Mary (2)
Worship Christ • Sermon • Submitted
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· 8 viewsGod chose Mary to bear His Son. He also blessed her with all the strength, courage and grace she needed in life. He does no less to us also!
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As we did last week, we begin with a bit of background, and then we’ll read our text. Mary was a devout Jewish girl. We can’t be certain of her age, though girls did get married at younger ages than they do today. It is also very likely that her marriage to Joseph was arranged. Furthermore, we cannot be certain how much time they had spent in each other’s company either.
God’s Choice
God chose Mary in the same way he chose Noah, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, David, Job and others in history. God, who is able to judge a person’s heart, is able to choose wisely. He chose Mary because she sought to love the Lord with all her heart, soul, mind and strength. Her heart yearned for the Lord. God had already brought her to true life, through the work of the Holy Spirit. We know this is true from Gabriel’s words to Mary, “The Lord is with you.”
God favoured Mary. He knew the stuff she was made of. He knew she would be able to withstand the challenge given to her. Just a second ago, I mentioned Job. Job was highly favoured by God as well. And yet, the challenges he faced were what we would view as an absence of blessing. God allowed Satan to take away his belongings, his children, his servants, his houses. He lost everything, except his friends and his wife. Yes, God restored everything to him, but Job’s attitude was, “The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the Lord.” He also knew that though he had lost all those things, he hadn’t lost the Lord. For he also said, “I know my redeemer lives.”
Zechariah, in the passage we looked at last week, talked about Jesus, the same redeemer mentioned by Job. The redeemer, the eternal Son of God, was about to be born of this virgin girl, Mary.
God’s Purpose
Jesus came to redeem a fallen world, a world that was under a curse. One of the beloved Christmas hymns is “Joy to the World” which says that Jesus came as far as the curse was found. The curse came as a result of Adam and Eve’s disobedience in the Garden. God warned them of the consequences, which is death, but then in chapter three there were several curses placed upon the Serpent, Eve, Adam and the earth.
We see the result of the curse all around us. The political tension, the pain and suffering in so much of the world. We see it in our own lives, strained relationships, disobedient children (rare in this congregation, I know!), weeds in our gardens, pests in the fields, poor harvests, low prices for crops.
Christ came to make his blessings flow--blessings that are a part of this life, but even greater blessings for the life to come. Christ redeems our lives from death and he gives meaning to the chaos we live in. We might not see that meaning, just as Job didn’t see the meaning for all his suffering. Christ redeems even the difficult, trying, hard facts of life, especially when we don’t understand them, and he fills us with his peace. So, for something like infertility, we may not ever know why it happens, nor can we make any kind of judgement as to why it happens. And yet, God knows. God’s grace is so amazing, that he gives strength to those who experience it. Furthermore, as in the case of Abraham and Sarah, Hannah and her husband, Elizabeth and Zechariah, he answers prayers even when the answer is no longer expected.
So, in light of all that, it is excellent that God’s grace is so amazing! For, in looking at Mary, he found a humble soul, a heart tuned toward him. But the path he chose for her to follow was a difficult one. And she needed all his grace to go through it. Pledged to be married, found to be pregnant by the Holy Spirit, few would believe. Not even Joseph believed at first. No, it was a hard road ahead.
Perhaps Mary didn’t anticipate its hardships, perhaps she did. Nevertheless, her response to God is our example to follow: “May it be to me as you say.” When God comes to us and says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, confess with your mouth, take up your cross and follow me,” our responses have to be “May it be to me as you say.”
That’s worship, that’s worshipping Christ.
We learn more by reading today’s passage, we see Mary’s heart and attitude in what her Spirit inspired song says: READ PASSAGE
God’s Praise
Mary, visiting Elizabeth receives confirmation from her cousin, that what the angel promised has come true. Elizabeth’s baby, John, already filled with the Holy Spirit, reacts to Mary’s voice. In this, John is already preparing the way of the Lord!
From Elizabeth’s reaction, Mary gives her song of praise.
The first thing Mary does is give praise to God for his amazing grace. She praises him because he is mindful of her humble state. What, because she was a poor girl pledged to be married to a lowly carpenter?
Yes, and no. Yes, because no one would have expected God to choose someone of Mary’s status in society. I even heard someone has suggested that Herod the Great built his palace, Herodium near Bethlehem because he had hopes that the messiah might be born of his household.
