Few passages in Scripture astound as much as Elizabeth’s words to her younger cousin, Mary. Exclaiming loudly, she does with Mary what her unborn child, John the Baptizer, would later do for Jesus. She proclaims the coming of the Lord.
Elizabeth’s prophetic words begin with, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” She says this because she knows that when Mary comes into her home, within her also comes the Lord and God of Israel. She knows the coming of Salvation is finally here. For at that moment in Mary’s womb was God in human flesh.
But how did Elizabeth know? How did she know that Mary was not only pregnant, but the baby in her womb was the messiah prophesied from of old? She knew because she was “filled with the Holy Spirit.” That’s why when Elizabeth hears the sound of Mary’s voice, her unborn son, John, leaps for joy within her womb.
Elizabeth, inspired by the Holy Spirit, cries out: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?”
How astounding! Elizabeth speaks of Mary–not just as the mother of some baby–but the Mother of the Lord Jesus, even the mother of God. For that is who Jesus is–God in human flesh.
Now, of course, God’s Son existed before Mary was ever born. But Mary is still the Mother of God. For it’s impossible for us to separate Jesus’ human nature from His divine nature. Where you get Jesus in human flesh, you get God. It’s that simple. So when we call Mary the mother of God, we do so to confess who she is bearing in her womb–Jesus Christ, God in human flesh.
The point of Mary being the Mother of God is that God’s Son has become human, for real, for us, and for our salvation. When Jesus took on human flesh, while even still in the womb, He reunited humanity to a life of communion with God. He became human, so He could overcome the sinfulness that we inherited from Adam. By doing so, Jesus rescued our human nature from sin, death, and the devil.
God’s Son becomes everything that we are, everything, so He could sanctify and make it holy. In full holiness and righteousness, Jesus, God’s Son, enters our reality, our nature. And whatever Jesus takes into Himself, He sanctifies and makes holy. He redeems and restores humanity to life in the Holy Spirit.
Jesus takes the physical flesh from Mary and makes it His own. He does this to fight as a person for all people. He becomes the perfect person in the place of all people. This allowed Him to suffer and die for the sins of all, so He could destroy death and rise to immortality–as a person–to bring all people with Him.
That’s the whole point of Christ’s incarnation. This Elizabeth recognizes. To save us physical, fallen beings, Jesus had to become a physical being Himself. But Christ’s use of physical matter doesn’t begin and end at His incarnation. What Jesus did also showed how He would use other things physical for our salvation.
That’s what Jesus does in baptism. Jesus, as God, takes water and by the Holy Spirit working through the Word, He turns it into a washing of regeneration and new life. Jesus also uses bread and wine to save us. By the Holy Spirit working through the Word, bread and wine become His body and blood. And what Jesus fills, He sanctifies and makes holy. That’s how He works.
So this day, receive God Himself, Jesus Christ in His body and blood. Receive Him, where He comes to you in the bread and wine for your forgiveness and salvation. For Jesus is as real in His Supper as He is in His incarnation. Amen.
