On The Magnificat 

Mary, a young Jewish girl, is “confused and disturbed” when an angel shows up in her room to tell her she is going to give birth to the Messiah. She is likely only a teenager, not noteworthy by any worldly standard.  And God is going to use her to birth his own presence in the world, to launch his great rescue plan.  

As if to give her proof or a sign that she didn’t ask for, Gabriel tells her that her elderly, barren cousin is six months pregnant. Mary “hurries” to visit Elizabeth—she likely wants to see it for herself, and wants to be with someone else who has had their life upended by God’s surprising and miraculous plans.  And it’s when the two impossibly pregnant women are together— the old barren woman and the young virgin - that Mary bursts forth in a song of praise to God.  

It is a song about how God works. He is a God of surprising reversals.  He acts in ways that are continually counterintuitive to human thinking. He brings about his purposes and power through the weak and lowly.  And this is not a new thing. From the beginning of Genesis he has carried on his promise to Israel through younger brothers instead of older brothers (like Jacob and Perez), through the grafting in of vulnerable foreigners (like Rahab and Ruth), through granting children to barren women (like Isaac to Sarah, and Samuel to Hannah). Jesus’ very family history contains story after story of God visiting the weak, the people who were on the margins of society, and weaving them into his cosmic redemption plan.  

Mary’s song is a beautiful jumble of Old Testament passages she had heard and known her whole life.  But one passage that it borrows from a lot is Hannah’s song in I Samuel 2:1-10.  A quick summary:

• My spirit rejoices because God has taken notice of and acted for me (I Sam 2:1, Lk 1:47-48).  

• He is holy (I Sam 2:2, Lk 1:49).

• He brings down the proud and exalts the humble.  (I Sam 2:3-4; Lk 1:51-52)

• He feeds the hungry while the well-fed go without (I Sam 2:5, Lk 1:53)

Hannah’s story opens the book of 1 Samuel, the record of the establishment of Israel’s kingship.  Samuel, the son God gives her, becomes a priest, the last judge of Israel, one of Israel’s first prophets when fresh words from God were few and far between, and is the one who anoints Israel’s first two kings. Mary’s story opens Luke’s account of the culmination of Israel’s kingly line in Jesus. Jesus, the son God gives her, is the King who will sit on David’s throne forever. The one who is himself the Word of God. The true high priest who offers himself as atonement for his people’s sins, and intercedes eternally on their behalf.  

And the vessels that God uses to bring about his powerful purposes in the world?  Humble servants (Mary and Hannah both refer to themselves as the Lord’s “handmaidens”), women without much social capital. Because that’s the way God rolls—using the weak to shame the strong, bringing about redemption in a way that showcases his power, his mercy, his faithfulness to the poor and the humble.  

Listen to Ordinary Time’s version of this beautiful song of Mary .  

*For a great, short intro to this passage check out Tom Wright’s Luke For Everyone. 

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