My Spirit rejoices in God my Savior (Luke 1b)

my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

Introduction: Christmas is the day when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, our Lord. From the narrative of his birth, we come to know three things; God’s will for sending Jesus, who Jesus is, and what is the significance of accepting Jesus in our lives.

The most important thing is that coming of Christ began from God the creator of the heaven and the earth. This makes Jesus unique and distinctive from any human being or any man that created a religion and the events surrounding his coming  was saturated with God’s purpose for the world.

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A.   the Lord is with you(26-33)

1.       God sent his angel Gabriel to Mary, a virgin pledged to be married to a man, Joseph (26-27)

About 660 years before, God said through the Prophet Isaiah that God’s chosen nation Israel failed to keep the covenant with God and God would punish Israel and they would be taken captive to Babylon.  

About 550 years before, during exile in Babylon, God sent his angel Gabriel to the prophet Daniel with a word concerning the time to pay off sins of Israel before coming of Messiah. Dan 9: 25a "Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven 'sevens,' and sixty-two 'sevens.'

It is believed that the Jerusalem was rebuilt around BC 444. Four hundred seventy six years (69X7 Lunar years) counting from this time of rebuilding must pass before God would send the Savior for Israel.  This not only told us about the exact time of the coming of Christ, but also the reason why. Israel first had to go through suffering to pay off for major portion of their sins for 69 weeks of seven (about 476 years). According to this promise, God began his work of sending Messiah, Jesus.

What was like it for Israel for this time to suffer? God spoke to the prophet Malachi about 430 year before. This was the last time God spoke to Israel. Since then God has been silent. There were no words from God. The only thing that they could go by was God’s prophecies. During this time, Israel did not have their country. They suffered greatly under malicious rules of Persians, Greeks and then Romans.  God’s silence is very distressing because it is an implicit rejection by God and it is an ongoing punishment for their unbelief and sins. These 430 years had been the worst time in the history of Israel. God broke the long silence.  Though all these numbers may not be exact, it is clear that God’s promised time of sending Messiah, the Anointed one, was getting near. God sent the same angel that delivered the message to Daniel to Zechariah a priest six month before.  Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth were very old and were too old to bear a child. But God delivered to him a message that his wife Elizabeth will bear a child. So since then Elizabeth became pregnant and her tommy was growing big. As Elizabeth’s pregnancy got into the sixth month, God sent the same angel Gabriel, for the third time, to a girl, Mary. Mary was living in Galilee and was engaged to marry Joseph. According to their custom of the time, the engagement is as good as marriage. When one cut loose the other, it is considered a divorce. But it is different from the marriage that they are not together. She has to keep her chaste. After one year of ‘engagement’ they are united with marriage ceremony. When the angel appeared her, Mary was in this time of engagement with Joseph.  We do not know much about Joseph except the fact that he was descendant of King David according to the genealogy.

What does this tell us about the coming of Jesus? God planned Jesus’ coming long before. This planning has to do with the timing, preparation of the people, and purpose of fulfilling his plan. . So it is better to know Jesus birth in this perspective.

2.      The Lord is with you

V28. The angel’s visit was a surprise and shock to Mary. She had never seen any angelic figure or a heavenly figure before and most likely she never heard of such things in recent years of Israel history, though it was possible that Elizabeth told her story.

The angel said that she was favored highly by God and God is with her.

Bur what does it mean?

First, it means that God is happy and wants to bless the person.

Genesis 21:22 At that time Abimelek and Phicol the commander of his forces said to Abraham, "God is with you in everything you do.

1 Chronicles 17:2 Nathan replied to David, "Whatever you have in mind, do it, for God is with you."

As shown in these verses (Abraham, David), whenever God was with someone, it means that God would do great things to the man. 

Second: It might mean that literally God was going to be with her physically. But it is a fearful thing for a human being that God is with him/her because God is holy and man is unholy. If so, then one must submit to God Almighty totally and he has to give up all of his will and plan. Mary had never had any encounter or interaction with God. At the same time she had a great plan for her life; to marry Joseph in a matter of a year. This was her dream and source of joy and happiness. So this was the utmost importance for her life at this time. One devout man said to God. ‘Please do not take me now because I have to clean up so many things in my life before I meet you in person. Give me a little time and I will change and make my life pure and then I will be ready to be with God.’   Here we can see a fear to face God face to face because we are not holy.

Was Mary ready to be with God?

As for what we know from the Bible, we have very scanty information about Mary’s personal life except that fact that she was engaged to Joseph.  This means that there was nothing different from many girls of the time in her thinking and her way of life. She was neither particularly bad nor particularly outstanding in her life of faith. Simply she was an ordinary girl in her age of marriage probably late teens with her chaste. She thought the things that ordinary girls were thinking and did the things that ordinary girls were doing. She was unholy like any other girls of the time. The most troubling thing is our sin and our desire to do what we want to do! In this mean and humble situation, God of almighty power and his holiness is all too great to bear!

