Mary's Magnificat and the Mercy of Christmas
December 8, 2024 Speaker: Ben Janssen Series: Blessing Mary
Topic: Mercy Scripture: Luke 1:39–56
During this Advent season, we are blessing Mary for the critical role she played in the fulfillment of the Bible’s grand promise to save the world. We are blessing Mary because that is what her relative Elizabeth did when she was filled with the Holy Spirit (Lk 1:41-42). And we are blessing Mary because, as Luke 1:45 says, she was the first one to believe that her child would be the Savior of the world. Without in any way worshiping Mary, we are unashamedly blessing Mary because the Bible encourages us to do.
Today and next Sunday, we will concentrate on Mary’s “Song of Praise” in Luke 1:46-55. This song is called Mary’s Magnificat because that is the Latin translation of the first Greek word in the song, translated “magnifies” in the ESV. You’ll notice in verse 48 that Mary says, “from now on all generations will call me blessed,” so once again we see that blessing Mary is in line with scriptural encouragement.
Today, let’s concentrate on the first part of Mary’s Magnificat, down through verse 50. The emphasis in these five verses is on the mercy of God that Mary is praising here at this moment when she is just becoming aware of what God is doing in this child to whom she will soon give birth. So, let’s think with Mary about the mercy of God this morning. This is one way we can bless Mary, by letting her show us the mercy of God that is represented by Christmas.
Here in the Magnificat, Mary reflects on the mercy of God: what it is, what it does, and how it works.
What God’s Mercy Is
First, what is the mercy of God and how do we see it in particular during the Christmas season? As Mary begins her song of praise, we see that she is praising God whom she calls her “Savior.” When we think of salvation we naturally think of mercy: someone who saves us is someone who rescues us from some kind of dilemma or predicament. We understand why a hospital, for example, would call itself Mercy. The mercy of God is synonymous with the salvation of God.
Salvation Is Worth Singing About
But this is one of those words (Savior, salvation) that has gotten a little less clear in Christian usage than it should be. What do we mean when we speak of God as our Savior? Do we mean the same thing Mary meant? Christians today often speak of salvation solely in some moral or spiritual sense, referring to being rescued from God’s eternal wrath that awaits the unrepentant sinner at death. But that is not what Mary sings about in the Magnificat. She will talk about the reversal of her own “humble estate” in verse 48, and of God exalting the “humble estate” of “his servant Israel” in the second half of the song (vv. 52, 54). Clearly, then, the “salvation” that Mary has in mind as she sings this song has to do with the present more than with the distant future.
Mary’s song is reminiscent of many other songs found in the Old Testament. It sounds like something we might read in the book of Psalms, but it is especially similar to the song of Moses and Miriam in Exodus 15, which celebrates the salvation that God brought them when he destroyed Pharaoh’s army in the Red Sea. Or we might think of Deborah’s song in Judges 5 after God delivered Israel from the oppression of Jabin king of Canaan when they called to God for help (Judg 4:3). Then there’s Hannah’s prayer-song in 1 Samuel 2, rejoicing in God’s salvation when he answered her prayer for a child—Mary’s song comes under similar circumstances.
All of these “songs of salvation” are praising God for his salvation that has come in their lifetimes. Mary’s is no different. And Mary’s song is the most readily applicable to our own lives right now because the salvation she is singing about—the arrival of the greatest king the world will ever know—is the salvation that we still sing about today, especially during the Christmas season.
You like Christmas songs, don’t you, the ones that are praising God for the salvation he has brought into the world with the birth of Jesus? How wonderful it is that during this time of the year we hear so many of those songs. Salvation is always something worth singing about. Let’s just be clear in our minds what kind of salvation we are singing about.
Certain of Salvation
One interesting feature of The Magnificat is the tense of the verbs that are used. The first verb (magnifies) is in the present tense, but the next one in verse 47 (rejoices) is in the aorist, a Greek verb tense which views the verb in summary or “snapshot” fashion.[1] The aorist is the tense used throughout the rest of the song (except for one future tense verb in verse 48). Often, though not always, the aorist indicates time that has already passed, but it is clear that the actions in verses 51-54 are certainly not completed at the time Mary sings her song.
