Luke 1:39-45 Meaning: The Visitation of Mary and Elizabeth

Oct 12

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Luke 1:39-45 summary.

Soon after the angel Gabriel's visit, Mary hurries from Nazareth to the hill country of Judea to see her relative Elizabeth, who is six months pregnant with John the Baptist. When Mary greets her, the child leaps in Elizabeth's womb and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. She cries out, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb," calls Mary "the mother of my Lord," and blesses her for believing what God had promised. This meeting is known as the Visitation.

Two women, one old and one young, both carrying children no one expected. Luke has told their stories separately: Elizabeth's in the shadow of her husband's silence (Luke 1:5-25), Mary's in a quiet house in Nazareth (Luke 1:26-38). Now he brings them into the same room, and the first person to recognize Jesus is not a priest or a king. It is an unborn prophet, and his mother finds the words. This is the first time anyone in Luke's Gospel calls Jesus "Lord."

Pastor's heads-up: It doesn’t matter your age, young or older, God can do many wonderful and good things through you. This is one of the ongoing themes through the Bible; nothing can thwart God’s will.

Luke 1:39-40: Mary sets out in haste

In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. (Luke 1:39-40)

"With haste." Mary does not wait. The angel had pointed her to Elizabeth as a sign (Luke 1:36), and she goes to see it. Faith that has just said "Here am I" gets up and moves.

The journey. Luke does not name the town. A later tradition places it at Ein Karem, a village a few miles west of Jerusalem. From Nazareth, that is a trip of roughly 80 to 100 miles, several days on foot through Samaria or along the Jordan Valley. A young woman, newly pregnant and not yet married, makes that journey to find the one person who might understand.

"She greeted Elizabeth." It is an ordinary greeting, the kind any relative would give at the door. Luke mentions it three times in five verses (Luke 1:40, 41, 44). God's work arrives through a word of welcome.

Luke 1:41: The child leaped

When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. (Luke 1:41)

The first witness. Gabriel had said John would be "filled with the Holy Spirit" even before his birth (Luke 1:15). Here it happens. Before John can speak, he testifies. His whole life will be pointing to Jesus, and it begins in the womb.

"Leaped." The Greek verb means to skip or jump, like a young animal let out to pasture. It recalls Rebekah's twins, who "struggled together within her" (Genesis 25:22), but here there is no struggle, only joy. Luke uses the same word later when Jesus tells the persecuted to "rejoice in that day and leap for joy" (Luke 6:23).

Elizabeth is filled with the Spirit. In Luke, being filled with the Holy Spirit usually leads straight to speech. Zechariah will be filled and sing (Luke 1:67); Peter will be filled and preach (Acts 4:8). Elizabeth is filled, and she becomes the first person in Luke to prophesy about Jesus. See The Holy Spirit in the Book of Acts.

"Blessed Are You Among Women" (Luke 1:42-44)

...and exclaimed with a loud cry, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy." (Luke 1:42-44)

"Blessed are you among women." This is one of the best-known lines in the Bible. Elizabeth's blessing echoes the praise given to two heroines of Israel: Jael, "most blessed of women" (Judges 5:24), and Judith in the Apocrypha (Judith 13:18). Both women stood up when Israel was in danger. Mary stands in that line, but her victory will come through the child she carries.

"And blessed is the fruit of your womb." Elizabeth blesses the mother because of the child. Mary is honored for who she is carrying, the one Gabriel called "Son of the Most High" (Luke 1:32).

The Hail Mary. Many Christians know these words from the Hail Mary prayer, which joins Gabriel's greeting ("Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee," from Luke 1:28) to Elizabeth's blessing in Luke 1:42. For the meaning of Gabriel's greeting, see The Annunciation (Luke 1:26-38).

"The mother of my Lord." Elizabeth is older, married to a priest and expecting the long-awaited prophet. Yet she treats the young visitor as the greater guest. "Why has this happened to me?" She is the first person in Luke to call Jesus "Lord," the title Luke uses for God throughout this chapter. Centuries later, the church would draw on this verse when it called Mary "the God-bearer." See Why Was Jesus Born of a Virgin?

Echoes of the ark. Many readers have noticed that Luke's wording recalls the day King David brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. David asked, "How can the ark of the LORD come into my care?" (2 Samuel 6:9). Elizabeth asks why the mother of her Lord has come to her. David danced before the ark; John leaps in the womb. The ark stayed in the house of Obed-edom "three months" (2 Samuel 6:11); Mary stays with Elizabeth "about three months" (Luke 1:56). The parallels suggest that the presence of God, once housed in the ark, now rests in Mary's child.

