The Lord Visits His People
- Rev. Christopher Brademeyer
- Jul 2
- 6 min read
The Lord Visits His People
The Visitation – 7/2/2026
Isaiah 11:1-5
Rev. Dr. Christopher W. Brademeyer
That portion from God’s holy Word for consideration this evening is our Old Testament lesson from the book of the prophet Isaiah in the eleventh chapter with special emphasis on verse one which reads as follows:
“There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit.”[1]
Thus far the Scriptures.
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Today the Church observes the Feast of the Visitation. As we heard in the Holy Gospel, this day commemorates the visit of the blessed virgin Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, to St. Elizabeth, the mother of St. John the Baptist. It is a seemingly simple event. A young woman visits her elderly relative. Yet hidden beneath this ordinary meeting is one of the most profound moments in all of Scripture. Here two expectant mothers meet, but more importantly, the unborn Savior comes to the unborn prophet. The Lord visits His people even before He is born.
The Church has long treasured this feast because it teaches us several important truths about our God, about ourselves, and about our salvation. First, this feast reminds us that every human life is precious to God from its very beginning. As of late it has become fashionable in certain circles to dehumanize children in the womb. Some have even gone so far as to describe these little human beings as parasites. The basic argument usually runs like this: a human being is not really a person deserving of rights and legal protections until he reaches some arbitrary stage of development. Until the child is born, breathes independently, or can survive apart from his mother, he is supposedly something less than fully human. But this reasoning is deeply flawed.
The atheist philosopher Peter Singer famously argued that even newborn infants should not be regarded as persons with full legal protections until one or two years of age.[2] As horrifying as that conclusion is, it follows the same line of reasoning. If human dignity depends upon certain abilities or capacities, then why stop at birth? A newborn cannot speak, reason, or care for himself. Why not continue the argument for another month? Or another year?
And sadly, that same logic has spread far beyond abortion. Increasingly, our society speaks favorably of physician-assisted suicide, euthanasia for the elderly, and ending the lives of those with severe disabilities or mental illness. The assumption beneath all of this is that human life has value only so long as it is useful, productive, independent, or enjoyable. If a person cannot contribute economically, or if his life is judged to have insufficient "quality," then some conclude that it no longer deserves protection.
Dear friends, this is not what the Lord teaches. John the Baptist was only about six
months old in his mother's womb when he leapt for joy at the presence of Christ. The holy evangelist Luke does not describe this as an involuntary reflex. Elizabeth herself, filled with the Holy Spirit, tells us what happened: "The baby in my womb leaped for joy." John recognized his Lord. The unborn prophet rejoiced in the presence of the unborn Messiah.
Here Scripture teaches something remarkable. The child in the womb is truly a child. He is not a potential person but a person with potential. He can respond to God. He can receive God's gifts. He can even have faith. If the Holy Spirit can create faith in the unborn John, then certainly the unborn child is no mere collection of cells.
Further, neither does our dignity rest upon our abilities. We possess worth because God created us in His own image. Human life is sacred because it belongs to Him. Our nation once recognized something very close to this truth. The Declaration of Independence speaks of certain unalienable rights, among them life itself. Those rights are not granted by governments. Governments exist to recognize and protect them. A just government does not decide who counts as human. Rather, it protects every human being because each one possesses an inherent dignity bestowed by the Creator. This feast reminds us that this dignity extends to the smallest and weakest among us. Before anyone else knew who Jesus was, before He preached a sermon, healed the sick, or died upon the cross, He was already the Lord. Before John cried out in the wilderness, he confessed Christ while still in his mother's womb. The Lord has always loved the little ones.
But there is an even greater truth taught by this feast. Jesus Christ became a man. That statement is so familiar that we sometimes fail to appreciate its full wonder. The eternal Son of God did not merely appear to be human. He truly became one of us. He did not suddenly arrive on earth as a grown man. He entered the world exactly as every one of us entered it. He became an embryo.
He developed within the womb of His mother. He possessed tiny hands and feet. His heart beat beneath Mary's own heart. At no point did He cease to be God. At no point was He less than fully man.T he One through whom all things were created became one of His own creatures. The Author of life Himself entered the very earliest stage of human life. This means that from the very beginning of His earthly existence, Christ sanctified every stage of ours. He sanctified conception. He sanctified pregnancy. He sanctified infancy. He sanctified childhood. He sanctified adulthood.
He sanctified suffering. And finally, He sanctified death itself by passing through it in order to destroy its power.
Our Lord did not merely come to save adults. He came to redeem humanity itself. He took upon Himself our entire human nature from its very beginning so that He might redeem us completely. This is why Christians have always defended the unborn. We do not do so merely because of politics or social conservatism. We do so because Christ Himself once dwelt in the womb of His mother. We defend human life because our Savior assumed human life in all its weakness and vulnerability.
The prophet Isaiah gives us another beautiful picture of this mystery. He tells us that "there shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse." By all appearances, God's people looked finished. The mighty kingdom of David had been cut down. Foreign empires had conquered them. Their glory was gone. Sin had left nothing but a dead stump. But God delights in bringing life from what appears dead. Out of that stump came a tiny shoot: small, fragile, and easy to overlook. Yet that little shoot would become the fulfillment of every promise God had ever made. That tiny child hidden within Mary's womb is the shoot of Jesse. He is the long-promised Messiah. Though the world overlooked Him, though kings ignored Him, though many would later reject Him, He would grow into the mighty tree of salvation.
Indeed, He is stronger than every empire. He stands when kingdoms fall. He remains when civilizations crumble. He survives every storm of persecution. He endures every attack of Satan. And all who take refuge beneath His branches find life. This is the Christ whom John greeted while still in the womb. This is the Christ whom Mary carried. This is the Christ who now comes to visit you. He still comes humbly. He comes through His preached Word. He comes through the waters of Holy Baptism. He comes in His true Body and Blood upon this altar. The same Lord who visited Elizabeth's house now visits His Church. The same Savior who caused John to leap for joy still gives His people joy through the forgiveness of sins.
Dear saints of the Lord, your worth does not depend upon your productivity, your health, your intelligence, your independence, or your usefulness. Your value is found in this cardinal truth: Christ became one with you in your humanity so that you might become one with Him in His salvation. The world constantly asks what a person can contribute. Christ asks only this: whom have I come to save?
And the answer is sinners. Sinners in the womb. Sinners in childhood. Sinners in adulthood. Sinners in old age. Sinners on their deathbeds. He came for all.
So, rejoice with John. Rejoice with Elizabeth. Rejoice with Mary. For the Lord has visited His people. The Savior has come. The Shoot of Jesse has become the Tree of Life, and beneath His cross you find forgiveness, life, and everlasting salvation.
In the holy Name of + Jesus. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
[1] Isaiah 11:1 English Standard Version. All further quotations from the holy Scriptures are from the ESV.
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