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Luke’s gospel starts with five important songs related to Christ’s birth. They are: Elizabeth’s Song or The Beatitude of Elizabeth, (1:42-45) conveying words of “supreme blessedness or happiness.” (The term beatitude is also applied to the sermon on the mount in Matthew 5:3–12 because they begin with the same Latin word for “happy” that Elizabeth’s song employs.), Mary’s Song or The Magnificat or the canticle of Mary(1:46-55), Zechariah’s song or The Benedictus (1:68-79) at the birth of John the baptist, the angels singing The Gloria (2:14) at the birth of Jesus, and Simeon’s prayer, The Nunc Dimittis (2:29-32) when Jesus was presented at the temple.
Mary’s song or the Magnificat is considered to have a special place in the worship of the church. Many churches include this prayer in their worships as a reading every Sunday. Bible commentator William Barclay wrote, "Magnificat is the most revolutionary document in the world. It turns “the standards of the world and turns them upside down.” Barclay teaches that in the Magnificat, there are three revolutions: “an economic revolution; a political revolution; and a moral revolution.” Martin Luther said that the Magnificat “comforts the lowly and terrifies the rich.” Barclay said "It has the power to transform individuals" and he called it "the revolutionary power.” During the time of British rule in India, the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple, warned the church leaders in India to omit the Magnificat from their services because, "It is a revolutionary canticle!" that may cause the Indian nationalists to revolt against British colonialism.
Mary’s song describes rejoicing in a new order. God totally changes the order of things. God takes that which is on the bottom; and God turn everything upside down, and puts the bottom on top and the top on the bottom. God revolutionizes the way we think, the way we act, and the way we live. Before God’s revolution, we human beings were impressed with money, power, status and education. We were impressed with beauty, bucks and brains. But God revolutionizes all of that; God totally changes all of that; God turns it upside down. The poor are put on the top; the rich are put on the bottom. It is God’s revolution. The Magnificat clearly tells us of God’s compassion for the economically poor; and when God’s Spirit gets inside of Christians, we too have a renewed compassion and action for the poor. Our hearts are turned upside down.
There are five important verbs that tells us about God's concern for the poor. God regards or respects the poor, exalts the poor, feeds the poor, helps the poor, and remembers the poor. In that same chapter in Luke, we hear the story that God chose a slave girl who was poor to be the mother of Jesus. God didn’t choose the beauty queen, though I believe that mary was very beautiful; God didn’t choose a mother who was a millionaire; God didn’t choose a bride with brains. God chose a little girl from a poor country side, with dark skin and dark brown eyes and dark brown hair to be the mother of Jesus. Mary was a peasant girl. God exalted a servant girl from a country side to be exalted and lifted up. And this servant girl sang her song of joy on receiving the gift of God and it is called the Song of Mary. The actual words of her song are revolutionary because they turn the values of this world upside down.
The song is a song of rejoicing in the middle of doubts, uncertainty and anxiety. Mary sang this song with rejoicing in the Lord. It is a celebration of her soul’s joy. “What would make you celebrate wildly, without inhibition?” Maybe your favorite team won the hardest game of the season. To some it may be a box of chocolates, or bowl or ice cream. To some others, it may be getting straight green lights in a row while driving. When I worked for a company, I had to travel 28 miles one way every day, and had to pass 32 traffic lights. My joy of the day would be get the maximum green lights as possible. I used to count every green light Every day, I would pray to get more green lights than the day before. Some days, you feel like, they make only red lights. One day, out of the blue, I got all 32 lights green. I was so elated and excited, I wanted to get out and dance in the street.
You experience that triumphant joy when you become engaged, or became a dad or a mom, or a grandmom or granddad. Perhaps it would be the news that someone close to you who had been very sick was getting better and would soon be home. Perhaps it would be seeing that the pandemic that threatens our lives is finally getting under control with the vaccine. Perhaps it would be the message that all your money worries, or business worries, had been sorted out and you could relax. Perhaps it would be the telephone call to say that you had been offered the dream job you always wanted. Whatever it might be, you would do things you normally would not. You might dance around, or throw your shirt in the air as some soccer players do on the fields, or just scream aloud. Mary's song is such an expression of enthusiastic, excited, and exuberant expression of supreme joy.
