Two Women of Faith - Luke 1:39--45 (46-55) - 20 December 2015
by Bruce Prewer © B. D. Prewer
Women played a pivotal role in early Christianity. Elizabeth and Mary are at
centre stage when Luke begins to unfold his drama of salvation to all races
and classes.
We can compare Luke with the attitude of traditional Jews, who each morning
chanted: Blessed be the Lord God , the King of the universe, who has not
made me a Gentile, a donkey or a woman. No such scorn from Luke. For him
women were close to the heart of the Gospel he was keen to share with the
world.
He seems to delight in telling the stories of Elizabeth and Mary. His Gospel
starts not with men but with women. It is true that Elizabeth’s husband
Zechariah is there. But though he is a priest by birth, he is portrayed as a man
of little faith, who needed convincing. Joseph is mentioned in the early
chapters of Luke, but he says nothing and has little more than a “supporting
role” in the drama.
TWO EMPOWERED WOMEN
Have you ever noticed how right at the outset Mary is her own person?
When she is told by the heavenly messenger that she has been chosen to
bear a unique son, she does not consult men before saying “Yes”. She makes
her decision without any reference to the socially dominant males. She and
God are quite capable of sorting this matter out by themselves!
In Luke’s story Mary and Elizabeth represent the “nobodies” who are
empowered by the coming of Christ. This mere slip of a teenage girl, is a very
strong character. She breaks out into the magnificent hymn of praise to a God
who uplifts the downtrodden and neglected. The Magnificat is one of the most
revolutionary statements in the whole of the Bible.
Women, who were among the most powerless people in Jewish society at the
time of Jesus, are now chosen to help God set in motion the spectacular
drama of salvation. These are the ones who have faith. They believe. They
trust the God who is doing amazing things.
FOR ALL WHO ARE OF LOW SOCIAL STATUS
Now we need to recognise that the writer of Luke is not anti-male. Luke
focuses on the plight of all those of low status.
While it is true that Luke continues to make sure that women share the
limelight in a positive way, he does not do this by rubbishing men. Luke
believes in a Christ who respects and loves all people. Christ has a special
place in his purposes for anyone (male, female, Jew or Greek, Roman or
slave-Roman), pushed to the margins of society or denigrated.
As Professor Rosemary Radford Ruether writes:
"Poor women and despised men, widows, unclean women, prostitutes,
Samaritans and the Syro-Phoenecian woman. these are those in whom, the
messianic prophet [Jesus] find the faith that is absent among the ‘righteous of
Israel.’ The story of the widow’s mite, the forgiveness of the prostitute who has
faith, the healing of the woman with the flow of blood, the defence of Mary’s
[Magdalene] right to discipleship, are among the Lucan stories that lift up the
typology of women as people of faith."
Like Matthew and Mark, Luke proclaims that the new age has dawned
with this wonderful Jesus. But more than the others writers, Luke reminds us
that for Jesus, women in this new age had a large part to play. God has
“exalted those of low degree.”
WERE WOMEN THE FIRST CHURCH?
Bruce Prewer presents an interesting, playful hypothesis:
In a sense Mary and Elizabeth are the first church. When these two pregnant
women get together in Elizabeth’s home, they are the first people to come
together in the name of Messiah Jesus. They are the first of those who
gathered by the proclamation of the Gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Theologians tend to differ as to when the church started.
 Some say it was on the day of Pentecost.
 Some say it was when the risen Christ appeared to his disciples behind
locked doors.
 Others claim it was when Jesus first called disciples to him.
 Yet others argue that the church began when Peter, in the district of
Caesarea Philippi, first made his confession: “You are the Christ, the son
of the living God.”
But don't Mary and Elizabeth have good credentials as the first church?
They are the ones who first hear the Gospel Word and believed that the
messianic age has dawned with the little babe growing in Mary’s womb. They
believed that the Messiah had come, the one who is Christ and Saviour. They
are the ones who receive the word and obey it. They are doers of the word.
They are both filled with the Holy Spirit and break out into praise and joy.
Aren't these things the authentic characteristics of the church.
What an interesting thought! Maybe these women were the first church?
THANK GOD FOR THE WOMEN OF THE CHURCH.
Whether Bruce Prewer's hypothesis is valid or not, does not matter. What
does matter is that these two women are remarkable characters in the Gospel
story.
As we read again the story of vulnerable young Mary going up into the hill
country to visit, and stay with, her much older relative Elizabeth, we can take
courage from her courage.
As we picture those two pregnant women spending hours together in
fellowship, we can have much more than a warm fuzzy feeling. Like them, we
can rejoice that this is truly the way God works.
There in the home of Elizabeth, are the first of the countless “nobodies” whom
the Spirit of God will lift up by the event of Christ Jesus. We see them
believing, rejoicing, giving God a glad obedience.
We can be grateful that by the grace of Christ Jesus, we also are part of this
unique fellowship which we call the church, the koinonia: we too belong in this
special body of God's people where the weak and the obscure and the
outsiders are called, welcomed and empowered by the Spirit of the living God!