Leap with joy in His holy presence

Micah 5:1-4 He will stand and feed his flock with the power of the Lord

Hebrews 10:5-10 God, here I am! I am coming to obey your will

Luke 1:39-45 Why should I be honoured with a visit from the mother of my Lord?

 

In those days Mary arose and went with haste

into the hill country, to a town in Judah.

(Luke 1.39)

 

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Today’s Gospel passage we know as the Visitation.

 

The Blessed Virgin Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth immediately after the archangel has told her she will be mother of the Messiah.

 

And Elizabeth confirms what the Archangel had announced: that Mary is uniquely chosen and worthy of bearing the Son of God, the Messiah, as her child.

 

Gabriel addressed Mary saying ‘Greetings, O favoured one, the Lord is with you’ (Luke 1.28).

 

Now pregnant Elizabeth greets her pregnant visitor saying, ‘“Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!‘ (Luke 1.42)

 

The two unborn children who are present – Jesus and John the Baptist – are connected both by family and that their conception was announced by Gabriel, the messenger of God.

 

The child in Mary’s womb is the new David; Jesus will fulfil the promise of the shepherd-king, the anointed one of God, born in Bethlehem.

 

You can make the links – the Gospels so richly connect with past prophecy – a king, a shepherd, an anointed one, Bethlehem.

 

All those are features of David, and why he held such power in the imagination of the people of Israel before the birth of Christ.

 

But all those things can be said of Jesus too: King of kings; the Good Shepherd; The Messiah and saviour; born in Bethlehem.

 

Micah’s prophecy of our first reading is also being fulfilled.

 

In Micah the Lord declares that Bethlehem, the city of David, is too insignificant to be one of the twelve tribes of Israel, but,

 

from you [Bethlehem] shall come forth for me

    one who is to be ruler in Israel,

whose coming forth is from of old,

    from ancient days.

 

This speaks of Jesus’ coming birth in Bethlehem; the little town with a great task.

 

And there are other places of significance in this morning’s Gospel reading.

 

It is from Nazareth that Mary sets out into the hill country of Judah.

 

That sounds like a trivial detail perhaps, but it’s not trivial.

 

Elizabeth, you’ll recall is married to Zechariah, a temple priest: the archangel came to Zechariah to announce John’s birth while Zechariah was in the temple, at the hour of incense.

 

Zechariah had entered into the Holy of Holies, the most significant part of the Temple where the Ark of the Covenant, holding the holiness of God, was to be found.

 

We’re told that in the temple there was ‘the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant’. (Hebrews 9.4).

 

The Ark had been present with the Israelites in the wilderness (Exodus 25.6-22; Exodus 33.14), where it rested in the Tabernacle, and as they entered the Promised Land (Joshua 3); it circled Jericho with them (Joshua 6), causing the walls to tumble down; it was brought by King David to Jerusalem from the hill country of Judah (2 Samuel 6.16; 1 Chronicles 15.29)

 

And there’s our key to opening up the meaning of the Visitation – the hill country of Judah where Mary visited.

 

Mary goes to the very place where the Ark of the Covenant was taken from by David; except now Mary brings the ark of her body, containing the New Covenant, to the hill country: she is bearing the presence of the Most High in the child in her womb.

 

The ark of the first covenant came in from the hill country; the Ark of the New Covenant goes out into the hill country.

 

Holiness is on the move again, the temple of Christ’s body, held within Mary’s, and soon to be born into the world is the dwelling place of holiness.

 

The Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth calls us back to locate holiness in Jesus Christ, the presence of the Most High, and to know that his holy presence brings life, and joy, and sanctification – the process of being made holy.

 

On bringing the Ark to Jerusalem we read that David danced unrestrainedly because of the holy presence in the Ark; now John the Baptist, unborn yet still discerning, dances in his mother’s womb at the presence of the Ark of the Covenant, Mary, bearing the holiness of the Most High, Jesus Christ: ‘For behold, Mary, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy’. (Luke 1.44)

 

And Elizabeth asked ‘And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?’ (Luke 1.43)

 

Our question on the threshold of Christmas question should be ‘why is this granted to us that the Lord, born of Mary, should come to us?’

 

The answer is, in Christ’s own words, ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.’ (John 3.16)

 

This Jesus is the Word made flesh, who in the tabernacle of flesh and blood, makes his home with us, and comes to us now in his body and blood, so that we become bearers of Christ going out into the temple of his world.

 

The next time we see the Ark of the Covenant in the scriptures is when John the Divine, in the book of Revelation, declares, ‘Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple.’ (Revelation 11.19)

 

May God grant us a vision of his glory and may our hearts, minds and bodies leap with joy in his holy presence.