The Sermon for Sunday, December 22nd, 2024, the Fourth Sunday in Advent
The Lessons: Psalm 80:1-7; Micah 5:2-5a; Luke 1:39-56
The Text: The Magnificat: Luke 1:46-55
INTRODUCTION
Faith honors God, and God honors faith in Him. A story from the life of missionaries Robert and Mary Moffat illustrates this. For ten years this couple labored faithfully in Bechuanaland (now known as Botswana) without one ray of encouragement to brighten their way. They could not report a single convert. Finally the directors of their mission board began to question the wisdom of continuing the work. The thought of leaving their post, however, brought great grief to this devoted couple, for they felt sure that God was inn their labors, and that they would see people turn to Christ in due season. They stayed, and for a year or two longer, darkness reigned.
One day a friend in England sent word to the Moffats that she wanted to mail them a gift and asked what they would like. Trusting that in time the Lord would bless their work, Mrs. Moffat replied, “Send us a communion set; I am sure it will soon be needed.” God honored Mary’s faith. The Holy Spirit moved upon the hearts of the villagers, and soon a little group of six converts was united to form the first Christian church in that land. The communion set from England was delayed in the mail, but on the very day before the first service of Holy Communion in Bechuanaland, the set arrived.[1]
In today’s Gospel Lesson, Elizabeth’s blessing of the Blessed Virgin Mary because of her believing God’s word to her about her conception of Jesus through the Holy Spirit gives rise to the Song of Mary, or Magnificat, which inspires people to have faith in the God who does great things for those who obey Him and believe in Him.
THE MAGNIFICAT
The Magnificat, our Evening Prayer canticle named from the first Latin word of Luke 1:46-55, has its context in our Second Lesson today. The Blessed Virgin Mary is visiting her cousin Elizabeth (Luke 1:36) in Judaea. When Elizabeth hears the sound of her greeting, the baby in her womb leaps for joy (Luke 1:41), and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, she exclaims that Mary is blessed among women and the fruit of her womb, that is, Jesus, is blessed (Luke 1:42). She even acknowledges Mary as the mother of her Lord in asking how it is that Mary is visiting her. Then Elizabeth shares with her how the baby in her own womb leapt for joy when she heard Mary’s greeting, and she calls Mary blessed for believing that those things the Lord told her will be fulfilled (Luke 1:44-45). Elizabeth is led by the Holy Spirit to proclaim these blessings on Mary and on the Lord Jesus. Elizabeth’s own husband, Zechariah, had not believed the Angel Gabriel’s prophecy that his own wife, though old, would conceive and bear a son. As a result, Zechariah was struck with temporary dumbness and was not able to speak until their son was born. Elizabeth, then, sees and celebrates the blessing of Mary in that she believed the Lord’s words to her through the Angel Gabriel.
It is in this context, the Blessed Virgin Mary’s joyful visit to her cousin Elizabeth, that Mary utters the words of the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55). What does “Magnificat” mean? It means “she highly esteems/regards.” Mary’s first statement is that her soul highly esteems the Lord, and her spirit has rejoiced in God her Savior (Luke 1:46-47). Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, proclaimed God’s praises in a similar way after his birth (1 Samuel 2:1-10), and her Song tells of God’s mighty deeds in lifting up the poor, but humbling the proud.
It is significant that Mary proceeds to give three reasons for her rejoicing in the Lord God her Savior:
- Firstly, God has looked with care on her humble station in life – an ordinary young woman
- Secondly, God’s consideration of Mary’s humble position in society transforms her into a woman whom from then on all generations would call blessed, in that she would be the mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, Savior of the world
- Thirdly, God, “the mighty One,” has done great things for her – this is a more accurate translation of the Greek text than “hath magnified,” which we find in the Prayer Book Magnificat (p.26, Book of Common Prayer, 1928). “Great things” principally includes the miraculous conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb by the power of the Holy Spirit as explained by the Angel Gabriel to Mary in Luke 1:35.
In the remaining verses of the Magnificat, the Blessed Virgin Mary proclaims the holiness of God’s Name, God’s mercy resting on those who fear him in every generation, his showing of his strength, his scattering of the proud in the imagination of their hearts, his humiliation of the mighty, his exaltation of the humble, his filling of the hungry with good things, his sending of the rich away empty, and finally, specifically through the conception and birth of Jesus Christ, he has remembered his mercy and helped Israel.
The Blessed Virgin Mary was given the supreme blessing of becoming the mother of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. No one else can have that blessing, but Mary declares how people can be blessed by God as well.
If we want to be blessed by God, we must fear him throughout our lives (Luke 1:50), in other words, respect God, his word, and his commandments, and this respect must be shown in our love for God and obedience to him, as well as in our love for all with whom we interact.
We must avoid pride, since God “scatters the proud in the imagination of their hearts” (Luke 1:51, KJV). What does this mean? Somehow a proud person loses the meaning of his life and his value in God’s sight in boasting of all that he can do with his wealth and power. He imagines all sorts of plans that he thinks will come to fruition, but he does not know the future. Similarly, God brings down the mighty from their high positions in society, and instead lifts up the humble who depend on him. He also satisfies the needs of the hungry, but sends the rich away empty (Luke 1:52-53). This has been called “the great reversal” and it features prominently in our Lord’s teaching. We must not assume, though, that the Holy Spirit is referring to all poor people in the world, or all the hungry of the world. Together with this poverty and hunger is dependence on God, a poverty of spirit that continually seeks the Lord. The clue in the Magnificat that also functions as a transition from the mention of what God has done for Mary to the way God acts generally is found in the statement:
And his mercy is on them that fear him from generation to generation.
(Luke 1:50, KJV)
Those that fear God and live in obedience to him will share in these blessings, and experience the great reversal: even if it comes much later in their lives than they thought it would, it will come.
CONCLUSION
The Blessed Virgin Mary had no pretensions of greatness. She simply received as the word of God the Angel Gabriel’s prophetic message that the Holy Spirit would overshadow her and conceive Jesus Christ in her, and believed it as God’s word should be believed, and she praised and magnified God because of this wonderful miracle that He would perform for her, but then pointed the way to how others can share in God’s blessings by fearing Him and living in humble obedience to Him.
What about you? Will you lay aside all pride and instead let the Lord Jesus take full control of your life?
[1] p. 286, Robert J. Morgan: A Preacher’s Sourcebook of Creative Sermon Illustrations. Dallas: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2007.