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 What
a contrast with how that young girl herself, Mary, responds to these
astonishing events that so intimately involve her own life. You can
read and hear her amazing words in Luke 1:46-55.
These words are often referred to as “the Magnificat,” based on the
first word in the Latin translation (it is the verb “makes great”).
I honestly don’t know what to call these verses—a poem, a hymn, a
canticle, a psalm, a prayer, or a song.
Are you as astonished as I am by her apparent complete willingness
to become pregnant though unwed? Jewish culture and society took
pregnancy outside of wedlock very seriously. Jewish scriptures even
prescribed death by stoning for an unwed mother in Deut 22:22-29.
Yet here is Mary, over the moon because she believes God is directly
involved in this pregnancy. In all honesty, it is unnatural, to say
the least.
You would expect that Mary will be obsessed with what
her parents will think or dreading what the neighbors will whisper.
Will she be shunned at the synagogue and ostracized by the other
women of Nazareth? But, instead, she is overwhelmed with the
greatness, the goodness, and the love of God!
She briefly shares how her heart overflows with
gratitude to God. She gives God all the glory and celebrates Him as
her Savior. But then her heart and mind shift away completely from
herself to what God is up to. He is holy, even in orchestrating this
irregular pregnancy. Whereas Mary may rightly fear public shaming
and painful rejection in Nazareth, God promises that Mary will
someday be called blessed and find great respect.
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What in the world is Mary thinking? She apparently
envisions that this infant, soon to be stirring in her womb, will
involve political events, even bringing down rulers from their
thrones and lifting up society’s most deprived.
Why in the world does this young woman think of
her baby in terms of the national covenant that Israel has with God?
Isn’t it presumptuous for Mary to imagine that her little bitty baby
has anything to do with God’s glorious and historic promises to
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? The secret of
Mary’s magnificent song is that Mary is walking by faith, not by
sight (2 Cor 5:7)! That is how Christmas begins and that is how
Christmas endures today! Beyond the Christmas merchandise, the
Christmas rush, the Christmas trees, and the Christmas pageantry, I
invite you by faith to see the baby, chosen to be your Savior and
the Savior of the world!
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