I have eleven first cousins on my Dad’s side and none on my Mom’s side. “The Steffenson Cousins” aren’t close-knit, but when any of us get together we pick up right where we left off and we always have a good time. We have an intimate bond that endures in spite of our many differences and pathways through life.  My cousins mean a lot to me. I’m grateful we all drift around and get together here and there as we pursue our various lives. (I’m also fortunate that they are spread around the country so I have different places to visit with a free room!)

John the Baptist came announcing the arrival of someone who is to be the life-giving and life-changing bearer of divine judgment and fulfillment of God’s covenant, i.e. The Messiah.  He also was announcing the public debut of the ministry of his cousin Jesus with whom he had played as a kid and whose families were intertwined probably something like mine. We don’t know how many other cousins either one of them had, but this particular cousin-relationship was special from the start.

John’s mother Elizabeth and Jesus’ mother Mary became pregnant at about the same time, both under miraculous circumstances. As the story goes in Luke 1, Mary went to stay with her cousin Elizabeth, and when Mary came into the house, both children leapt in their mother’s wombs in recognition of each other’s presence.  While the scriptures tell us nothing about the relationship of the two boys from then until Jesus came to John at the Jordan River, it’s most likely they got together often while growing up. Both were children of destiny.

After the two women share in this powerful moment, the story says Mary sang a song we call “The Magnificat,” a rewrite of a prayer of Hannah in the Hebrew Bible. She applies Hannah’s words to Jesus in a prophecy regarding that destiny. Mary foresees Jesus scattering the proud, bringing down the powerful from their kingly thrones, lifting up the lowly, filling the hungry, sending the rich away hungry, and establishing the kindom of mercy to fulfill Abraham’s covenant with God.

As Marquette University ethicist Dan Maguire says, “With a mother like Mary, no wonder Jesus turned out the way he did!”  My cousins and I are nowhere even close to the stature of John and Jesus, but we’ve all made positive contributions through our families, our vocations, and our leadership where we are. Some of us even participated in movements that dethroned Presidents and overthrew unjust systems.

We could say that these two cousins grew up to not only transform Israel but to change the whole world and transform all of history.  For Jesus to come to fruition John was necessary to prepare the way. Both changed and saved lives. The ministry of these cousins continues to save and transform lives even to this very day.