Why, then, does Luke use this tense throughout the song? These are the kinds of things scholars like to discuss. But one thing we might note here is that as Luke relays Mary’s song to us, he is not just telling us what happened but what it all means. Reporting this song here at this point in the narrative is not necessary if all he wants to do is tell us what happened. Instead, Luke is slowing down the story “to ensure that we understand the significance of the angel’s annunciation to Mary, her conception, and the blessing pronounced by her relative.”[2]
What is the significance? The “snapshot” tense in which the verbs of the song are written tells us that although the story of Jesus is just now beginning, we are to be certain that this is the story of salvation we’ve been waiting for. This one who is about to be born to Mary is the one on whom Mary and all the rest of us can place all our hopes for salvation in every sense of that word. Now that Mary has conceived, God’s promise was as good as done.[3]
Waiting for Salvation
And yet, the story is just beginning. As Mary “magnifies” the Lord by singing this song of salvation, she has only just begun to rejoice in God her Savior. This is a song she’ll need to have on repeat as the days go by.
Luke tells us in verse 56, after reporting Mary’s song, that she stayed with Elizabeth “about three months and returned to her home.” Back to Nazareth. Back to waiting.
But as she waits for the birth of salvation himself, she sings about that same salvation that has already happened and which has already brought joy to her soul. God’s mercy has already been announced. God’s mercy has a name, Jesus, a name which means “God saves.”
God saved us, 2 Timothy says, when our Savior appeared and “abolished death and brought life and immortality to light” (2 Tim 1:9-11). Now think about that, brothers and sisters. What is God’s mercy? What is his salvation? It is not conceding death by saying, “At least he gives us some kind of disembodied heaven.” No! Our Savior appeared and abolished death by his resurrection from the dead. God’s mercy is this: even though you die, yet you shall live—you’re physical body resurrected just like his on Easter Sunday. That is the mercy of God’s salvation!
There is a sense in which we wait for this salvation, but because of Christmas, we wait for that which has already been revealed. The salvation of God is certain. Mary believed it, and we bless her by believing it, too.
What God’s Mercy Does
Next, Mary sings about the mercy of God telling us not only what it is (salvation) but also what it does. Notice verse 48. Here Mary gives a reason for her delight and joy in God. He is her savior, she has said in verse 47, but here she tells us how he has saved her, what this salvation means, what this salvation does. What is the effect of God’s mercy on her?
[H]e has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.
God’s Lowly Servant
Mary speaks of herself as God’s servant and having a humble estate. Mary’s “humble estate” could be a reference to her ordinariness, but it seems likely she is thinking of herself more in solidarity with her people, the nation of ancient Israel.
So when she speaks of herself as being God’s servant, she is referencing her Jewish identity. Notice in verse 54 she speaks of Israel as God’s servant. Mary’s song of praise can only be understood when we keep in mind this larger biblical context. We recall the promise made to Abraham, a promise which in Mary’s day was still unfulfilled. Throughout its long history, ancient Israel was waiting for God to fulfill everything he had promised to Abraham: blessings to Abraham and then blessing through Abraham to the entire world.
Israel is referred to as God’s servant in Psalm 136:22 and 1 Chronicles 16:13. The prophet Isaiah uses the same name for Israel at least four times. And it is this identity for Israel, being God’s servant, that keeps hope alive. Here is Isaiah:
But you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the offspring of Abraham, my friend; you whom I took from the ends of the earth, and called from its farthest corners, saying to you, “You are my servant, I have chosen you and not cast you off”; fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isa 41:8-10).
So, in speaking of her “humble estate” Mary is speaking of the status of her people at that particular time in the history of ancient Israel. She (and they) are lowly because they are under the domination of a foreign power.[4] Because God is bringing from her womb the one who will “reign over the house of Jacob forever” and the one whose kingdom will have no end (Lk 1:33), she can say that God has taken notice of her lowliness as a citizen of the nation of Israel and is showing her (and them) the mercy she’s been hoping for all her life.
The Blessed Proclamation
And now the mercy of God for his lowly servant means that the tide is finally turning. The word behold in the middle of verse 48 is there to call the listener to contemplate carefully what follows. Stop and consider: “From now on all generations will call me blessed.”
Yes indeed! Here we are some two millennia later, blessing Mary for the transformation that came with the birth of her son, Jesus.
But if Mary was speaking of herself representatively in the first part of verse 48, she must also be doing so now. Not only will all generations from now on call her blessed; they will also call her people blessed. Who are Mary’s people?
Many Christians only think of this in a one-to-one correspondence: ancient Israel translates to modern-day Israel. But the New Testament is at pains to argue that the blessed people are the people who believe in Jesus. It’s not that the church of Jesus has replaced Israel. “Salvation is from the Jews,” Jesus said (John 4:22), because he is a Jew, indeed, the true Israel.
