The witness of Mary and Elizabeth for the unborn.
by Kelsey Gjesdal
My heart pounded as I stood on the sidewalk, holding a laminated sign. It was sprinkling, and my fingers were cold. I felt so out of place.
I looked over at my sister. Her eyes were closed in silent prayer. She felt none of the nervousness that was wracking my body. A car drove up to the clinic, and she stepped up to offer a brochure. The driver pretended not to see her. Despite the rejection, she stepped out again and again. Each time a car pulled up.
People honked and gave us the finger. Others screamed out their windows. A few encouraging people told us to keep up the good work.
At the end of our shift, I got into my sister’s car and asked her, “Does this even make a difference?”
She smiled. “Former abortion workers have said that when people pray on a sidewalk outside of an abortion clinic, the no-show rate is seventy-five percent.”
For the next four weeks, my sister, a small group of friends, and I prayed outside the same abortion clinic every Saturday afternoon. Doing this scared me. We were in a sketchy area of town in a pro-abortion state with constant rioting and turmoil in certain cities.
But praying where I knew babies were dying changed something inside me. No longer was the abortion issue something “out there.” It was happening in my city, before my very eyes, and I could no longer look away and think, Someone else will do something.
When life begins
Edmund Burke is attributed with saying, “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” Many Christians have been silent on the abortion issue for too long. It’s time for the church to speak up so that good triumphs over evil. However, even within some churches there are arguments over whether abortion is a sin, and, if it is, at what point is abortion a sin?
As Christians, we all agree that murder, or taking the life of another human being, is sin (Exodus 20:13). But when it comes to abortion, our disputes on calling it murder boil down to one question: When does life begin?
There is a genetic answer to this question. A zygote is formed when an egg from a woman is fertilized by a man’s sperm. Twenty-three chromosomes from the mother and twenty-three from the father are combined to create a completely unique individual with his or her own set of genes. This zygote has the same genetic makeup as the baby, the child, and the adult he or she will become further on in development. Dr. Suess said it well: “A person’s a person, no matter how small.” Life begins at fertilization.
What Scripture says
There is also a biblical answer to the question of when life begins. One of the best answers is found in the Gospel of Luke.
Now at this time Mary arose and went in a hurry to the hill country, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And she cried out with a loud voice and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And how has it happened to me, that the mother of my Lord would come to me?For behold, when the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby leaped in my womb for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what had been spoken to her by the Lord” (1:39-45).
When Mary, who was pregnant with Jesus, came into Elizabeth’s presence, John leaped in Elizabeth’s womb. This is significant to the abortion debate. In Luke 1:26, the angel Gabriel announced the coming Messiah to Mary in the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy. Verse 39 says Mary went “in a hurry” to go see her cousin, and Mary remained with her for three months, presumably until John was born (v. 56). This means that when Mary came to see Elizabeth, she would have been a few days along in her pregnancy.
Not months. Not weeks. Days.
If the presence of the Lord Jesus was recognized as life in Mary’s womb a few days into her pregnancy, who are we to say that a fetus is not alive until the child can survive outside of the womb or until a heartbeat is detectable?
Besides this, Scripture makes it abundantly clear that human life is valuable to God. This is why He instituted the death penalty for those who willfully take another human’s life (Genesis 9:6). God created us in His own image, as the pinnacle of His creation (1:26-31). David writes that we are fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139:14).
Jesus demonstrated that human life is valuable, regardless of age or disability, by welcoming children into His presence (Matthew 19:14), by touching and healing the sick (8:3), and by making the good news available to all who will call on His name, for we are saved by grace and not by our works (Ephesians 2:8, 9).
Life matters to God from womb to tomb. We should remember the words of Proverbs:
There are six things which the Lord hates, yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that run rapidly to evil, a false witness who utters lies, and one who spreads strife among brothers (6:16-19).
Judgment and forgiveness
God hates murder; therefore, God hates abortion. Abortion is a sin, regardless at what stage the pregnancy is willfully terminated. And the Lord will not leave the guilty unpunished (Revelation 21:8).
Sin separates us from God. The unholy cannot come into the presence of the holy. Murderers cannot stand before God and live. Neither can liars. Or idolaters. Or the cowardly. None of us can stand before God and live, for we have all sinned and deserve God’s righteous wrath (Romans 6:23).
But that’s not the whole story. There is forgiveness in Jesus Christ for the sin of abortion (Psalm 130:4). Christ’s death and resurrection secured eternal life for all who would call upon His name, and His blood can cover all our sins — our lies, our idolatry, our cowardice, and our abortions. “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
For those who have been complicit in the act of abortion, whether as a doctor, the mother or father of the unborn, an extended family member pressuring a loved one into “taking care of the problem,” or by voting to support “reproductive rights,” they can come before the Lord in humility and allow the blood of Christ to bring times of refreshing.
Way of the church
Christians in the early first century were known as baby savers. According to Early Christian History (earlychurchhistory.org), infanticide was legal in Rome since its founding. Unwanted babies would be thrown into trash heaps and left to die. But the early Christians knew that all life was precious to God. They would seek out these abandoned infants and care for them, either adopting and raising them as their own or tenderly caring for them in their final moments of life.
What are we known for today? For our value for life, as the people who will support mothers with unexpected pregnancies? Are we known as the people who champion families — who respect and care for the elderly and dying, who spread the good news because there is a life beyond this one that matters for all eternity?
Ask the Lord how you can be a voice for the voiceless today. Maybe it’s through praying on a sidewalk outside an abortion clinic or through voting in alignment with godly principles. Maybe it’s through financially supporting a pregnancy resource clinic in your area or donating old baby things to a family in need. Whatever the Lord calls you to do, be faithful to do it.
We don’t have to be silent in the face of evil.
