This coming Sunday is the 4th Sunday of Advent and the story of the Visitation when Mary went from Nazareth to the hill country near Jerusalem to visit Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah, who for many years, had prayed to conceive and have a child. During the Annunciation, the Angel Gabriel had informed Mary: “And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren.” (Luke 1:36) And so Mary sets out in haste to visit.

Zechariah, a priest of Israel, was serving his round of Temple duty in Jerusalem when an angel appeared and promised that they would have a child, a son, and his son would be filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:15). The Holy Spirit became the agent of Jesus’ conception. During the Annunciation, when Mary asks: “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you…” (Luke 1:34-35). Once Jesus is conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit can become active in others. When Mary arrives at the home of Elizabeth, the child in the womb, to be named John, receives the Spirit in the presence of Jesus in the womb of Mary. The Spirit fills Elizabeth. Months later the Spirit will fill Zechariah on the occasion of the birth of John the Baptist. Months after that the Spirit will fill Simeon when he encounters the child Jesus at the Purification and Dedication. This foreshadows the future glorification of Jesus, which will release the Spirit on all (Acts 2:33).

This Lukan sequence begins very simply with Elizabeth’s question, “And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” It recalls the words of King David when the ark of the covenant was being brought back to Jerusalem after having been captured by the Philistines: “How can the ark of the Lord come to me?” (2 Sam 6:9). The ark symbolized the presence of Yahweh, the God of Israel. Mary, later called the Ark of the New Covenant, sanctifies Elizabeth’s home with the presence of the Lord.

This is the fulfillment of the prophecy that the angel told Zechariah about his son: “He will be filled with the holy Spirit even from his mother’s womb”(1:15b). The unborn John is presented as recognizing something about the unborn Jesus. In fact, Martin Luther uses this event to talk about “infant faith” in an argument for infant baptism arguing that John exhibited faith in Jesus while still in the womb. Elizabeth is able to correctly interpret the movement within her because she has been filled with the Holy Spirit.

How often are we put in a position to offer a Christ-centered interpretation of events that happen? Was it just circumstances? Was God involved? Should we say, “You were sure are lucky!” or “Blessed be God!”? There is a danger in assuming that we might know what God is doing, but there is also a danger of discounting God’s activities in our lives.  Many times in Luke/Acts, being filled with the Spirit resulted in a speech.

• After Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit, she exclaims with a loud cry (1:41).
• After Zechariah is filled with the Holy Spirit, he speaks a prophecy (1:67).
• At Pentecost, the apostles are filled with the Holy Spirit, they speak in other tongues (Ac 2:4)
• After Peter is filled with the Holy Spirit, he speaks (Ac 4:8)
• When the disciples are filled with the Holy Spirit, they speak the word of God boldly (Ac 4:31)
• After the Holy Spirit fell on the Gentiles, they speak in other tongues (Ac 10:44)

Image credit: The Visitation | Giotto | Lower Church of the Basilica of St. Francis | Assisi, Italy | PD-US