"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."
Let’s join Mary today in rejoicing at the coming of Christ our Saviour. There’s a certain timelessness in the words of Mary’s song. The coming of Christ affects all times and places in a similar way. So let’s spend some time meditating on the words of Mary as we think about the impact on us and our time of Jesus coming. Let’s think about what God has done by this act of sending his own Son to live among us as one of us.
What Mary, inspired by the Holy Spirit, recognises most clearly, is that the coming of Jesus Christ constitutes a work of total renewal. By it the world is turned upside down. The order of things is reversed, from the individual level right up to the level of world government.
She says: "8for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed." God has taken Mary’s humble state and raised her up, blessed her so that all generations will recognise her new status in God’s eyes. Here we see at the micro level what God has done through the gospel for all people. James says: "Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters. Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him?" (James 2:5 NRSV). The wonder of the gospel is that Jesus has come to call all people rich and poor to follow him; that the humble are lifted up, the poor made rich, the unrighteous made righteous, the insignificant raised to the status of God’s sons and daughters. And so Mary continues, "50His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation."
To whom does God’s mercy extend? Is to those who obey his commands? Is it to those who are the spiritual ones, the religious ones, the ones who know all the spiritual techniques? Is it to those who belong to his chosen people? No. Again here’s the amazing thing about the gospel. Here’s the order of things being turned upside down. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. God’s mercy is freely poured out on all who fear him; on all who recognise him for who he is, who put their faith in him; on all who trust him to do what he promises: to forgive their sins when they turn to him in repentance; to give them eternal life. And this gift of forgiveness and eternal life, this blessing and mercy extends to all people in every generation. As God promised through the prophet Isaiah, Jesus has come as "a light to the nations that [his] salvation may reach to the end of the earth" (Is 42:6; 49:6).
And how has he brought about this renewal of the world? By the work of his mighty arm. It’s as though God has stretched forth his arm and swept this world’s order aside. And look at the mighty deeds that he’s done by the strength of his arm.
He’s scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. These are those people who are legends in their own minds. Those who think they have life sown up. Who are self content. Who feel like they’ve made it. These are those who tell themselves that they’ve lived a good enough life. That God must be satisfied with them, as though God were an auditor who jotted up a balance sheet to work out whether we were in the black or the red at the end of our lives. But we discover that life isn’t that simple. The writer of Ecclesiastes, possibly King Solomon, wrote this: (Eccl 2:4-11 NRSV) "I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards for myself; 5I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. 6I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees. 7I bought male and female slaves, and had slaves who were born in my house; I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, more than any who had been before me in Jerusalem. 8I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the treasure of kings and of the provinces; I got singers, both men and women, and delights of the flesh, and many concubines. 9So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; also my wisdom remained with me. 10Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. 11Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and again, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was nothing to be gained under the sun." "He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts" In the end all our efforts come to nought. In the end it’s all vanity and a chasing after wind. What God desires isn’t that we live more holy lives than someone else. It doesn’t help us that we’re more educated, more cultured, even more biblically literate than someone else. What God cares about is that we fear him. That we have faith in him.
"He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly." There’s a revolutionary note to what God has done in Jesus Christ. The world order is overturned. Kings who think they’re there by divine right had better be careful. The coming of Jesus changes things. Mind you it’s always been the case that Kings rule by God’s authority, by God’s forbearance. The Old Testament prophets make it clear that national leaders are responsible to God for the way they exercise their rule and that those who fail to exercise that rule with justice can expect God to punish them. But now something new has come about. There’s a new Kingdom in place. Kings and rulers who expect total devotion from their subjects are going to get a shock. The citizens of God’s Kingdom, while they may be good earthly citizens, have a higher call on their loyalty.
There will be times when their allegiance to God will be at odds with their allegiance to the secular government. It’s said that at the time when India was moving to self rule, one of the Christian communities in India was regularly visited by detectives from the CID, because of their sympathy with Indian Nationalism. As a result, William Temple, the Archbishop of Canterbury, warned them not to include the Magnificat, Mary’s Song, in their services, because of its revolutionary character.
This I guess, leads us to ask ourselves, where our primary loyalty lies. Does it lie with God or with our government? Does it lie with God or with our family? Or with our own self-interest? As I said in my Christmas letter, a recent poll by the Barna Research Group in America found that only 37% of adults thought the birth of Jesus is the most important aspect of Christmas. 44% of the respondents said family time is the most important part of the Christmas celebration. 3% said presents or parties were the most important part of Christmas. The same percentage said the best thing about Christmas was getting a paid holiday. And that’s in America, what you might have thought was the most Christian country in the world!
Well, how would you have answered that question? Where does your primary loyalty lie? "He has brought down the powerful from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly."
"He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty." Here is perhaps the greatest reversal of all. What does this world expect? That the rich will have whatever they desire and that the poor will struggle on with whatever they can scrounge. If you’re poor, it’s your part in life to be hungry. But not any more. God is turning this upside down. From now on it’s the poor who will be filled with good things and the rich who’ll go away empty handed. Mary can see this coming into shape in the way she and Elizabeth have been given the richest bounty in the world: to bear the Son of God and the prophet who would announce his coming. From now on, as Jesus points out in the sermon on the mount, the hungry, those who realise their own need and yearn for spiritual food, will be filled, while the rich, those who are self-satisfied and proud, will miss out. Note, by the way, that this isn’t necessarily a condemnation of those who are rich per se. We have to read these three verses together. The rich here are paralleled with the proud, and the powerful. What matters is the attitude that goes with the riches. It’s those who are self-satisfied, who think they’ve got it made, who will go away empty. Why? I guess it’s because they won’t bother to ask. They’re too proud to ask God for help, so they don’t get it.
But the wonder of the gospel is that anyone who comes to Jesus Christ, no matter who they are, will receive heavenly riches. Anyone who comes to Jesus Christ in faith will be lifted up. Anyone who trusts in him will receive mercy and forgiveness.
Mary finishes her song by reminding us of God’s promises now being fulfilled in the coming of Jesus Christ. Here is the source of our confidence in God’s promises to us. Just as we can see how he’s fulfilled his promises to Abraham and his descendants by sending his Son to be the Messiah and Saviour of his people, so that gives us confidence now that God will fulfill his promise to take us to be with him forever. And let’s not forget that we too are descendants of Abraham by faith. So the promise made to Abraham and his descendants forever can be claimed by us as well. That is that Jesus has come to be our Saviour and Lord as well.
So on this Christmas Day in the year 2000, let’s rejoice in what God has done for us. What has he done? He’s raised up the lowly, he’s filled the hungry with good things, he’s shown mercy to all those who fear him from generation to generation. Greatest of all, he’s brought salvation to all who put their faith in him.
"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."
