Mindful, Mighty, Merciful

One of many signals that the Christmas season has come is, wondrously, the change of music. The cheesy songs (Santa Baby, All I Want for Christmas, Mele Kalikimaka) and the religious songs and carols (O Holy Night, O Come All Ye Faithful, Silent Night) fill the month of December. For some of you sinners, you listen before Thanksgiving (there is forgiveness, even for the gravest of sins).

Christmas songs play in your car as you head to work. They play on the stereo as you wash the dishes and prepare dinner for the family. They play quietly in the background during our candlelight Christmas Eve service. If you’re anything like me, your daily playlist is filled with Christmas music; in fact, I was listening to my favorite Christmas album as I was writing this sermon. The Christmas station on Pandora will, at times, play from our family room when we have people over.

And then, before we know it, Christmas has come and gone, it’s New Year’s Eve, the Christmas trees and nativities come down. The songs that play on the radio and in the stores go back to normal because it’s January.

So, in the spirit of Christmas, while Christmas songs are playing in our homes and churches and in the stores as we shop, we’re going to look at the nativity; not the nativity that’s all sentimental and beautiful, where Mary looks remarkably unlike a woman who has just given birth and Joseph looks amazingly unconcerned about how much his new family is going to affect his monthly budget.

The nativity most of us picture tends to romanticize the scene. We can just look at it and go, “Oh, that’s sweet. I like Christmas.”

But there’s nothing in it that arrests you; there’s nothing there to deal with, nothing that makes us think. There’s nothing that says: “Listen.”

So in the spirit of Christmas, with Christian eyes and ears, we are going to look at the nativity—the Biblical nativity—back to the first four songs of the first Christmas; songs heard before, during, and after the birth of the baby who lies at the heart of the real Christmas.

We’re going to look at some songs that will make us pause and listen.

We return to Luke 1-2 almost every Christmas; we revisit the familiar and glorious stories again and again. And this is good for our souls. These pages in my Bible are so worn, I actually had to fix a torn page this week. These pages now have a built-in bookmark in my Bible, and rightly so. These are important pages, worthy of being worn out.

The Gospel of Luke—one of the four historical accounts of Jesus—punctuates the story of the birth of Jesus with a series of songs. These songs are meant to change us, to prepare us for Christmas properly, and to celebrate joyfully (as songs tend to do).

Luke writes his Gospel as an orderly account for his old pal, Theophilus. Luke begins his retelling of Jesus’ life and ministry like this (Luke 1:1-4):

Luke 1:1–4 NIV

1 Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, 2 just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. 3 With this in mind, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, I too decided to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

Luke is reporting facts. He isn’t making this stuff up. He’s not coming up with some new mythology. He is introducing well-researched facts—staggering facts.

Luke offers these events to us, not as poetic speculation, but as pure history. That’s Luke raising the stakes for you, for me, for us. Considering these events will take more thought than humming “Jingle Bells” or quickly glancing at the nativity scene.

We won’t merely be considering a 6-pound 8-ounce tiny, silent, baby Jesus, but the One who was very God and very man; the One who was and is the Son of God.

The first song recorded in the Gospel according to Luke is Mary’s song—a song that will make us think about what we think about God.

>What do you think about God? What words come to mind?

Everyone has some view of God. You might think He’s non-existent, or distant, or everywhere, or loving, or angry, or fluffy, or faithful.

Your view of God might be based on a hunch, on some fleeting feelings, on what your family believes, or on what some author or teacher says.

Everyone thinks something about God, and lots of us think different things about Him. So, how do we know that we’ve got it right?

Imagine if you had an experience, an encounter, that enabled everything to click into place, so that you weren’t just guessing, but really did truly know about God—whether He is there and what He is like.

Mary had such an experience and she sings a song, inspired by her role in the events of the first Christmas. But she doesn’t sing about herself, but about God—a song which gives us three words to describe the God who came down to us.

The story behind the song is wonderfully familiar.

This wonderfully familiar story begins like this:

Luke 1:26–33 NIV

26 In the sixth month of Elizabeth’s pregnancy, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, 27 to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 The angel went to her and said, “Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.” 29 Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. 30 But the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; you have found favor with God. 31 You will conceive and give birth to a son, and you are to call him Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever; his kingdom will never end.”

The background of the story is a combination of the natural and the supernatural—the intermingling of the very ordinary and the distinctly extraordinary.

A lady is going to have a baby. That’s ordinary news—great news, but ordinary news.