What we see in Jesus is what Mary sings about here in verse 48. The one who is lowly, despised and oppressed, is visited by God’s mercy and forever becomes blessed. This kind of transformation is one of the key characteristics of Jesus’s entire ministry.[5]
In fact, we recall some of the first words of Jesus’s ministry when he observed the blessed status of the lowly, the poor in spirit, the meek, the merciful, and those who mourn (Matt 5:3-12). This is what the mercy of God does. It completely reverses the lowly status of those who are languishing to an exalted status of human flourishing that the world has never seen before. Blessing Mary is not about worshiping Mary. It is about seeing how it is that she—and others like her—are blessed, flourishing, even though it doesn’t look that way.
How God’s Mercy Works
How does that happen? Wouldn’t you like to ask Mary just how it could be that generation after generation would see her as blessed even though she was part of a lowly and despised people? Mary, dd you know? Did you know how God’s mercy works? She tells us how it works in verses 49-50.
The Mighty One
First, she sings of her God as one “who is mighty” and who “has done great things for” her. This title for God, the “Mighty One,” is a frequent designation in the Old Testament for God as a warrior who fights on behalf of his people and delivers them from all hostile threats.[6] “The LORD your God is in your midst,” wrote the prophet Zephaniah, “a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quite you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zeph 3:17).
Mary knew these texts, and she sings here of God doing exactly this. Her blessed status was not a feature of her efforts to work her way out of her lowliness; it was a feature of God’s unilateral and decisive action on her behalf.
Just what were these “great things” that the mighty one had done for Mary? He had given her a child who would become the Savior of the world, that’s all!
The Holy One
And so Mary sings of God’s unilateral action on her behalf by declaring that his name is holy. To be holy is to be set apart, to be distinct, unique. Here Mary is thinking of the uniqueness by which God manifests his sovereign rule over the world, the way in which God triumphs over his enemies.[7] God’s power and might by which he rules over the world is holy—it is of a type that does not correspond to any power or might seen anywhere else in the world.
Now just think about it for a moment. What is so unique about God’s power and might by which he saves and rules the world? You know the story. He had quietly given to Mary a child who would be the king of an everlasting kingdom, one who would share in Mary’s lowliness, being born in a little town called Bethlehem and ultimately suffering under Pontius Pilate—crucified, dead, and buried.
That is no way to rule the world, is it?
Or is it? When on the third day he rose from the dead and then ascended into heaven, his disciples knew that the crucified and risen one was now enthroned as the world’s only sovereign and Lord. And as they announced this to the world—the gospel announcement that Jesus is Lord—strange things began to happen. People believed the message. Incredible! All kinds of people believed, just read the book of Acts. And because of the outpouring of God’s Holy Spirit on those who believed, the world began to change.
The world that you and I live in today has been completely reshaped simply by the proclamation that Jesus is Lord, that the child born to the Virgin Mary rules the world, now and forever.
The Merciful One
How, then, does God’s mercy work? Mary answers this way, in verse 50. “His mercy [works] for those who fear him from generation to generation.”
If you want in on the mercy of God which has forever changed the world, you most certainly can. God, the powerful and holy one is at his very heart the merciful one—and his mercy is for anyone and everyone.
Well, for anyone who fears him, that is. Ah ha! You knew there was a catch, didn’t you? The story is just too good to be true, isn’t it?
Nope. This is not some kicker to the great story of salvation. To be one who fears him is simply to be one who needs him, who depends on him, who is in need of his mercy. God’s mercy doesn’t work for those who don’t need it, but that goes without saying. No one goes to the hospital because they’re feeling great.
You go for mercy because you are desperate for it.
God’s mercy is for all who share in Mary’s lowliness, who do not seek exaltation by striving to go up but by striving to go down.
“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” So writes the Apostle Paul in Philippians 2. This Jesus who was equal with God did not use that position to advance himself but instead “emptied himself” and “humbled himself” all the way to a cross. And that is why God “has highly exalted him” and given him “the name that is above every name.”
That is how God’s mercy works. It works for all those who identify themselves with the God revealed to the world in Jesus of Nazareth. This is what is at the heart of Christianity, what Christians are to be. We are the lowly people of God who share in Christ’s sufferings that we might also “rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed” (1 Pet 4:13).
Mary seems to have known more than many Christians today know. The advent of Jesus is the outpouring of God’s mercy on the world. And here we are, all these years later, blessing Mary as we worship her Son and rejoice in his mercy for all who need it, receive it, and share it with others.
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[1] See Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1995), 554-555.
[2] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, New International Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Gordon D. Fee (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 98.
[3] Scot McKnight, The Real Mary: Why Protestant Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus (Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2007), 21. Emphasis original.
[4] Green, The Gospel of Luke, 103.
[5] Green, The Gospel of Luke, 100.
[6] Darrell L. Bock, Luke, vol 1: 1:1:1–9:50, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, vol. 3a, ed. Moisés Silva (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1994), 151.
[7] I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Paternoster Press, 1978), 83.
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