Our text this morning is taken from Luke's Gospel, chapter 1, beginning at verse 46, Mary's song, also known in church history as the Magnificat, taken from the Latin term to magnify, with which the song begins. 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. 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 descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers. Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. Genesis 3.15 is a wonderful verse. We call it the proto-euangelion, the proto-gospel, the beginning of that great glad tidings that pushes history forward to Bethlehem. And yet it also creates difficulty because it creates a warfare between the seat of the woman and the seat of the serpent. There, God promises to give to Eve, to the woman, a seed who will crush the serpent's head. But now there will be enmity between the serpent and his seed and the woman and her offspring. And that's how history develops all the way, really, back to the very beginning with Cain and Abel. Abel brought the sacrifice that God required. Now they were sinners. Now they were fallen. And they not only had to bring a sacrifice of thanksgiving, acknowledging God as their sovereign creator and provider, but they had to bring a sacrifice for sin, a sin offering from the firstborn of their flock, anticipating the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And Cain, being the first liberal Protestant, Didn't believe that he needed to bring an atoning sacrifice. He didn't need a bloody atonement. He simply needed to tip his hat of respect to the Great One, to the One who has created him and has given him life. But he was proud. Cain was proud in his heart. He wasn't humble. He wasn't lowly in heart. He did not trust in God's Word and provision. But he became puffed up and proud And we see that in the kingdom that he built In sharp contrast is Seth The Lord provided another son In the place of slain Abel And Seth, whose name means appointed one Is brought in the place of slain Abel And we read of his line And then men began to call on the name of the Lord So here's Cain building a proud city A proud empire built on greed and violence And here is Seth's family, distinguished not by their cultural accomplishments, though there may have been some, but distinguished by the fact that they look away from themselves and trust in God's promise. The story behind all of the stories of the Bible really is that warfare between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent, because Satan at every point is trying to intercept that seed either by assassination or by closing wombs or by apostasy by getting Israel to worship the gods of the nations and therefore no longer to be God's city God's sanctuary God's holy place one of the saddest stories is when Eve gives birth to Cain and she says behold I have brought forth the man well God had promised that it would be her seed her offspring who would crush the serpent's head and so she thinks that she has given birth to the Messiah only to learn years later that she had given birth to the first Antichrist the first persecutor of the church of God history would have to wait for a savior history would have to wait for the seed of the woman and so the mothers of Israel longed for that day we get to Sarah whose womb is closed she's about a hundred years old that doesn't you know childbirth doesn't usually happen at a hundred years old and yet after disquiet after wrestling with God and his promise Sarah nevertheless did trust in his promise And gave birth to a son And Abraham and Sarah were told That in that offspring That seed All the nations of the earth would be blessed Well they weren't blessed ultimately in Isaac They were blessed in Abram's greater seed The one who would come And that's why all of the gospel accounts focus so much, especially Matthew and Luke, focus so much on the genealogy of Jesus, tracing it all the way back to Abraham, all the way back to the promise. Because all Satan has to do is cut that thread that runs from Eve through Sarah and Rebecca to Mary. And our redemption is over. He will have triumphed over the seed of the woman rather than having his head crushed by him. Repeating Pharaoh's massacre of the firstborn of Israel, Herod, Israel's own king, massacres the firstborn of Israel in order to get at that seed. He is a plaything in the serpent's hand. He's also a puppet of Caesar. Anything to hold on to power. Anything to hold on to privilege. Anything to keep a throne that doesn't belong to him because he was not a lineal descendant of David. He was a usurper. And the Pharisees knew this. The religious leaders of Jesus' day knew that he was a puppet of Caesar's, that he was a false claimant to that throne, a false king. he too was just another antichrist. And it is in that context that an angel appears to nobody in a nowhere town, out in the boondocks, giving her the gospel, telling her the good news that she would be the bearer of the Savior of the world, And she becomes, because of that word, the first evangelist of the new covenant. I want to look at this, first of all, briefly by giving the context, a royal hope and a royal visit, but focusing especially on the royal song itself, the Magnificat. The narrative of Zechariah and Elizabeth and also of Mary is a redrawing of the Elkanah and Hannah story of 1 Samuel chapters 1 and 2. Like Sarah and Rebekah, Hannah is barren. All the mothers of Israel longed to be the one who could exclaim, Behold, I have brought forth the man. I believe that's what Paul means in 1 Timothy 2.15 when he says, after referring to Adam and Eve, that Eve, or women, will be saved in their childbirth. A lot of conservative evangelical commentators say that this refers to domesticity. It underscores the importance of motherly piety. And women will be saved by basically giving birth to children and raising children. I think that salvation by childbirth is not a biblical doctrine. I don't think that it's referring to that kind of works righteousness where our mothers save themselves by rearing children. No, rather it's something deeper and more profound that it is by longing for the Messiah who will save them that the mothers of Israel hoped that they finally had given birth to the baby. They had finally given birth to the gift, to their Savior. on the steps of the tabernacle of God's presence Hannah offers a desperate prayer oh Lord of hosts if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me and not forget your maidservant but will give your maidservant a male child then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and no razor shall come upon his head in other words she would give him to the Nazarite order he would take a Nazarite vow Now, the parallels with Elizabeth and John the Baptist are striking here because that's the same order that John the Baptist was born into as well. When she presents her son to Eli, the high priest, Hannah composed a song to the Lord. My heart rejoices in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. I smile at my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. The Lord kills and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and brings up from the grave. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and lifts up. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap to set them among princes and make them inherit the throne of glory. For by strength shall no one prevail. The enemies of the Lord shall be broken in pieces. from heaven he will thunder against them the Lord will judge the ends of the earth he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his Messiah and at last the announcement arrives an angel appears to a young virgin and as Eli announced to Hannah the birth of a son Mary hears the staggering words which for ages every mother in Israel had hoped to hear. Mary and Joseph are descended from the Davidic line, but he's given a name by the heavenly council, Joshua. Same name as one of his forebears. Joshua, which means Yahweh saves. God is the one who saves. But he will be laden with titles that Joshua never received, such as Son of the Highest. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, the angel says. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will know no end. Although she's a virgin, the Holy Spirit will overshadow her, the angel says, and her child will be called the Son of God. With God, nothing will ever be impossible. And Mary's reaction was understandable. How will this happen? Much as Abram's and Sarah's reaction, how can this be? In her case, because she was a virgin and had not known any man. How can I be sure of this? And God condescended to Mary as he condescends throughout the history of redemption to our weakness and gives a sacrament, as it were, a sign and seal, a pledge of this, proof of the promise. Go visit your cousin Elizabeth and right now she's already pregnant. Surprisingly, like Hannah, barren, but now she is pregnant and that will be the sign. That will be the confirmation you will receive that you are, in fact, the recipient of this good news of bearing a Messiah. And so, immediately, Mary makes a royal visit to her cousin Elizabeth, who is now in her sixth month of pregnancy. Now, these are cousins. You know, think of this, kids, you know, with your cousins. You go over and maybe we're with your cousins this Thanksgiving. And how many of you would go up to one of your cousins and say, Hail, favored one! Not many, right? Now, this is a strange response. Mary must have been terrified at being addressed like this from her familiar friend and cousin. But that's what she said. Not in gentle tones of reverence, but she exclaimed in joy and thanksgiving, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. It's similar to the greeting of Gabriel. And you notice, Mary is blessed. These are all passive verbs. Mary herself is not the source of blessing. She's not the sun, she's the moon. She's reflecting glory. That's why it's called the Magnificat, because she is magnifying the glory of God. She's giving God the glory, giving God the praise. You have found favor with God is very different from, not only different from totally contradictory to you are worthy of. Now this is a classic Hebrew idiom that refers to God's bestowal of free mercy and free favor. The same verb is used in Ephesians 1.6. He has made us accepted in the beloved. He has made us accepted. Not we have become acceptable, but he has made us accepted. In the same way, Mary is made the recipient. These passive verbs underscore the point that Mary here is not the source of blessing, but the recipient of blessing. And blessed here doesn't just mean happy. We've just totally destroyed a perfectly good word. You know, it's, oh, such a blessing. Oh, you're so blessed. We use it so often, so frequently, that the embossing of the coin kind of wears off with much use. It's not just a subjective feeling. It's an objective fact. She is blessed, whether she feels like it or not. It's not about her feelings. It's about a fact that she is about to have a zygote from God. That that zygote would be taken from her DNA, her ancestry, and yet be God. As Calvin says, she is justly called blessed on whom God bestowed the remarkable honor of bringing into the world his own son through whom she had been spiritually renewed. And to this very day, he says, the blessedness brought to us by Christ cannot be the subject of our praise without reminding us at the same time of the distinguished honor which God was pleased to bestow on Mary in making her the mother of his only begotten son. Again, none of this makes sense outside of the Jewish story, that unfolding drama from the law and the prophets. The structure of Elizabeth's expression in verse 42 is that of a Hebrew song translated into Greek prose. And it's one of the five songs that cluster around the nativity story. In each of these songs, God is the subject of the praise, the object of the praise. God is the object of thanksgiving. God is the one who has lifted up the lowly and brought down those who exalt themselves. The exuberance of Mary's song is further expressed by the anticipation that Elizabeth gives her before she delivers the song when she says, But why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? And now again, that's not something that you usually say to cousins at Thanksgiving. But it's not because Mary suddenly has acquired all of this righteousness and holiness, this virtue that she's going to pour out now on the rest of the world. Rather, it is because now she is designated the mother of God. It is not because of any status she has acquired. It is because of the one she is graced by God to carry. Who am I that the mother of my Lord should make a royal visit? Mary isn't the only one blessed, so too is her child. In fact, her blessed child is the source of her blessing. Already the favor of God rests on Mary because of her son. And so there are two dangers to avoid at this point. As the reformers realized, of course, one is the one we're all familiar with, the Roman Catholic tendency to venerate Mary and obscure Christ, to even raise Mary to the level of a co-redemptrix. There is absolutely, in fact, everything in this song, as we'll see, is completely contrary to that view of Mary. At the same time, the reformers insisted with the ancient church on having a very high view of Mary because if you don't have a high view of Mary, you don't have a high view of Christ. If you don't, for instance, believe that she's the mother of God, as the Anabaptists, following Menno Simons taught, she's just the mother of Jesus, not the mother of God, then the question is, who is the one she's carrying? Just a human being or the God-man? And so it's important for us to affirm the full assumption of our human nature from Mary. She wasn't just a conduit, as Calvin said in criticism of Menno Simons, that the Anabaptists sort of treated Mary as a shoot that Jesus came down from heaven through. No, he assumed his humanity from her. He assumed his flesh from her, and that is the importance of giving Mary her rightful place in this history. And now, finally, her psalm of thanksgiving, her royal song. It is very much in the tradition of the psalms of thanksgiving that we find in the Psalter. Recall now the whole sweep of Israel's history is sent into exile and now awaiting the Messiah for deliverance. The theme of exile and return is very much on everybody's minds as they wait for the Messiah. they're being oppressed, even their fellow Jews are oppressing them, as in the case of Herod. Magnificat explicitly repeats the phrases found in Hannah's song. My soul magnifies the Lord, directly from Hannah's song, so too is holy is His name, who scatters the proud, who has lifted up the humble, and who has filled the hungry with good things, but sent the rich away empty. All of those lines are from Hannah's prayer. But it also breathes characteristic lines from the Psalter. So what's its message, finally? Well, it begins by focusing on the Savior as the one Mary needs, first of all. It focuses on Mary's shalom, Mary's peace, Mary's salvation. And Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior. Not just the Savior, not just Israel's Savior, but my Savior. Which again, underscores the fact that Mary acknowledged she was a sinner. She was not immaculately conceived. She took her place with the rest of us gathered here as a sinner who needed to be saved. But isn't it a wonder, a marvel of marvels, that she would give birth to her Savior? The knowledge of salvation always brings joy. And it magnifies the Lord rather than ourselves. Mary is magnified by God. She does not magnify herself. Or she would take her place, not in the congregation of the faithful, but in the congregation of the proud, the city of Cain, those who lift themselves up and exalt themselves. Mary does not do this. She is lifted up by God. She's one of those lowly people lifted up, not one of those haughty people put down. She rejoices in God, her own Savior. And then we read that conjunction for. She praises God for something. This is why you need doctrine. It's why you need to tell the story of redemption. We can't praise God unless there's a reason to. Our hearts are stirred by a noble theme, as the psalmist says. And so she tells us why she's giving thanksgiving to God. This isn't just a normal expression of thanksgiving. This is an expression of thanksgiving in response to some particular concrete action on God's part. For, she says, God has regarded the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed. He who is mighty has done great things for me. And holy is his name and his mercy is for those who fear him from generation. To generation, you see, it's all about God. Salvation is from the Lord. That's her message here. Soli Deo Gloria. Sola Gratia. It's all God's doing. All of this is His achievement. All of this is His accomplishment. He has regarded what? My righteousness? He has regarded my pedigree, my high position in Jewish society. He has regarded my virtue. No, he has regarded my lowly estate. Once again, we see God's upside-down approach here. God does not look at things the way we do. Not many wise, not many powerful, not many of noble birth, Paul says. But God has chosen the foolish to confound the wise. Whenever we get cocky about election, just remember that. God has chosen the nothings to make sport of those who think they are something. That's how God works. That's how His kingdom works. And that is exactly what Mary is celebrating here. She says nothing about her making salvation possible by being co-redemptrix or because Mary said yes, God's plan could go forward. She takes her place with us as a recipient of the gospel a recipient of God's mercy because of God's goodness not her own from now on she says all generations will call me blessed why? she says because the mighty one has done great things for me not because of the great things she has done but because the mighty one has done great things for her holy is his name and his mercy extends from generation to generation to those who fear him. But he's not only Mary's Savior, God, my Savior. He's also Israel's Savior, Israel's salvation, Israel's shalom. And so she turns to that wider circumference of messianic hope in verses 50 through 55. And here, if you'll imagine in your mind, and kids, if you're taking notes are drawing a staircase with three steps down to the bottom and then three steps up on the other side. Because that's exactly the way these verbs are structured here. He has, that is God, God has shown strength with His arm in destroying the proud. He has scattered them and he has brought them down. The higher they sought to go, the lower God brought them. Down, down, down to the depths of Sheol itself. While those who are on the bottom of the ladder he brings up step by step. The verbs here are also three. The lowly he has exalted. The hungry he has filled. His covenant people He has helped His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation This is what shalom is This is what blessedness is Again, it's not that trivialized Thing that we often talk about Although there are temporal blessings We can't reduce it to temporal blessings This is really the blessing Par excellence months. It is the end of the reign of sin and death. It is the resurrection of the dead at the end of the age. It is feasting with the best food and wine at God's table in a communion of joy and thanksgiving that never ends. That's shalom. It's not just going to heaven when you die and your soul's floating off somewhere. It's something tangible in this world. It's not salvation from this world. It's the salvation of this world and of the people of God within this world. A restoration of creation in all of its fullness without sin and death. It's that blessedness to which Paul refers in Romans 4. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin. That's the blessed one. And that's what Mary's rejoicing in. She's rejoicing in her own forgiveness. She's rejoicing in her own justification. She's rejoicing that the one she is going to bear is not only her Savior, but Israel's Savior. The seed of the woman has finally appeared who will crush the serpent's head. No wonder from now on all generations will call me blessed. Not call me savior, but call me saved. He has scattered the proud in the imaginations of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted the lowly. This was a subversive thing to be singing with Herod as the king. The old fox in the hen house sitting on his throne that didn't belong to him. Revolutionary ideas. And you can't just spiritualize this away. I mean, Herod really did kill the firstborn. There's no spiritual interpretation of that. He took swords, sent soldiers out, and slaughtered them. This is all happening in history. In the same history in which Mary breathes these subversive songs, these verses, these lines about God finally now bringing down those who have exalted themselves and raising up the lowly. When the tables are turned and God vindicates his covenant, the world will know that Yahweh is in charge and not the idols. And so when John the Baptist, in prison, sends messengers to Jesus and asks, Are you the coming one, or do we look for another? Jesus replies, Go and tell John the things which you see and hear. The blind see, and the lame walk. See, those are who are at the bottom rung of the ladder. The lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear. The dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he who is not offended because of me. It's the sharing of the whole creation in the Sabbath rest of God. That's the vision. That's the hope. That's what Messiah ultimately will bring. And then finally, Mary extols God because he has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his seed forever. See here, Mary explicitly draws on the Abrahamic covenant. There were many people who would look to Jesus as the restorer of the Mosaic covenant. They just wanted a political theocracy. They wanted to drive out the Romans. They wanted to set up their own version of an empire and take their own place of thrones in the positions of power and privilege. And they'd use Jesus to get there if they needed to. I won't draw any comparisons to the way many people use God and use Jesus for their own power and privilege. No, Mary appeals to the covenant that God swore with Abraham. This is not going to be a renewal of the covenant that was sworn by Israel at Mount Sinai. This is going to be the fulfillment of the covenant that Yahweh swore to Abraham unilaterally and absolutely with grace alone as its basis. That through Abraham and his seed, all the families of the earth would be blessed. And that's why Mary prays in remembrance of his mercy, covenantally promised to the fathers, to Abraham and his seed forever. The child in Mary's womb is Israel, the true Israel, the faithful son, God's servant, the new Abraham, the true seed of the woman who will crush Satan's head in triumph. So we've seen Mary take her divinely appointed place in this unfolding drama of redemption. And, of course, she is at the center of the action. But how is she at the center of the action? She's at the center of the action as a recipient of God's promise and a herald of his salvation. And so let's learn by her example. Our passage from death to life is no less impossible from our side of things than that Mary, a virgin, would give birth to a son. And yet, God announces the good news to us. He confirms it today, too, with his sacraments. And by his Spirit, he brings about within us, through that promise, the faith to say, Behold, I am your servant. Let it be done unto me according to your word. You sing Mary's song this morning with gladness in your hearts because the Messiah has come. You are blessed. Though lavished with all sorts of temporal blessings in this life. No matter whether you're rich or poor, God has given you the greatest blessing of all in His Son. Though lowly and undeserving, God has lifted you up and seated you with Christ today in heavenly places. How can we not, being poor, miserable, helpless, lowly sinners ourselves, rejoice in the God of our salvation this morning? His mercy is on those who fear him from generation to generation. Amen. Let's pray. Our Father, we sing Mary's song this morning knowing that you have fulfilled your promise to Abraham and to his descendants forever. That a land far greater than that plot of land in Palestine. A promise far surer and more certain than any promise Israel ever made. And a blessedness far beyond any blessing that we could seek, certainly that we could achieve for ourselves, is given to us in your Son. Hear us, Father, as we join Mary in her song, welcoming the Redeemer into our world and into our hearts, for we pray in his name. Amen.