Elizabeth The Exuberant Series

I was not jealous of Mary. How could I be? Her miraculous pregnancy meant that our salvation was about to be secured. Mary’s baby would take away our sins and give us eternal life in heaven! As if to echo my exuberance my unborn baby leapt for joy in my womb when he heard Mary’s voice. The Holy Spirit had already given John faith and the miraculous ability to identify that his Lord and Savior was nearby! Many years later others would leap upon meeting Jesus. The lame would leap, forgiven sinners would leap, even the dead would leap!

Do you still leap when Jesus comes to you? He does, you know. In Holy Communion Jesus comes to you “wrapped” in bread and wine. You can’t see him but he’s there just as I knew he was there in Mary’s tummy. What’s more, in Holy Communion Jesus comes to grant forgiveness. Are you still awed by this Sacrament the way you were the first time you received it? If not, it’s time to review what happens in the Lord’s Supper and to be reminded that your Lord doesn’t have to come to you in this way. Instead he ought to come in judgment for your lack of zeal for his holy Word. When you kneel before your pastor for Holy Communion he ought to give you a knuckle wrap on the head and a tongue-lashing for having broken God’s commands again. Your pastor should receive the same treatment too! Instead Jesus speaks life-giving words of forgiveness to you both and then seals his promises by giving himself to you in bread and wine. Let your exuberance show when you come to Holy Communion!

So why had Mary come to visit me of all people? Well the angel Gabriel told her that I too was miraculously pregnant. Mary wasted no time in coming for a visit because, well, she needed some encouraging. Who else would be able to reassure her as I could that she wasn’t crazy for believing the angel’s message? Her fiancé wasn’t ready to do that yet. Joseph thought Mary had been unfaithful to him and was ready to break off the engagement!

Friends, if the angel-seeing Mary needed the ongoing company and encouragement of a fellow believer, then you do too. From Monday through Saturday you spend much of your time surrounded by people who don’t care for the Bible. Your faith in an invisible God is under constant attack. You need that faith bolstered not only by God’s Word here in church but by the fellowship of like-minded believers. You need to see and hear that you’re not crazy for believing what you do about Jesus. Look around you. Here are others who confess that they are sinners and that without Jesus they are lost. Like you, they too are eagerly waiting for Jesus’ return and they really believe that it will happen. Dear Christian, you’re not a discarded piece of string lying on the floor; you’re one of many strands which make up the strong rope that is the Holy Christian Church – a rope which Jesus has wrapped around his nail-marked hands and is pulling to heaven.