No, Mary prays the way she does because she is honestly aware of her sinfulness. Her attitude is as that of Isaiah when he was brought before the Lord in the Temple. The glory of the Lord filled the temple, and Isaiah exclaimed, “Woe is me, woe is me! For I am a man of unclean lips, from a people of unclean lips.”
Mary, thinking about all that had happened to her so far, is blown away by God’s attentiveness to her, choosing her to give birth to his Son. How can something so impure contain the Holy Son? It is a mystery, a surprising example of Grace, specially experienced by Mary, but in this way experienced by us all: we have the Holy Spirit residing in us! The Holy Spirit is no less holy than the Son is, and he makes his residence in us, in our hearts! What amazing grace!
When Mary says all generations will call her blessed, what she means is, all generations will marvel at God’s grace demonstrated in her. That God chose her; that God the Son was born from her. No other plain ole human being was, is or ever will be granted such honour by God. Yes, Mary was truly blessed, that’s a simple fact.
Does that mean there was anything special about her? Not really. She was a humble God fearer. She was sinful, was like every other human being on the planet. What differentiates her is God’s choice; therefore, God gets all the praise and honour!
For God has done great things for her. The mystery of conception by the Holy Spirit.
But she doesn’t dwell on this for long, she goes on to glorify God for his loving kindness to those who fear him from generation to generation. Yes, being the mother of God is great. It was a huge God thing. We talk about God things in our lives. Oh, when such and such a thing happened, the way it all worked out, it was a God thing.
But what Mary’s song points us to, is the greatest God thing ever! The sending of his Son, the fulfilment of all his promises! First, the one made in Genesis 3.15. Then the one made to Noah, the ones made to Abraham, Moses, David, etc. They have all been fulfilled! It is the greatest thing ever!
Those God things, the great God thing that was happening to Mary, in comparison to what God was doing for the whole world, for those who fear him, that is, like Mary, who revere him, it is nothing short of amazing grace.
Mary’s God thing, our individual God things would be like walking up to someone and saying, “Hey look at this, some really rich guy gave me $1000.00!” But then, they’d look at your other hand and say, “What are you holding there?” “What that? That’s a deposit slip for a billion trillion dollars!”
Clearly, the greatest thing God has ever done is sent his Son, the redeemer. To those who believe, those who have received Christ, we have in hand something worth more than a deposit slip for a billion trillion dollars! We have life everlasting. We have been granted full pardon for all our sins! We have received the promise, the guarantee, the person of the Holy Spirit, residing within us!
Mary goes on, gushes on, he’s performed mighty deed after mighty deed with his arm. He rescued his people from Egypt. He rescued his faithful, his redeemed, his chosen ones, his children from death, from Satan, from sin. He has caused nations to rise and fall. And the humble he has gathered in his arms and lifted up.
God’s Humility
The most humble being the Son in her womb. Jesus, who did not consider equality with God something to be stolen, humbled himself, took on human nature, became a servant to all, was obedient to death, even death on a cross, bearing the curse of all curses.
Because he did this, because he humbled himself, God raised him up, and gave him the name that is above every name. That at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
As for filling the hungry with good things, there are many examples from the scriptures, Elijah at the widow’s house, King David and his men, Psalm 23, Elisha and his men miraculously fed from 20 loaves of bread, children of the righteous never going hungry, Jesus feeding the 5000 and the 4000.
Then, there is God nourishing the spiritually hungry: Jesus is the bread of life, the bread from heaven, the water of life.
Mary concludes her song by summarising God’s attitude toward his people, always keeping them in his mind, always caring for them. God doesn’t forget. God rescues his people. God is the great rescuer.
He is merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.
Look around. Look at one another. We can see God’s faithfulness right here right now, in this room. Father Abraham had many sons, so many sons had father Abraham. I am one of them and so are you. There are generations here. Three generations are here! Are there four generations here? God’s faithfulness, from generation to generation! God’s faithfulness from Adam to Noah, to Abraham to you!
An angel from the realms of Glory came to Mary, bringing incredible favour. She humbly accepted God’s plan. Faced with reality, she gave praise to God, the Faithful one who surely would bring her through.
Mary worshipped Christ, even before she met him. We’ve seen him. We know him. May God’s grace be at work in us also, so that we will humbly accept God’s plan, whatever it may be! Amen!