Unveiling the Depths of the Magnificat

When you're talking about glorious passages of Scripture, you're going to be redundant.

But this is truly one of the most beautiful passages I think in all the Bible.

Luke 1, 46-55, I'm reading from the ESV.

And Mary said, "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

For He has looked on the humblest state of His servant, for behold, from now on all generations will call me 'blessed.' For 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.

He has shown strength with His arm.

He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.

He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.

He has helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy as He spoke to our fathers to Abraham and his offspring forever." Let's pray.

Father, as we think on this prayer of Mary's, this praise from her lips, we cannot help but praise You this morning.

We are all coming in here with different situations and challenges and trials and even sorrows.

And yet You are so much greater as this prayer captures than anything we are staring down in the face in our daily lives.

Those are real.

The challenges and trials are real.

The battle with sin is a real battle.

And yet You loom so large over our lives as Christians.

You are awesome.

You are high.

You are lifted up.

You are good.

You give us great joy.

You come to young women who are anonymous and unknown, and You bless them beyond belief.

And You do the same for all of us.

You love Your people.

You forgive Your people.

You are majestic in righteousness and great and tender mercy.

This morning I pray that everyone in here would be profoundly encouraged, not through me, not through anything original.

I have to offer because I don't, but through Your word.

I pray that You would do this through Your Spirit, and I pray for any who are not Christians at this time, I pray that You would use even this material from Your word to give faith, to draw them nearer and nearer to Yourself, to win them over to Christ.

And we pray all this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

The context of the Magnificat, as it is often called, it's called Magnificat there because verse 46, my soul magnifies the Lord. So in the Latin translation of this verse, Magnificat applied there.

Magnification is the concept then that many have seized on in this passage from Mary.

The context is joy.

The context is incredible, surging joy.

That is what Mary is praying to God.

This is an entirely unprecedented act.

Wild things have already happened as we pick up in Luke 1 46 to 55 talking about the Magnificat for those of you who are coming in.

We have seen this in verse 41.

When Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth's womb.

That's John the Baptist in the womb leaping.

That's remarkable, isn't it?

And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.

Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, here's the repetition.

The baby in my womb leaped for joy, leaped for joy, she identifies.

So not just a random leaping due to Elizabeth's pregnancy diet or something like this.

This is not merely a natural effect.

This is a spiritual effect.

It's altogether miraculous that a baby would leap in the womb for joy, but everything that attends Jesus, everything that surrounds Jesus is miraculous.

And just remember that there's not going to be normal events that attend to this, at least in several cases.

This is the only response that ultimately captures the surging joy of the coming of Christ that a baby really could perform.

A leap, a leap of joy and Mary addresses God following Elizabeth telling her that John the Baptist leapt in the womb and Mary's prayer here, stay with me, is I think a leap.

It's a leap of a prayer.

In other words, it quivers and it reverberates with joy in God.

Verse 46 to 55, my soul magnifies the Lord right from the bat.

Right off the bat, we have joy and rejoicing identified as the context of the good news that Mary hears.

Mary's words mirror Mary's action.

Her whole life is a demonstration of the greatness of God's plan.

Her whole life, in other words, is a magnification.

It's not just this one little moment.

Mary herself is really committing herself, even as God has already committed her to magnifying God.

And right off the bat, that's very encouraging for us as well.

We're not supposed to gaze at Mary as if she is a spiritual all star, as if she is qualitatively different than all of us.

Mary is a normal young woman who God blesses and makes his own.

And now Mary is able to live, yes, in a very unique way as the bearer of Christ, but as a normal person for the glory of God.

And that is in reach of everyone in here.

Everyone in here is fully invested with the spirit of God when saved.

Everyone in here is fully able to live for the glory of God and magnify God in a hundred different professions and vocations.

Mary is going to live from this moment forward of very normal life.

So this is a very unusual event, right?

The announcement that Mary is going to bear the Messiah, that we're not going to hear that.

You're not going to hear that.

Some of you are very relieved that you are not going to have pregnancy in that respect because that would be very difficult in technical terms for that to happen for you.

Okay, good.

Well, let me relieve you of that.

But here's what you can do.

Magnify God as a normal person in much of your life.

She's not going to really lead a spiritual all-star sort of existence.

Just walking through the clouds, she's going to have Jesus and raise Jesus.

She's going to be a wife and a homemaker until Joseph dies.

She's going to serve God faithfully, quietly, day after day after day in her life.

