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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
Although the feast day itself goes back centuries, today’s observance of “The Visitation” is new to many of you. Often when we think of “visitation” we think of something like what took place last week, when mourners came to the funeral home in Henderson in order to express their condolences to the Nicol family and to view Beth’s earthly remains. The two “visitations” certainly share the common idea of “visiting”! In the case of the Church’s festival of “The Visitation”, however, the visiting in view is at least that of the Blessed Virgin Mary to her relative Elizabeth (Luke 1:36), if not also the visiting of the more-recently‑conceived Jesus to the less‑recently‑conceived John the Baptizer. In some religious traditions, the festival is one of the seven festivals of Mary, and its title is “The Visitation of Our Lady” or “The Visitation of Mary”. But, in our Lutheran tradition, the day is a principal feast of Christ, and the more-general name “The Visitation” perhaps leaves open just who is visiting whom. In fact, as we consider the appointed Gospel Reading in this observance of The Visitation, we do so under the theme, “Our Lord Himself visits us”.
Prior to the appointed Gospel Reading in St. Luke’s Divinely‑inspired account, the angel Gabriel had announced to Zechariah the birth of John the Baptizer, who was then conceived in the normal way of the elderly Zechariah and his previously barren wife Elizabeth (Luke 1:5-25), and the angel Gabriel had announced to Mary the birth of Jesus, who was then conceived in a miraculous way: the Holy Spirit’s coming upon her and the power of the Most High’s overshadowing her (Luke 1:26-38). The angel Gabriel had mentioned Elizabeth’s conception of John to Mary, seemingly as a sign, which Mary apparently wasted no time in checking out. But, when Mary visited Elizabeth, Mary—and we—received so much more than a simple confirmation that what was spoken to her from the Lord would be fulfilled. Mary’s greeting is met both by the unborn John the Baptizer’s inspired leaping for joy (Luke 1:15) and by Elizabeth’s inspired exclamation that Mary is blessed among women, something that Mary’s song, “The Magnificat”, which immediately follows, says all generations will call her (Luke 1:48).
Let me be perfectly clear: we faithful Lutherans appropriately call the Virgin Mary “blessed” and hold her in the proper regard, neither under-appreciating her nor over-appreciating her. Mary was and is, as Elizabeth called her, the mother of the Lord, a title related to her title as “God-bearer”, affirmed by later Church councils dealing with false teaching about Jesus and Mary. So, Mary was not just another woman, but, contrary to what some think, she also was neither conceived without sin nor bodily assumed into heaven, and she is neither a co-mediator with Christ nor much less a co‑redeemer with Him. Her own blessedness in the sense of salvation came not from her womb’s bearing Jesus or her breasts’ nursing Him but from her hearing the Word of God and keeping it (Luke 11:27-28), something at least one time she might have been guilty of not doing (Luke 8:19-21).
Mary certainly knew her own need for the Savior (Luke 1:47), as Elizabeth also recognized her own unworthiness in the presence of the Lord and even His Mother. We are wise to do likewise! For, as the Old Testament Reading made clear, the Shoot from the stump of Jesse, the Branch from his roots that bears fruit, the One with the sevenfold Spirit of the Lord, will judge with righteousness the poor and decide with equity for the meek (Isaiah 11:1-5). Indeed, as the Introit recalled with words from the song of Samuel’s mother Hannah echoed in Mary’s “Magnificat”, the Lord makes poor and rich, He brings low and exalts, He raises up from the dust and lifts from the ash heap (1 Samuel 2:1-2, 7-8; antiphon: Luke 1:46b-47). When, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we turn in sorrow from our sinful nature and all of our sin and trust God to forgive our sin for Jesus’s sake, then that is exactly what God does: He forgives our sin for Jesus’s sake.
Interestingly enough, the term “visitation” is not used in the Gospel Reading but was later used of the Gospel Reading. The term “visitation” was however used by John the Baptizer’s inspired father Zechariah (Luke 1:67) when John was circumcised; as St. Luke records, Zechariah said God had “visited and redeemed His people”, raising up a horn of salvation in the house of His servant David (Luke 1:68-69). Such a visitation is not only a visual inspection but also one especially with the purpose of seeing how people are in order to help or benefit them, to look after them, have care for them, provide for them (ESL #1980). In Jesus, God draws near His people to deal with them in grace (Beyer, TDNT 2:603-605). The inspired Elizabeth and unborn John the Baptizer confess the unborn Jesus to be God in human flesh, the fruit of Mary’s womb, and rejoice with the joy that results from the presence of God’s anointed One, the Messiah, the Christ. That later born and grown Jesus truly was the Christ, Who went to the cross for the sins of Mary, Elizabeth, and John, as well as for your sins and my sins. What a fulfillment there was of all that was spoken from the Lord!
The words of Mary’s greetings are often taken as the Holy Spirit’s instruments for inspiring Elizabeth and leading the unborn John the Baptizer to leap in her womb. Be that as it may, the Holy Spirit certainly uses God’s Word not only to lead us to sorrow over our sin and to trust that God forgives our sin, but the Holy Spirit also certainly uses God’s Word in all of its forms to forgive our sin. For example, the Holy Spirit uses God’s Word with water in Holy Baptism. At the Font, one’s age does not matter, for the unborn John the Baptizer had faith inside the womb just as those infants referred to elsewhere with the same Greek word who were later blessed by Jesus had faith outside of the womb (Luke 18:15; confer Matthew 18:6; Mark 9:42). And, the Holy Spirit uses God’s Word with bread and wine in the Sacrament of the Altar. At this Altar and its Rail, we share in the blessings and festal joy of salvation as we partake of Christ’s Body and Blood, given and shed for us for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. From God’s Word and Sacraments, we receive in faith the fulfillment of all the promises God has spoken to us.
During Mary’s three-month visitation to her relative Elizabeth (Luke 1:56), the two women no doubt rejoiced with one another, as St. Paul in the appointed Epistle Reading tells us all to do (Romans 12:9-16). Yet, our sharing the joys and sorrows of our brothers and sisters in Christ only comes about because “Our Lord Himself visits us”. As He once visited Elizabeth and John in the womb of His Mother, our Lord Jesus, having died on the cross for us, risen and ascended, now visits us through His Word and Sacraments,. Remembering the wondrous works that He has done, as the Gradual put it, His miracles, and the judgments He uttered, let us give thanks to Him and bless His Name, now and forever (Psalm 103:2; 105:5; 100:4).
Amen.
Alleluia! Christ is risen! (He is risen indeed! Alleluia!)
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +