The Songs of Christmas: The Magnificat - The Song of Love

Introduction

Read Luke 1:46-55

Luke 1:46–55 (ESV)

And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for he who is mighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

And his mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;

he has brought down the mighty from their thrones

and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

as he spoke to our fathers,

to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

Mary

What would you do if you were an unmarried yet engaged 14-15 year old girl, who, having been physically and spiritually pure to both God and your future husband, finds out that you are now expecting a child?

This lowly servant girl is in quite the predicament, for unfaithfulness and moral failure is seriously frowned upon and would definitely lead to societal shame if not outright death by stoning because of her perceived failure.

However, this young girl receives the message of the angel with submission to God. She faithfully responds to this message by saying, “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.”

How can Mary submit to God in this way when what He is doing is going to bring so much burden and heartache to Mary along the way? Mary may be, in fact, thinking through what all this means for her and the worry and anxiety over the future may be overtaking her. But instead, she chooses to go to her cousin Elizabeth’s house, whom she just heard is also expecting a child. And when she arrives, she is greeted with a very special and unexpected greeting, not just by Elizabeth, but also by unborn John as he leaps for joy within her womb.

This leads Mary to sing a song of worship as she focuses on God’s love rather than on all the ways this will be hard for her. It is this worship and focus on God that drives out the worry and anxiety she may be feeling at this time.

A.W. Tozer said, “We are called to an everlasting preoccupation with God.” Ruth Chou Simons says in response to this: “That means if a mind is filled with worry, it will be too preoccupied to focus on worship. But, alternatively, a mind consumed with worship will not have the capacity for worry; it will be too preoccupied with the goodness of God.”

So Mary sings her song of worship focusing not on how this is going to be difficult for her, but on who God is and on the love He has shown to us.

God is Love

Luke 1:46–49 (ESV)

And Mary said,

“My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for he who is mighty has done great things for me,

and holy is his name.

Praise God for Who He Is

First, Mary begins by simply praising God. To magnify here means to praise and to enlarge one’s vision of who God really is, not to make Him appear larger than He really is.

Mary is choosing to focus on God and to allow her mind to be preoccupied with God in worship.

Yes, Mary is praising God for what He has done for her, but not simply because of what he has done for her. She is praising Him because of who He is.

God is the Holy One.

God is the merciful One.

God is the faithful One because of His love towards His people.

And what God does is a result of who He is. God does not simply act loving. God is love which results in Him acting in love towards His creation.

Remember the first thing Jesus told us to pray in His Lord’s Prayer? “Hallowed be Your name.” He tells us to pray that God would help us see and recognize His holy character. Yes, we praise God for what He does, but first and foremost, we need to praise God simply for who He is. And Mary hallows God’s name by praising Him for His holiness, His mercy, and His love.

This song is not primarily about Mary. Yes she has mentioned a couple things that God has done for her, but notice how she has not actually mentioned the Son she is carrying because she wants to focus first on who God is rather than on what He has done or is doing.

As a result, Mary is able to rejoice in God rather than bemoan her circumstances.

God Showed His Love for Us

As Mary reflected upon and praised the character of God, she then began to praise Him for how He has showed His love to His people.

Mary is going through the history of her people to remember what God has done for His people.

God shows His love in Judgment

Luke 1:51–52 (ESV)

He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;

he has brought down the mighty from their thrones

and exalted those of humble estate;

Mary begins by recounting how God brought down the proud and the mighty.

What is she singing about here? God’s just judgment against sin.

Pride and Might

Pride is essentially the core of every sin we commit.

Pride is having an idolatrous trust in your own wisdom, strength, or ability.

Pride is what the serpent used to tempt Adam and Eve.

He told them that God was keeping them down and that they could be like God knowing good and evil. They didn’t have to trust God, they could trust themselves.

They could be wise enough on their own. They could be strong enough on their own.

This is why God opposes the proud. The proud are those who seek to glorify themselves rather than God.

Pride is what continues to lead us in sin today

Gossip is fueled by pride, tearing down someone else so I can build up my own self-image.

Sinful anger is fueled by pride because I have been offended by someone else.

Sexual immorality, any sexual identity or action that is outside of how God designed for the holy sexual union between a married man and woman, is fueled by pride. We wrongly think that I am wise enough to determine how I can and should lead my own life and that anyone who tells me otherwise is infringing upon my own personal authority.

Self-righteousness, a false righteousness that comes from my effort rather than through the work of Christ and the Holy Spirit, is fueled by pride, thinking I can earn my position before God.

The list could go on, but pride is an infinite offense against a holy God because we try to claim for ourselves what only rightfully belongs to God Himself.

God brings down those who walk in pride.

Perhaps Mary was thinking of Pharaoh in His hardening of heart to refuse to submit Himself to God.

Or of Nebuchadnezzar who pridefully believed that he built his own kingdom with his own hands rather than being the recipient of God’s infinite grace towards him.

Again and again, God demonstrated His love by scattering the proud.

Judgment Against Pride

How does God’s righteous judgment against the proud communicate His love?

If pride is the core of every sin, then as we walk in pride, we are walking in sin. And sin is a harming of ourselves and of others.

Now, we have falsely begun to believe that love is allowing others to do whatever it takes to make them happy.

However, this is not love. Love is not simply giving in to the whims and desires of others. Love is seeking the ultimate best for the objects of our love.

Since God is our Creator, He knows what is best for us. And what is best for our good and flourishing?

The preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes says this at the conclusion of the book:

Ecclesiastes 12:13–14 (ESV)

The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.

Our ultimate purpose and what is for our best is to fear, trust, revere, live in awe of who God is and live in obedience to His will and desire.

Sin is in direct opposition to what is for our best. If God allowed us to continue in sin without judgment and discipline, He would be unloving.

God’s judgment is the sign of His love towards all people. Love cannot exist without wrath.

If someone sought to harm my wife or kids, I would do whatever it takes to stop the harm. My love for them would stir up a good and righteous wrath that seeks to protect the ones I love.

In the same way, my anger would turn towards my own kids if they sought to do something that would bring harm to themselves.

If after telling them not to play out in the street, I saw them to proceed to do so, they will experience my anger towards their behavior, not because I have lost love for them, but precisely because I do love them and want to do whatever it takes to protect them.

So as Mary is recounting God’s actions against the proud and the mighty, she is proclaiming the wondrous and great love of God.

This is why we are told not to despise the Lord’s discipline against us. His discipline, while hard and unpleasant, is an act of love to bring us down in our own pride because God has more for us than what we are currently living for.

God shows His love in Mercy

Luke 1:50 (ESV)

And his mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

Luke 1:53–55 (ESV)

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and the rich he has sent away empty.

He has helped his servant Israel,

in remembrance of his mercy,

as he spoke to our fathers,

to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

But Mary doesn’t just talk about God’s actions against the proud. She also praises God’s love demonstrated in His mercy.

What is mercy? Mercy is undeserved kindness in withholding deserved justice.

It implies that the one receiving mercy deserves a penalty and judgment they are not receiving.

And this makes sense if God chooses to show kindness to anyone, for we are all sinners deserving of punishment for our pride and sin.

Romans 3:23 (ESV)

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

If you have received any kindness from God, you have received mercy.

But if God is just and must punish sin because of His love for us, then how can God also be merciful and withhold punishment for deserved sin?

Proverbs 11:21 (ESV)

Be assured, an evil person will not go unpunished,

but the offspring of the righteous will be delivered.

Sure, we can understand that the wicked will be punished and the righteous will go free. However, if we believe and understand that no one, other than God Himself, is righteous, then how can any of us go free?

Mary, however imperfectly, understands that the birth of this child is the way in which a just and holy God is going to be able to offer mercy and grace to a sinful people, including herself.

God must punish all sin. But God has a plan to punish all sin and yet still offer mercy to sinners who will fear God and keep His commandments.

This baby that Mary is going to bear is going to be the only perfectly righteous man to live on earth. He is the true second Adam who lived in submission to God all the days of His life. And because of His perfect righteousness, He deserved to go free. And yet, He willingly chose to take upon Himself the penalty of our sin. He submitted Himself to God’s wrath for our sin so that whoever would believe in Him would receive His righteousness and receive God’s mercy based, not on his own work, but on the merit and righteousness of Christ.