The baby is going to be conceived by God Himself. That’s extraordinary news, to put it mildly.

The announcement is made by an angel sent from heaven by God = supernatural.

But then Mary responds in a very natural way:

Luke 1:39 NIV

39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea,

Basically, Mary responded, “I need to go and talk to someone about all this.”

So she heads to see some of her family, her relative Elizabeth and Elizabeth’s husband Zechariah.

Elizabeth, though decades older, is also pregnant. Mary and Elizabeth are having a girls’ night; popcorn, Hallmark movie, and talk about their pregnancies and the upcoming birth of their sons.

It’s while Mary is at Elizabeth’s that she breaks out in song—the first Christmas song, you could say.

If you have your Bible (and I hope you do) please turn with me to Luke Chapter 1. And if you’re able and willing, please stand with me for the reading of God’s Holy Word. Luke 1, beginning with verse 46:

Luke 1:46–55 NIV

46 And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, 49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. 50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. 51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. 52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. 53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful 55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.”

May the Lord add His blessing to the reading of His Holy Word!

He is Mindful of us

You’ll notice that Mary speaks initially in very personal terms (v. 48)—for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant.

This is her saying, in other words, “God has been mindful of me. God could have picked someone of means, someone rich and noble and powerful. But He has chosen not to do so. He’s come instead to a lowly girl who has no apparent or obvious significance whatsoever. He’s come to me.”

This word mindful means: taking thought, taking care, keeping remembrance of something.

And this is precisely the reason Mary glorifies the Lord and why her spirit rejoices in God her Savior—because He has taken thought of her, taken care of her, because she’s in His remembrance.

“I may be very small and insignificant in the eyes of the world,” says Mary, “but I am valuable in the eyes of One who made the world. He is mindful of me.”

But Mary doesn’t sing in personal terms only. At the end of her song, she also sings in “people” terms (v. 54)—He has helped His servant Israel [an entire people] remembering to be merciful.

God is mindful of Mary as an individual because He is mindful of His people as a whole. Her significance lies in the fact that she is part of God’s plan for His people.

You remember, around 2,000 years before Mary sang this song, the God about whom Mary sings had made great promises to a man named Abraham.

Abraham is called out from his people, from his family, from his country. Abraham is told to go to a place God would show him.

God spoke to Abraham and told him that He would make Abraham into a great nation and that he would be blessed; that all the peoples on earth would be blessed through him.

All throughout the Old Testament, God says again and again to Abraham’s descendants: “I am mindful of you, I am remembering you, I will fulfill the promise I have made.”

God sent prophets to reaffirm these promises over the centuries leading up to the birth of Jesus, the One through whom all of Abraham’s descendants would be blessed.

For instance, some six hundred years before Mary was born, the prophet Isaiah said:

Isaiah 9:6–7 NIV

6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the greatness of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this.

And the people living during those centuries before Mary and Jesus, especially those of faith, those with eyes to see and ears to hear would have heard Isaiah’s prophecy and thought,

“Well this must be part of the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham. A son will be given who will fulfill all God’s promises, because God is still mindful of us.”

And then, a young woman named Mary comes on the scene of history, Gabriel announces to her that she will give birth to the Messiah, and Mary sings that God has been mindful of her—mindful of her and of His people as a whole.

This is what God is like.

God is mindful.

He is personally involved with humanity.

He is not some distant deity, disconnected from us.

He is personal and personally involved with us.

The greatness of God is not revealed in His isolation from us; the greatness of God is revealed in His intimacy with us.

We tend to think of greatness in terms of isolation. The more money you get, the higher up in the building you work, the longer your driveway is, the taller your privacy fence.

The more status you acquire, the more you can remove yourself from the great mass of ordinary humanity; you’d never have to go to Walmart again, you’d just send the butler.

About 15 years ago, I was in the same room as President George W. Bush, not 50 feet from him. But he doesn’t remember that moment. I’ve never had a phone call or a visit from him or any other President of the United States. They don’t know my name and likely have no idea I even exist. Their ‘greatness’ is revealed in how isolated they are from me.

But God’s greatness is revealed in His intimacy with me, with us. He knows my name.

He knows your name, too.

He knows about you. He cares about you and the responsibilities that weigh you down.

He knows and cares about the disappointments that gnaw at you, the concerns that keep you awake at night.

He knows about your hopes and dreams.

The Creator is mindful of you, and that gives you value, inestimable value, regardless of what the world sees when it looks at you. He is mindful.

Every person has a picture of God.

