Luke 1:46-47 And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
The submission to the will of God Mary surrendered to the night
she was visited by the angel who let her know her baby would be the world's
savior affected her in ways that we could never even imagine. For Jesus to come
alive in the hearts and souls of people today, our attitude and surrender must
line up with hers on the night the angel informed her of the miracle and
mystery. We, too, must surrender our lives, hearts, minds, bodies, and souls to
God so that Jesus might do a mighty work through our lives. We make an
incredible discovery by reading Mary's words in the framework of her entire
story—just a few verses before we read these words of Mary.
Elizabeth acknowledges
Mary as the blessed one carrying the Lord Jesus Himself in her womb. And so,
when Mary sings, "My soul glorifies the Lord," she is singing to
Someone who is at once the Lord of Glory, the God of heaven and earth, and God made
flesh and growing as a tiny baby in her womb.
Pregnancy and childbirth
are excellent things at any time, but we can only try to imagine what it must
have been like for this young woman of faith to sing her praises to God when
God the Son was in her womb, sent by God the Father, conceived by God the Holy
Spirit. The Lord to whom she was singing was in her womb, and then later, she
could sing her praises to Him as He sat on her knee. And so, we all draw near
to this spectacle. We all bend our ears to this recital. As this virgin mother
sings to this heavenly baby.
No wonder this has been
one of the most celebrated themes in art down through the centuries: Mary and
Jesus. We could spend a lifetime visiting the galleries of the world, looking
at all the artists' impressions of this scene. It is a setting we will behold
countless times again this month on Christmas cards and nativity scenes.
More than thirty years
have passed since Jesus sat on Mary's knee. He is now a grown man, about His
heavenly Father's business – preaching the gospel of the kingdom. And on this
day, we hear a woman in the crowd celebrating the coming to earth of the long-awaited
promised Messiah. We are told in Luke 11:27 that she calls out: "Blessed
is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you." She is picturing Mary with the baby Jesus and
saying what a wonderful time that would have been. It might seem odd to call
out from the crowd, but according to the custom of that day, this was a common
way of paying a compliment. We do the same thing today when we say to Someone,
"Well, your parents must be proud of you!"
And yet, how does Jesus
respond? What is His comment on this subject? Luke tells us in the very next
verse – Luke 11:28 With everyone around Him – with everyone listening in –
Jesus replies to this voice from the crowd by saying, "Blessed rather are
those who hear the word of God and obey it."
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