Because Christ took on human flesh, He was able to make a way for sin to be justly punished and for mercy to be offered. This child that Mary is giving birth to is the fulfillment of God’s love, justice and mercy that He has demonstrated to His people throughout history.

Now His mercy is available to sinners like you and I because of what Christ has done. And He freely offers us this gift.

But we have to acknowledge our need before Him. As long as we continue to walk in pride and continue to rely on our own wealth and strength and wisdom, we will not be able to experience the mercy God has for us.

This is why Mary sings that the hungry He fills with good things, but the rich He sends away empty. There is a sense in which God is turning things upside down even physically. We see this in the ministry of Jesus. But there is a greater spiritual reality that as long as we are sufficient in ourselves, we will never experience the filling up of our souls with God’s mercy and grace. But once we acknowledge our spiritual need and hunger before God, He will fill us with His righteousness and presence. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be satisfied.

We have a choice to make in our response to the love of God revealed to us in Jesus.

We can either reject Christ in order to continue to live in our pride and self-sufficiency for as long as God might be patient with us to do so, knowing that eventually all who live in pride will fall.

Or we can humble ourselves as Mary has and see the great love that God has for us in Christ, and submit our lives to Jesus as Lord and Savior. In so doing, we can trade our sin and everything that comes with it for the righteousness that Christ provides.

God Will Continue to Demonstrate His Love for Others Through Us

Luke 1:48 (ESV)

for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

Luke 1:50 (ESV)

And his mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

But finally, as part of Mary’s song, she recognizes that God has blessed her by revealing His love by sending Jesus through her. But this blessing that she has received is not simply for her benefit.

She recognizes that the blessing she has received is meant to continue on for generations. All generations will call her blessed, not because she is worthy of the praise, but because God is using her to bring forth the blessing for others.

God’s blessing to us by bringing us salvation is never meant to terminate on us, but is meant to continue on through the generations.

God can use us to reveal the destructive nature of pride and sin

God wants to use and work in His people to lovingly share the truth and danger of sin.

We do not want to be hateful towards those who are still living in sin, but it is also not loving to allow others to continue to live in sin without sharing the truth of the danger they are in.

Ezekiel 3:17–19 (ESV)

“Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. If I say to the wicked, ‘You shall surely die,’ and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person shall die for his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, but you will have delivered your soul.

God is calling us to be watchmen for one another and for those around us. If we truly love the people God has put into our lives, then we will speak the truth of God to others.

Penn Jillette, the famous magician from the duo Penn & Teller, is also an outspoken atheist. But he is an atheist who respects Christians who share what they know with others.

“I’ve always said that I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. I don’t respect that at all. If you believe that there’s a heaven and a hell, and people could be going to hell or not getting eternal life, and you think that it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward—and atheists who think people shouldn’t proselytize and who say just leave me along and keep your religion to yourself—how much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe everlasting life is possible and not tell them that”

“I mean, if I believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that a truck was coming at you, and you didn’t believe that truck was bearing down on you, there is a certain point where I tackle you. And this is moreimportant than that.”

It is not loving for us to allow others to continue in sin without sharing the truth of the danger they are in. We are not called to change anyone, but we are called to tell of the dangers of sin and to speak both the eternal damage as well as the temporal damage of sin.

God can use us to declare the mercy and salvation of Christ from pride and sin

But we do not simply talk about the warnings and dangers of sin. We also need to share the hope of salvation, that God has made a way to deal with our sin and has even given us the hope to be freed from sin to live in obedience to God.

That hope is Jesus Christ.

Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sin. But He did not die simply to save you from your sin. He died to save you so that you could then go on to share that hope and that blessing with others around you. The blessing you received must be shared and passed on so that others can be brought into this same blessing that you and I have received.

If God is love and if we have received this love through the mercy shown us at the cross, how can we not share this same love with others who need to know? How can we not live in worship to the God who has shown such great love to us and invite others to experience this same love?