"Blessed are You Who Believed"

Today is Wednesday of the fourth week of Advent, and the Gospel reading is from Luke. It's one of those familiar ones:

"During those days Mary set out and traveled to the hill country in haste to a town of Judah, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, 'Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And how does this happen to me, that the mother of my Lord ¹⁴ should come to me? For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the infant in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed are you who believed ¹⁵ that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled.' "
(Luke 1:39-45)

There's a footnote in that chapter of Luke, that highlights an important point:

"Even before his birth, Jesus is identified in Luke as the Lord."
(footnote 14)

Babies, the Baptist, and Beyond

What Elizabeth said, "the infant in my womb leaped for joy," rings true for me. My sleep has been interrupted a fair number of times, by a nudge, stretch, or kick from a member of the family who hadn't been born yet. My wife, of course, had a much more up-close-and-personal experience.

There's more going on, of course, with my Lord and John the Baptist. No surprises there, when someone who later says 'I'm God' is involved:

"²⁴ Jesus said to them, 'Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham came to be, I AM.' "
(John 8:58)

Sure, any lunatic could say "I am God." What makes my Lord stand out is what happened later.

Jesus had told his eleven disciples to go to a particular mountain in Galilee. While they were there, Jesus told them:

"Go, therefore, ¹² and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. ¹³ And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age.' "(Matthew 28:19-20)

That's more than just another wildly extravagant promise. By the time Jesus said that, he'd been tortured to death, and then stopped being dead.

Related posts:

• "Christmas: Mything the Point"
  (December 18, 2011)
• "First Sunday of Advent, 2011: Joy, Peace, Love, and a Dog Named Rollo"
  (November 27, 2011)
• "First Sunday in Advent"
  (November 28, 2010)
• "Advent: Hazardous Road Conditions, Holiday Shopping, and More"
  (November 23, 2010)
• "First Sunday in Advent"
  (November 29, 2009)

Background:

• John the Baptist
  (Matthew 3:1-4, 7-15; Luke 1:76-80; Acts 13:24-25)
• The birth of Jesus
  (Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 2:1-20; John 1:14)

Although John covers the birth of Jesus in just one verse, he obviously 'gets it:' that this is no ordinary baby.

"^{1 2} In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. ³ All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; ⁴ the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."
(John 1:1-5)

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"There are also many other things that Jesus did, but if these were to be described individually, I do not think the whole world would contain the books that would be written."
(John 21:25)