11th Night of Advent Luke 1:39-45

I can't seem to get this together. I have prayed to Jesus asking Him to open my heart and my mind so that I may have a better understanding of what it is He is trying to say to me. 

This time our reading takes us to see Mary visiting Elizabeth. It's funny, really, that the passage we are reading now is one that I just read. We were at church last night and I asked my pastor how he learned to interpret what he is reading in the bible. I used last nights passage to start with and we discussed it. He gave me some very good ideas. As we were discussing it, I read ahead a little and made some notes. 

 In those days Mary got up and went hurriedly into the hill country, to a town of Judah, and entered Zechariah’s house and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. She exclaimed with a loud voice, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child in your womb! And who am I that the mother of my Lord should come and visit me? For the instant the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that what was spoken to her by the Lord would be fulfilled.”


So, here is what I learned from my pastor: First you ask basic questions: who, what, when, where, and why. Then you ask yourself "what is like me?", "what is unlike me?", "where am I in the story?", "what is different in translations?". He said that you should have 2 or 3 different translations available so you can compare them. Find keywords, think about the emotions. But most important of all, PRAY. Pray before you read, pray before doing your interpretation. Find out what God is trying to tell you.  

Mary has gone to Judah to visit her cousin Elizabeth (we see the definition of what relation Elizabeth is to Mary in BibleGateway.com. Other versions say Elizabeth is Mary's sister, in others it just says she was a "relation".)

Elizabeth, who is married to Zechariah, is 6 months pregnant. BUT Elizabeth was beyond child bearing age and thought to be "barren". But here we have not 1 but 2 "immaculate" conceptions (I count Elizabeth as one since technically she was too old to become pregnant). These 2 women were chosen by God. Why they were chosen is not clear. It shows, however, what great faith in God these women had. Zechariah had been praying for years for a son, and here, after he thought there would never be a child, his wife was pregnant. 

Elizabeth is pregnant with John the Baptist, who rejoices when in the presence of Mary, who is pregnant with Jesus. In turn, Jesus reacts the same in the presence of John the Baptist. This shows the connection of the two who will some day change the world. We see that Elizabeth is humbled in the presence of this woman and the savior she will give birth to.