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Luke 1:46-55 - God Exalts the Humble
In our series of Advent messages, we have seen how God has done great things through unlikely people. God reached out and chose an adulterous, pagan, widow, a pagan prostitute, and a foreign widow of a man from Bethlehem, all to become part of the family line that led to the birth of Israel's most beloved King, David, and eventually to Christ Himself. In this final message wrapping up our season of Advent, I want to focus on the final woman in the genealogy of Christ, His own mother, Mary. This woman is no stranger to Christians. She's probably the most well known woman in the Bible. Throughout Church history there have been those whose admiration for this woman is tantamount to worship. Some people pray to her even though the Bible expressly forbids prayer to anyone but God. Some people believe she is so blessed and special that she remained a virgin-even after having other children. I'm sure there are critics out there today who cannot accept the account of the virgin birth-an essential doctrine in Christian theology-and who therefore think she made up the story to cover for promiscuity, or perhaps because she might have been raped and so was ashamed? But to the Mary worshippers, we have to honestly say that the Scriptures present her as just a girl. And to the critics, we have to say that the Scriptures present her, while she was still alive, as a woman of integrity, faith-and most of all, of humility. An angel came to this ordinary girl and told her she would give birth to the Christ, the Messiah.
Bearing in mind that Mary found herself pregnant, outside of marriage, was accused by the general public of being an adulteress and was about to be rejected by her fiancée who planned to break their engagement quietly, we wouldn't blame her for feeling hurt and making some bad decisions. So the things she says in Luke 1:46-47 are surprising [read]. I doubt many of us would have the grace to praise God so sincerely for circumstances in our lives that cause us to be despised and rejected by people we love. However, Mary was not alone: even when everybody else looked down on her because of what they thought she had done, her cousin, Elizabeth, the mother of "John the Baptist", blessed her. Elizabeth said that Mary was blessed above all women because of the child she carried (v 42). In other words, this wasn't because of anything Mary did, but the blessing was only due to what God had done for Mary. Mary was ordinary but God is extraordinary. Elizabeth goes on to say that Mary is also blessed because "she ...believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord" (v 45). In other words, Mary believed in and trusted in what God said He would do.
Ever since I began thinking about this passage in preparation for this morning, I've been occasionally plagued by a question. It's not a very serious question, but I tend to ask lots of questions of any text in Scripture, and this one kept coming back: Why did Luke give such prominence to Mary's prayer, read for us already in verses 46-55? Something tells me it's important. Let me show you why I think so, and you be the judge: The structure of Luke 1-2 makes these verses prominent-they are the center-piece of the whole passage. Just look at it. After a short introduction, you have the birth of John the Baptist foretold in verses 5-24, then the birth of Jesus foretold in verses 26-38. Afterwards you have the birth of John the Baptist and his father's prophecy in verses 57-80, and then the birth of Jesus in Luke 2:1-21. And right in the middle, interrupting two Nativity stories, is Mary's prayer. Considering how important both babies' births were, Mary's prayer must also be pretty important, don't you think?
Luke 1 contains two Nativity accounts: that of John the Baptist and that of Jesus. It seems that Dr. Luke, the writer of this Gospel, who happened to be a physician, put these two nativity stories side by side with a point in mind. I want you to notice first that Luke has divided chapter 1:5 - 2:21 into 4 sections, each of them closed with a song of praise to God. The first song of praise is Elizabeth's after she finds out she is pregnant in her old age with a miracle child, as the angel Gabriel had promised her husband Zechariah earlier in chapter 1. We find her song in verses 24 and 25 (I'll come back to it). The second song is Mary's, when she went to visit Elizabeth. As she arrived at Zechariah and Elizabeth's home, she called out a greeting, Elizabeth's unborn baby did a somersault, and the text says that Elizabeth was immediately filled with the Holy Spirit who gave her the blessing we find in vv 42-45. That's when Mary broke into a song of her own-which has been traditionally called, "The Magnificat", from the Latin word for "magnifies" in verse 46. Her song is in verses 46-55. The third song of Luke chapter 1 is from Zechariah himself. Verse 67 says he was "filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied" (we'll come back to these first three songs in a moment). The fourth and final song is the best known: right after the birth of Jesus, the angels break out in song while shepherds listen, [read 2:14]. Each smaller portion ends with a song: Elizabeth's, Mary's, Zechariah's and lastly, after Jesus' birth, the angels sing to the shepherds.