So her whole life is going to be magnification.

You understand?

Not just this moment.

And that can be your life too.

I'm sure that is your life for a lot of you, but think of your life in those terms.

Think of your life even if it's normal, even if it's humble, even if it's very ordinary and anonymous.

Your life too is invested with tremendous significance by God.

That's how good our God is.

As Mary praised this in 46 to 55, she's not burdened by the reality that she will bear the Messiah.

At least she's not now burdened in this context.

But when the angel Gabriel came to her initially, as you see in verse 28 of Luke 1, she was shocked out of her mind, wasn't she?

Angel Gabriel came to her and said, verse 28, "Greetings, O favored one.

The Lord is with you." At that time, Mary had no idea how to react.

So Gabriel called her favored one, verse 29 records the confusion and even the distress that she felt.

Verse 29, "She was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be." Gabriel gave her incredible news, but Mary did not initially understand what was going on to the degree that when God visited her through an angel with amazing news that I'll cover in just a second, she was greatly troubled.

She heard this as a burdening reality.

By the way, that phrase in verse 28, you see that in your translation, it's translated a few different ways, but in mine it's "O favored one." That was translated by Jerome about 1600 years ago as Mary being full of grace, plena gratia in the Latin.

That phrase, "O favored one," became "O full of grace one," basically, full of grace.

That is how Roman Catholics have built out the doctrine that some of you are familiar with that Mary is a co-mediator with Jesus Christ.

Are you familiar with this, some of you?

That you don't actually really need to pray to Jesus.

You actually can pray a whole lot of prayers to Mary because Mary will act as your mediator with Jesus on your behalf.

It's all based on a mistranslation, a total mistranslation of Luke 1.28.

It's literally this verse.

Quick commercial for seminary, not just seminary, but training in general for ministry.

Whether you have seminary or not, whether you have master's degrees or not, there's no Bible verse about that.

What you do need though are men who can handle the Word of God and translate it rightly.

That's why you take Greek and Hebrew not just for a week, but for a bunch of weeks because you need to be able to know the Word in the original languages because honestly, there have been major mistranslations of the Bible in church history.

This is one of those places, a mistranslation, "O full of grace one," funded an entirely bankrupt understanding of Mary as basically almost this divine figure.

That's not at all what the angel is saying to Mary.

Mary is saying, "You are highly favored.

You are greatly blessed with this news." Well, what is the news?

Verse 30 of Luke 1, "The angel said, 'Do not be afraid, Mary.

You found favor with God, and behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

He will be great and will be called the son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father, David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

Mary at this point has absolutely no idea how this is going to work out.

She is struggling to handle this incredible news.

Those of us who have dealt with bad internet could say, "We are buffering." You know at a certain point, like somebody comes to you and gives you some data, you got to download and you're like, "Hold on, honey.

I'm buffering right now.

Just give me the wheel.

The little wheel is turning in your mind, and you're trying to process this, and you're not entirely sure of buffering." It's a little bit like Mary is buffering here.

She's trying to get this.

Verse 34, Mary said to the angel, "How will this be since I am a virgin?

She is unmarried.

She's a virgin." Verse 35, "The angel answered her, 'The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

Therefore the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God.' And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God." And Mary said, "Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.

Let it be to me according to your word." And the angel departed from her.

All this is context for the Magnificat, but for one big reason for our purposes, as verse 47 makes clear, Mary has now come full circle.

She's no longer buffering.

You understand the point?

She's come full circle by the time she prays, this prayer of praise really to God.

My spirit rejoices in God, my Savior.

You see that?

She's no longer greatly troubled as she was.

The good news of great joy, that's the announcement of the coming Messiah through her womb, it has sunk into her soul and it has saturated her mind.

She rejoices in God.

She identifies God.

She identifies the baby in her womb as Sotere in the Greek, her Savior, my Savior.

Mary does not in any way think, just to be clear to Doubletown, that she is a co-mediator.

She's going to be able to give you and me grace.

She herself, she understands that she needs a Savior.

Mary was not sinless.

Mary did not fail to sin.

Mary sinned just like we all sin.

Mary needed a Savior, just like every single person in here needs a Savior.

She knew that.

So don't be led off, whatever you do, by bad theology out there associated with Roman Catholicism tragically that would tell you that Mary is sinless and Mary is a co-mediator.

Mary is no such thing and Mary herself didn't think that and Mary rebuked such theology, such bad theology in what she prays here.

The baby in her womb was to be her Savior, as I say.

In verses 48 to 49, Mary's prayer stays personal.

In verse 48, she refers to her humble estate.

Mary has better theology than many professional theologians.

She's a young woman.

We don't know how old she was.

She might be 12, she might be 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, somewhere in there.

Girls young women married younger in those days than they do today, but let's suffice it to say probably that she's a teenage girl.

She's the age of a teenage girl and this is her prayer and she has better theology than a lot of theologians.

She knows, in other words, that she could not plan this, do this, or arrange this.

Mary knows that she has no power, no agency, and no levers to pull, but mark this, she is the one God has chosen to give us a redeemer.

This is how God strikes back at the devil.

This is how the great warrior Savior comes to the earth through an anonymous woman in a nowhere town with zero political capital and no cultural influence.

It's almost like God is trying to tell us something.

It's almost like this is a complete and total upending of all the world's power dynamics, the way to make change, the way to take things over, the way to take back the world.

Ah, what's the grand strategy?

How are we going to do this?

Well, the people of Israel actually did that plan.

They tried that.

You remember that in the book of 1 Samuel?

They clamored for a king like all the other kings and God gave them one, didn't he?

Tall and impressive and strapped and seemingly regal and mighty, at least in bearing, but it turned out that Saul really was a king like the worldly kings.

They tried the world's method.

You understand?

The people of Israel went in for the world's methods.

They saw these powerful kings all around them in the ancient Near East and they thought, get us one of those.

That is the way we're going to overcome all these pagan tribes in the ancient Near East.

Get us a powerful king.

Use the power of this world, God, to make us great.

Exalt us by a powerful king and instead Saul brought really in the end devastation to Israel, collapse, all sorts of terrible problems to the nation.

Well, what about when God's plan is tried, not a worldly earthly plan for power?

What does it look like when God launches his plan to make his people great in the earth?

What are the dynamics like there?

Does it look really worldly?

Does it look really as if?

Is it a strategy that people in global centers of power would applaud?

Wow, what a display of might.

It amounts to a pregnant Jewish teenage girl, unprotected by royal soldiers, unaided by public influencers, unknown by political power brokers.

The most unlikely candidate for her name to be known 2000 years later, she could possibly find.

This is the plan of God.

It is cloaked in humility.

It is robed in lowness.

It doesn't smell or look like power or overcoming or salvation.

It looks like a single teenage girl pregnant.

Behold the plan of God.

This is what Mary is marveling at.

It's all together unlike what the world does, isn't it?

She knows just how significant this is.

For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.

For he who is mighty has done great things for me.

And holy is his name.

He who is mighty is a warrior term in the Old Testament that's often translated the mighty one and it's used in contexts where Israel overcomes its enemies by the sheer delivering power of God, not by their own strength, but by God's power.

Mary is using a term from the Old Testament that she knows it's associated with triumph.

But again, I just repeat to you, it's the most ironic triumph, yes?

It's not God amassing an army in Jerusalem or Rome or one of the centers of power, a hundred thousand soldiers, a million angels visiting the earth, giving off flames as you look at their appearance.

They're 10 feet tall.

They strike you down where you stand just when you see them.

That's not how the mighty one is working.

The mighty one is working through a four foot 10 tall, probably Jewish girl in a nowhere town by bringing a tiny baby into the world to make atonement for sins.

This is what he who is mighty is doing and has done great.

This is what Mary under the influence of the Holy Spirit says is God doing great things.

You couldn't get a more striking contrast with the way all of us too tend to think.

In verses 50 to 55, the prayer shifts from the personal Mary's experience to the political.

In verse 50, Mary voices the truth that she is not alone.

The mercy of God is for all who fear him in every generation.

She confesses God does not give us what we deserve.

Fearing God for the Christian is not trembling that God is going to send you to hell because he will not do so.

Fearing God is living in humble reverence for a believer.

That's what Mary is expressing.

She is not terrified that God is going to send her to hell for eternity here.

That's what every sinner deserves.

That's the just dessert of sin.

That's not what she's praying about.

She's praying about humble reverence of those who tremble before God.

God does not give us what we deserve.

But not just this.

In verse 51, we see that God acts in strength to overcome the proud and this theme of undoing continues in verse 52.

The mighty are cast down from their thrones while God has exalted the humble.

It seems here that Mary understands again through the spirit that God is effecting.

God is carrying out cosmic deliverance through the child in her womb.

She's not seeing things at the present moment alone.

She seems to be seeing kind of in a broader vision of what her son is going to be.

The bigger deliverance that God is going to carry out through this baby.

Through this God-man.

Truly God.

Truly man.

This is a holy word from Mary.

It's strange because it is at once a common girl's reflection.

Totally ordinary and normal prayer.

But it is at the same time a divinely inspired word of God's eschatological triumph.

Eschatological is a fancy word that means God's eventual end times triumph.

Mary seems to be seeing it because in technical terms it's not like when the Holy Spirit gives conception to Mary and Jesus is implanted in her womb.

It's not like all the rulers of the earth get cast out of their thrones, right?

It's not like every evil ruler ceases to exist.

Kind of like it sounds like she's saying.

She seems to be looking ahead.

You understand?

She seems to be looking at what all this is going to do.

It's not going to happen right away.

That's such an important reality and biblical doctrine and biblical salvation.

The natural tendency of your heart and mind is to want deliverance and salvation right now.

In full.

End this hard situation.

Bring this difficulty to a resolution.

Save this one I love now.

Carry out this work.

Overthrow the wicked in the world.

Whatever it may be.

Whatever righteous desire you have in your heart and I have in mine.

We tend to want it.

Right now.

And God tends to be on a completely different timetable.

At least much of the time.

Maybe not all the time.

But much of the time God is playing the long game.

And Mary's prayer reflects that.

And that is true not just for Mary.

That is true for you.

God is playing the long game in your life.

And it doesn't always feel like the mighty are pulled down and salvation is going to come.

It often feels opposite.

But Mary is able to see through God's blessing that all this is going to come off.

That God is going to triumph.

That it's not just true for her.

It's true for us.

This is what we celebrate with the birth of Jesus.

This is the good news of Jesus coming.

We don't know the exact birth date of Jesus of course.

But whatever you think about that entire matter.

You have to celebrate the birth of Jesus as a Christian.

Make sure you guard that in your heart.

Whatever you think about different days and set apart times and so on and so forth and we can disagree over that in love and Christian charity.

You do have to celebrate the coming of Jesus and you do have to know it is spectacularly good news.

And I would caution you.

I would say make sure that whatever you think about this whole discussion that you leave a lot of room for joy in the coming of Jesus because that is what God wants us to have when we consider texts like this.

Not a hitch in our spirit like oh no we might celebrate the wrong day.

That's not really what the text emphasizes at all.

What the text emphasizes is surging joy.

My spirit rejoices in God.

So carry out Western tradition or not celebrate Jesus in your heart.

Enjoy Jesus.

God has given you Jesus.

There's nothing better he could give you.

Verse 53 Mary gives us a lovely metaphor along these lines.

The hungry she's continuing the theme.

The hungry are filled but the rich are empty.

God in other words gives every good spiritual gift to his people.

There are rich and fat people technically speaking in verse 53 as Mary is exclaiming all of this upward in the direction of God.

But ultimately here's how she's seeing ultimate reality.

The rich and fat are going to go begging.

They're not going to have an eternal harvest.

They seem to have everything but they have nothing.

And so all of this shows us that Mary is seeing not just present situational reality but ultimate spiritual reality.

Things are going to shake out the right way much as it will take ages and ages to do so.

In fact it's going to take 33 years from the moment she's praying right now for Jesus to die on a cross and make atonement for all the sin of God's people.

That in itself is a long time.

God is on his own timetable.

It takes time for the work of God to work.

It takes a lot longer.

Can we be honest?

We have a moment of honesty here.

It takes a lot longer for God to work out his plan than we would often like doesn't it.

Do you feel that?

I feel as I get older and a little bit wiser I feel my impatience even stronger.

And here I am raising children and telling them to be patient and that the easiest thing to say to be patient just be patient just be patient.

And then you look at your own heart is your own heart patient.

How are you how am I doing with patience.

Not great.

Maybe I can sit through the car ride you know a little bit better than they can.

But what about the things I most yearn for.

What about God saving work.

How am I doing with patience there.

Am I not like a bolting horse trying to get out of the stall on a regular basis and have God just bring this and do that.

I am.

But the good news is for a sinner like me God is going to bring his plan to perfect completion.

What's even now happening.

God keeps his promises that's what Mary sees in verses 54 to 55 that God has remembered his mission of mercy.

