Mary's Praise

Good morning,

Let us open with a word of prayer.

Pray 3+

Our passage today is found in Luke 1, verses 46-56. However, before we get there I want to look at a different passage of Scripture that will help us to answer the first question on the bulletin. If you could turn with me to Matthew 12, in the pew Bible this will be page 906 and we talked about this idea last week toward the end of our message, how our works justify or give proof of our faith. But in case we were to try to say that James is off in his own world and there is nothing else to support it, I want us to look at what Jesus says here in Matthew 12. Here Jesus had just been accused of expelling demons by the power of Beelzebub and He had corrected the Pharisees and now he is telling them and the crowd why they speak the way they do.

Matthew 12:33–37“33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit. 34 You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. 35 The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil. 36 I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, 37 for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.””

Jesus gives us this amazing litmus test here, not only for ourselves but also for those we listen too. We can also use this to test what was in the heart of Mary in our passage today. Jesus tells us that it is out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. So in our passage especially, we see this spontaneous hymn and we can use it to see what is in her heart or what kind of person she was. So if you can now turn with me to our passage for today, we are in Luke 1 and we will be looking at verses 46-56. If you are in one of the pew Bibles this will be on page 948.

What is in Mary's heart?

Starting in verse 46 our passage reads:

Luke 1:46–56 “46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on 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 for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 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 offspring forever.” 56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.”

What we see in our passage is the same heart we have seen from Mary in every other passage we have looked. We see a heart of humility and a heart of understanding. This was in some ways a challenge this week, and not for the reason you might expect. So last week when we looked at the meeting of Mary and Elizabeth, I said something that someone challenged me on. I said that this was a time when very often women were uneducated and looked down on. The point he challenged me on was that Elizabeth knows the name Gabriel had given Zechariah for the child. I will generally stand by the statement I made, however, I cannot find any huge evidences that support this within the Jewish culture and this tends to be even harder to uphold when looking through scripture.

Elizabeth knowing that the child’s name was to be John has two possible explanations, one that she was told by the Spirit that his name was to be John, possible though Luke does not record any evidence of this. Given Luke’s tendency to record the Spirit’s active role in both the Gospel and the book of Acts, it would seem that he forgot to here or there is a more natural explanation, that is she could read at least at a basic level. This idea is supported by the Proverbs 31 women, she is a women who works to provide and expand the household. She buys fields and good from afar, all of these take the ability to read and write at a basic level, deeds and contracts were used and one must be able to read in order to not be swindled. We see the use of deeds and contracts in Jeremiah 32.

However, that is not the only reason for my trying to search for evidence of women being uneducated, the other reason for this is that the words of Mary’s hymn of praise are not the word of someone who is uneducated and do not at least in someways understand the Scriptures available to her at the time. I want us to look at three areas of praise that Mary offers and all of these flow out of her heart in this song of worship. These areas of praise flow out of her knowledge of God.

What are the three areas of Mary's praise?

The first of these is her praise for God’s work in her own life.

God’s work in her own life. Vv. 46-49

In verses 46 through 49 of our passage, Mary magnifies the Lord for what He has done and what he is doing. It is clear she did not expect this blessing, at the beginning of verse 48, she says, “for He has looked on the humble estate of His servant.” We see this word or the male version of it throughout the New Testament, the male version is the word Doulos, here we have the female Doule. It is the word for slave or here female slave, but it is one who is subject to a master. We have seen this level of submission in Mary already, but here it is used to display the gratitude she has for the fact that God has looked at her, essentially a nobody when compared to the Lord and yet he looked at her and blessed her.

