As
Christians, and westerners, we can become so accustomed to the message of the
gospels and of Christianity and Christmas, that we can forget just how
revolutionary this event actually was and still is. I think a powerful passage
to help us meditate on this is the song of Mary, the Magnificat, from Luke 1.
We read there,
“46 And
Mary said:
“My
soul magnifies the Lord,
47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.
48 For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant;
For behold, henceforth all generations will call me blessed.
49 For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
And holy is His name.
50 And His mercy is on those who fear Him
From generation to generation.
51 He has shown strength with His arm;
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
52 He has put down the mighty from their thrones,
And exalted the lowly.
53 He has filled the hungry with good things,
And the rich He has sent away empty.
54 He has helped His servant Israel,
In remembrance of His mercy,
55 As He spoke to our fathers,
To Abraham and to his seed forever.” (Luke 1:46-55).
Let’s reflect
on this passage for this Christmas season.
Mary begins
by praising God for recognizing her in her humility, “46 And Mary said: “My
soul magnifies the Lord, 47 And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. 48 For
He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant; For behold, henceforth all
generations will call me blessed.” This is one of the most profound events in
human history and Mary truly is the most blessed of all women to have ever lived,
because she was chosen by God to be the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Our Lord and Savior, the one through whom everything was made, was carried in Mary’s
womb. Though he was conceived by the work of the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary,
and he is eternally God the Son, according to the flesh he is also a son of
this woman and a descendant of King David. A true miracle, the glorious
incarnation.
And Mary
truly is blessed among all women to be part of the means of God bringing salvation
in the world in the flesh. “The Lord who sits within her womb Shall rule, iron
sceptre in his hand, He shall break chains, shun the tomb, And gather us in his
hand.”[1]
Next, she
reminds herself of the power and might of our God who has used his power for
the good of his people, “49 For He who is mighty has done great things for me, And
holy is His name. 50 And His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to
generation.” Jeremiah reflects on how God’s mercies are new every morning, “morning
by morning new mercies we see,” is how we sing this in that great Hymn, Great
is Thy Faithfulness, based on Jeremiah's words.
The Old
Testament is brutally honest about the constant stubbornness and rebellion of
God’s people. But God continually outdid their stubbornness with his
application of mercy and grace, preserving a remnant, making sure that his
promises were fulfilled, and when it came time for the advent of Jesus Christ
into the world, there were still righteous and noble Israelites with which he
could work, because he hag shown “His mercy on those who fear Him from
generation to generation." And he still does show mercy to all who fear Him.
He has also opposed the proud, “51 He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the
proud in the imagination of their hearts. 52 He has put down the mighty from
their thrones, And exalted the lowly. 53 He has filled the hungry with good
things, And the rich He has sent away empty.” Whether it was the Pharoah who
God humiliated in the Exodus, or David when he sinned with his friend’s wife, God
has consistently opposed the proud and humbled them. Some, like David were
humbled to repentance, others like Pharoah were lowered to destruction. The
Lord chooses who shall reign, and he gives many rulers, many chances to do the
right thing and be good in their leadership, but he has consistently opposed
those who abuse their power, while simultaneously lifting up the lowly.
Remember Joseph,
remember Gideon, remember Deborah and Ruth, remember the great legacy of those
of lowly estate who God has lifted up, and remember that he continues to do this today. God
is a revolutionary in some senses, at least when it comes to this world. He is
not a Marxist, or a rebellious revolutionary like so many fallen human beings
have been. He is a careful, methodical transformer of this world and its
systems, so that when they have become evil and oppressive he has dealt with
them and put them down, raising a new leadership in their place.
This has been
a hope of the righteous through all of history, because often the righteous
have found themselves on the wrong side of oppressive and evil governments. The
beast of Revelation is not simply a one off future tyrant, he is the model of
tyranny in this world, and Jesus has been the best toppler of tyrants the world
has ever known. He defends his people, and pleads the cause of justice, and he does this through his people as well who are called to be salt and light in a world hostile to his gospel message of hope. Mary reflects on this as being part of the message of
the advent of Jesus Christ. She warns the proud that their Overlord, Jesus, is here,
and he carries the iron sceptre of righteous justice in his hand, and he will
hold them to account.
And she finishes,
“54 He has helped His servant Israel, In remembrance of His mercy, 55 As He
spoke to our fathers, To Abraham and to his seed forever.” Some Christians,
because of a strange and recent reading of the Old Testament without the proper
lens of Jesus, like to only apply the term Israel to one ethnic group, and the promises
to Abraham as uniquely applying to this group. But Mary reminds us here of what
Paul does in Galatians, the seed through which God’s people will be blessed is
Jesus Christ. The seed through which the world will be blessed is Jesus Christ.
The nation of Israel carried this blessing as they were like Mary in a way,
they were the womb of the Messiah, the means through which the saviour would
come into the world. But the ultimate expression of the blessing and promise is
the seed, the descendant of Abraham through whom the whole world would be
blessed, Jesus Christ, “16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made.
He does not say, “And to seeds,” as of many, but as of one, “And to your Seed,”
who is Christ” (Gal. 3:16). Mary and Paul agree, the promises to Abraham’s seed
find their fulfilment in the advent of the Messiah, the Christ, the birth of
Jesus of Nazareth, who shall redeem his people.
“He has helped
His servant Israel, In remembrance of his mercy…” Mary speaks of this as being
fulfilled in her day. But how can this be so if it is talking about the rescue of
a physical nation in the land of Israel? It can’t, because not only was that
nation not rescued, it was crushed by the Romans in a cruel and barbaric war a
few decades after she sang this song. But if it refers to the Holy remnant, those
whose hope in God and his Christ remained steadfast, then it most certainly was
fulfilled because Jesus redeemed his people in her day,
“8
Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four
elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of
incense, which are the prayers of the saints. 9 And they sang a new song,
saying: “You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were
slain, And have redeemed us to God by Your blood Out of every tribe and tongue
and people and nation, 10 And have made us kings and priests to our God; And we
shall reign on the earth” (Rev. 5:8-10).
God has most certainly helped Israel. For His Son is the true Israel, and all who have repented of their sins and trusted in him have been made full citizens of the people of God, the city of God. A city that will lift up the lowly and humble. A city where the oppressor is made to repent or he is denied entry. A city where we celebrate the coming of Jesus Christ to this earth as a little child, a child who grew up to be a man, the God-man, who change everything by his righteous life and death on that cruel cross. A city whose citizens hope in the one whom death could not hold.
“My soul
magnifies the Lord, And my Spirit has rejoiced in God my saviour.” Mary sang the
first ever Christmas carol. Praise God for Christmas, praise God for the coming
of the Lord Jesus who changed everything.
List of
References
[1] The
Magnificat, Diamon Sceptre, https://open.spotify.com/track/24TrXw3OS0nzO3f0uOZ2nD?si=e93b2578f4794938
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