He Lifts Up The Humble

Mary's Marvelous & Joyful Secret

12.19.21 [Luke 1:39-55] River of Life (4th Sunday of Advent)

Ideally, when a woman first finds out that she’s going to have a child, she’s excited. Yes, there’s some nervousness. There’s some questions. Even doubts and fears. All of that is normal. But ideally, she is excited. That is what is typical. But there was nothing typical about this child, this pregnancy, or the way that Mary found out this news.

Luke tells us that (Lk. 1:26) God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth to Mary to make this extraordinary announcement. Gabriel began by saying (Lk. 1:28) Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Now, anyone who meets an angel is immediately frightened. But Luke tells us that (Lk. 1:29) Mary was great troubled at the angel’s words. She wondered what this greeting meant.

But Gabriel continued. After all, he is God’s messengers and messengers have messages to deliver. (Lk. 1:30-32) Don’t be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will conceive and give birth to a son. You are to call him Jesus. He will be great and be called the Son of the Most High.

Of course—as anyone would—Mary had questions. The one she asked was (Lk. 1:34) How will this be, since I am a virgin? The angel answered: God will do a miracle. The Holy Spirit will come upon you. The power of the Most High will overshadow you. So this holy child will be called the Son of God.

Nothing about this was normal. Women don’t find out they’re going to be pregnant. Especially not from an angel. Then Gabriel told Mary something else that was outside the norm. Her relative, Elizabeth, was already six months along in her pregnancy. Everyone said she was unable to conceive. Too old for that now. But she was with child because (Lk. 1:37) no word from God can ever fail.

Mary’s response to this news was humble, certainly. But it’d be hard to conceive of as excited. (Lk. 1:38) I am the Lord’s servant, she said. May your word to me be fulfilled.

And if we think about her situation for just a moment, we can come up with all kinds of reasons why she wasn’t jumping for joy at the moment. She was a young woman, pledged to be married to a man. Would he believe her? She was a young woman, many guess she was a teenager, who lived in a small town, Nazareth. Its population was likely in the hundreds. The kind of small town where everybody knows everybody and nobody’s business quickly becomes everybody’s business. How would they react?

It doesn’t seem that Mary told Joseph what the angel said before she left for Elizabeth’s house. Matthew tells us that Mary (Mt. 1:18) was discovered to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit and that Joseph had enough doubts about this pregnancy that (Mt. 1:19) he had in mind to divorce her quietly.

It seems that the first thing Mary did was (Lk. 1:39) hurry to go see Elizabeth. We know that Elizabeth (Lk. 1:39) lived in the hill country of Judea. How far the journey was, we can only estimate. If tradition gets us in the right area of Judea, Zechariah’s home was in Ein Karem. It was something around 100 miles from Nazareth and a dangerous journey for a young woman to make.

I can’t help but wonder what Mary was thinking as she made that journey from Nazareth to see her relative Elizabeth.

Who could blame Mary, if, in this moment, she felt like nobody would understand? …Nobody would believe her? …Nobody would support her? Who could blame Mary, if, in this moment, she was wondering: Why me!??!

I also can’t help but be humbled by Mary’s response. (Lk. 1:38) I am the Lord’s servant. Because in moments much smaller, under far less pressure, I have not been as humbly willing to serve. How about you?

It’s not that we’re never willing to be the Lord’s servant. We just like to negotiate the terms, right? We’re most willing to serve in ways that come to us easily. Ways that make us look good or feel good. We will serve the Lord if we know that what we are going to do won’t be that hard. If we know that people are going to appreciate what we are doing. If we know that we are going to experience some sense of accomplishment, we are more inclined to serve.

We’re somewhat less eager to serve in ways that are personally demanding. It’s not that we won’t do it at all. We know that, sometimes, serving the Lord comes at great personal cost. It changes our schedules. It increases our stress. It impacts our entire life. Let me give you three quick examples: Perhaps it is being persistent, patient, truthful and loving with a loved one who has fallen away from the faith. Maybe it’s serving on a ministry board or committee. It could be serving as a caregiver for your kids, your parents, or your spouse. These all can be service done to the glory of God. But it is still tough. It’s hard work.

Yet, most of us, when we are put in those positions serve faithfully. Why? Because we have to, we’d admit if we were being honest. But, also because we want to do something important, too. We know that this kind of service comes with personal challenges, but it also comes with unique blessings. You grow in faith. You develop relationships. You create memories. You serve more than everyone else, but you also benefit more than those who do not serve. In those moments, we can be moved to serve. Though not always joyfully.

