Luke: 1:39-45
And Mary said, “My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord, my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
So begins Mary’s Song, also known as the Magnificat. For generations this song, and today’s Bible readings, were part of the third Sunday of Advent. We lit the rose candle, and talked of Jesus’ mother. But, in their wisdom, the Church hierarchy decided that her day in Advent should come right before the birth of her Son, and so it is today, on the fourth and last Sunday of Advent, that we turn our gaze to her.
Long before the Protestant revolution, there was the Roman Catholic Church, and by the second century there was a growing amount of dogma, teachings, about Mary, to the point where an entire field of study, known as Mariology, has now existed since the 17th century, just to study all the information about Jesus’ mother. But, in the Bible, where most Protestants look for the final say on such subjects, not much is really known about the historic Mary. We believe she was a teenager when she married Joseph and when Jesus was born, but beyond that what we do know about her, is how the Gospel writers saw her, especially Luke and John.
In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth.
Today’s Gospel is quite short, but, still, three people feature in it. Let’s begin with Elizabeth. Interestingly, this is the only place in the entire Bible where she is mentioned. We know she was Mary’s cousin and gather from the Bible story that she is past the age of child bearing. To be childless in those days was a great sorrow for any couple, because a son was always longed for, to inherit from his father and protect his mother in her old age. In those days the woman bore the burden of shame if there were no children. She was considered barren, and women would weep and plead with God to give them sons and even daughters.
Elizabeth is married to Zachariah, who is a priest in the temple. She and Zachariah are people of faith and hope, and they have been praying long and hard that she might have a child. Then one day, as Zachariah is in the temple, the unexpected happens. The Angle Gabriel comes to him, and Zachariah is understandably frightened. But then the angel assures him Elizabeth will bear a son, and tells Zachariah what sort of person this child will be.
Elizabeth and Zachariah are people just like us, and Zachariah is a man of faith, but he is human, and he finds what the angel tells him hard to believe. Instead of leaping for joy, he is skeptical. He actually asks the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.” As a punishment for doubting, Zachariah is struck dumb. He comes out of the temple, but cannot bless the people assembled there to receive his blessing, and he will not speak again until the child is born.
But despite her husband’s doubts, Elizabeth does become pregnant. When she is five months into her pregnancy, the angel comes to Mary and tells her Elizabeth is with child. We can picture Mary throwing on her traveling clothes and her sandals and hurriedly leaving to visit her cousin. Mary does not procrastinate, she gets right to it.
And who is Mary? In the eyes of the world in her day she is no one special, just a young girl betrothed to an older man. Granted, Joseph is a good catch – carpenters are always in demand, so he’ll make a good living and provide her with a good home. But as she dashes off to visit her cousin, Mary is in the middle of her own life crises.
Like Elizabeth, Mary is expecting a child. She is betrothed to Joseph, which is pretty much the same as being married to him, except for the fact they have not started living together. This means that Mary has not yet slept with Joseph and, the true horror for Mary, he has found out about her pregnancy. As she hurries off to visit her cousin, her own life is uncertain. Joseph is considering putting her aside, not taking her as his wife, and since she is already with child, this could be a catastrophe which could ruin her life.
So, uncertain of her own fate, but devoted to her cousin, Mary arrives at the home of Elizabeth, probably calling out a greeting as the gets there. And then there is another miracle. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the child leapt in her womb.
It really is a beautiful story, and depictions of it over the centuries are filled with the joy of both women. But, while Luke is telling us this story, he is also telling us another one.
For Luke, Mary is the first Christian. Yes, that’s right – not Jesus. Jesus lived and died a Jew, but His mother became the first to believe in Him, before He even had disciples, and thus, she became the first Christian. And that is how we see her portrayed in Luke’s writings. When Mary does something, we are meant to copy her example. If she goes in haste with the Good News, so should we. When she ponders things in her heart, we are meant, like her, to ponder them also. We don’t see a lot of the historic Mary, but we do see what the very first believer, the first Christian did, whenever she appears in Luke’s Gospel.
Then there is Elizabeth and her husband, the priest Zachariah. For Luke, they are the Old Testament, the old covenant with God. Elizabeth carries the last prophet in her womb, John the Baptist, while Mary carries the New Covenant, our Lord. And when Mary arrives, the Old Testament is aware of its fulfillment and leaps for joy in Elizabeth’s womb.
Mary knew that Elizabeth was with child, but it doesn’t seem that Elizabeth had been told anything about Mary’s situation. Certainly, Elizabeth doesn’t know about the origins of Mary’s baby. Yet, miraculously, as her baby leaps inside her, ecstatic with recognition, Elizabeth cries out, "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” According to Luke, Elizabeth is the very first person to recognize that the baby Mary is carrying is the Messiah!
And then, right after we learn all this, Luke has Mary sing. She doesn’t just say it, she sings the Magnificat, or so the Church believes, and generations of Christians have sung it since. In Luke’s Gospel, as in none of the other three, and only because Luke collected and preserved them for us, we have something wonderful - songs, hymns from the early Church. No other Gospel writer thought about putting down the beautiful lyrics to those songs sung by early congregations of the faithful, but Luke recorded them for us. The Magnificat, the Song of Mary, is one of them.
And there you have the last mysteries we will hear before the greatest mystery is born for us in a few days. There is so much hidden here and so much joy apparent, we are meant to, as Mary would have done, ponder it all in our hearts – and then rejoice, for unto us is soon to be born a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Let us pray:
Almighty, ever-living God, help us always to obey you willingly and promptly.
Teach us how to serve you with sincere and upright hearts in every sphere of life. Give us a sense of the wonder and mysteries that surround us, finding all their meaning in You. All this we ask through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
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