Blog Post: At first glance, Mary and Elizabeth do not seem to have much in common — other than King David as their common ancestor. Mary was a very young woman, barely out of childhood. Elizabeth was very old and had no children. Mary lived in the outskirts of the Holy Land, out in small town Galilee. Elizabeth is at the center of Jewish life, the wife of a priest, living in the bedroom communities of Jerusalem. It is clear that the women knew of each other, but not that they knew each other. Elizabeth’s pregnancy is a obvious blessing from God. Everyone knew her to have been barren until old age — like mother Sarah. Mary was a teenager pregnant outside of marriage. Likely everyone assumed Joseph was a bit too eager and frowned upon it.
One this is sure. A prompt visit to a distant relative was a wise thing — it allowed the community a chance to calm down about something they didn’t approve of. So imagine the joy of yet another miracle. The Holy Spirit filled Elizabeth. The baby John the Baptist, still in her womb, recognized the presence of the Messiah, still in her cousin’s womb, and leaps for joy. Elizabeth suddenly knew the full truth — that God had become man in the womb of her young relative. She was the God Bearer, the Mother of God. God had kept his promise — the Messiah had come to save his people from their sin.
Mary responded to Elizabeth With thanksgiving to God. She sings the first song in Luke’s musical. Called the Magnificat, we sing it in Vespers services. In this song, she marvels that God has so richly blessed a poor girl. She remains with Elizabeth for three months.
The early church fathers saw something special in the faith of these two women. Both of them believed what God revealed to them from the very start. Their husbands — Zechariah and Joseph — at first doubted. In the end, all four of them firmly trusted in God who finally came to save — and did so through two very unlikely women, neither of whom should have conceived, one very young and one very old.
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