Exalting God

Exalting God

Mary

Read: Luke 1:39-56

A few days after Gabriel visited Mary and announced that she would give birth to the Messiah, Mary went to visit her elderly relative Elizabeth. As soon as Elizabeth saw the young woman, God’s Spirit revealed to her that Mary was pregnant with his Son. Elizabeth cried out that God had blessed Mary above all other women. Mary responded by bursting into the song of praise and worship that we call the Magnificat.

Mary rejoiced in God and praised him for taking notice of her, a lowly servant girl. When Mary said that all future generations would call her blessed, she wasn’t boasting but humbly acknowledging the incredible privilege she had been given. People would call her blessed not because of anything she had done, but because of what God had done through her. Mary praised God for sending the Messiah to fulfill his promises to Israel.

Throughout Mary’s song, she emphasized God’s glory and the great things he had done. She sounded as if she were filled with awe and wonder that God would graciously choose her for such a special purpose through no merit of her own. I can only wonder how shocked Mary would be when some people understand her role to be that of a co-redeemer. Mary came to understand that her Son would be the “one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity” (1 Timothy 2:5).

God entrusted Mary with the honor of being the mother of the Messiah because of her humility and her readiness to obey his will. Although Mary would nurture and train Jesus until he grew to manhood, she regarded her privileged position as a way for her to serve God, not a road to self-glorification. Mary would gladly have echoed the words of John the Baptist, who pointed his own followers to Jesus as the Messiah.

[John said,] “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less.”

John 3:30