For many, they don’t believe in God because they don’t like Him.

If you don’t believe in God because He is distant, uncaring, and unhelpful, I understand. I don’t believe in that god either!

Here is the God of Christmas, the God of history. He is the God who knows you, who cares about you, who makes and keeps promises to you, who acts to help you.

He is the mindful God.

He is Mighty over us

Mary sings that God is mighty (v. 49)—For the Mighty One has done great things for me…(v. 51)—He has performed mighty deeds with His arm.

The picture of God here is of a warrior, extending His arm in strength to achieve His purposes.

And what does this Mighty Warrior do? He turns human attitudes upside down. He takes what society, culture, and individual men and women tend to value the most, and demolishes it.

(v. 51) He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.

God doesn’t allow us to sit on our perch for long, especially if we think our abilities or hard work alone put us or keeps us there.

(v. 52) He has brought down the rulers from their thrones.

Go through the whole of history and you’ll see this happening again and again. The proudest of empires in the world eventually crumble to nothing, without exception.

(v. 53) He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.

It’s possible to be rich and empty, not in your stomach, but certainly in your soul; the more the rich have of the wealth the rest of us so often envy, the emptier and more hollow things seem.

“Money can’t buy happiness” is cliché because it’s true.

At first glance, scattering the self-reliant and sending the rich away seems the opposite of a mindful God who cares about people.

But it’s because God cares about people that He acts mightily in this way. He scatters the proud, He brings down the ruler, He sends away the rich—and all this for a purpose.

He will, at times, remove good gifts from people so that they might be delivered from their self-sufficient schemes.

When life is good, successful, when all is going swimmingly, when we’re comfortable, it’s easy to think that we no longer need God.

“When life is good, it’s easy to kid ourselves into believing that we are mightier than we truly are, and tend to forget the God who is truly mightier than we are.” – Alistair Begg

The Mighty God has scattered those who are proud now in order to help them deal with Him now, in this life.

Maybe you can attest to God working this way in your life at some point in the past.

In 2006—fresh out of college in my first full-time ministry, God pulled the rug right out from under me and crushed my sinful pride in the most beautifully painful way. And I was forced to humble myself before the Mighty God, maybe, truly for the first time.

Maybe He’s working this way in your life currently.

God wants you to see that He is not a God who fits with all your preferences and priorities—and that’s great news!

He is much bigger, much mightier, and much more real than that.

God, the Mighty One, scatters the proud so that they can become humble. And then He lifts the humble up.

He helps those who are humble enough to say, “I don’t really have it all together. I struggle and I’m in desperate need of help from the Mighty One.”

He is mighty over us—and, man, is that good and welcome news!

He is Merciful toward us

I’m no fan of alliteration. I don’t work hard (or at all) to make the points of my sermons start with the same letter, but when it’s right there in the text, it’s hard to miss: mindful, mighty, and merciful.

God, sings Mary (v. 54), has helped His servant Israel, remembering to be merciful.

In verse 50, she sings of the merciful God: His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation.

Mercy, as you know, is kindness or good-will toward the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them.

God is, at His core, merciful.

He shows mercy toward those who deserve no mercy. In every age, He shows mercy to those who deserve judgment and wrath. He is the merciful God.

And this is what Mary sings in anticipation of the first Christmas: God has remembered to be merciful.

How do we know this is true?

Instead of leaving us in our helpless, hopeless, miserable state, God sent His Son to be born of virgin. Jesus, the second person of the Trinity made Himself nothing by taking the vary nature of a servant, being made in human likeness (Philippians 2).

God has remembered to be merciful.

Understand how significant this is: for 400 years before Christ, God was silent.

No prophets spoke for God for four centuries. So when the angel Gabriel came to Mary and said that she would give birth to the Son of the Most High, that the Lord [would] give Him the throne of David, that He would be called the Son of God—this truly was God remembering to be merciful to His people.

Hebrews 1:1–2 NIV

1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.

By sending Jesus to be born of Mary, the Merciful God has fulfilled His Word which He spoke (v. 55) to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as He promised…

He is merciful toward us who need mercy; He is merciful, just as He promised. He is merciful—and we see this most clearly in the birth of Jesus—our Savior, Redeemer, Friend.

As we look at the nativity again this year, may it not be old news; may it remain the best news in the wide world—that God, in His great and mighty mercy, saw fit to come to us, to remember us in our lowly state, and sent His only Son to save us from our sins.

Let us praise and give our lives to the Mindful, Mighty, and Merciful God.