A Slumber Party!

A slumber party isn’t a common practice in India. Yet, I left the house when my sisters brought their friends over on a Saturday or holiday. They weren’t mean or unkind but loud.

If I could be a bee on a wall at a slumber party, it would be when Mariam visited Elizabeth. Soon after Gabriel left, Mariam “got up” (a hint that she was sleeping and dreaming or sitting down and seeing a vision), got ready hurriedly, and went to the city of Judah (Luke 1:39–40).

(Judah was the fourth son of Jacob and Leah. He was born in modern-day Harran in Turkey, above Syria (Gen 39). Mariam didn’t go that far. Instead, she went to the land allocated to Judah that extended from Jerusalem in the north to Negav in the south and the Dead Sea in the east to the Mediterranean in the west. Bethlehem was 70 miles (112 km) south of Jerusalem and within the land given to Judah.)

Mariam went to the land of Judah and “entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth” (Luke 1:40).

“As Elizabeth heard Mariam’s greeting, the baby in her womb leaped (skero).” (Luke 1:41a).

This event reflected something the Israelites were familiar with. Abraham’s son, Isaac, married Rebekah when he was 40. She couldn’t have a baby. Isaac prayed to YHWH God. YHWH answered, and she became pregnant (Gen 25:20–21). It wasn’t a normal pregnancy; the baby in her womb often leaped (skero). She asked YHWH, “What is happening to me?” He told her she was carrying twins, fathers of two nations, and the older would serve the younger (25:22–23). Pregnant ladies can feel their children “kick” in their wombs and feel them move around. But skero of Esau and Jacob and skero of John were different – they indicated something new.

With Elizabeth, as soon as the baby in her womb leaped, she became a prophetess. The Holy Spirit filled her, and she said to Mariam in a loud voice:

Blessed (eulogeo) are you among women. Blessed (eulogeo) is the fruit of your womb. Why did this happen to me? The mother of my Lord has come to me. (Luke 1:42–43)

At this slumber party, John, Holy Spirit, Elizabeth, and Mariam were all “shouting,” praising God, blessing each other, and acknowledging the truths of Jesus’ divinity, him as “the Lord.” Mariam wasn’t simply pregnant; she was pregnant with Elizabeth’s Lord, Jesus.

(Early Eastern Christianity called Mariam/Mary “Theotokos,” translated as the “mother of God” (from theos “God” and tokos “giving birth”), meaning she gave birth to God. A more appropriate term is Kyriotokos, “mother of the Lord” (from kyrios “Lord” and tokos), which was what Elizabeth called Mariam.)

Elizabeth told Mariam that the minute Mariam greeted her, the baby in her womb heard it leaped (skero) with gladness (Luke 1:44) – a second time for Luke’s audience to hear this. Then she blessed her:

“Blessed (makaria) is she who believed that the words that were spoken to her had come from the Lord.” (1:45)

In Greek, eulogeo referred to someone speaking good things about a person (from eu “good” and logeo “to speak”). People would praise Mary as the greatest among all women and honor the fruit of her womb, Jesus (1:42). But makaria referred to God blessing a person. God blessed Mariam because she believed Gabriel’s words as his. She had tremendous faith!

Mariam/Mary was/is a special person. We must honor her as such.