Mary's Song - Luke 1:46-55

©December 1st, 2019 by Rev. Rick Goettsche SERIES: Songs of Christmas

Today is the first Sunday in Advent, so we are beginning a new series entitled, “The Songs of Christmas.” We are going to look at the various songs that were sung in response to the coming of Jesus into the world. It is fitting that so many people’s response to the coming of the Messiah was to burst into a song of praise. Our hope with this series is that each of us will catch some of that same spirit and excitement for the advent of our Lord as well.

The first song we will examine is the song of Mary, the mother of Jesus. In some ways it is not surprising that the first song recorded about Jesus’ birth was from His mother. It is fitting for a mother to rejoice over the coming birth of her son. But Mary’s song is about more than just rejoicing at beginning a family—it is a song that recognizes God using her to play a part in His grand story, and that recognizes what God is going to do through this son.

Background

Since we’re jumping into the middle of this account, it’s important to get some context before we begin. This account is at the end of chapter 1 in Luke’s gospel. Some very significant things have just happened to Mary before she sings her song.

First, the angel Gabriel appeared to her to tell her she was going to have a child by the power of God. Mary was a virgin, so she was a bit confused by how this could be. She humbly asked the angel and he explained that God’s power would cause her to become pregnant. The angel also told her that this son of hers would sit on the throne of David and would be called the Son of the Most High.

Mary may not have fully understood what the angel was telling her, but I suspect she understood the references the angel made to the Messiah. King David had been promised that a king would sit on his throne forever. Much had happened since this promise to King David had been made, and Israel no longer had their own king. In fact, they were now ruled by the Roman Empire! So when this Jewish girl was told the son she was carrying as going to sit on the throne of David, she may have started to get a picture of who this child was going to be. He was going to be the ruler God had promised to David long ago. The Jews understood that this king was the promised Messiah. I think Mary understood this as well.

The angel also told her that her son would be called the Son of the Most High. I don’t know if she understood the full significance of this right away or not. In the one sense, it would have perfect sense for him to receive this title, since the one who had caused Mary to get pregnant was God himself, but I think this goes far beyond simply who made Mary pregnant. The title of Son of the Most High was really a title of deity itself. Whether Mary understood it or not, the angel was telling her she was going to give birth to God incarnate.

Surely Mary’s head was spinning with this great revelation, so she decided to visit her cousin, Elizabeth, who had miraculously gotten pregnant as well. Her pregnancy was miraculous not because she was a virgin, but because she was very old. Regardless, both women had supernatural pregnancies. Elizabeth was a bit further along in her pregnancy than Mary was. The child Elizabeth was carrying was John the Baptist. John would be the one who would prepare the way for Jesus’ ministry. He was an integral part of God’s plans for the Messiah.

When Mary arrived at her cousin’s house, Elizabeth was delighted to see her. And not only was Elizabeth delighted, but so was her unborn child. When Mary arrived, Elizabeth exclaimed that the unborn child in her womb leapt within her. In other words, even before he was born, John the Baptist was testifying to the majesty of Jesus!

It is after all this happens that Mary begins to sing her song. Her song naturally fits into two parts.

Part 1: Praise

The first part of her song is really a song of praise to God for who He is and what He has done for her. Here is how she begins,

46Mary responded, “Oh, how my soul praises the Lord. 47How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! 48For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed. 49For the Mighty One is holy, and he has done great things for me. 50He shows mercy from generation to generation to all who fear him. (Luke 1:46-50, NLT)

This first part of her song basically has three stanzas. The first stanza focuses on simply praising the Lord for who He is. She said her soul praised the Lord and her spirit rejoiced in God, her savior. These two statements are mirror images of one another, which is a common theme in Jewish poetry. Her immediate response to these wonderful things happening is to praise the Lord with everything she is. What a great reminder that is for us! So many times when things go well in our lives, we congratulate ourselves and forget about the Lord. But Mary’s approach is the right one—to praise God, recognizing that all good things come from Him.

The second line of her song marvels at how the Lord has chosen to use her, even though she didn’t deserve it. “For he took notice of his lowly servant girl, and from now on all generations will call me blessed.” Mary recognized that she was not worthy to be chosen for this task, but she identified herself as the Lord’s servant, and she shows gratitude for God choosing her for this task.

