I think that after everything I have learnt about Elizabeth’s life and witness I can see that she is a woman of fearless faith and one that lives out the promises of God’s tangible love among her community. Her faith is her protection and God is the only one she follows, fear and obeys. I am inspired that God chooses her to be his speaker, his truth proclaimer. There are so many deeper implications behind that. I fall in love with God again when I see the way he interacts with women and how mightily he integrates them into his plan for humanity.
Whilst studying the lives of these women I am refreshed again with the hope that God was an equalist, he sought the weakest within communities to draw his kingdom together. These glimpses of God’s incredible humility and justice restore my faith, because despite the gender inequality, oppression and hopelessness I see around me I know that God’s heart is one of pure equality and restoration. His heart breaks when he sees gender injustice and that moves me to tears of relief. If God changed history and societies then it is only appropriate that we also fight for it.
As this is my final post about Elizabeth I wanted to look at her courageous leadership. How do her leadership qualities manifest through her actions? Although we have certainly seen glimpses over the past couple of posts about Elizabeth stepping up I hope to look at a couple of more specific incidents we find in this chapter of Luke.
Leading with faith:
Zechariah's position as a priest meant that he would serve in the temple twice a year, in the passage we learn that he is offering incense when he offers his prayers and Gabriel appears and tells him the miraculous news. Morris (1988) offers that Zechariah's sheer surprise at the Angels’ news may mean that he wasn’t actually praying for this to happen, Morris says that as he was making such a high offering he could have been praying for the redemption of Israel (p76). When we look at Elizabeth on the other hand we consistently see her aware of God’s will, she speaks truth and praise over Mary. In luke 1:45 we see Elizabeth proclaiming over Mary "Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!". We see this image of a woman who was a priest's daughter and priests husband, a woman who would have known all of the religious rituals etc, but yet who shows such real and humble faith despite her circumstances. She is a woman of faith not doubt. Seems simple right? There must be a reason there is this contrast. Deffinbaugh (2014) suggests that the image we see of Elizabeth’s spiritual depth and insight in comparison to the lack of faith around her is demonstrating that faith is not limited by gender. Women can be more spiritual than their husbands. I want to quote Deffinbaugh (2014) because I think this is a really valid point.
“Elizabeth’s words far surpass the revelation which we are told Gabriel gave to Zacharias. Women may be limited so far as their public ministry is concerned, but not so far as their spirituality and intimacy with God is concerned”.
Elizabeth speaks more truths than we hear from the angel which highlights she must have known. Elizabeth demonstrates leadership with her faith. Her faith sets her as an example, someone who was an inspiration, God blessed.
Leading by speaking:
In my opinion the most tangible example of Elizabeth’s leadership is found towards the end of this amazing chapter, when John is to be named in Luke 1:57-66. As we have seen so far with Elizabeth’s actions, she is a humble and obedient leader. She has a heart full of severance towards God and his plan for Israel and his plans for her too. Here we see the first incident where she explicitly stands against the opinions of others and shares God’s will with her community. All the while her husband is silenced. The responsibility of naming her child falls to her. It would have required courage to stand against your husband's family and the culture of the time and state that the child will not take the family name.
She is a woman who knows the will of God so perhaps she learned of John’s name independently of Zechariah’s word from Gabriel. When reading this passage a couple of things jumped out. Firstly, we read that Zechariah was deaf and mute for we read that his family sign to him when deciding the name of the child and in V63 Everyone was astonished that Zechariah writes the name John on the tablet he was given. The word astonishment hints that everyone was genuinely surprised by this event (Tannehill,2011, p57). Which indicates that Elizabeth and Zechariah had not shared their knowledge about the name John.
Some may consider Elizabeth a backup plan in this story; we only see her taking a position of authority because of her husband's disobedience. Feminist Theologian Reid (1996,p83) states that Elizabeth is only recognised because of the man she carries. Implying perhaps that Elizabeth’s role is not one of fundamental importance. I strongly disagree with this. I believe that here Elizabeth takes the centre stage in her own right, she is an image of faith through grace not through works or religion. We see that Zac is told first about this miraculous conception but he ignores this, so does this mean Elizabeth is a back-up plan? Filling in for Zac’s lack of faith? I don’t think so, I believe God used Elizabeth as an example. I like to think of it not as a backup plan but rather a redemption plan?! Like Christ was to the world. It is a lack of faith after all that leads to human sin. Elizabeth is chosen and does speak when her husband cannot. “In accord with Luke’s theme of the surprising ways of God and the reversal of expectations- Elizabeth becomes the one who understands and proclaims!” (Reid, 1996, P60).
This beautiful image really spoke to me and reminded me again that women are called to speak too. Sometimes we do not hear a woman’s perspective enough in our churches and our commentaries. Elizabeth spoke up despite the cultural world around her, where men were public speakers and figures. Perhaps, we need to challenge our Christian communities to draw out women’s voices. I believe the church will greatly benefit from hearing more from women and what God is revealing to them both in their lives and also through the scriptures.
Reid, B (1996) Choosing the better part: Women in the Gospel of Luke. Liturgical Press Available at: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qvYNM7Yz0boC&dq=women+in+luke&source=gbs_navlinks_s
Deffinbaugh, R.L. Available at: https://bible.org/seriespage/2-worship-two-women-luke-139-56
Morris, L. (1988) Luke: An Introduction and Commentary. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
Tannehill, R. C. (2011) Abingdon New Testament Commentaries: Luke. Abingdon Press
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