Mary's Magnificat and the Power of Christmas

December 15, 2024 Speaker: Ben Janssen Series: Blessing Mary

Topic: Kingdom of God, Justice Scripture: Luke 1:46–55

During these weeks of Advent, we are in a series called Blessing Mary where we Protestant Christians are striving to see the impact that the mother of Jesus has left on the world.

There are so many one-word adjectives that are often used to describe Christmas. There are words like jolly and merry which I’m pretty sure we reserve only for the Christmas season. But we also speak of how festive and bright and magical and wonderful this time of the year is.

What word comes to your mind when you think about Christmas? Don’t say stressful even if that’s how you feel!

This morning, I want us to consider this word for Christmas: powerful. No, I’m not referring to the economic power of Christmas, in which the average American will spend a whole week’s salary to celebrate the holiday. I’m thinking about the power that Mary mentions in the second half of her Magnificat. We are blessing Mary when we embrace the power of God that broke in on the world when Jesus was born. The power of Christmas is the power that overthrows oppression, fulfills God’s covenant, and revolutionizes the world.

God’s Power Overthrows Oppression

First, the power of God at work in the incarnation of the Son of God is a power that overthrows all oppression.

Subversive Power

As we look at verses 51-53 in particular, we see this power of God being described, but we often don’t feel the force of it. We don’t sense the threat of the words; we are not incited by its declarations. But others have long recognized what we might have missed.

Imagine living in a country that is explicitly and actively hostile to Christian faith. Imagine living in one of those places, secretly gathering for worship on the Lord’s Day, and saying these words:

[God] has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

How would government officials, representing the power of the day, feel about you saying words like that? If we could go back a few decades, put ourselves in the room as we listen to the songs and speeches of the Civil Rights Movement, we would start to get the point of how it would all feel.

According to an article in 1993 in the Chicago Sun-Times, these words from the mother of Jesus “became a fulcrum for liberation theology’s social justice movement [in Guatemala], compelling the government to ban the singing of the . . . Magnificat as subversive.”[1] Indeed, such would have been the view of the Roman Empire in Mary’s day, reminding us of the daring subversive power of her words. Scot McKnight puts it like this: “Mary’s song praises God for cracking the heavens wide open and descending into the world to establish justice and rout unjust rulers.”[2] All tyrants are put on notice. All dictators have been warned.

Mary’s Magnificat is about a subversive power breaking in and posing a serious threat.

The Proud, Powerful, and Prosperous

A threat to whom? To the proud, the powerful, and the prosperous. Maybe even to ordinary oppressors, like you and me.

Verse 51 speaks of God’s display of strength which “has scattered the proud.” Those who are proud are further delineated as being proud with respect to the thoughts of their hearts.[3] It is the pride of “self-confidence over against God” that Mary says God has come to scatter.[4] The proud are those who get up and go about their business day by day without much thought for God. God comes to scatter them because such human arrogance breeds oppressive behavior toward others. I wonder if we Christians, who live so comfortably in the world today, have thought of our independence and self-sufficiency as a real threat to social justice? If I don’t need God, then I make myself God and that leads to the oppression of others.

Verse 52 speaks of God who has “brought down the mighty [or, the powerful] from their thrones.” The problem with human pride is that too often it succeeds. The proud find themselves in positions of enormous power—and culpable for enormous oppression. Here in the Magnificat, knowing about a child who will soon enough be a king in his own right, Mary sees an end to such evil power. If her Son does indeed become king, then in his name all oppression shall cease because the powerful will be brought down from their mighty thrones.

And then, verse 53 speaks of the rich being sent away empty. The rich spoken of here are rich at the expense of others. In other words, the prosperous are being subverted by the coming of this king, not because the result of his take-over is economic collapse but rather economic justice.

Now Who’s in Charge?

So, you can see why these verses would be meaningful to those who are living under oppressive governments. The coming of Jesus means liberation for all who are oppressed. Jesus comes with subversive power.

There is always a danger, of course, of mis-reading or mis-applying a text like this. Obviously, its subversive power is good news for those who have been oppressed and bad news for those who are the oppressors. But Christians have historically had a baffling time identifying one from the other.

If Christmas means that God is scattering the proud, then it is the humble for whom this is good news. But the humble are those who resist temptations toward self-sufficiency “in the thoughts of their hearts.”

If Christmas means God is bringing down the powerful from their places of power, then it is the powerless (“those of humble estate”) for whom this is good news. But the powerless are not simply those who are unfortunate but those who have been oppressed by the powerful. And what God is up to in this overthrow of the powerful is not to now give that same oppressive power to the ones who previously were oppressed. The vision of the Magnificat is a subversion of “the very structure of society that supports and perpetuates such distinctions.”[5]

Every time some powerful person is removed from his or her position of power—be it a king, a dictator, or a president—we see something of the power of God at work in history.[6] But do not make the mistake of thinking that, now that your preferred politician is in place, the power they wield is in fact the righteous and just power of God.