Since Mary's song is at centre-stage in all of this, would you agree that it's important to Luke's message about the birth of Christ? I can see several themes that Luke weaves into this whole passage (e.g., God's glory and power, the personal work of the Holy Spirit, the fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, God's promises to Abraham and to David), but the one that Mary's song brings to the forefront is Luke's message of humility. Do you know what humility is? It is not doing one's best to avoid looking too proud-it is not outward. Humility is inward and genuine and cannot be faked. It is a sincere recognition of where one really stands before God and other people. We see a single message about humility tracing through God's encounters with Zechariah, Elizabeth and Mary. Mary's prayer ties all three together and, I think, seals Luke's point in this whole passage. So let's take each in turn and finish with Mary's.
Zechariah
[read Lk 1:5-7] In these verses already we can see both reasons for pride as well as actual humiliation. Zechariah and his wife are righteous. And Zechariah is honoured to serve as the priest in the Jerusalem Temple. But his wife is unable to have children. When Gabriel appears to Zechariah in the Temple and tells him of the son he is going to have and of the great things the boy will do to prepare people for the coming of Christ, Zechariah is not ready to take the angel at his word-he asks for a sign, for proof. And so God humiliates Zechariah for his lack of faith so that he can't talk or hear until the baby, John, is born. The old priest learns from this humiliation. In his prophetic song at the end of chapter 1, Zechariah three times emphasizes that God is faithful to keep His Word. He's not asking God for proof anymore: [read vv68-79]. That's a humble faith.
Elizabeth
[read vv 24-25] I think we are supposed to notice that Elizabeth kept a secret of what God had done for her. Remember her humiliation, due to not having been able to have children, was a public reproach that she felt. In verse 25, she says her reproach was "among people". So why didn't she go from house to house with the news that she was expecting such a special baby? I think we have a clue in the words of verse 25: "thus the Lord has done for me in the days when He looked on me". She felt reproach in what people thought of her and how they looked at her and talked about her for so many years. And, I think, now when God showed this kindness to her she knew it was for her, not for everyone in town. Her humiliation was public but God's favour to her was private at first. It was enough for her to receive God's grace and be glad. That's a humble gratitude.
Mary
What struck me first when it was Mary's turn to sing God's praise was that she did it in response to what Elizabeth said to her [read vv 42-45]. Go back for a moment to verse 28 and notice how Mary responded when Gabriel greeted her, "Greetings, O favored one, the Lord is with you!" It says she was "greatly troubled" (v 29). Matthew Henry was right when he said that if she had been a "proud ambitious young woman, that aimed high, and flattered herself with the expectation of great things in the world, she would have been pleased at his saying".[i] You see, she did not look to be honoured by people, but she was honoured by God. Elizabeth had looked for honour among people but learned humility from God. And Elizabeth saw in Mary a truer humility that "believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord" (v 45). So Mary sings God's praises as if that is her native language. She didn't have to learn how to pray like this. Because God's Word to her fell like seed in ready soil.
Do you see how truly Mary understood her status before God, before Her Son?
•1.In verse 47 she know God is her Saviour, which means she knows she needed saving. Mary's first line (v 46-47) echoes Psa 103:1 which continues in verse 3 to praise the LORD "who forgives all your iniquity". This 16 year old pregnant girl was blessed. But she was not blessed because of a supernaturally deep understanding of the Bible. She was blessed because she knew the truth about herself through the Bible. Even through hymns like Psalm 103 that she had sung in church.
•2.In verses 48-49, Mary sort of quotes from Hannah's Song in 1 Samuel 2:1-10. Hannah's story is one of God's kindness to answer the prayer of a humble woman living in shame and with no power to change her circumstances. The point here seems to be that Mary was blessed also because she knew from the Bible, in stories like Hannah's, what kind of God the LORD is.
•3.In verses 50-55, Mary prophesies beyond her years with the simplest, yet most profound truth: That God exalts humble people. God's mercy is not going to be for everyone-only those "who fear Him" (v 50), who revere His holiness and trust in His goodness. The key idea in Luke 1-2.
•4.And finally, in the closing verses of her song, Mary sings words full of the words of the Old Testament prophets who hoped for the Son she soon would bear. So the things she says are all future, but she says them in past tense in keeping with Scripture. And she tells of Christ's greatness: a terror to the proud but a grace to the humble. In verse 51, her unborn child's strong arm scatters the proud. In verse 52, the child pulls down rulers from their thrones but lifts up those who are, like Mary, the lowest of the low. In verse 53, those who don't think they need anything from God are sent away empty but whoever knows his need is great is filled with good things. In verses 54-55, Mary's child is the Master of her ancestor Jacob (or Israel). And He lifts up the humble not because they deserve it, but to display His glorious mercy, as He said He would when He promised to bless the whole world through Abraham's descendents. And Mary's child, the Son of God, has done it. And He will do it still. If we are humble. If we know our need. If we believe His Word. If we ask in His name. I think that's Luke's point.