You may remember that after the angel Gabriel told Mary that she was going to conceive and bear the Son of God (1:31), Mary’s life has changed forever. The news was shocking to her that she was bearing a baby when she was betrothed to Joseph. He was trying to divorce her to avoid problems for him and for her, because the Jewish custom would punish her with death. I am sure that Mary and her family had gone through a lot of stress and decision making. When we are called to take up a higher calling, there will be a lot of stress. There will be doubts, questions and even resistance. I am sure Mary had the same situation. She asked the angel, “how can it be?” The angel came with the most inconvenient message to Mary and Joseph at the most inconvenient time for them. Why didn’t God send this message before she was betrothed or engaged? Or Why did God wait until after she was married? So often we think that inconvenience cannot possibly be part of God's will. Afterall, God can do anything He wants. So if He is doing His will, then why does He allow such inconvenient things to get in the way? If there was ever an event which was the will of God, we know it should be the birth of the savior. But it happened in the middle of all sorts of inconveniences. Finally, her family settled on the divine calling of Mary. Then Mary decided to take a break by taking a trip. The trip was to visit her relative Elizabeth who was also carrying a baby at her old age. The angel also told her that Elizabeth, her relative, had also conceived a son, and that she was in her sixth month of pregnancy (1:36). She probably thought it would be good to spend some time with her. So Mary arose and went with haste to visit Elizabeth (1:39).
The meeting between the two relatives was a time of great joy and celebration. Elizabeth burst out singing the Benedicta, pronouncing blessing upon Mary, Jesus, and all who believe in Jesus. Mary responded with equal joy and elation by singing the Magnificat. Mary began her song by expressing supreme joy and delight because of God’s condescension toward her. She knew it was not about her, but about what God was doing. God is the subject of this song. God is and God did. She praised God that He took notice of her. She said in verse 47b, “For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.” It is not the ruling Caesar or the rich or the religious leaders or the powerful. But it is God almighty, the creator of life was behind the events. Joy comes when you recognize the source of ultimate power. The angel told Mary that “Nothing is impossible for God.”
Mary's betrothal was special because Joseph, the local carpenter was not only was he a solid craftsman, but he was rather special because he was descended from the royal line of David, the great king of Israel of a thousand years before. Mary was astonished that God had looked on her humble estate. She was just an ordinary girl from an insignificant Galilean village (Nazareth) that was scorned by other Israelites (John 1:46) to bring the lineage of David and the Messiah to the world.
We all can rejoice like Mary because God has chosen us to be his children. We can’t make any contribution to our salvation. It’s all of His mercy and grace. "His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation." God’s mercies are new every morning." (Lamentations 3:23). His Mercies never fail, they are new every morning." The Greek word used for NEW (chadash (khaw-dawsh') new -- fresh, new thing. ) is defined as “something that was never before.’ It is a brand new mercy every morning when you wake up. If you can count your age in days, (as Moses says in Psalm 90, “Teach us to count the days of our lives”), do you know how many days you have lived? Not years, but in days. Each day is testament of one unique mercy from God. By the time a child is 10 years old, he/she would have received 3650 new and unique mercies, when you reach 18 years of age, you have experienced 6517. You get the point. When you are 60 years old you have received over 21900 new mercies from God. Add the numbers every day. That is how God showers his mercies on you and me. Each day, we need a new mercy, because the life situation is different from yesterday. "Today's Mercies for Today's Troubles; Tomorrow's Mercies for Tomorrow's Troubles." That is reason to rejoice with supreme joy.
Mary did not view herself as exalted in any way. Many churches exalt her to saint or some other super human woman be venerating her. In fact, she saw herself as God’s servant (see also 1:38). The Greek word for servant (doule) is the feminine form of the word for “slave.” Mary was the first person in the New Testament to identify herself as the Lord’s slave—a designation that became the norm for Christians after the death and resurrection of Jesus (see 1 Corinthians 7:22; Ephesians 6:6; Revelation 1:1).
And even though Mary was God’s servant, she also recognized the incredible blessing that God was bestowing on her. She said in verse 48b, “For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed.T be the mother of Jesus was an incredible honor. No other woman in all history will bear that honor. And yet, Mary recognized that God choose her, not because she was meritorious, but rather because of God’s grace. He condescended to bless Mary, and for that she praised him. We rejoice because there is hope for mankind. Mary said in verses 54-55, “He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
Mary’s Song is full of hope for mankind. The second part of this Prophetic Testament is an account of God’s mercy, love and faithfulness to "the humble." Mary tells us why and how it happened and is still happening: Mary’s message is that the coming of Jesus into the world is the fulfilment of God’s promises.
