St. Mary
Lk
1:46-55
8/15/21
A few weeks ago, nobody had heard of Lydia
Jacoby. She was just a seventeen year old girl from Alaska. However, at the Tokyo Olympics she pulled off
one of the biggest upsets of the games as she won the 100-meter breaststroke
with an amazing surge at the end of the race.
Nationally,
nobody had heard of Lydia. She wasn’t
even expected to make the U.S. Olympic swim team. However, at the Olympic trials she swam
nearly three seconds faster than her previous best time to earn the trip to the
Olympics. And then in the 100-meter
breaststroke finals she beat Lilly King, the reigning Olympic champion who had
lost only once in the event since 2015.
When it was all done, there was young Lydia Jacoby – the unexpected
unknown – receiving the gold medal and becoming a national celebrity.
Today we
celebrate the Feast of St. Mary, Mother of Our Lord. Like Lydia Jacoby, nobody had heard of Mary.
She was not someone from whom great things were expected. But then, through a series of entirely
unexpected events, she became the mother of our Lord Jesus. She became the God-bearer who has been
remembered by all of God’s people. In St. Mary we see that God’s grace works in
unexpected ways. And in Mary, we see the
model for how we are to receive God’s Word.
In our
text today we hear the words that Mary spoke when she, pregnant with the Lord
Jesus, met the aged Elizabeth who was herself pregnant with John the Baptist. The
first thing we encounter is something that perhaps we have been conditioned to
overlook. It is a sad truth of the
history of Christian theology that St. Mary has often been given a role and
position that contradicts Scripture. We
are well aware that in the Roman Catholic church Mary has been set up as a focus
in the life of faith. Prayer is offered
to her, and she is viewed as a mediator for believers.
Because of
these aberrations, modern Lutherans have often responed by ignoring St. Mary
herself. The offenses present elsewhere
have often caused us to react in the opposite direction. We have not wanted to
accord any special attention to Mary.
Yet our text today reveals that this too is wrong.
We see
this at the very beginning of our text as Mary says, “For behold, from now on all generations will call me
blessed.” Indeed, just before this, as Mary and Elizabeth met we learn: “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!’”
Scripture is absolutely clear in
describing Mary as one who is blessed among women. She is the one all generations will call
blessed. We must say on the basis of
God’s Word that Mary stands out uniquely among all women. There had never been,
and there will never be anyone like her again.
This fact was completely
unexpected. There was nothing about Mary
that would have led those around her to expect Mary take up a status that is
unique among all women of all time. She
was a nobody. She didn’t come from a ruling family of that day. She was a young teenage girl from the
unimportant town of Nazareth, and was betrothed to a man named Joseph who from
the house of David.
Because of infant mortality and the short life expectancy, the
ancient world had to seek to produce as many children as possible. As soon as a girl was able to conceive, she
married and began to have children. Mary
was a virgin who had just become a woman in the sense that now she could have
children. Betrothed to Joseph, her wedding day was approaching.
In our text, Mary acknowledges her low status. She says, “My soul magnifies the
Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he
has looked on the humble estate of his servant.” And in her next statement we learn that while
Mary now holds the status of being unique among all women – the one all people
call blessed - this is not because of anything that she did. Mary says, “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.”
Mary says that all generations will call her blessed because God
the mighty One had done great things for her.
She was referring to the fact that at that moment, Mary the virgin … was
pregnant. And it wasn’t just the fact that Mary had experienced this miracle. More important still, was the nature of the
baby she now carried in her womb.
The angel Gabriel had just appeared to Mary, and after calming
her fears about being greeted by an angel, Gabriel had said, “Do not be afraid,
Mary, for you have 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.” In unmistakable words, the angel told Mary that
she would conceive and give birth to the Messiah – the fulfillment of all of
God’s promises about the line of David in the Old Testament.
This was amazing in itself.
But when Mary asked how this was going to happen since she was a virgin,
the angel answered, "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.” There would be no human father. Instead, the Holy Spirit would cause the
child to be conceived – and this child would be the Son of God. Through the work of the Spirit, Mary would
conceive and give birth to the One who was not just the Messiah, but also the
Son of God. As Paul says in our epistle lesson, “But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth
his Son, born of woman.”
As a woman,
Mary conceived and gave birth to a human baby. Because the Holy Spirit caused
that baby to be conceived, he was also the Son of God. Mary carried and gave birth to Jesus Christ,
the One who is true God and true man at the same time. That is why Mary is blessed among women. That is why she has a status that no other
woman will ever have. Mary was the
instrument by which God brought the incarnate Son of God into the world. She was, as the early Church called her – the
God bearer.
Mary herself
had nothing to do with this. It was
entirely a matter of God’s grace. This grace was God acting in an unexpected
way – a humble virgin conceives and gives birth to a child who is the Son of
God. And this grace would accomplish
salvation in an unexpected way. Gabriel
had told Mary that she would give birth to the Messiah – the fulfilment of
God’s promises about David. Yet when
Mary and Joseph brought the infant Jesus to the temple, Simeon told her, “Behold, this child is
appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a
sign that is opposed
(and
a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many
hearts may be revealed.”
Jesus Christ was sent by the Father
to receive rejection. Though holy, he
was sent to be numbered with the transgressors – with us. He was sent to suffer and die for our sins. Just before Holy Week Jesus told his
disciples, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything that is
written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he
will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and
shamefully treated and spit upon. And after flogging him, they will
kill him, and on the third day he will rise.”
Jesus the Christ died on the cross
in order to redeem us – in order to free us from sin. Dead and buried in a
tomb, it appeared that God had abandoned him.
But on the third day God the Father raised him from the dead. He vindicated Jesus and demonstrated to all
what he had been doing through the cross.
Through the resurrection God defeated death, and began what we will
receive on the Last Day.
In God’s use of Mary for the
incarnation, we see that he works in unexpected ways – ways that often appear
humble. He continues to do so now
through his Means of Grace. At times, as
we face the challenges and difficulties of life, we may think we need more than
this. We may think that God has not
given us enough. But as Mary speaks
about what God is doing she says in our text, “He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the
proud in the thoughts of their hearts.” We must be on guard against thinking that we are in a position
to criticize how God works.
Instead of being haughty – of being
proud in the thoughts of our hearts - we need to follow the humble example of
St. Mary. Gabriel announced news to Mary
that was hard to believe. She would give
birth to the Christ. Though a virgin,
through the work of the Holy Spirit should conceive and give birth to the Son
of God. Gabriel announced news that
would turn Mary’s life upside down. And
yet when she heard all this we learn that her response was to say: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let
it be to me according to your word.”
In the same way, when Elizabeth spoke to Mary she said, “And blessed
is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken
to her from the Lord.” Mary received
God’s Word, and submitted herself to God’s will. She trusted and believed in God’s Word that it
would be fulfilled as he had said. This
attitude needs to guide our life. St. Mary is an example of what this looks
like.
On this Feast of St. Mary, we acknowledge and give thanks
for the unique status that Mary will always possess. She was the woman through
whom God brought the incarnate Son of God into the world. She is the God bearer. Yet this status is not tied to anything Mary
did or earned. Instead, it demonstrates
God’s grace and how he works in unexpected ways to bring forgiveness and salvation
to us. And in Mary’s faith and reception of God’s word and faith we see an
example that we seek to follow each day of our lives.
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