the woman who could not conceive,” was already “six months pregnant in her old age” (v.36, Modern Translation). During the three months Mary stayed with her, she too, having heard God’s promise through Gabriel—“You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus” (v.31, Modern Translation)—responded, “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled” (v.38). As the one who “believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises” (v.45, Modern Translation), Mary had already sung, “The Mighty One has done great things for me” (v.49, Modern Translation; see v.46). Wouldn’t her conviction have grown stronger that the “power of the Most High” (v.35) would “overshadow” her (v.35, Modern Translation) so that, just as with her relative Elizabeth, she too—though a virgin—would surely conceive?

(2) When “the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, she gave birth to a son” (v.57). Her “neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy” (v.58, Modern Translation).

(a) This is the fulfillment of the words Gabriel spoke to Zechariah the priest about nine months earlier: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to call him John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth” (vv.13–14, Modern Translation).

(i) Thus, John’s birth was not only a joy and delight to his parents, Zechariah and Elizabeth, but also to their “neighbors and relatives,” who “shared their joy” (v.58, Modern Translation).

• Of course, the immediate reason was that Elizabeth gave birth to a son (v.57). But looking more closely, it was because “they heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy” (v.58, Modern Translation). The Revised Version says they heard that the Lord had “shown her great compassion,” and that is why they rejoiced with her. This means the Lord had heard the “prayers” (v.13) of Zechariah and Elizabeth, enabled Elizabeth to conceive (v.24), and finally, when the time came, allowed her to give birth to a son (v.57).

In other words, the Lord’s “great mercy” was that He had heard their prayers. [Compare Nehemiah 9:27: “So you delivered them into the hands of their enemies, who oppressed them. But when they were oppressed they cried out to you. From heaven you heard them, and in your great compassion you gave them deliverers, who rescued them from the hand of their enemies.”]

• Yet God the Father, though He clearly heard the cry of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, as He cried out loudly on the cross, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt. 27:46), did not save Him by His “great compassion” (Neh. 9:27). Scripture declares, “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness… You are a gracious and merciful God” (Neh. 9:31). And yet God forsook (abandoned) His beloved Son (Mark 1:11) on the cross. The reason was that God, in His great mercy toward us, wanted to forgive our sins and save us.

(b) When I meditate on the verse that Elizabeth’s neighbors and relatives, having heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, “shared her joy” (Luke 1:58), Romans 12:15 comes to mind: “Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.” Truly, a community that rejoices with those who rejoice and weeps with those who weep is a church that is beautiful in the Lord’s eyes.

(i) I also meditate on 1 Corinthians 12:26: “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” Within the church community, which forms one body in Christ, all members are organically connected. This means that the honor and joy of one member become the joy of all, and the suffering of one member becomes the suffering of all. Even the weaker members are to be honored, supported, and built up, so that the unity of the one body, the church, may be realized (source: internet).

• John 4:36 also comes to mind: “Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.” When Jesus spoke with the Samaritan woman, He explained in this parable that as the gospel is proclaimed and spiritual harvest takes place, the labor of those who sowed the seed long ago and the work of those who reap souls into salvation will come together. Both the sower and the reaper will rejoice together as they gather fruit for eternal life (source: internet).