The God of the universe, the one who holds the world in the palm of His hand, she says, He looked at me. We have another mother who once recognized the God Who Sees. The mother here however is not the mother of blessing rather she is a mother because of a sin of the flesh. Turn back to Genesis 16 with me, Abram and Sarai where trying to fulfill the plan of God through fleshly means and Hagar is given to Abram by Sarai so that through her Sarai might have children. Well Hagar ends up getting pregnant and after she does Sarai begins to treat her harshly, at which point Hagar flees from her mistress. However in verse 7, the angel of the Lord finds her and it reads:

Genesis 16:7–13 “7 The angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” 9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress and submit to her.” 10 The angel of the Lord also said to her, “I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” 11 And the angel of the Lord said to her, “Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the Lord has listened to your affliction. 12 He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone’s hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen.” 13 So she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”” Hagar her calls God by His name “El Roi”, God of seeing, which in English doesn’t seem that impressive. However if you look at the rest of the sentence, it gives us a much deeper understanding. She says I have seen him who looks after me. He sees all, but He is more than impersonal, He sees her. He is a personal loving God who sees her and cares enough for her to bless this child despite the sinfulness of the situation.

We are given a similar picture here in Mary’s praise. Mary says God looked on her, against all odd, despite the fact that He is God of everything, He is the mighty God the one can call down more than 12 of legions of angels. The one whose very name is Holy has done great things for Mary. He has blessed her more than her humble state as God’s servant deserved. He is still “El Roi” the God who sees and He sees Mary, He choose her to help fulfill His plan of salvation and she is called blessed. He does the very same thing for us. He looked at her, He looks at you and at me, He sees us and we are blessed.

God’s work in the lives of all. Vv. 50-53

She goes on in her praise to praise God for his work in the lives of all people. She says:

Luke 1:50–53 “50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.”

Here we have an interesting conundrum when it comes to what exactly Mary is praising God for. We see her praise for God’s work in the lives of all people, however, when she speaks of God’s actions in verses 51-53 she speaks of God’s action in the aorist tense, which doesn’t have direct counterpart in English. The verbs are has shown, has scattered, has brought down, has exalted, has filled, and has sent away. We have 4 possible interpretations of these verbs.

The first is that past events are in view here. The biggest problem in this view is this victory mentioned in verse 52. God has not yet totally brought down the mighty nor has he totally exalted the humble. These are things that while partially fulfilled, will not see their full completion until Jesus’s second coming. The next two views are different but similar enough that we will combine them here. In one, it describes what God habitually does for mankind, therefore should be translated in the present tense. And the other, see the verses as a description of God’s standard behavior toward mankind. These two views are slightly more complex than I described, however they both fall short in the same way. Both of these do not take into account verses 54 and 55. They ignore the covenantal theme found in those two verses where the aorist tense continues.

The fourth view and the view that I hold to is these are in the prophetic aorist. These events are so certain that they can be viewed as past realities that Jesus will accomplish in His final victory. The completion of these things is just as certain as those things he has already done in verse 54 and 55. We see the same sort of language in Romans 8:30 if you could turn there with me. While I won’t get into the majority of the theology found in this verse today, I do want us to see the way Paul speaks here.

Romans 8:30 “30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.” We see all of these things are past events except one of them. We have not yet been glorified, yet, because all of these things have already happened he can speak as though it already has. God declared this would be therefore it is, even though we have yet to experience it.

That is what I believe is going on in verse 51-53, because who God is Mary sees these with such certainty that she can speak of them as if they are already accomplished. This is possible because of who God is, God is unchanging and shows mercy from generation to generation to those who fear Him. He has proved that over and over, throughout scripture. He did that here with both Elizabeth and Mary, both feared God and both were shown mercy. Now this child that Mary is carrying is the one that the nation of Israel had been waiting for, their deliverer and salvation.

These things are going to happen, and I would be remiss if, I did not point out the word of warning in these verses. They are a praise to those who fear God, however, they are a warning to those who have not come to faith in Jesus as their savior. God has shown the strength of His arm when Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb He showed His power over it, but he did more than just show power over it He defeated it. One day that strength is going to be against those who reject Him. He will bring down those that sit in positions of power and feel the are great by their own might, those who feel they are rich and don’t need God will one day see how worthless the riches of this world really are and all those who are proud will be brought low.