It is telling that Mary says that all generations will call her blessed. If Mary had believed she was simply pregnant with a normal child (as miraculous as the birth of any child is), the statement that all generations would call her blessed would seem to be the height of arrogance. But that’s not what was going on. Rather, Mary understood that she was going to give birth to the Messiah. She understood that the birth of this child would be remembered by all generations in the future. And as a result, her name would forever be associated with God’s plan to redeem humanity. Mary may not have understood everything, but she understood enough to recognize this was a huge deal. Mary was humbled by the task ahead of her, but grateful for the role God was allowing her to play in His plan.

This should be our approach to life as well. God gives each of us the privilege of playing a role in His plan. None of us is worthy of such a task, but He chooses to use us anyway. Like Mary, we should take time to praise God for how He has chosen to use us, and to humble ourselves before Him as His servant.

The third stanza involved Mary praising God for His character. She points out that God is holy. He is perfect, and He has a perfect plan. She has seen evidence of this in her own life. But then she continues by saying that God shows mercy to generation after generation of those who fear him.

Mary is saying that God is holy and does not have to put up with anyone. None of us is worthy to be in His presence. And yet, God continues to grant His people mercy. Those who serve the Lord are never turned away. This is exactly what Jesus was going to do—He would extend mercy once and for all to all who served the Lord.

Part 2: Prophecy

The second part of Mary’s song is prophetic in nature. That is not readily apparent in the English text, because all of the verbs in these verses are past tense. But the tense in the original language indicates that all of the things in these verses are something she believes will happen in the future. The reason all of the verbs come across as past tense is due to Mary’s certainty that they will happen. She can speak about these events as though they are past, because she is so confident they will happen exactly as she has predicted!

Some people have shown skepticism that Mary could have possibly written such a theologically rich and prophetic song in such a short time. The text reads as though she uttered this song in an instant, making it up on the spot. Some are incredulous that Mary could have done that. But those people fail to account for the supernatural. God was revealing His plan through Mary. He had made Mary pregnant by a supernatural means, and now He is having Mary sing prophetically by the same supernatural power. It is no different than when any of the prophets of the Old Testament spoke on behalf of the Lord. These words are intended to praise God by telling about what Jesus would do during His ministry. So, Mary is prophesying about the child now growing in her womb! Listen to what she predicts about Jesus.

51His mighty arm has done tremendous things! He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. 52He has brought down princes from their thrones and exalted the humble. 53He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away with empty hands. 54He has helped his servant Israel and remembered to be merciful. 55For he made this promise to our ancestors, to Abraham and his children forever.” (Luke 1:51-55, NLT)

Let’s take a look at each stanza of this section individually.

First, Mary says God’s mighty arm has done tremendous things. He has scattered the proud and haughty ones. This statement describes Jesus’ ministry perfectly. Jesus was merciful to all sorts of people. He treated those who were oppressed with dignity. He treated those who misunderstood with gentleness. And He took the time to gently instruct everyone who would listen to Him regardless of their station in life.

But Jesus was merciless to those who were convinced of their own self-righteousness. To those who were convinced that God must be pleased with them because of their great understanding and piety, Jesus reserved His harshest rebukes. The Pharisees, Sadducees, and the experts in religious law were constantly attacked by Jesus. Why? Because they were proud and haughty. They were less concerned about obeying God and seeking His glory than they were about keeping their position and power. As a result, Jesus scattered them. He removed them from their position. He made them look like fools in front of the people whose admiration they most desired.

These verses should serve as a warning to us. We must examine our own hearts for pride and for places where we feel superior to others. We must systematically root out of our hearts all the places where we may be tempted to think we don’t need God’s help. Those who humbly seek God are welcomed with open arms. Those who forget their place before Him are not.

Second, Mary says God has brought down princes but exalted the humble, and filled the hungry but impoverished the rich. Here Mary engages in the same repetition as before. She says the same thing two different ways to emphasize her point.

Mary is not saying that God hates the rich and loves the poor. Having money is not inherently a bad thing. And lacking money is not inherently a good thing. But the way we handle what we have determines how God will handle us. Those who are greedy, closed-fisted, and unwilling to help others with their abundance will find that abundance taken away. If we do not use what God has given us to serve Him, then He will take it away from us. This is exactly what Jesus said in several of His parables.

On the flip-side, however, is that those who may not have much, but are faithful with what they do have will be blessed greatly by God. The point here is again one of focus. Our focus should be on trying to honor the Lord with everything we have, whether that is our money, our talents, our time, our possessions, or anything else. If we choose to use those things selfishly, we will find ourselves fighting against the Lord. But if we use them for His glory, we will see that He will enable us to do ever more for His kingdom.

