To Be Like Mary: Luke 1:46-55 - Mary, Mother of Our Lord

 ⁴⁶Mary said, 

 “My soul magnifies the Lord,
  ⁴⁷and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
 ⁴⁸for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
  Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
 ⁴⁹for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
  and holy is his name.
 ⁵⁰His mercy is for those who fear him
  from generation to generation.
 ⁵¹He has shown strength with his arm;
  he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
 ⁵²He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
  and lifted up the lowly;
 ⁵³he has filled the hungry with good things,
  and sent the rich away empty.
 ⁵⁴He has helped his servant Israel,
  in remembrance of his mercy,
 ⁵⁵according to the promise he made to our ancestors,
  to Abraham and to his descendants forever.” (NRSV)

Wooden statue of Mary by Ivan Radic on flickr. CC BY 2.0

There’s always a first time for everything—and today, for the first time in recent memory, we are commemorating Mary, the Mother of Jesus. This may appear to be a very “Catholic” thing for a Lutheran church to do, but don’t worry—Martin Luther had a love and admiration for Mary that has been shared Catholics and non-Catholics alike for millennia.

Interestingly, today’s festival is one of six which honor Mary in some way: there’s the Feast of Presentation on February 2, otherwise known as Candlemas, which we celebrate just about every year; March 25 is the Feast of the Annunciation; May 31 is the Visitation of Mary to Elizabeth; September 8 is the Feast of the Birth of Mary; and on December 8 is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. 

In the Catholic tradition, today’s festival is known formally as Mary’s Assumption into Heaven, commemorating her being taken up into heaven, in bodily form—just like Jesus and Elijah. Such an event appears nowhere in Scripture, though it is widely accepted within Catholic doctrine. 

Mary is, without question, the most beloved and admired of all the biblical figures who are not God. Before Jesus is even born, she sings, “all generations will call me blessed.”

Let me be clear here: she wasn’t boasting that God chose her because she was the most worthy. Her boast was in what God would be accomplishing in and through her, in love for all the world. She also understood that if it became public knowledge that she was pregnant out of wedlock, she could be stoned. 

She understood that Jesus’s birth would be turning the world upside-down, “scattering the proud, casting down the mighty from their thrones while lifting up the lowly; filling the hungry with good things while sending the rich away empty.” From the moment Jesus was born, he was a target of powerful men who were not about to allow their power to be threatened—which is why Mary and Joseph were forced to take Jesus and seek refuge in Egypt.

No other human being had ever been called—or will ever be called—to do what Mary does. Nevertheless, God’s grace was greater than all the difficulties, dangers, and devastations she will face as Jesus’s mother. 

So when we celebrate Mary, we celebrate what God accomplished through her. The Word could not become flesh without her! And we love Mary because she is so much like ourselves. 

Though we hold Mary in high esteem, the truth is that Mary has far more in common with those in our world of low esteem:

• Not the powerful, but the powerless.
• Not the mighty, but the vulnerable.
• Not the prosperous, but the poor.
• Not the aggressive, but the gentle.
• Not the proud, but the humble.

It is important to remember that even though Mary gave birth to God, she herself is not God. Indeed, there were times when Mary did not understand who Jesus truly was. Early in Jesus’s ministry, she and Jesus’s siblings tried to restrain Jesus, because he was saying and doing things that made the religious leaders want to kill him. And I simply cannot imagine the extent of her sorrow as she watched Jesus die on the cross. 

But there is absolutely nothing of God’s very self that Mary received that God does not also desire for you. God desires for you to be as close to Jesus as Mary was—and use all of who you are as a human being to bring Jesus to life in the world. Like Mary, God longs to give you purpose—along with strength in times of weakness, consolation in times of pain, and faith in times of doubt.  Though you will never give actual “birth” to the baby Jesus, the Holy Spirit who conceived Jesus in Mary’s womb will also conceive Jesus in your heart through faith. You can bless this world just as much as Mary did. 

From Mary, we learn that not everyone is ready for this. Those who glory in themselves cannot bear God’s glory. Those of high esteem and high estate cannot bear the fullness of divine love without first being cast down from their thrones. Those who feast sumptuously on the world’s riches must empty themselves—or emptied—before they can be filled with good things from God.

Even though Mary has festivals, churches, hospitals, universities, and cities named after her; though she has the adoration and admiration of generations of believers, you should not expect the same. All there is to covet in Mary is her closeness to Jesus, her trust in God, and being able to do for God—and for the world—what she had done. 

Mary shows us what it truly means to be blessed—and it’s not the realization of all your dreams, or the elimination of all hardship. To be blessed is to be loved by God and used by God. To be strengthened, delivered, and saved by God. If this is truly your heart’s desire, will you say “yes” to God, as Mary says “yes”? 

 

To be filled with Jesus rather than worldly stuff?

To live by a radical trust in God, rather than what you attain or control?

To be so close to divine love—to experience the presence of God in a stronger way than pain and fear?

Don’t settle for anything less than the to join with Mary in rejoicing in God your Savior, and bearing the love of Jesus Christ to the world.