In fact, lets look at one of the most famous of rulers in the ancient times. This man had power and money, he did not feel the need to humble himself before God. Turn with me to Daniel 4, I will start reading in verse 28, but I want to look at Nebuchadnezzar. Here he just had a dream and called Daniel to interpret it. Daniel tells him that he would be driven away to live with the beasts of the field and he would eat grass like an ox, until Nebuchadnezzar knew that the Most High ruled the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He wills. But in verse 28 it reads:

Daniel 4:28–33 “28 All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 At the end of twelve months he was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon, 30 and the king answered and said, “Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?” 31 While the words were still in the king’s mouth, there fell a voice from heaven, “O King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: The kingdom has departed from you, 32 and you shall be driven from among men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. And you shall be made to eat grass like an ox, and seven periods of time shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will.” 33 Immediately the word was fulfilled against Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from among men and ate grass like an ox, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair grew as long as eagles’ feathers, and his nails were like birds’ claws.”

Daniel 4:34 “34 At the end of the days I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever, for his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom endures from generation to generation;”

If you haven’t already, place your faith in Jesus the one who died for our sins. One day he will judge the world and it will be far more severe than what Nebuchadnezzar recieved. The mightiest of kings was brought low before the Most High, but He also offers hope and new life through Jesus.

The last area of Mary’s praise is:

God’s work in the lives of His people Israel

I will read the last three verses because we are running short on time, but:

Luke 1:54–56 “54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” 56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.”

Here, we see the bases for His vindication in the previous verses. The basis is God’s merciful love for this servant Israel and this was what God had spoken to Abraham and his offspring. We can see Mary’s hope that Jesus would fulfill many of the national promises to the nation of Israel here. Her desire to see God again restore the nation to what it was meant to be.

Luke then tells us Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months then went home. We do not know if she stayed for John’s birth or not, God through Luke did not tell us definitively and there is debate for both. I would think so but again scripture doesn’t tell us.

Now again I have to loop back to the point I was challenged on last week. Mary here seems to have a deep understanding of who God is and his character. Also her hymn here, is reflective of so many others throughout the Old Testament. I forget his exact words, but in Alister Begg’s Sermon on this passage in 1999, he called these hymns God’s greatest hits album or something along those lines. You find them all over the place, Moses has a couple of them, Deborah sings one, David has a lot of them, they are scattered throughout the prophets, and Marc read Hannah’s earlier. But what she sings, she knew, she had an understanding of God’s word that had to have been taught to her or she read it for the Spirit to use to produce this song.

Which gives us a two fold challenge, the first of those folds is do we have this knowledge of God’s word stored up inside of us. Is it something we are meditating on day and night, are we reading it and memorizing it? Is it food we live by or are we trying to just take in this one meal a week?

The second part goes to us parents and us as a community, are we teaching our kids this stuff? Mary clearly had knowledge of God, if she wasn’t reading it herself, it was coming from her family and community. We all have a responsibility to the next generations to teach them about Christ, is that something we are doing or do we delegate it to others?

However even beyond these we see this flow out of Mary,

Does our joy overflow into praise and worship?

Remember what we read all the way back at the beginning of service from Matthew, Jesus said for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Mary spoke of the promises of God, she spoke of His characteristics, His mercy and his faithfulness, His righteousness and future judgement. She overflowed with praise and worship, is this what is coming out of our mouths. Is what flows out of us to God’s glory and praise or is what flows out of us complaint, bitterness, or gossip? Do we spend time talking about what others are doing or complaining about the new problem in our lives or is what is coming out of us good for the building up and edification of the saints?

Again I offered that passage in Matthew 12 as a litmus test, how do we compare to what we see here in Mary? Even more than that how do we compare to Jesus our God and Savior? I know I fall desperately short and must repent all the time when I compare this to what Mary does here let alone when compared next to Jesus.

Let us close with a word of prayer.