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Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the child leapt in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.’”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, December 22, 2024
by Vicar Wing Yin Li, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: Faith comprises our trust in God’s deliverance as well as our willingness to accept the pain and suffering that follow from our belief.
From this passage, we see the great faith of two women, Mary and Elizabeth, who had been chosen to be the vessels of divinely ordained births. Generally, however, their faith is only read as their unwavering trust in God’s promises of the impossible births—the birth by a virgin and the birth by a barren old woman. Truly, Mary and Elizabeth did exhibit an unimaginable amount of faith by believing that God could make possible what seemed impossible and rejoicing even before the births were delivered, but this is far from all that their faith was about. What is often overlooked about their faith (especially by male readers) is the pain that these two women had embraced along the way as they chose to place their trust in God. Their faith was not only about believing that God would fulfill the promise of two impossible births, but also about accepting the pain and hardship that shall follow from that belief, including the mental stress coming from others’ suspicion, jeers, and accusation as well as the physical pain of bearing and giving birth to a child. (For men: to imagine the pain that Elizabeth as an old woman would experience in birthing, think of the pain Abraham felt from being circumcised in his old age and multiply that!)
Nevertheless, this is not to justify pain or suffering, but rather to acknowledge that persevering through pain is the inherent rhythm of faith in the lives of God's people who reside in a fallen world. And while pain and suffering are integral to the Christmas story (and to Christ’s salvation on the cross), Luke 1 reminds us that joy can be discovered amidst afflictions. While the faith of Mary and Elizabeth was accompanied by great pain, it also brought them great joy, a joy that stemmed from their connection with God; a joy that united them in fellowship with one another. It was a joy shared communally, even by the unborn baby John (v.41). Although such joy does not numb the pain, the pain intensifies the joy and one’s hopeful anticipation of divine deliverance. In the darkest night, with faith, we hold fast to the knowledge that light will soon emerge. Following the pangs of labor, we are assured of the eternal joy that awaits us, when heaven and earth will experience rebirth and life will abound with exultation in God’s motherly love.
