Mary's Song

Mary’s Song

Luke 1:39-56

Mary’s song, known as the Magnificat, is one of three great psalms spoken by women in the Bible. Deborah sang a song of deliverance after Sisera was defeated by the hands of another woman, the wife of Heber the Kenite. Here the words “blessed above women: in Judges 5:24 is echoed in Mary’s song. Hannah sang a psalm of praise when the LORD opened her womb. She started her psalm in 1 Samuel 2:1 with “My heart rejoices in the LORD which is similar to how Mary starts her song of praise in response to the fact that God was using her to bear a miraculous Son even greater than Samuel the Prophet. Mary’s psalm is in many ways similar to that of Hannah’s as the circumstances were similar.

Luke has done a magnificent job maintaining the beautiful poetry which Mary spoke. She probably spoke it in Aramaic, and Luke had to maintain this aspect when he translated it into Greek. We must understand, that beautiful and poetic words indicate that these words were spoken by the Holy Spirit. Oracles from Yahweh were usually spoken in an elegant poetic style. So we must see the Magnificat as an oracle of God.

God had not spoken to His people in this way since the days of the prophet Malachi some four hundred years earlier. Accounts of Israel’s history were recorded in prose. Ezra and Nehemiah speak much about God and His covenant, but not a word from God. We can see God at work, and they are rightly included in the canon, but are rather indirect in their approach.

After 400 years, God came through an angel to Zachariah in the Temple. God spoke His message to Him by an angel and not a human prophet. He and Elizabeth were going to become parents. The word of God was heard again. Truly the word of God, but indirectly. Then the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary, truly the word of God, but indirectly. Mary had come to visit her cousin Elizabeth who was six months pregnant with John the Baptist. When Mary came to Elizabeth, it says she was filled with the Holy Spirit and said “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” which is a fine parallelism typical of fine Hebrew and Aramaic poetry. The fact the Holy Spirit had filled her, and the babe also leaped for joy is confirmation that God had spoken through a human agent. The prophetic voice had returned to Israel, and it returned first through an elderly woman.

The return of the prophetic voice of God by the means of a woman has enormous implications. The voice of God was rare enough for men in Israel, but it was extremely rare for women. This shows that women can be the means by which God speaks. A promise had been given to Eve in Genesis 3:15 that the restoration of humankind would be through the child of a woman. Now this promise was being fulfilled. In addition to this, God chose to initially announce the resurrection through the mouth of women. Peter quotes Joel 2 in his Pentecost sermon the words that “your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.” Even handmaidens were included in this prophecy.

The first spoken words of God in 400 years were spoken by Elizabeth, the mother of the one who would prepare the way for Jesus, the son of Mary, by whom the prophecy to Eve would be fulfilled. Here, the words of Elizabeth prepared the way for the second oracle of God, also given to a woman.

I am absolutely dumbfounded that the lectionary for the fourth Sunday of Advent breaks the passage starting in 1:39 and going to 1:55 into separate passages. I am even more dumbfounded that they left verse 46 out. The song starts with “My soul doth magnify the LORD.” It is in parallel with “And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior. Mary’s song begins with praise, not of herself, but of the LORD. The end of the second line gives the reason for her joy. God has delivered her. It starts with her personal affirmation. She goes on to show her servile status. She saw herself as being of littlw notice in this world. But all that mattered is that God had noticed her anyway. Because of the LORD her status was changed for ever. Everyone would take notice of her and called her blessed. Others had risen from obscurity before to great status for a season. But Mother Mary has endured the test of time. Even Muslims and unbelievers praise her to this day. It takes great faith to go from Mary’s self assessment before to being blessed by all generations. But this has indeed happened.