You see, if Christmas means that God has “filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty,” then Christmas presents us with good news of a world that is no longer a zero-sum game. In this world, there is real justice for everyone because there is no more injustice oppressing anyone.

That is the subversive power of Christmas, a power that comes when Jesus (and Jesus alone) is in charge.

God’s Power Fulfills the Covenant

The power of Christmas is not just a power that overthrows the oppressive power structures of human society. Its power also stems from the fact that it is the fulfillment of the biblical story. That story is primarily covenantal: the God who made the world promised all along to save the world through his chosen people. So, the power of Christmas is covenantal. Christmas is all about the power of God who fulfills his covenant promise.

The Blessing of Mary Is the Blessing of Israel

To understand Mary’s Song, we need to notice this connection. The first half of the song, verses 46-50, is deeply personal. Mary reflects on what Christmas means to her. “He who is mighty has done great things for me,” she says in verse 49. Indeed, the personal nature of Christmas is extended to all those who fear God “from generation to generation,” she says in verse 50. To this very day, then, those who fear God can rejoice during the Christmas season at the great things the mighty God has done for them.

But in the second half of the Song, we see the focus shift from the personal to the corporate, so that Mary sees God’s blessing not only for her but for “his servant Israel” (v. 54). God has remembered his mercy promised “to Abraham and to his offspring forever” (v. 55). The two halves of the Song are intertwined and inseparable, utilizing the same words and ideas.[7] What God has done to bless Mary he has also done to bless Israel. If we want to see the power of Christmas, we must be able to see this connection.

Because so much of our cultural focus is on the personal, most of us do not think much about the wider scope of this power. Once more we must be reminded that the promise God has made and the promise that Christmas fulfilled is what Mary sings about in these last two verses of her song. Had she not been chosen to give birth to the Messiah, had it not been so intensely personal for Mary, God’s promise would not have been in jeopardy one bit. It is the wider covenantal promise that matters most.

Helping Israel, Remembering Mercy

If we remember nothing else from the Magnificat, we should remember these last two verses. This is what God has done at Christmas. This is what Christmas means.

God has helped his servant Israel. There is no doubt here that Mary has a national focus and is expecting not just a spiritual salvation but a real political deliverance.[8] Israel as God’s servant means that they represent God and his rule in the world, but their current condition under Roman domination demonstrates the divine help they would need for this to be realized. That the child to be born of Mary would be given by God the “the throne of his father David” is precisely the help that would be needed.

In remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers. The word mercy in this context is far more than compassion and pity. This is prophesied mercy, mercy promised ahead of time. It is the primary word that is used to translate the Hebrew word chesed, “steadfast love.” In other words, mercy here refers to God’s loyalty to his word, to his promise. To “remember mercy” is to “be loyal to the covenant” spoken to “our fathers” Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

God’s mercy, then, takes us all the way back to the beginning to remind us of who God is by his very nature.[9] What we celebrate at Christmas is the fulfillment of what God covenanted to do in Genesis 12 as the solution to the mess his world had become in Genesis 3-11. This is the power of Christmas, a power that ought to solidify for us forever the conviction that the God made known to us in Jesus has done what he had promised to do.

The Offspring of Abraham, Forever

And then the song ends by declaring that this fulfillment of God’s covenant is a fulfillment that lasts forever. It was promised to Abraham and to his offspring forever. The kingdom being established with Jesus would be a kingdom that would never end (Lk 1:33). And if that’s true, this truly is the gift that keeps on giving. You and I, offspring of Abraham according to the logic of Paul in Romans 4, are to find in the annual celebration of Christmas the reminder that though Abraham died without ever having received the promise, you and I are living in it.

And that is a power we have only just begun to understand.

God’s Power Revolutionizes the World

You see, here we have a problem. Christians are confused about this power of Christmas that Mary sings about and have taken different approaches to applying it. Many settle for the personal “feels” of Christmas, but don’t know what to make of the revolutionary language Mary sings about. That’s a real shame because the power of Christmas is the power of God that revolutionizes the world.

Waiting for the Kingdom

I think all Christians believe that. But many Christians have been taught that such revolutionary power is not yet here, that it will not be here until Jesus returns. Yes, Jesus is king, the argument goes, but right now only in a spiritual sense, and we have to wait for him to return to be king in a political sense. Such a perspective does believe that the kingdom of God on earth as in heaven is inevitable, but usually shies away from emphasizing any sense in which it is actually realized. When this Christian prays, “Your kingdom come,” he means essentially, “May the King come.” The kingdom comes only when the king comes. Kingdom is synonymous with the second coming of Jesus.

After all, some Christians might say, the world’s news and one’s own struggles make it plain enough that Jesus is not yet actively reigning over the world. There is far too much sin and suffering going on for that to be true.

From the perspective of Mary’s Magnificat, it seems clear that the realization of the hopes she articulates in it were still in the future. Certain though they may be, she would have to wait, and to this day we wait along with her. The kingdom of God is coming, we might say, but until then we’ve got to deal with the messy realities of the kingdoms of men that rule the day.

