“God our Savior”
Luke 1:39-55
12/24/06 (Morning)
Today’s Gospel text is otherwise known as the
Magnificat and is Mary’s song about God her Savior. In her
song Mary rejoiced that God had had mercy upon her and saved her on
account of the baby that she was carrying, who would give His life as
the sacrifice for her sins as well as the sins of the whole
world. In her song Mary denies and refuses any worship or praise
of herself, for here she confesses her own need for a Savior and
rejoices in the Lord who has saved not only her, but others like her,
who are in the same lowly state or condition before God as she
is. Her entire song is sung in adoration of the Lord. Even
when she says that all generations would call her blessed, this is true
only because of what the Lord has done for her, not because of anything
she had done for herself or because she were sinless. If she were
sinless, she would not need a Savior.
But Mary recognizes her need for a Savior.
Mary needed a Savior because she was a sinner. Been born in the
ordinary way, she was an heir of Adam’s sin just like everyone
else. Her parents were sinners, and their parents before them
were sinners, all the way back to our first parents, Adam and
Eve. Mary was born under the curse of the Law just like everyone
else. There was nothing good within Mary that the Lord found that
earned her the right to bear Jesus. When the angel called her
“favored one,” it was only because of God's goodwill freely
given to her, apart from any worthiness or merit in her. It can
be said of all who trust in God their Savior that God favors them,
too. He favors us in Jesus.
Not only does Mary recognize her own need for a
Savior, but she confesses that her Savior is the same Savior who has
done mighty deeds for Israel in the past. She remembers and
recounts how God her Savior had performed mighty deeds with his arm
towards those who feared Him. She remembers how He scattered His
enemies when He led the Israelites safely through the Red Sea, drowning
the entire Egyptian army when they tried to pursue them. She
remembers that God had promised a Messiah, a Savior, to Abraham.
He had promised that "all the peoples of the earth would be blessed
through him," and said, "'I will establish my covenant as an
everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you
for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your
descendants after you.'" Mary was very familiar with the Psalms
which spoke of the coming Messiah. In fact, her song is very
similar to the Psalms. Mary's song ties all of salvation history
together, so that the mighty deeds of God towards His people and the
history of their salvation find their culmination in this the pinnacle
of salvation history, the birth of the promised Savior. This was
what all of God's salvific work had been leading up to.
God has shown us over and over again through His
word that we need a Savior. Israel needed a Savior, Mary needed a
Savior, and we need a Savior. It's only the humble and the lowly
that recognize their need for this Savior. The humble and the
lowly don't boast about how humble they are. A humble person pays
no attention to how humble he is. Mary wasn't boasting about how
humble she was when she said that the Lord had been mindful of her
humble. Mary rejoiced in the Lord, who exalts the humble, and
humbles the proud. The humble realize they have nothing to boast
about before the Lord. They recognize how poor they are in their
sins before God, and that, unless God has mercy upon them, they will
spend eternity in hell. The proud, on the other hand, see
themselves as having everything they need and therefore don't recognize
their need for the Savior. They do not confess themselves to be
sinners, but trust in their riches, in their wealth, in the fact that
they're pretty good people after all and really aren't as bad as
some. These kind of people don't feel a need for God's mercy in
Jesus.
But with God, the humble are exalted, and the proud
are humbled. Peter writes, "'God opposes the proud but gives
grace to the humble.' Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's
mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time." Those who find
themselves as having nothing to boast about before the Lord are in the
position to receive the gift of the Savior, just as Mary was. The
Lord is your Savior, too. He was sent to lift you up out of your
lowly state, to raise you up, and to seat you with Him in the heavenly
realms. He did this by being humiliated Himself, being born into
a lowly state, born under the Law, suffering a lowly death for you so
that you might be exalted. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient
to death, even death on a cross. He came to fulfill the promises
given to Abraham and the fathers and to fulfill the Law given through
Moses. He came to be the sacrifice of all sacrifices, taking on
human flesh, so that He might suffer and die on the cross for your
sins. Through faith in His sacrifice you have been declared
righteous and with His blood sprinkled upon you at Baptism you have
been made holy. No amount of wealth, power, or fame can achieve
that for you. It is a free gift to you from God our Savior.
Salvation is a gift because God is a merciful and
compassionate God. He saw you in your lowly condition and had
pity on you. Jesus said, "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours
is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you
will be satisfied." These are the poor and the hungry that Mary
speaks about, and with whom she includes herself. To the poor and
the hungry God comes with the riches of His favor, His mercy, and the
food of the bread of life. He gives you these gifts not because
of any worthiness or merit in you, but “out of His fatherly
divine goodness and mercy, all for which it is our duty to thank and
praise, serve and obey Him.”
Mary rejoiced in what the Lord had done for
her. He blessed her, had mercy on her, and exalted her. We
may rejoice for the same reasons. We may rejoice because the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has blessed us in the heavenly
realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. This includes the
perfect, sinless, holy righteousness of Christ given to us at our
Baptism. Because of this righteousness with which we are clothed,
God will never count our sins against us. We may rejoice because
God has blessed us with a Savior.
We may rejoice because God has had mercy on
us. Paul writes to Titus, "At one time we too were foolish,
disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and
pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating
one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior
appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but
because of His mercy." God has had mercy on us by not giving us
what we deserve (punishment, wrath), but by giving us what we don't
deserve, His kindness and love in Jesus.
And we may rejoice because God has exalted us.
God has done mighty deeds for us with His arm just as He did for the
Israelites. God's arm is the instrument by which He saves.
He brought the Israelites out of Egypt with His mighty outstretched
arm. He has worked salvation for the whole world with His mighty
arm through His Son. His arm has been revealed to us, too, who in
our lowly state before God have come to confess that we have nothing to
offer Him but our sins and that we are only beggars on the receiving
end of the gracious gifts of a merciful heavenly Father.
Mary rejoiced in the Lord because God had had mercy
on her and saved her by sending her the Messiah which He promised to
give to Abraham and his descendants. The Lord has kept His
promise and gives His Savior to those who humble themselves and fear
Him. He works this humility and fear in us through His Word, so
that we may rightly receive God our Savior. We are included in
the promises God made to Abraham and his descendants. We are the
descendants of Abraham who have come to confess ourselves as sinners
and believe that Jesus is God our Savior who has done the mighty things
of saving us, forgiving us our sins, and granting us eternal life
through His death on the cross and His resurrection from the
dead. He has blessed us, had mercy on us, and exalted us.
He has remembered to help us, as He promised, in Jesus. And so,
we too with Mary and all the saints exalt the Lord and rejoice in God
our Savior. Amen.