Mary also understood God’s covenant with his people. She knew that God had spoken to her fathers, and in particular to Abraham. God had promised to make from Abraham’s spiritual seed a great nation that would be a blessing to the world. And now Mary saw that God was carrying out his covenant faithfulness in bringing the promised deliverer into the world through her. No wonder she was so filled with joy and excitement! We who believe in Jesus are now the family of God, and can call Abraham our ancestor.
Mary's song teaches us that true joy is not when we get all we want, but when we get all God wants in our lives. It would be difficult to imagine Christmas without lights, good food; without new clothes, new shoes, new toys for the children, without parties; without merrymaking. So great is the emphasis upon merriment and the buying of gifts that we tend to forget the true of Christmas. A Sunday School teacher asked her class “What is Christmas - a time for?” She got the usual answers—Jesus’ birthday, a time of joy, a time to worship God… but then one child raised their hand and answered: "be happy with what you get, because you don’t always get everything you want."
An elementary school teacher, Jean Thompson, noticed that a fifth grade boy named Teddy Stoddard didn’t play well with other children, his clothes were always dirty and he constantly needed a bath. Teddy was a sad, sullen little boy. One day Mrs. Thompson reviewed his school records and was surprised at what she found. His first-grade teacher wrote: “Teddy is a bright, inquisitive child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners; he is a joy to be around.” His second grade teacher wrote, “Teddy is an excellent student well-liked by his classmates, but is troubled because his mother has terminal illness, and life at home must be a struggle.” His third grade teacher wrote, “Teddy continues to work hard but his mother’s death has been hard, and his home life will soon affect him if some steps are not taken.” Teddy’s fourth-grade teacher wrote: “Teddy is withdrawn and doesn’t show much interest in school. He doesn’t have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class. He is tardy and could become a problem.”
Jean Thomson noitced that Teddy continued to be withdrawn and sullen in her fifth grade class. It was nearly Christmas time and children brought her presents wrapped in colorful paper, except for teddy’s, which was wrapped in heavy brown paper from a grocery bag. Mrs. Thompson opened his present and found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing, and a bottle that was about quarter full of cologne. other children in the classroom began to laugh but Mrs.Thompson put the bracelet on and commented how pretty it was. She also dabbed some of the perfume on her other wrist. After the party Teddy Stoddard stayed behind just long enough to say, “Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my mom used to.” When the children left, the teacher cried. The very next day Mrs. Thompson took a new interest in teaching her children. She worked especially hard with teddy. As she worked with him he seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him the faster he responded. By the end of the year he had become one of the smartest children in the class. A year later she found a note under her door at school from Teddy telling her that of all the teachers she was his favorite. Six yeas went by and she got another note from Teddy. He wrote that he had finished high school and was third in his class and she was still his favorite teacher. Four years later she got another letter saying he had graduated from college with the highest of honors and assured Mrs. Thompson she was still his favorite teacher. Several years later she received another letter telling how much he had appreciated her as his teacher and she was still his favorite. The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, M.D.
A year later Mrs. Thompson received a letter stating he was getting married. He explained his father had died a few years earlier and wondered if she would sit in the pew usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Mrs. Thompson did attend the wedding on that day she wore that perdume and smelled just like she had smelled many years before, on that last day of school, before the Christmas holiday began. Teddy's life is an example of how one person, an elementary school teacher took notice of the boy and decided to do something.
Transformations come when you believe that “With God all things are possible.” Jesus came to earth as a baby; the very Son of God humbled himself and became a man, because He believed you and I were worth it. God believes in you. The coming of Jesus proved that fact. God believes you are of infinite value.
True joy enables us to face reality with hope , because we do so with the assurance that God is working in our lives, even the things that cause us pain, to bring about His perfect will. Luke simply concludes the Magnificat with the comment that Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and returned to her home (1:56). The apostle Paul, "Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift" (2 Cor 9:15). Rejoice in the Lord always (Phil 4:4). and then let us say with Mary, "My soul praises the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour."
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