Mission: Impossible - Elizabeth

Luke 1:5-25

You may be familiar with the story of the angel Gabriel telling Mary she would give birth to God’s child. One of Gabriel’s jobs must have been delivering news that humans considered crazy. Six months earlier he had brought baby news about Mary’s older cousin, Elizabeth, who, as the Bible says, was “very old.”

Elizabeth was married to a priest named Zechariah, and they had no children, though they had been married a long time. Elizabeth was past childbearing years. One day Zechariah was in the Temple offering incense to God when he got quite a scare. There was Gabriel, hanging out by the altar waiting to talk to him.

“Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son, and you are to name him John,” said Gabriel. Zechariah’s reaction wasn’t quite, “You’re crazy,” but he questioned Gabriel enough about his announcement that the angel rendered Zechariah mute until after John was born. Imagine a husband being unable to talk for nine months!

At the baby’s circumcision, relatives were pressuring Elizabeth to name the child after Zechariah, who was still mute. Both of them came from a line of priests, and we know how opinionated some religious folks can be. “No!” the new mother insisted. “His name is John!” It seems that no one paid much attention to her. Zechariah had to write it down—“His name is John”—and that’s when he got his voice back. Of course, the baby grew up to be John the Baptist, the radical preacher who prepared people for Jesus’ ministry.

Much is made of Mary’s willingness to be used in God’s great plans, and rightly so. But Elizabeth was also a miracle mom whom God used to further the divine design. She, too, was faithful, even though the pregnancy might have taxed the health of a woman her age.

And when Mary wondered how God was doing all these things, the angel referred to her way-too-old cousin Elizabeth, who was also with child. “Nothing is impossible with God,” he explained.

Are you convinced that some movement of God is “impossible”? Are you convinced that a broken relationship can’t be healed, that a mistake made at work is going to ruin your entire career, that you’ll never be able to serve God the way you long to? Don’t give in to hopelessness. Nothing is impossible with God.

Your relative Elizabeth has become pregnant in her old age! . . . For nothing is impossible with God.

Luke 1:36-37