This past Sunday I preached from Mary's Song from the book of
Luke chapter 1. We know these few verses as "the Magnificat". The Magnificat
was spoken while Mary was visiting Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist.
She is praising God for his great mercy to her personally. Her words are
personal and her point of view is turned inward. Mary seems to fade from view;
she is praising God for the effects the coming of Christ will have on the world.
Her point of view is outward and her words are global in their scope.
“For he has been
mindful of the humble state of his servant.” The word “humble” refers to her
age, her background, her economic condition, her lack of social standing. In
short, She was just a poor Jewish girl, one among thousands. In all of Israel
there was no one less likely. Mary was overwhelmed by the thought that she has
been chosen by God. Surely God didn’t have to do it that way! That’s the
wonder of Christmas. It is a statement about the sovereign grace of God.
Mary was praising God because he chose her despite all the things that made the
world overlook her. As
God has done great things by choosing such an unlikely person, he would now do
great things in unlikely ways.
When Mary spoke about herself, she used the
present tense, but when she talked about the world, she used the past tense—"He
has performed, He has scattered, He has brought down, he has
filled.”” Mary was
talking about Jesus Christ. When she said “has,” she was talking about what
Christ would do. She was so utterly convinced about what her Son, the Lord
Jesus, would do when he was to come that she spoke of it as if it had already
happened. Although it was yet in the future, in Mary’s mind it was an
accomplished fact because God had willed it to happen. Mary described revolutionary changes that
would happen on earth because of the birth of Jesus Christ.
“He has performed
mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost
thoughts.”
The coming of Christ means the end of all human
boasting. It is the end of vanity and outrageous ambition. His coming means an
end to insatiable greed and uncontrolled lust for power. The mighty are brought
down by the strong arm of the Lord. Indeed, it has so happened across the centuries.
Proud and daring men lift their heads to challenge the Almighty, but he swats
them down like flies. What happened to Saddam Hussein? What happened to Erich
Honecker? What about Idi Amin? What about Vladimir Lenin? Mao Tse Tung?
Tyrants such as these come, they rise to power, and sooner or later, they
disappear. The story of the Tower of Babel tells us how God works. He lets the
proud gather together and in their grandiose schemes, they plan to rise up to
heaven. God watches for awhile, he waits, he seems even to ignore, and in their
temporary success they congratulate each other on their cleverness. But God
scatters the proud, and he does so suddenly.
The coming of Christ brings about a
great reversal of fortune in society. The proud are brought low and the humble
are lifted up. What men would term as luck Mary called the work of God. When someone
loses everything, we talk about bad luck. When someone "hits the jackpot", we
say he had good luck. It is not so for Mary. She understood that behind the
faceless mystery called luck stands God himself. He lifts up, and no one can
bring down. He brings down, and no one can lift up again.
As John
Calvin said, the princes of the world do not understand this. They grow
insolent, fat, lazy, and greedy. They indulge in luxury, swell with pride and
grow intoxicated with power. They soon forget that all they have comes from
God. Calvin said exactly, “If the Lord cannot tolerate such ingratitude, we
should not be surprised.”
“He has filled the hungry with good things but
has sent the rich away empty.” This is the most revolutionary part of Mary’s
song. Not only does the coming of Christ upset the proud of this world, not
only does it lift up the humble, but it actually means that the hungry are fed
and the rich go away empty. The gospel is the only hope for mankind—not only for
his soul but also for his body, not only for the church but also for the world,
not only for the individual but also for society. Mary’s heart was filled with
praise because she knew the world would be a different place because Christ had
come. He will pull down the proud. He will lift up the humble. He will fill
the hungry. And the rich will be sent away empty. This is the ultimate reversal
of fortune.
Verses 54-55 bring us to the end of Mary’s
song. She concluded by praising God that in sending Jesus Christ into the
world, God was keeping his ancient promises to Abraham. There is a wonderful
phrase in verse 54: “He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be
merciful.” That’s a wonderful way to put it. God remembered to be
merciful. Jesus was born that way in order to send us a
message about how God does business. Mary’s song teaches us that this is how
God always does business. He doesn’t do business with the proud. He doesn’t run
with the rulers of the world. He doesn’t side with the rich. God is at home with
the humble, the tired, the weak, and the lowly of this world. He does business
with those who fear His name.
In
Christ,
Brown
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