We are informed in verse 56 that Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about 3 months, and then returned home. Mary obviously stayed with Elizabeth because she felt in the need of support, and because she still did not know how to tell Joseph of her pregnancy. She leaves just before Elizabeth had her baby, no doubt because of the large number of friends and relatives who would be flocking to see Elizabeth and Zechariah after the birth of John, and specially at John's circumcision. Again Mary was feeling the awkwardness of her situation, and her ignorance as to how to handle the problems it brought in the society of her relations and friends.

For these reason Elizabeth did not have the support of Mary at the birth of John, but without doubt she would have understood why Mary felt she must leave before the birth took place. Luke describes the birth of John the Baptist, and how Elizabeth and Zechariah held firm in the giving of a name to John, in spite of the pressure and questions; and he tells of the joy which the birth of John brought to so many.

Two things stand out prominently in this story of John the Baptist's birth. The first is that the gift of John was seen and declared as a great mercy of God. The other is the obedience of Zechariah and its reward. Let us observe both in turn.

In verse 58 we read Elizabeth's neighbours and friends hear that the Lord had shown her great mercy. So we hear that the birth of John was described as a mercy of God. This opens up to us a grand and important truth which is at the foundation of the truth, and of salvation.

Mercy lies at the heart of true Christian experience and truth. Elizabeth and Zechariah were too old to have a child, so we see that God stepped in to make it possible to have a child. This was a great mercy from God. Mercy is a descriptive word which speaks of the true condition of all of us in the sight of God. Mercy is the attitude and action of God towards sinners – to those who do not deserve it. Although Elizabeth and Zechariah were godly people, yet they did not deserve any favour from God, and like all humanity deserved only judgement and condemnation from God. Humanity has no rights before God. Even if we were not rebellious sinners, even then we would not have rights before God, because we are God's creatures, and his possession and he can do with us as he wills. Now that we have rebelled against God in our sin, we deserve only condemnation from God. So every blessing down to the very fact of life is a mercy from God which we do not deserve. We are debtors to mercy alone.

The gift of John was a mercy because although Elizabeth and Zechariah had prayed long and hard for the gift of a child, they had not been granted this blessing. Now God steps in with mercy – undeserved favour. It was a gracious act of God. It was mercy because the couple had no right to such a gift.

The declaration that the gift of a son to Elizabeth was a great mercy to her has an even deeper mean in the context of the history it tells. John was no ordinary child. God showed this mercy because the child had a very specific purpose in the plan of redemption of sinners – the mercy of God to sinners – which God was enacting. It was a mercy for Elizabeth that John should be the parent of the one who would prepare the way for the ministry and work of salvation of the Christ, who was to be born of Mary. He was to prepare people to receive the Christ, the Saviour, so that when he came they would repent and believe in him. Elizabeth was shown mercy by being chosen to be the mother of the fore-runner of Christ.

The meaning is even deeper because it tells of the mercy of God poured out upon the world and upon sinners who deserve no mercy. Here was God showing his mercy and pity to fallen humanity. It showed God pitying humanity in there condition of being creatures on which only the wrath of God dwelt. Here God was working out the means by which he could justly be merciful to sinners, and by this was showing how much, in love and grace, God desired and longed to be merciful. It shows to what lengths God was prepared to go in order to provide mercy for us fallen creatures, who have turned away from him. John was to tell of the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world, and would point to him and tell people to behold him and trust him. The mercy of God cost the condemnation and death of his only begotten Son. How great is the mercy of God shown in the Bible in so many ways.

Do we appreciate God's mercy as we should? Do we appreciate the goodness of God in making mercy possible for us? Everything we know in life which is a blessing – our food, our health, happiness, abilities, friends, guidance and much more, are all mercies. We deserve none of them. Do we understand and appreciate that our sin and corruption deserve nothing from God, and that if we are to be saved we can only be saved through mercy. Does the fact that the story of the birth of John the Baptist and the gift of Christ in mercy move us to bow down in gratitude to so merciful and loving God. Do we appreciate the enormous cost upon God for his mercy, the cost of forsaking his one and only Son on the cross, that we might not be forsaken.

Joy was in all the friends of Elizabeth and Zechariah because of the mercy of God shown in the gift of John. As we contemplate God's mercy in this act, and the implications of it, of mercy to us which we have been thinking about, let us humbly and thankfully rejoice also.