Raphael, The Holy Family with a Lamb, 1507, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain
Pastor Tom Johnson, December 13, 2020
“My soul magnifies the Lord; my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” This is the refrain we sang from the Magnificat—or the Song of Mary. Mary sings this in response to Elizabeth’s announcement that she is pregnant with John the Baptist. Elizabeth and her unborn child celebrate the child to be born of Mary. My soul magnifies the Lord—my soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Why doesn’t she say, “I proclaim; I rejoice”? Instead, Mary says, “My soul proclaims; my spirit rejoices.” Scripture says, “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
Mary speaks from her immaterial core. This praise and joy originates from her soul—her spiritual self. We often speak in terms of our bodies, minds, and spirits. For our purposes, we will not try to distinguish between soul and spirit but simply know that the Word of God has the wisdom and power to do so. Mary’s soul and spirit are stirred by the Word of God, the Holy Spirit, and the Word made flesh in her womb. And because of that stirring deep within her being, she has found her voice and joy. She proclaims the Lord’s greatness. She rejoices in God her Savior. From the core of her being, she proclaims and rejoices in the greatness of God and his salvation. She celebrates how God is a God who turns the world upside down. He humbles the proud and powerful. He lifts up the lowly and feeds the hungry with good things. He causes the rich to experience the poverty of their souls.
Through the birth of this Christ Child, he makes good his promise to deliver his mercy. He is faithful to his people. And now Mary can be assured of a redemptive future because of our redemptive past. This pregnant teenager, whose only excuse for her pregnancy is conception by the Holy Spirit, has the amazing courage to lift up her voice and proclaim God’s greatness and express her joy for God, his ways, and his faithfulness.
But Mary’s voice and joy will be tested. Her faith will be tried. She and her husband Joseph will not be able to find suitable housing after a long journey to Bethlehem for the census—even at the critical time when she gives birth. She will be perplexed by what the shepherds tell her about the angels. She will be astounded by foreign travelers bringing costly gifts. She will be terrorized by King Herod who tries to kill all the toddlers and infants in Bethlehem including baby Jesus. She, Joseph, and their newborn become refugees in Egypt. And yet, through all her difficulty, Scripture says that she “pondered” and “treasured all these things in her heart” (Luke 2:19,51). She kept nurturing her core. She kept feeding her soul with God’s Word, faithfulness, and promises. The Apostle Paul echos Mary’s sentiment when he says, “So we do not lose heart. Even though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed day by day.” So we have the assurance that our souls can proclaim and our spirits can rejoice even in the midst of physical suffering. God’s joy transcends all.
And what of our current difficulty? How do we navigate the turmoil in our cities, in our nation, and in our world? Have we allowed the power-hungry to devour our joy? Have we let the proud, the rich, and the powerful to bully us and make us feel powerless and voiceless?
In Mary’s song, might does not make right. The loudest are not the truest. The wealthy may be prospering in body but not necessarily in soul and spirit. Pride and conceit do not lift anyone up but even tear the proud themselves down. Mary is confident that worldliness, evil, and sin cannot rob her of her joy. No one can silence her message of hope and salvation. Mary has found her voice. She has found her joy. Mary is there to lead us. Her song gives us the Word and example we need to find our own voice—our own song—our own joy—no matter our circumstances—no matter what threatens—no matter how loud our adversary—no matter how powerful our enemies—no matter how much evil puffs itself up.
“Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ...No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:35-39).
This is the song of Mary. This is the way of Jesus and the way of the Cross. We live in a sinful and broken world. But God repairs this world one soul at a time. He rebuilds our lives from the inside-out and the bottom-up. Our souls proclaim the greatness of the Lord who conquers sin, evil, and death on the Cross of Calvary—and again when he rises victorious from the dead—and again when he comes back in glory to judge the living and the dead. Our spirits rejoice in God our Savior when he cries out, “It is finished!” and commends his spirit to God his Heavenly Father. Our spirits will rejoice when Jesus comes to renew the heavens and the earth and make all things new. Even so. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
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