Despite of this un-readiness, God chose her in favor, and God decided to be with her in favor.

But for Mary, it was simply a fearful thing.  Mary was greatly troubled and wondered what kind of greetings this might be. She has fear for her comfort, fear for her life and fear for her plan wrapped up in her sinfulness and her dreams. Also this fear tells us that she was not ready or unable to welcome God’s holiness or his blessing.

V30

Do not fear! Do not be afraid! This clearly tells her that this angels’ visit is nothing to do with fear. It has all about favor. God is with you to favor you!  Receiving a favor from someone is great feeling. All of her weakness and wrongs would not be counted against her. Simply no matter how unholy she might be, God was willing to embrace her in love and in favor. Only benefit and good things are given without any merit solely on her behalf. Though she did not have any merit to receive God’s blessing, out of his own grace, decided to favor her and bless her.

This is totally contrary to the way how God dealt with Israel.  As we reviewed the history of Israel, God dealt Israel with rod of punishment because they violated the covenant of God blessing. They sinned against God and they failed to live up to God’s promise. This is more evident during the last 400  years of suffering under many foreign rules. Simply God was God of holiness and righteousness. God dealt his people according to his righteousness. Sin shall be punished and only godly life will be accepted.  This has been the rule since God chose Israel as his people.

Totally contrary to such dealing with Israel, now God one-sidedly in his grace, chose Mary and decided to favor, not questioning anything about her sin or un-holiness.  This is a new beginning of God’s mercy and grace.

Then how will God bless her or favor her?

The detail is said in v31

·         She will conceive a boy. His name will be Jesus. It means ‘God saves’. It’s too strange a thing for anyone to think this as God’s blessing.  But the angel gave her the detail why having a baby Jesus is God’s favor and blessing (31)

·         He will be great and called the Son of the Most high. The one to be with her is the Son of God. In this way literally God is going to be with her, presenting physically in her and with her. (32-33)
Here God-being-with-man is taking place.

·         Also the Son of God will receive the throne of his father David and he will reign over Jacob’s descendants forever. Simply the son to be born will restore the kingdom of Israel and this kingdom will last forever as God promised him. He is the Messiah that God promised to send. God had been silent and let Israel suffer greatly so far. But now God is going to restore the kingdom through his son and in this newly established kingdom, God’s people will enjoy God’s blessing and this blessing will be forever. This means a new beginning for God’s people. The old time is passing and a new time has come.

In this way, God intervened in the life of Mary. For Mary God’s intervention was unexpected and even may be unwanted. But God opened his arms of love and offered this favor to Mary. God wanted to begin a new beginning to save Mary and His people. He did this by his grace and mercy. That grace and mercy is first shown in Mary. That grace and mercy is by sending his son to be with her and with men. In this, God expressed his long held plan to save his people and bless the whole world.

The entirety of coming of Christ began in God’s promise and carried out by God in his mercy and grace.

Also Mary’s mind set shifted from all her immediate concerns such as wedding preparations and concerns about Joseph to the sphere of God’s world; great blessing, the Messiah, the kingdom, and eternity in God’s blessings. Her mind was wide open to see this new world of God.

B.   Jesus the Son of God(34-35)

All these sounds so good. But she had one question.

V34.

She was not married and she cannot have a baby by herself. Is the boy coming through Joseph, the husband to be or someone else?

V35

Here two are involved in this:  Among the triune God, the Holy spirit and God the Father will come on her. In this way God himself becomes the father of the baby to be born. So he is called the Son of God.

Here come two questions. How can God come to be with man? Or how can God become a man? Can this be possible? These are the questions on which many are hung up.  There are many human explanations how this happened. –many raised a doubt on the truthfulness of this based on human understanding and reason. Others formulated their own different ideas to explain this unthinkable thing.  But at best they all are of human understanding and reasoning. But this is beyond our reasoning or imagination. Only God almighty knows.

As we noted in this passages, Jesus is the Son of God in the essence of his being. Also he is to be a baby and boy and a man in flesh. All these have to do with God’ will and his power. He is God Almighty and he is the creator of human being. Only on this ground, this is possible and accepted in faith.

The bottom line of understanding is that Jesus is the Son of God. No human being claimed to be a son of God or has proven himself to be the Son of God in history.

In a quick look at those who established world religions, we come to know that none of them had a history of any godly association when they were born.

Muhammad, the founder of Islam, was born by ordinary parents. (AD570) in young age, he had fits or rages and as he became adult he showed religious disposition. There is nothing to hint that he was not a man.

