Walking The Road To Bethlehem: Mary Is Encouraged By Elizabeth

This week we’ll be looking at Mary’s relationship with Elizabeth, the cousin of Mary, who being 88 years old is told that she will be the mother of John the Baptist.

All of this took place at about 35 to 40 B.C. Augustus was Caesar of the ancient Roman empire at this time in history. Following Augustus, would be Tiberius. And we’ll see later that Augustus would order a census taken of the Roman empire, which would include Israel. Do you see how the biblical accounts read like history? Luke chapter 1 begins as if it were depicting historical events. Why? Because it is. Was there ever an Augustus Caesar of the Roman empire? Skeptics would probably throw up their hands and say “how can we know that there was ever an emperor Augustus?”

Well, here’s a picture of a large statue of Caesar Augustus, which was recovered by divers in the Aegean sea. This is called archaeological evidence for the biblical documents. In fact one study of busts and statues of Augustus in world museums lists over 120 examples.

One could say, fair enough, there was an Augustus who was emperor of Rome, but what about Jesus? How do we know he really existed?

Well, thankfully we have historians who throughout the ages have recorded world events. One of the most trusted historians of all ages of history is none other than Cornelius Tacitus. This is like the Albert Einstein of history. Anyone who knows history, knows Tacitus. And Tacitus, a trusted historian, recorded information about Jesus. In 112 AD Tacitus wrote regarding the reign of Nero, and Nero’s response to the great fire of Rome, these words, and I quote:

“…Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus...”

All of this to indicate to all of us, as the body of Christ, that despite all the hot air produced by skeptics and television personalities, we can trust the biblical documents and the accounts of the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. All of this squares together our perception, when we open up our Bible to Luke Chapter 1. When we start reading down the page we must, must remember that we’re reading accurate history, not fables or myths. These things, really happened.

So Mary this 16 year old peasant girl has been given news of great tidings that will change her life forever. It’s interesting that shortly after Mary learns that she will give birth to Jesus, the son of God, she decides to make an eighty+ mile journey to Enin Karem to visit her 88 year old cousin Elizabeth.

It’s 80 miles as the crow flies. But to make the journey means crossing several mountain stretches. It’s a dangerous journey, but she decides that she must make it. She arrives to see Elizabeth and spends over 3 months with her. That is an exceedingly long sleep over. But most definitely a valuable get together.

Mary and Elizabeth don’t know it at that time, but God is literally going to change the world through the two children growing in their bellies. Isn’t that an amazing honor that women have, to raise up such great people of faith? I think of Susanna Wesley the mother of Methodism. She trained up John and Charles, just as a mother, but she was utterly dedicated to her calling to be a great mother. She meticulously raised John and Charles to be men of God. And through her ministry to them, and their ministry to the world, millions of souls came into contact with Jesus Christ.

In the same way Elizabeth will give birth to John the Baptist. Does anyone here think John the Baptist is awesome? Very early on in my Christian life I thought John the Baptist was really, really cool. He lives in the wilderness, he’s an outcast, eating wild honey, crazy hair, eating bugs, preaching the word, rallying the people, the grassroots, to be prepared to welcome and embrace the coming of Jesus. John the Baptist is like the rebel truth speaker. He’s the proclaimer of the coming of the messiah. He’s the prophet, proclaiming the coming Christ. And then we have Jesus, God come to Earth. He’s the savior, the king, our God, the maker of the universe, and the designer of the human soul. He’s goodness, love, holiness, purity, tenderness, friendship, and mystery before our very eyes. And it all started with Mary, and Elizabeth. Two mothers.

They both needed each other at this moment in their lives. They were about to literally give birth to two people who would transform the world for generations to come. Everything would change.