The season of Advent is in the Christian calendar to help Christians prepare for Christmas. From the Latin word “Adventus” which means “longing”, it is for Christians to long for Christ to keep all his promises of the second coming even as we look back at the first coming.
As we look at the songs of Christmas, today’s passage may be familiar to us because we encounter it every Christmas. But have we read the song of Israel in Psalm 137? Perhaps this song is a lot more relatable to our day in 2020 — with a pandemic and economic crisis on our hands. In Psalm 137, God’s people are exile and under the thumb of a foreign power, the mighty Babylonian empire, which had removed them far away from the Promised Land and home, far away from the holy temple in Jerusalem. Israel would have looked back at God’s promises of presence and peace and felt so alienated from Him. Perhaps you and I feel as spiritually lost, and doubtful about the trustworthiness of God. God’s people feel like foreigners in a strange land now.
Psalm 137 also offers us a glimpse into understanding Mary’s context in the first century. The Roman Empire now took the place of the Babylonians, and Israel continued to feel as oppressed and choked as in Psalm 137. Where was the hope and salvation God had promised? No prophet had spoken in 400 years. God’s priests were practicing a lot of inappropriate bribery and other foul practices. It was not uncommon for God’s people to feel that God had left His people. In the book of Ezekiel, we see the picture of God actually leaving and abandoning His temple in Jerusalem. God’s people were conscious that they did not have God’s presence, but only had His promises.
(A) A song of joy in God (Luke 1:46-49)
In Luke then, we enter into a domestic scene in Israel. In the preceding verses in Lk 1:26-45, Mary had been visited by the angel Gabriel, who had promised her a miraculous conception. Gabriel had promised Mary that from her would come the Savior of the world, and the fulfilment of God’s deliverance promises to Israel. Elizabeth, her aged and barren cousin had confirmed this word to her in their meeting. She had also become pregnant miraculously, and she had come for a visit. On meeting Mary, Elizabeth’s baby “leaped in her womb” (Lk 1:41b) and she encouraged Mary by saying that “blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (Lk 1:45). After hearing these words from Elizabeth, Mary breaks out into song because of this miraculous confirmation, and she sings the Magnificat we are studying here.
In the opening verses, Mary declares that her soul “magnifies” the Lord and her joy is in the Lord (Lk 1:46-47). John Piper explains that the word “magnify” can be understood in 2 ways. You can make things big in 2 ways, either using a telescope, where you make a big thing visible, or a microscope, where you make a small thing, big. Sometimes as Christians, it feels like we’re putting a microscope on God. But this is now what Mary is saying here. She is declaring that her heart and her spirit is happy in God Himself. As she heard her cousin, she was affirmed and encouraged that God is good. Whatever she was experiencing in her circumstances was not viewed as the end in itself but it was the result of what God was doing. She is delighting in the Lord.
We too, can have an experience of joy because of positive circumstances perhaps. But there is a joy that is independent of circumstances. This is made clearer in the next few verses. In Lk 1:48-49, we see that Mary’s source of happiness was not in the circumstances but she was delighting in the God above and behind her circumstances. She draws attention to the God who has “looked on the humble estate of his servant” (Lk 1:48a) and “He who is mighty has done great things for me” (Lk 1:49a).
Mary is delighted because she knew God is at work and she can hope in Him. She calls herself “blessed” (Lk 1:48b). She is not praising God in grudging way. She is blessed because she can see God’s work and experience it up close. That leads her to declare: “holy is his name” (Lk 1:49b).
What can we learn from this? Mary’s excitement that led her to sing has nothing to do with endorphins or hormones or marital status. It just has everything to do with knowing God and what this God thinks about you. It is absolutely rational and reasonable to find our joy in God if we are able to see circumstances in our life as what God is doing. Our lives are bearing fruit because God has sown seeds in His word! The story of our life is a part of God looking at the estate of someone small and insignificant and we are a part of His story!
Now, Mary is not special because she was used by God in this way. Mary recognised that she was not special at all. (c.f. Isa 57:15). God promises to be with the lowly and contrite and revives and works with us in a way that shows Him to be holy. God is a God that takes the insignificant and humble and makes them significant and great in His eyes.
(B) A song of the believer’s vindication (Luke 1:50-53)
Mary also declares that God’s mercy is for those who fear him (Lk 1:50). He also scattered the proud in the thoughts (Lk 1:51), destroying their pride in themselves. And how does God do it? Through the pregnancy of Mary. Through this, God is going to use to destroy the proud structures of man. Because of this child too, every generation will know God’s mercy, including us! In and through this baby, God is bringing about this amazing work.
