Visitation

The Visitation, July 2, 2025

St. Mary’s visit to St. Elizabeth is full of drama. Both of them are unlikely candidates for pregnancy. One is barren and follows the pattern of the Old Testament women who were blessed with children after being barren: Sarah, Rebekah, Hannah. John will be like their sons: Isaac, Joseph, Samuel. Mary is something new. She is a virgin. The pregnancy of Elizabeth is miraculous but somewhat understandable. We know how it happened. God worked through the union of man and wife even though they were old and caused them to be as though they were young. The means for Mary’s pregnancy are unique. The Holy Spirit overshadowed her. Her Son’s Father is Yahweh and the Second Person of the Holy Trinity has taken up Flesh so that Mary truly is Theotokos – not the mother of a prophet but the actual mother of God.

Here is how the Solid Declaration of the Formula of Concord handles it. First off we have to confess the two natures of Christ and their union. That union is an indescribable communion. It cannot be explained easily with metaphors or diagrams. We confess that Christ is true God and true Man at the same time. He, the Christ, is begotten of the substance of His Father from eternity. At the same time, He is born in time from the substance of His mother in the world. He is perfect God and perfect Man. He has a body and soul and is also distinctly divine. These two natures are united in Christ without being mixed together like marbles in a bag of rocks. Nor is either nature changed into a new substance like water and honey changing into mead through fermentation.

What can we say positively? These two natures are united. They are in communion with one another so that there is only one Christ. The natures are not known apart from Christ, nor can they really be conceived of apart from Him. Yet each nature retains its own essence and characteristics. They are neither mingled nor changed but are distinct and yet are forever united and there is only one Christ.

Having set that up, the Solid Declaration then confesses:

Because of this personal union and communion of the natures, Mary, the most blessed Virgin, gave birth not to a mere, ordinary human being, but instead to a human being who is truly the Son of God the Most High, as the angel testifies. He demonstrated his divine majesty in his mother’s womb, in that he was born of a virgin without violating her virginity. Therefore, she remained truly the Mother of God and at the same time a virgin (FC SD 20, KW).

The Creator has been created. He is a creature. He has joined time and is present in creation. Creation can’t help but respond. So John the creature hears the greeting of Mary while he is still in his mother’s womb and leaps for joy. He leaps not because Mary is there but because Mary’s words announce the presence of Jesus. Faith cometh by hearing. John hears and believes and thus rejoices.

Art Just points out an important parallel between Mary’s visit to Elizabeth and the coming of the Ark of the convent to the same geographical point in 2 Samuel 6. He gives a quote about this from J. McHugh which we can summarize. The two stories open with parallel statements. Both David and Mary arose and made a journey up into the hill country, into the land of Judah. On arrival, both the Ark and Mary are greeted with “shouts” of joy. The very word used for Elizabeth’s greeting in Luke 1:23 in the Septuagint is used only in connection with liturgical ceremonies centered round the Ark. He suggests it be translated not as exclaimed or shouted but as “intoned.” (Just, CPH Commentary Luke vol. 1, 72).

Here is another. As the Ark was being moved Uzza was struck dead because he stumbled and touched the ark. David responded to this by crying out “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” Elizabeth likewise cries out: “Why should the mother of my Lord come to me?” The ark then rested in Obed-edom’s house and Obed-edom and his family were blessed. In the Visitation, Elizabeth exclaims that Mary is blessed and that the Christ in her womb is blessed, but the clear implication is that He is the source of blessing. The Ark stayed at the house of Obed-edom for three months. Mary, the Ark of the Christ, stayed with Elizabeth for the same amount of time.

Luke laid this out on purpose. He demonstrates that Mary is the vessel that carries the Lord’s presence. He sets up Elizabeth’s greeting as a liturgical response. But he also wants us to remember that there is a sense in which the presence of the Creator in creation, the Messiah Himself, is dangerous. He can’t be treated lightly or irreverently.

St. John hears the greeting of his Lord’s mother to his own mother and leaps for joy. His mother, being full of the Holy Spirit, then prophesies: “Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!”

The really significant thing about Mary is that she believed. This is why we honor her and call her the most blessed of women. She is a great role model for us. She receives Gabriel’s word as God’s Word. She submits o it: “Behold, I am the handmaid of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your Word.” Jesus will say: “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and do it.”” (Luke 8:21, ESV). So also when a woman cries out to Him: “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed!” He replies, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!”” (Luke 11:27–28, ESV) Mary may not always fulfill that perfectly and in every way, but she does fulfill it. She hears the Word of God and she does it. Think how she tells the servants in Cana: “Whatever He tells you to do, do it.”

Mary fulfills Luke’s purpose in writing his Gospel. She points the way not only for Theophilus but also all who encounter the Incarnate Lord in the preaching and sacraments of the Church (Just, 77). Luke also writes that the fulfillment of the things spoken to her by the Lord “would ultimately pierce her soul with a sword when she witnessed her Son’s crucifixion. But she was there also on the third day. God would keep her in faith” (Just, 77). He can’t be treated lightly or irreverently. If that was true when He wore the weakness of His humiliation, it is true also now when He hides His Divinity in Word and Sacrament and men seem to ignore or mistreat Him with impunity. A sword must pierce us all. We must repent and believe, stand in wonder and humility with Elizabeth that Jesus should come to and leap with joy that He has and He does and that we too are fulfilments of the Spirit’s promise and are blessed in Christ.