Fighting for the Kingdom

And what about those messy realities? Well, what if, in fact, we believed that the first coming of Jesus was the inauguration of the kingdom of God on earth as in heaven? That seems to be the most straightforward way to read the Magnificat. How would such a view give us insight into how we are to live in the moment?

For some Christians, the belief that the kingdom of God has been established on earth as in heaven legitimizes a bold and sometimes brash stance against the kingdoms of men. We saw a lot of this front and center during COVID and government shutdowns. We would not be surprised to know that such a theological perspective often lies behind what is sometimes called Christian nationalism and all its bravado.[10]

No surprise, then, if Mary’s Magnificat is a key anthem for such a perspective and a call to fight for the kingdom of God. After all, this is a kingdom that revolutionizes the world, so let’s get after it!

Working for the Kingdom

One can see how the different perspectives on the kingdom of God in relation to the first Advent of Jesus leads to different perspectives on Christian living today. So, whether you know it or not, you have an eschatology, a doctrine of the end times, that you live by. You may know some of the ins and outs of the theological debate on this topic—premillennial, postmillennial, amillennial—or you may have never heard of these terms.

But this is an important aspect of Christian theology that affects your life in more ways than you know.

What you should know is that I’m on a mission here, as one of your pastors, to help us all learn how to live in the revolutionary reality of Christmas. That is to say, I believe the kingdom of God was in fact inaugurated on earth as in heaven in the first coming of Jesus.

I really wish Christians today would believe that. I want to believe it and live like I believe it.

But living like it’s true means being committed to the power of God unleashed at Christmas that not only revolutionizes the world; this is a power that is itself revolutionary. It is a power unlike anything the world has ever seen before.

This is a power that is evident not in competition with the principalities and powers of the world that are passing away—though we certainly are not merely to give in to them either—but by a power that is far more subversive.

Keep in mind that the Magnificat is not a call to human action so much as a celebration of God’s action: it is God who is the subject of the revolutionary verbs in each case. Nevertheless, God graciously invites us to be participants with him in the advance of his kingdom.[11] And one way we do that is by blessing Mary—by being convinced that she was right, that the power of God that would turn the world upside down would be seen not only in the coming of his kingdom but in the way his kingdom would come.

Every time we gather for worship, every time we say the Apostle’s Creed or pray the Lord’s prayer or sing songs like the Magnificat, we are reminded of a power that is incontestably stronger than any other power.

All that remains is to live our lives with that same power, helping rather than hindering the advance of God’s kingdom on earth as in heaven.

Perhaps a good way to do this is by remembering that we, the church of Jesus Christ, are called his bride, and as such, we have a task that is complementary but distinct from Christ’s. Here’s how one pastor says it,

Whereas Christ has regal and military authority to subdue and rule all nations, the church has the primary calling to be fruitful and multiply . . . . which results in children not just corpses.[12]

Children? Nothing could be more subversive!

So, as we give ourselves to the kingdom of God, bearing the fruit of spiritual children through the proclamation of the gospel and yes, raising up our biological children in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, we are privileged to be partners with God in the advance of his kingdom on earth as in heaven.

That’s essentially what Mary did. That’s how she tasted the power of Christmas. And when we do the same, we share in the blessing of Mary and see the power of Christmas as well.

_____

[1] Larry Stammer, “Theologians Question Role of Virgin Mary,” Chicago Sun-Times, Feb. 7, 1993. Though this claim is difficult to substantiate, there is little doubt that the Guatemalan government in those days did not approve of the tendency of Christian communities to use the Magnificat to encourage their hopes of liberation. See “Was Mary’s Magnificat Banned in Guatemala?” supplement to Introducing the New Testament, 2nd ed. by Mark Allan Powell, available at www.bakerpublishinggroup.com/books/ introducing-the-new-testament-2nd-edition/11940/students/ esources/chapters/700.

[2] Scot McKnight, The Real Mary: Why Evangelical Christians Can Embrace the Mother of Jesus (Brewster, MA: Paraclete Press, 2007), 16.

[3] Taking the phrase as a dative of reference.

[4] I. Howard Marshall, The Gospel of Luke: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Paternoster Press, 1978), 84.

[5] Joel B. Green, The Gospel of Luke, The New International Commentary on the New Testament, ed. Gordon D. Fee (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1997), 105.

[6] Marshall, The Gospel of Luke, 84.

[7] Green, The Gospel of Luke, 101.

[8] Darrell L. Bock, Luke, vol. 1: 1:1–9:50, Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, vol 3A, ed. Moisés Silva (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 1994), 158-159.

[9] Green, The Gospel of Luke, 105.

[10] David Schrock, “Postmillennialism and Theonomy,” Church Matters 1 (April 27, 2023): www.9marks.org/article/ postmillennialism-and-theonomy.

[11] Green, The Gospel of Luke, 100.

[12] Schrock, “Postmillennialism and Theonomy.”

More in Blessing Mary

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The Challenge of Jesus

December 22, 2024

A Baby in a Manger and a Boy in the Temple

December 8, 2024

Mary's Magnificat and the Mercy of Christmas