"Leaped for joy." Elizabeth tells Mary what happened inside her. Joy is the first response to Jesus in Luke's Gospel, and it will not be the last. The angels will announce "good news of great joy for all the people" (Luke 2:10). See Angels, Shepherds, and Jesus Born in Bethlehem.

Luke 1:45: "Blessed Is She Who Believed"

"And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord." (Luke 1:45)

A different kind of blessing. In verse 42, Elizabeth blesses Mary as a mother. In verse 45 she blesses her as a believer. Luke even changes the Greek word. The first blessing is the language of praise. The second is the word Jesus will use in his beatitudes: "Blessed are you who are poor" (Luke 6:20). Mary is happy in God's sense of the word, not because her life has become easy but because she trusted God's word.

Mary and Zechariah. Luke 1:45 quietly finishes a comparison Luke began earlier in the chapter. Zechariah heard an angel's promise in the temple and doubted; he was struck silent "because you did not believe my words" (Luke 1:20). Mary heard a harder promise in an ordinary house and believed. One is silenced, the other is called blessed. See Zechariah and Elizabeth (Luke 1:5-25).

"A fulfillment of what was spoken." Mary believed before she could see. The promise had not yet come true when she said yes. That is what makes her a model for every believer: she trusted that what God said, God would do. Gabriel had told her, "nothing will be impossible with God" (Luke 1:37), and Mary took God at his word. See Luke 1:37 Meaning: Nothing Will Be Impossible with God.

Jesus says the same thing later. Years afterward, a woman in a crowd calls out to Jesus, "Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!" Jesus answers, "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!" (Luke 11:27-28). It is not a rebuke of his mother. It is Luke 1:45 again. Mary's deepest blessing was not that she gave birth to Jesus but that she heard God's word and trusted it, and that blessing is open to anyone.

Pastor's heads-up: Every church started with a need and a vision. The founders of your church knew that people needed a place to worship, learn, and serve, and they also knew the community needed the gospel. Men and women prayed, imagined, and then took a step foward and “planted” the church. They trusted the promise before ever building a building or a single chair.

Guardrail: hold the ark parallel loosely. The echoes of 2 Samuel 6 are real, and many interpreters find them meaningful. Luke never says outright that Mary is a new ark. Use the parallel to show where God's presence now rests, in Jesus, without building more on it than the text carries.

Guardrail: the blessing points past Mary. Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Christians all honor Mary in this passage, with different emphases. Elizabeth's own words hold the balance: Mary is blessed because of the child she carries and because she believed God's word. The spotlight never leaves the Lord.

Preaching and teaching Luke 1:39-45

The Visitation is the Gospel reading for the Fourth Sunday of Advent in Year C, and it is remembered on the Feast of the Visitation each May 31. But the scene preaches any time of year. Three ways in:

Faith goes looking for company. Mary's first act after saying yes is to find someone who will understand. Who is your Elizabeth, and whose Elizabeth are you?
The older blesses the younger. Elizabeth, with every reason to feel overlooked, makes room for Mary's greater calling and rejoices in it.
Blessed are those who believe. Mary's blessing is not reserved for her. Jesus opens it to all who hear God's word and keep it.

For worship resources, see the Advent 4, Year C liturgy, Advent Liturgy and the sermon Called Forward by God's Favor (Luke 1:26-45).

Questions about Luke 1:39-45

What is the Visitation in the Bible? The Visitation is Mary's visit to her relative Elizabeth in Luke 1:39-56. When Mary arrives, Elizabeth's unborn son John leaps for joy, Elizabeth blesses Mary as the mother of the Lord, and Mary responds with the song known as the Magnificat.

Who said, "Blessed are you among women"? Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, filled with the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:42). The angel Gabriel's greeting in Luke 1:28 does not include those words in most modern translations.

What does Luke 1:45 mean? Elizabeth blesses Mary for believing that God would keep his promise. It contrasts Mary's trust with Zechariah's doubt and shows that faith in God's word is the heart of Mary's blessing.

Why did John leap in Elizabeth's womb? Luke presents it as joy in the presence of the Lord. Gabriel had said John would be filled with the Holy Spirit before his birth (Luke 1:15). His leap is his first witness to Jesus.

How long did Mary stay with Elizabeth? About three months (Luke 1:56). Since Elizabeth was six months pregnant when Mary arrived, Mary stayed until close to the time of John's birth.

How were Mary and Elizabeth related? Luke calls Elizabeth Mary's "relative" (Luke 1:36). The older word "cousin" is more specific than the Greek, which only tells us they were kin.

Keep reading in Luke

Sources

Raymond E. Brown, The Birth of the Messiah, updated edition (Doubleday, 1993).
Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Eerdmans, 1997).
John Nolland, Luke 1:1-9:20, Word Biblical Commentary 35A (Word Books, 1989).
Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version.

Jason Elder

https://www.pastorjasonelder.com