He's kept the promise of the Messiah.

Abraham was not misled.

The people who have lived in bondage are not forgotten at just the right time.

God is intervened.

God is acted and God is set in motion the overthrow of evil.

Look at what a harvest will come of God's promise to Abraham.

In Genesis 12 here is the promised king thousands of years after the original covenant declaration was made.

When God keeps his promises please mark this.

He really keeps his promises and he will keep every one of them for you and for me.

I would like to preach on the Magnificat for like an hour and 42 minutes.

I would like to go full Puritan on you but I can't.

So all I can do oh ma'am is give you four very brief reflections four very brief reflections on this.

First first reflection consider how unlikely all of this is.

Mary is like Hannah in first Samuel one and two.

She's been in a low place but now God has exalted her.

It's astonishing how often God does this for his people.

Do not miss how often God does this by the weight as this for men and women alike but do not miss how often God does this for anonymous and struggling women who have no hope and no agency in earthly terms no voice if you will.

God does not only care about the big guys leading the big works God cares about the voiceless struggling the meek and the helpless and God often chooses to give pregnancy to such women who are in hopeless situations in earthly terms in order to make them the unmistakable bearer of incredibly significant blessing to all his people and even all the earth see Hannah see Ruth and now see Mary.

Remarkable now just to be sensitive for a moment pregnancy is under the curse and so it is not always the case that every pregnancy comes to term and every baby survives and some of the greatest pain we can know in this life is when a baby dies in the womb.

So let that be said and let the church care for those who suffer in this way.

This is a somewhat common experience in truth.

So we know that pregnancy is such a giver of great joy yes but it can also be a real avenue of of pain because it's distinctly and markedly under the curse in a Genesis three way and how we await that when there will be no curse on little children and on mothers with child.

Second second reflection I will go very fast they're never going to have me back second know that God is with you when you are greatly troubled God is with you like God was with Mary when you are greatly troubled like Mary initially you don't have everything figured out you're frankly struggling to line everything up the complications of life baffle you and are bigger than you but do not lose heart in God's good time he will iron things out he will do this in his own way and again in his own time God is working in the small the insignificant and the needy to accomplish his purpose and his plan pray for fresh faith when you are greatly troubled pray for fresh faith to trust God's plan.

Third third give praise to the God who remembers mercy give praise to God this is what Mary explodes with praise this shows us as I was saying a moment ago that there are deep waters in this woman in this teenage girl modern liberal scholars if you read the commentaries doubt that Mary could have spoken the Magnificat they tell us this is too advanced for a young Jewish girl well nothing is more anti-woman than so-called feminist and liberal scholarship by the way truly pro-woman people know that a young Hebrew woman steeped in the Psalms with a God loving heart could easily have spoken this prayer so don't believe critical scholarship for a hot minute believe in the word that reflects the dignity of manhood and womanhood alike savor the God praise the God who uses humble men and women left and right defying all the expectations of the elites and know that children or teenagers can give great praise to God they are not to be silenced in our lives children and teenagers are not to have super low expectations on them that they cannot trust Christ and they cannot give praise to God and even eloquent testimony to God there's not a one size fits all experience but when God works in a heart and God must work in a heart for a child to know Christ it can't be our work it's always God's work the pressure is not on us we pray to God for it to happen as God will bless and lead if it be in his will when God does it a young girl like Mary can give eloquent powerful praise to God and so can youth today in fact whatever your age this is what you do as a Christian you praise God you don't live in a straitjacket you give glory to God you thank God you celebrate God my spirit rejoices and God my Savior Christian be instructed and edified by your sister Mary praise your God this week go on a long walk and recount all God's blessings to you even in tough days fourth and finally remember that God has not forgotten us either God has not forgotten you this is truly the takeaway overall of the Magnificat the baby in the womb did not stay a baby the baby in the womb is all grown up the baby in the womb is at the gates he's not a helpless infant any longer he's a warrior who has passed through shadow through death through all the attacks of the devil he did not stay dead and making atonement for our sin but he rose from the grave and he ascended to the father's right hand and right now that baby all grown up is watching and waiting and he has his eye on you as a Christian and you may feel alone and abandoned now greatly trouble but you are not he is coming for you because of all this we may say with Mary in hope and expectation my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior let's pray father thank you for this text and this truth I pray that you would encourage our hearts lift our hearts up to you thank you for this time in Jesus name amen them back.

Thanks for watching.