The third statement of this second section is that God has kept His promise to Israel and Abraham. Mary sees how the birth of her son is the fulfillment of the promise God made to Abraham thousands of years before. God told Abraham that through his descendants all nations would be blessed. This was a prophecy that looked forward to the Messiah. And it was fulfilled in the life and legacy of Jesus. And Mary remarks at God’s mercy. Despite Israel’s constant rebellion, God kept His promise by bringing Jesus into the world.

Because of Jesus all nations (not just the people of Israel) have access to God. Because of Jesus the playing field is level for everyone. Because of Jesus we can be forgiven and made right with God, even though we don’t deserve to be. Through Jesus, all nations are indeed blessed.

Conclusion

Mary’s song is a wonderfully rich celebration of God’s character and a prophetic celebration of all that God would accomplish through Jesus. I can only imagine the excitement that Mary felt in her heart, knowing that God was going to do amazing things through the child now growing in her womb. She couldn’t possibly understand completely the depth of what Jesus would mean to all nations, but she knew that He was what everyone had been waiting for.

This is why we celebrate Christmas. Christmas is the remembrance of when God finally began to set His plan into motion. This was a plan He had put in place before He ever even created the world. He planned to redeem His creation through Jesus Christ. All of history had been leading up to this point (which is why it is fitting that today we divide history into two eras, those before Christ and those after). This was a cause for celebration.

The danger for us today is that we get caught up in all the other things that Christmas has come to mean that we forget the real reason we are celebrating. Not everything about our modern Christmas celebration is bad. Yes, it has tended to become more about materialism than the birth of Jesus, but many of the other things we associate with Christmas are actually good things. We associate Christmas with family and togetherness. We associate it with being kind to other people. We associate it with getting together with others and celebrating the blessings of friendship and abundance we have been given. We associate it with showing the people around us that we care for them. These are good things. But we must never allow those things to overshadow the reason we celebrate. We celebrate because Jesus came into the world and changed all things for all people for all time.

Mary’s song also gives us of a few things we should take to heart as we enter this Christmas season.

First, we should take time to honor God for His character and His blessings to us. This is something Mary did very well, but something we often struggle with. We’ve just finished Thanksgiving in the United States, a time when we are supposed to take time to thank God for the way He provides for us. But how ironic is it that the very next day has become a day of frenzied shopping to get ever more stuff? We must cultivate an attitude of gratitude in our daily lives. Take time each day to list and thank God for the blessings He’s put in your life. You will find that this changes a lot about how you view your life and how you choose to live it.

Second, we should put our focus on honoring God instead of living for ourselves. Much of our society is unhappy. We are constantly looking for ways to feel more “fulfilled” in the things we do, and yet we seem to be more unfulfilled than ever. Can I make a radical suggestion? I don’t think it is possible for us to find fulfillment unless we do what we were created to do. We were created to honor God…so that’s what we should focus on doing.

Admittedly, this is contrary to what our society teaches. We are told to take care of yourself first, and to make sure you find joy in the things you do. In essence, we are told to avoid the things that make us unhappy (even for a little) or things we find hard. But often the things that bring the greatest benefit come from the times of greatest sacrifice and struggle. We must change our focus from trying to make ourselves happy by doing whatever our hearts desire in the moment, and instead focus on doing what would please the Lord, even if it’s unpleasant for a while. I guarantee you that if you will focus your life around this goal you will find far more fulfillment and success than in anything else you can do. It will not be easy, and at times it may be exhausting, but it will definitely be worth it. And God blesses those who serve Him rather than themselves.

Finally, we must remember that God keeps His promises. This is clearly illustrated in the coming of Jesus. This was the fulfillment of the promises God kept making to His people over the course of thousands of years. They kept messing up, they kept getting into trouble, but God still kept His promise. Sometimes we feel like God has forgotten about His promises because He doesn’t fulfill them in the timing we’d like. But God’s timetable is not the same as ours. His timing is perfect. He will keep every one of His promises to us. So we can continue to live faithfully, knowing that one day He will bring those things to fruition. Christmas is the greatest reminder of how God always keeps His promises.

Friends, today I hope you are inspired to praise the Lord as Mary did because of the coming of Jesus. And as you begin the Christmas season keep in the forefront of your mind the reason you celebrate—Jesus and what He accomplished for you and for me. It’s the greatest gift ever—from God to you.