Sunday September 4, 2005 | Greg Boyd
At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!"
The story recorded in Luke 1:39-45 highlights Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth who was pregnant with John the Baptist. Elizabeth and John represent the old, while Mary and Jesus represent the new, the new things that God is doing in the world. Elizabeth and John are not in competition with Mary and Jesus; instead they acknowledge, submit and rejoice in the new that is coming.
The story recorded in Luke 1:39-45 highlights Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth who was pregnant with John the Baptist. Elizabeth and John represent the old, while Mary and Jesus represent the new, the new things that God is doing in the world. Elizabeth and John are not in competition with Mary and Jesus; instead they acknowledge, submit and rejoice in the new that is coming.
Today, we also must embrace the new and let go of the old. This is manifested in two ways. First, we need to make sure that our point of view is based on the New Testament and not the Old. We must view things through the perspective of Jesus Christ, who revealed God as a lover. The problem is that many people view God and life from the perspective of the O.T. which revealed the law as a type of a nanny. The purpose of this nanny was to bring the people of Israel to a place of maturity so that they might see God as a lover. The point is to see God in his complete revelation, Jesus Christ, not through the O.T. law which was only a precursor to God in flesh. (See Gal 3:24-25)
Secondly, we need to make sure that we embrace the new life and release the old life. The old represents what we know, the place where we are comfortable. But God is always doing new things. He is not a static God stuck in what he did yesterday (See John 5:17). We must choose to let go, to release the old and embrace God’s new thing. We must listen to God, not to our past, not to the things that worked for us previously, not to those patterns that are comfortable. We must ask the Lord to reveal what he is doing today and walk into those things.