Luke 1:46-56

My Soul Magnifies the Lord

Fourth Sunday of Advent C

December 20, 2015

Mary did you know?  The answer to that question is “Yes!” Mary did know. She may not have fully understood what it meant, but she knew.

How do we know that she knows?  Mary doesn’t have the opportunity to hear the Christmas story year after year like we do. She hasn’t experienced giving birth to Jesus, watching Him grow up, watching Him die, and seeing Him alive again.  How do we know that she knows?

She knows by faith. She confesses this faith in one the greatest hymns in the Bible, one of the most recognizable, one of the most sung throughout Christian history – the Magnificat.  John the Baptist and Jesus, both in the wombs of their mothers Elizabeth and Mary, meet for the very first time. John leaps in his mother’s womb in the presence of His Lord. Elizabeth feeling this cries out, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb… And blessed is she would believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

This young virgin, Mary, is the perfect example of a holy faith in Christ. The seed of Abraham rests in Mary’s womb, the fulfillment of the covenant that God had promised long ago, and she knows it!  Her blessedness is a state of faith that grasps the future promise of God that are already beginning to come to fulfillment for her and in her.  Mary’s song brings to culmination the various vocabularies of the Psalms, the Prophets, even the recorded history of ancient Israel, “as spoken to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” (Luke 2:55). Mary’s faith is so sure that she can express this hope in the past tense, speaking of what God will yet do as something he has already accomplished.

And so she sings out, “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”  She knows she is blessed, not because of who she is, but because He who is mighty has done great things for her.  He shows His mercy to those who fear Him, He has scattered the proud, brought down the mighty, exalted the humble, filled the hungry, sent the rich away empty, and helped His people. She sings to God for His gracious gifts to the least of this world, whom He has lifted up out of despair because of His grace and mercy, looking to not her humility, but to God’s regard which is praised.  The Lord delivers His people amid all the suffering and disappointment of this world.

Mary’s blessedness is the result of divine grace which God gives to her as a gift.  She is blessed because of the presence of Christ in her just as the church is blessed because Christ dwells in her.  We too know by faith.  We have heard the Word of the Lord just as Mary. We have received His gracious favor and regard just as Mary. We have the promises of God fulfilled in Christ, just like Mary.  And we sing out our joy to magnify the Lord just like Mary.  For the baby in the womb of the virgin is indeed Immanuel – God with us. Through His ministry He has saved you from your sins. He has given you the living hope of the resurrection which will overcome death itself. His word – the word of the Gospel – makes you righteous, so that now you too can live in righteous ways. He sends you forth to do humble things that now have divine importance because you do them in Christ – things like caring for a mother and her baby (Pr. Mark Surburg). Things like raising up our children to hear the story of Christ and Christmas, and what’s more to proclaim that good news of great joy!  The truth of Christmas ought of the mouth of our children.  The Word of the Lord magnifying our faith through such means.

Brothers and sisters in Christ we, like John the Baptist, out to leap with joy in the presence of Christ, born of virgin Mary.  We, like the Blessed Virgin, ought to sing out our praise, rejoicing in God our Savior. We, like our Sunday School children, ought to praise the Lord by proclaiming our salvation in Christ to one another and to the world.  The Son of God, St. Mary’s Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, visits us in this Word of His Gospel, no less so than He visited St. Elizabeth and the unborn John the Baptist in her womb.  For God in Christ is still present with us, His people. He comes in and with a body of His own, of the same flesh and blood as St. Mary and as all of you, in order to bear your sin and be your Savior.  He bears all of your iniquity, guilt, and shame in His Body to the Cross, where He sacrifices Himself once for all — the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.  His mercy is still for those who fear Him from generation to generation. He comes to visit you in great lowliness and meekness, wrapped up in frailty, and hidden in deep humility.  You cannot see Him with your eyes, nor do you discern the glory of His Resurrection in the present experience of your body and life on earth under the Cross.  But He comes, nonetheless, in this Holy Sacrament, in His body and blood, to help you, His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy. So you too, are blessed of the Lord, through faith in Christ Jesus, our Savior. Amen.