Now, I want you to imagine that you were called by God to serve in some particularly difficult way. But, wait. There’s more. You wouldn’t benefit any more than those who sat on the sideline and watched. It would be like one of those group projects where everyone else just knew that you’d put in the work and get the group that good grade.

Not only that, but people would criticize you. They would drag your name through the mud. They would gossip behind your back and slander you to your face. They would actively discourage you.

Would you feel joy about that? Probably not, right! Mary’s task was much like that! She didn’t get any divine brownie points for giving birth to the Son of God. Yes, today, we look at Mary with admiration, but that’s not likely how the people of Nazareth looked at her. If we had been put in her position, we likely would have had a Why me? attitude towards the whole thing.

Though it’s important we recognize we don’t see any of that from Mary. When I listen to Mary and study her, I want to be as humble as she is. She submits her body, her reputation, her future, her life to being the Lord’s servant. I want to be that humble. I want to be as faithful as she is. I want to be as joyful as she is. Don’t you?

So what’s her secret? Well, it’s in her song. But before we get there, do you see what God does for Mary as soon as she arrives at Zechariah’s home?

Look at how the Holy Spirit blesses Mary. Not only did God give her a sign—your relative Elizabeth who was thought to be too old to have children is in her six month—to hold on to. But the Holy Spirit also filled Elizabeth to remind Mary of what a privilege it was to be the Lord’s servant. (Lk. 1:42) Blessed are you among women. Blessed is the child you will bear. (Lk. 1:45) Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her. God inspired these words to encourage Mary, because he knew that she would benefit from it. That is what prompted Mary to sing this beautiful song.

God’s faithfulness, God’s love, God’s Word inspired Mary to sing. And in her song, we discover the secret of her humble service, her faithfulness, and her joy. When you look at this song, the subject is very clear. Mary isn’t singing about herself. Maybe no one else would believe her. Maybe no one else would understand. Maybe no one else would support her. But the Lord her God would. The Lord God would strengthen her, he would take care of her. He had blessed her. That’s why Mary is singing. She is singing about the Lord, about God her Savior. What he has done for her and what he would do through her. If we were to try to distill this song down to a sentence, it would be something along the lines of The Mighty God is (Lk 1:48) mindful and (Lk. 1:54) merciful. Those truths lead a person to ask Why me? for a very different reason.

Think about what we are by nature. We are only willing to serve if it benefits us in some way or if we are forced to. Not our Mighty God. Not our Merciful Savior. He came down to be (Php. 2:7) the humble servant Mary put her hope in. He came to this earth to be faithful for all the times sinners have fallen short of God’s standard, and failed to trust in his promises. He came to sacrifice his reputation, his body, his everything so that we could have a future with him in heaven. He was not forced to do this. He chose to. (Heb. 10:7) Here I am…I have come to do your will, my God. (Heb. 10:10) By that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all.

God, in his mercy, chose to save sinners from the eternal death they chose when they chose to rebel against God and sin. God, in his mercy, chose to have our iniquities laid upon his shoulders. God, in his mercy, chose to bear the punishment for our sins. God, in his mercy, chose to die for our sins so that we could be made are a part of his holy family. God, in his mercy, chose to do great things for you and me. God, in his mercy, chose to lift up those who had been humbled by their sins. God, in his mercy, chose to fill those who (Mt. 5:6) hunger for righteousness with good things—his perfect life, his innocent death, and his powerful resurrection. God, in his mercy, chose to make and keep every single promise to be our Savior.

God our Mighty Savior has been mindful and merciful. That is why, like Mary, we rejoice. That is also why we serve, like Mary. Because as we serve the Lord who saved us—in ways that are easy and those that are demanding—we are being (Rom. 8:29) conformed into the image of God’s Son. We are being (James 4:8) drawn closer to him. We are (Jn. 15:5) producing fruit. When (2 Cor. 5:6-7) we live by faith and not by sight, our souls are glorifying the Lord.

When we devote ourselves to the truth—hearing it, pondering it, and living it—we are declaring that God has been mindful and merciful. That he fulfills all of his promises. That (Lk. 1:37) no word from God will ever fail. When we give of ourselves to one another, to our church, even to complete strangers—we are, like Mary, proclaiming that (Lk. 1:49) the Mighty One has done great things for me!

May God make us humble, faithful, joyful servants of Lord as he did for the mother of our Lord. May God conform us to the image of his Son, God our Savior, in all we think, say, and do. May the Mighty One do this great thing for each and every single one of us. God is humble. God is faithful. God is mighty and God fulfills all his promises to all who fear him. God will do this, too. Amen.