We usually focus on the Visitation (Luke 1:39-56) due to the extraordinary meeting not only between Elizabeth and Mary, but between Jesus and John, both still in the womb. It is a nascent meeting of the key players in the culmination of salvation-history. Yet, it is also important to see this at the most ordinary of levels, to see the means by which the one who made straight the Way and the Messiah himself were brought into this world, that is, by means of the Mothers who loved them. In our book on children, Cornelia Horn and I spent some time reflecting on the ordinariness of the meeting between Mary and Elizabeth and the fact that it was through the lives of these two women, meeting to support each other, that John the Baptist and Jesus, the Christ, were brought into this world. We wrote in chapter three of “Let the Little Children Come to Me”:

“The infancy narrative in Luke presents us with two motifs, which appear regularly in the Old Testament: that of the barren woman and that of the joy of children. These two themes are inextricably linked. In addition, we find as a minor theme that of Mary’s journey to Elizabeth, the visit of two pregnant women with one another. Theologically the inclusion of this scene is intended to tie Jesus to John the Baptist. Yet through Mary’s joy at the news of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, the scene takes as its base the reality of the extended family in first-century Judaism. Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancy in her old age, mimicking that of the matriarchs of old, takes away her “reproach” or “disgrace” (oneidos: Luke 1:25), for now she, too, will have a child. The annunciation to Mary of her own miraculous conception includes the news of Elizabeth’s pregnancy (Luke 1:37). The miraculous nature of these pregnancies is not our concern here, for at its heart Judaism considered pregnancy as an act of God (Gen 4:1). In some cases God’s activity was especially apparent for Jews and Christians (Luke 1:37). Two details in this story provide us with clues as to the value of children and its joy for the family. First, Luke tells us that Mary stayed with Elizabeth for three months before she returned home (Luke 1:56). Independent of whether one considers this an historical event, it indicates the reality that pregnancy was a shared experience, at least by women in a family. Luke might include it precisely because such a practice would resonate with his readers. It precedes the notice in Luke 1:57-58 of the birth and the subsequent celebration (synchairon aute, “rejoicing with her”) of her neighbors (perioikoi, “those who lived near her”) and her relatives (syngeneis). Such joy was at the heart of any birth, for the parents and the family as a whole. We cannot overlook some of the basic reasons for this joy: both the child and the mother survived the birthing process.”  

For John and Jesus to enter into human history, to play the roles necessary for us, they needed loving mothers, who supported each other in their pregnancies, and who rejoiced with the gift of life, which they were given to bring to fruition, as so many mothers before and after them. It is itself a moment, a time, of great joy.

John W. Martens

Follow me on Twitter @johnwmartens

 

 

John W. Martens is an associate professor of theology at the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minn,where he teaches early Christianity and Judaism. He also directs the Master of Arts in Theology program at the St. Paul Seminary School of Divinity. He was born in Vancouver, B.C. into a Mennonite family that had decided to confront modernity in an urban setting. His post-secondary education began at Tabor College, Hillsboro, Kansas, came to an abrupt stop, then started again at Vancouver Community College, where his interest in Judaism and Christianity in the earliest centuries emerged. He then studied at St. Michael's College, University of Toronto, and McMaster University, with stops at University of Haifa and University of Tubingen. His writing often explores the intersection of Jewish, Christian and Greco-Roman culture and belief, such as in "let the little children come to me: Children and Childhood in Early Christianity" (Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University of America Press, 2009), but he is not beyond jumping into the intersection of modernity and ancient religion, as in "The End of the World: The Apocalyptic Imagination in Film and Television" (Winnipeg: J. Gordon Shillingford Press, 2003). He blogs at  www.biblejunkies.com and at www.americamagazine.org for "The Good Word." You can follow him on Twitter @biblejunkies, where he would be excited to welcome you to his random and obscure interests, which range from the Vancouver Canucks and Minnesota Timberwolves, to his dog, and 70s punk, pop and rock. When he can, he brings students to Greece, Turkey and Rome to explore the artifacts and landscape of the ancient world. He lives in St. Paul with his wife and has two sons. He is certain that the world will not end until the Vancouver Canucks have won the Stanley Cup, as evidence has emerged from the Revelation of John, 1 Enoch, 2 Baruch, and 4 Ezra which all point in this direction.