“Elizabeth, Who Was Barren”
Because of the familiarity of the Christmas story, there are several characters and stories within the main story that we sometimes overlook. In our Blue Christmas service on grief during the holidays, my pastor preached on Herod killing all of the male babies under the age of two after the Wise Men come to visit him. We often overlook this story of tragedy that’s tucked within the Christmas narrative. Probably because it makes us uncomfortable. There’s another story I think we often overlook, the story of Elizabeth and Zechariah.
The story of Elizabeth and Zechariah often gets skipped or skimmed over when we look at the Christmas story. We often think, “Oh yeah, the birth of John the Baptist,” and then we skip to the story of Mary and Joseph. Here is what scripture tells us about Elizabeth and Zechariah, “And they were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and statues of the Lord,” (Luke 1: 6). Sounds pretty good, right? Then Luke continues to describe them, “But they had no child, because Elizabeth was barren, and both were advanced in years” (Luke 1: 7). Ouch. This statement makes it seem as if the chapter of parenthood is closed for this couple.
An angel of the Lord appeared to Zechariah and told him, “Do not be afraid, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.” (Luke 1:13). Zechariah doesn’t believe Gabriel at first, and he becomes mute, unable to speak for the entirety of his wife’s pregnancy. The story picks back up in another town with another message from an angel…
In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.”
Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.'
“How will this be,” Mary asked the angel, “since I am a virgin?”
The angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be unable to conceive is in her sixth month. For no word from God will ever fail.”
“I am the Lord’s servant,” Mary answered. “May your word to me be fulfilled.” Then the angel left her. ~ Luke 1: 26 - 38
Today, instead of using the term “barren,” we would call Elizabeth infertile. After a year or two of not being pregnant, she would probably go to see an infertility doctor who would start her on an array of treatments. And her life would be held in balance month to month with ovulation testing daily, shots galore and a constant companion of anxiety. But Elizabeth didn’t have these modern treatment options, but we are told that she and her husband exercised one treatment regularly: they prayed consistently, asking the Lord for a child.
There are several things that are greatly significant about their story:
In the biggest announcement ever made: In his short message, the Angel, Gabriel, mentioned Elizabeth and said she was barren.
A male author in that time period believed that detail was important enough to record, even though it centered around a female.
It’s a detail that didn’t get left out or lost in translations.
All of this tells us one thing: God cared about Elizabeth’s infertility.
He saw her, he knew her story, and it was important enough to Him to be told and passed down as a part of the story of his son.
In the greatest story ever told, there is a strand of infertility woven right into the mix. In a world when it seems like more and more people are struggling with this issue, it seems that infertility has always had a place in the stories of the Bible. Since Abraham and Sarah, it has been a continual spotlight in the story of God’s people and a stage on which God performs miracles. We think infertility is bad now, but I can’t imagine the emotional side of it in Biblical times, where your worth, your livelihood, and your inheritance depended upon being able to bare children.
This Christmas, a 2000 year old story has jumped off the page and landed smack dab in the middle of my circumstance. As 2019 has been marked with the loss of our child, a failed attempt at IVF, a diagnosis that makes it look like pregnancy might not be possible for us, I look to the story of Elizabeth, woven into the Christmas story and I have been given new hope. “For nothing is impossible with God,” (Luke 1: 37) is a verse we quote, we put on t-shirts or wall plaques. It is a familiar verse to us. What I never recognized about this verse before is that Gabriel makes this statement in response to Elizabeth’s infertility being reversed. This Christmas, when I am saddened by the fact that our baby is not here with us to celebrate, I am given hope by this story.
You know John’s birth probably seemed “late” to everyone involved. But to God, the master of time, his conception and birth was just on time. Let’s think about it… If John would have been born earlier, he would not have been able to play the role he was made for - to prepare the way for Jesus. John could have come earlier, but if he had, I doubt we would still be reading about his life today. I get chills when I think about it. God isn’t just interested in giving me a baby on my timeline, he is interested in His plan for all people from the beginning of time until the end. When we recognize our limited view, we are more open to waiting on God.
I am NOT claiming that every woman that has enough faith and believes hard enough will conceive a child, but what I am saying is that God will work a miracle in one way or another if we let him. I have watched the stories of special friends and family in my life not end in pregnancy, but instead in adoption, which is a true miracle, a true picture of the Gospel! For some in my family, it’s been by serving and loving children through foster care- an incredible risk and sacrifice. We can often miss miracles because they come in ways we might not expect.
This Chritsmtas, your struggle may not be with infertility, but whatever the struggle, whatever the circumstance, I am claiming as an echo from the Angel Gabriel’s message 2,000 years ago: “Nothing is impossible with God!” Because of this truth, we can have Christmas Cheer, even in impossible circumstances.
Merry Christmas!
