And Mary said, My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant.

I was going over our Christmas cards and letters the other day when the storm had us inside. There was one card that really caught my eye and is still there in my mind’s eye- it is a picture of the baby Jesus in the manger. It made me pause for a moment. In the busyness of the season it is easy to rush by the real reason for the season. Even for me as a pastor it is easy to get so caught up in the preparations and details of Christmas that I find myself unprepared for it.

For me I have to spend time going over the Christmas story again and again. As I was reading and rereading the advent and Christmas stories I came across what is sometimes called “Mary’s Song”. In year’s past these verses in Scripture were called “The Magnificat”. Luke tucks it in between a pregnant Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth and the birth of John the Baptizer.

Being a poetic song it reads like a Psalm. It is the reflections of a young girl who is pondering what is taking place and what is about to take place in this birth of Immanuel which means “God is with us”. It reads:
My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me- Holy is His name.
His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped His servant Israel remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendents forever, even as He said to our fathers.

As I pondered this magnificent song of quiet reflection and the picture I came across while looking at Christmas cards, I realized that Mary’s song can very much be our song, as well. Let us look.

Mary sings, My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant. What is amazing is that He has been mindful of us when we weren’t mindful of Him. The innkeeper had no room for them. How often do we have no room for Immanuel because we are too busy with our things, our lives and even our ungodly desires?

This humble estate may be better understood by replacing “humble” with “sinful”- it is amazing that You, a holy God, are mindful of Your servants who are so sinful and undeserving. If you kept a record of sins O Lord who could stand (Ps 130.13), but despite this You send Your Son for us.

If you came in all your glory we could not and would not dare approach you- we could not stand. But you came in fashion as a baby- looking like one of us. You came not in an unapproachable palace but in the humblest of surroundings- a stable attended to by sheep and shepherds. This is beyond profound. 

From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me- Holy is His name. I know my place: higher than some lower than many. I cannot approach the President or some movie star but here in this place I can approach God. Not just me but all of us can hear from the one who touched the very face of God. There is a song that I love to hear; it touches me every time. It is entitled, “Mary Did You Know”. There are a number of lyrics that touch my heart but there is one line that says, “Mary did you know that when you kissed your little baby, you kissed the face of God.” Mary kissed Him, shepherds beheld Him, lepers touched Him and disciples wrote about Him so that all generations would know of Him, and we all, no matter our station in life, would be blessed!

Mary’s song continues, His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with His arm. He came for us even when we failed to really fear the One who knows the sins of our inmost being. Oh, we may fool a lot of the people some of the time, and all the people some of the time regarding our sins. BUT God, we can fool none of the time, and yet He still came for us. He walked among sinners just like me and you. He came teaching us the things of God and validating His message with miracles. Truly, He was accredited by God to us by miracles, signs and wonders. (Acts 2.22) Truly, He taught with power and authority not found in any generation’s teaching about the works of the Law. (Luke 4.32)

St. Paul was one who pondered deeply the message and meaning of the incarnation. He wrote to Timothy and really to the rest of us: Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners- of whom I am the worst. (1 Tim 1.15-16) How often do we vie for that title of worst sinner by and through our unforgiveness, hard heartedness, self-righteousness, and our indifference to others and even to God?

And Mary pondered that His name was to be “Jesus” because He would save His people from their sins.(Matt 1.22) He would have mercy, how I do not yet know. How could one born of such humble of means grant mercy to those who do not deserve it. I don’t think that Mary could have imagined what granting mercy would mean, what it cost. The Babe of Bethlehem, the One looked for by so many would save us by and through a brutal death. Truly, He would perform mighty deeds with His arms. In the twenty-second Psalm, David had foretold in amazing detail the crucifixion, long before there was such a thing: A band of evil men surrounded Him …His bones are out of joint; His heart has turned to wax and melts away within Him…they have pierced His hands and feet...people stare and gloat and cast lots for his clothing. Truly this One, this baby, would pierce her heart, nearly breaking it, if it had not been for His resurrection from the dead which too had been repeatedly foretold. The son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the chief priests and teachers of the law and He must be killed and on the third day be raised again to life. (Luke 2.22-23)

In His death is the forgiveness of sins and in His resurrection is the validation of His once for all time sacrifice. The barrier caused by our sin that long separated us from God has been torn down.

By and through His teachings and the teachings of Scripture we are brought to know that we truly are sinners. We can seek to deny it but the truth is the truth. We have sinned much but we need not despair whether we can understand it or not because we are forgiven, not because of anything we have done but because of the gracious work of this Babe of whom Mary sings.

Humble yourselves and confess your sins and the forgiveness of this little One will lift you up.

You who weep and mourn over your sins will be comforted and you who hunger and thirst for forgiveness and peace with God will be filled. You who are poor in the things of God will be made rich. His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation. …He has lifted up the humble. ..He has filled the hungry with good things….

Mary sat and sang of such a profound mystery: why was God so mindful of her and any of the rest of us. This side of heaven we may never fully understand; oh most certainly it was the fulfillment of a promise but why was the promise made for the likes of us. This we don’t know, but we can rejoice that it was, IT WAS AND HE CAME THAT WE MIGHT NOT PERISH BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE.