By Polly Phillips, Communications Content Developer
Read Luke 1:46-55
Mary’s song is a wonderous moment to eavesdrop on. Let her soul’s outpouring wash over you. Feel her joyful awe at being remembered by the Mighty God she worships.
Mary’s song begins in v46-49 with Mary’s personal experience of God’s faithfulness and regard for her. She humbly acknowledges her lowly position and wonders at the expansive holiness, glory and greatness of her God, her Saviour, the Mighty One. This God is mindful of her. This God knows her. Instead of despairing at the socially risky position her out-of-wedlock pregnancy has put her in, she recognises what great things have been done for her. Her perspective helps her see her privilege.
But her song widens beyond her personal experience in v50-53. This God isn’t like the rulers and authorities of the day. He doesn’t show favouritism to those who can do things for him. He isn’t power-hungry or sycophantic. His kingdom is an upside-down kingdom. There’s no room for the ‘haves’: the proud (even, v51, those who hide it really well!) are scattered, the rich sent away empty. It’s the ordinary, weak, needy, lowly, hungry – the ‘have-nots’ – who are gathered in, lifted up, filled with good things. These are his mighty deeds. This God delights to bring those who know they need him to him.
And our God does this because he’s a promise-keeping God. In v54-55, Mary moves her focus from God’s mercy to people to his mercy across time. He is mindful of Mary and of those who need and fear him because he is mindful of his long-ago promises. He remembers his word and keeps it. God has woven Mary into his salvation plan that stretches across generations, that started in the garden with the promise of a serpent-crusher and was confirmed to Abraham in the promise to bless all peoples of earth through him. God’s plan is so much greater and older than Mary, but he includes her in it and she rejoices in knowing that the baby stirring inside of her has set it in motion. Join Mary’s song of faith and magnify our magnificent, faithful, great God who came for the un-magnificent, the faithless, the lowly – for us.