From Lk 1:52-53, Mary identifies another 2 pairs. Firstly, she contrasts how God treats the mighty compared to the humble in Lk 1:52: “brought down the mighty from their thrones” vs “exalted those of humble estate”. Secondly, she also sings of how God treats the rich compared to the hungry (Lk 1:53): ”rich he has sent away empty” vs “filled the hungry with good things”.
God has dealt with these people in this way. Note how it is described in past time. And all this from this child that has not been born! With the coming of this child, it marks the dawning of the kingdom of Heaven and the world’s power structures will come crashing down. Everything she has hoped for will come true and everything in this world will be turned around.
Mary’s song is really a song of vindication! Christmas shows us that the powerless are given power. Those outside are brought in. And the poor will be given riches. And the converse is true.
Jesus comes to turn this world upside down. Those who are low in this life, He will lift up. Those who are high in this life, He will bring down. Does this comfort you in the way you live your life? Maybe you feel like if you follow Jesus, you will be shortchanged in this life. If that’s how you feel, the coming of Jesus assures us that there will be a great reversal. Jesus teaches on the Sermon on the Mount that the poor in Spirit, meek, who know they have nothing in this life, to these people, He promises that they will inherit the Kingdom. It is right for us to be faithful to our God and fear Him and to live as if we are living for another Kingdom and another way of life. We are not to live as the world does and we will be vindicated with the coming of our Lord. Remember that Jesus had no lasting home, no estate on earth and even died in a borrowed grave.
But for all who trust in Him, we have everything. Mary believed that by faith. And when she thought about it, all she could think about was how God it is to follow and trust in this God! Where else can we go?
(C) A song about God’s true faithfulness (Lk 1:54-55)
At the end of her song, Mary spoke about God remembering his mercy and His covenant (Lk 1:54-55). There are 2 promises that were the high points of the OT. In Gen 17:19, God made a promise with Abraham, that blessing will come through his family. Years and generations later. God also made a covenant with David. David would also have a long dynasty that would last forever (Ps 132:11).
With her pregnancy, Mary saw how God is keeping the promises that He made with the patriarchs through the thousands of years of Israel’s history. What character of God is identified here? She highlights God’s faithfulness. Mary is thinking about all that she learnt and she sees that He keeps His promises!
This is something similar that Matthew, the writer of Matthew adopted in the opening chapter of the gospel of Matthew. In Matt 1, Matthew outlined the genealogy of Jesus and picked out 14 generations between Abraham to David, David and the exile and after the exile. By doing so, he was emphasising how all the high points of Scripture are fulfilled through this gift. We see how all of God’s promises are yes and amen in Christ (c.f. 2 Cor 1:20).
What does this mean for us? This is a great time to tell our hearts that none of God’s promises made to His people will be broken. Every Christmas, we have the opportunity to call our hearts to look at what God has done previously. Has any promise not been kept? If they have been kept in Christ, why would God break anything now? Remind your heart that this is a promise-keeping God. And when we can do this, we can say with Mary that “He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy”.
Mary hasn’t even seen Jesus and his character. All she has is a word and the bodily changes with this pregnancy. And she sings this song.
She stayed with Elizabeth for 3 months (Lk 1:56). Later, when the shepherds came to her, we are told that she takes their word and treasured it, and pondered it (c.f. Lk 2:15-19). What does it look like? Her heart gathered up all these promises and she held on to them. She turns them over and over again in her mind and meditated on the significance of this child. What is His life going to be and what does it mean? Her heart was fixed and she pondered over the words that were given her about this son.
Luke records for us a point in Jesus’ childhood where he was separated from his parents and they eventually found Him in the temple (c.f. Lk 2:48-51) . Mary again, treasured these things. We catch these glimpses of Mary’s faith. She sees and learns things about her son, and turns them over and over again. These words for her pierced her heart and caused her to wonder what her son’s life will be. It is this same Mary who sings this Magnificat. Mary didn’t know a lot of things and she had loads to ponder over.
This is the Christian life. Do we think we know our Saviour? Christmas is a reminder that we really don’t. He became a baby and confused us. This is a God that is content to dwell in a manger. This is a God who comes to reverse our expectations and turn what we expect of this world upside down. The more we feel comfortable with Him, we find that He is an uncomfortable God.
Christian feeling defeated, cross-bearing and just tired? Remember that we are walking the road of this Saviour. And we wait for Him to come back again, not as a baby, but as a conquering King. He will show Himself faithful.