Buddha and Confucius were born like any other men on earth and came to sense in the adult years of their live and became convinced of certain belief.  Hinduism is a collection of ideas of men. It has no root in any particular person or person in history.

In looking at these four major religions of the world, no one has direct connection with God the creator when they were born. All of them are essentially men in sin. In sin they struggled hard and thought that they saw some light. But all of them lived to death. Simply these happened because God has not reveal to them any truth and what they came to know or claimed is a human perception or human ideas.

But Jesus is the Son of God. God planned his coming long before.  At his birth, God himself is involved with power and spirit. The essence of his being is God himself. This is further proven in his life as the Son of God. His knowledge was filled with truth for life. His power in miracles demonstrated fullness of his authority over nature, human life. His resurrection testifies to us that he is the creator God that created life and author of life. All these proved himself to be the Son of God. In this Son of God only we can find true salvation. No one else!

Jesus said this :John 8:58 "Very truly I tell you," Jesus answered, "before Abraham was born, I am!"

Jesus’ birth is not the beginning of his being. It is called incarnation. God is personally intervening into the human life for a clear purpose. It is to reveal to truth and it is to save the world from their sin and rebellion. What should we do? 

1 John 2:22-23 Who is the liar? It is whoever denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a person is the antichrist--denying the Father and the Son. 23 No one who denies the Son has the Father; whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

C.   Mary came to accept God’s favor and blessing (36-56)

For any men, such thing has never been known or heard. Like any human beings, Mary would have hard time to accept this. Mary was the first one that encountered this challenge.  Knowing this, God offered two sources of facts that can anchor her faith.  

·         God proved his power through Elizabeth. She in her old age was barren. But now she is pregnant. It is the proof of God’s power and will. Her big tommy should be the proof of God’s power to bring a child according to His will and purpose.

·         In history, God’s word never failed. So at this time, God’

1.    Mary’s decision of faith (36-38)

V38.  She accepted the fact that God is the Master of her life: i.e He is the Lord. This means to submit herself to God’s authority and power.

·         She honored God as the true master of her life. Independence and autonomy is the mark of human being in sin. ‘I run my life as I want’ is the main motto for men of today. Underneath of this is the belief that what they know is all that there is. No one even friend and parents cannot and shall not tamper with this self-reliance and self-sufficiency. But Mary recognized God as her authority over her life. She trusted God as the source of life.

·         Mary overcame doubt by trusting the word of God. What God proposed was beyond her understanding. In belief and trust in God’s goodness and authority she was willing to entrust her life according to God’s will and word or plan.

·         She accepted and welcomed God’s plan even if there was risk or cost and she dared to pay that cost.  In her frame of mind; her context was all happiness in and around the marriage with Joseph. Her dream for happy life, her duty as one bound by marriage and Joseph, her husband-to-be, were at the top of her priority. But all these must be totally scraped away by God’s plan or intervention on her life. But In this way, unquestionably she chose God’s plan over her life plan. The day before she was so busy in preparing for the wedding. But today, that plan has been scraped away and new plan from God is set.  Meeting God involves invariably the changes in our plan. 

2.    Mary was assured of God’s blessing (39-45)

(39)She was just a teenage girl, What she encountered was a truly remarkable one. It was shocking for her because of God’s plan for her life and the impact of coming son of hers. At the same time she would be with a child without marriage union. Is it real?

She ran to confirm the word of God about her relative, Elizabeth. She traveled from Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, near Jerusalem(80 miles). It took several days of journey. But she had to see Elizabeth to confirm what God said was true. So without delay, she ran and met Elizabeth.

(40-41) At first glance on Elizabeth, it was quite clear to Mary that she was with child because her tommy was big. This was exactly as God said through the angel Gabriel. What does it mean? What the angel said was all true and real. Right at that moment, something that she never imagined happened right in front of her eyes.

The baby in Elizabeth womb leaped for joy and she became filled with the Holy Spirit.  Being filled with the Holy Spirit she said amazing thing.

42-45

She said in a loud voice; It is evident that she was filled with extreme joy, happiness and filled with spirit of God.

There was no exchange of words between them. Mary did not tell Elizabeth anything about the angel’s message. But she knew it already and she knew it because she was filled with the spirit of God.  Actually it was not Mary that Elizabeth saw and recognized. The baby in Elizabeth womb recognized Jesus in Mary’s womb as the Lord and she became filled with such happiness. Being filled with the Spirit of God, Elizabeth revealed a profound truth about Mary and her baby.

·         Mary is blessed among all women because she bore the baby Jesus.

·         Blessed is the baby she bore because he would do great thing.

·         Elizabeth felt so favored to see Mary, the mother of her Lord Jesus.  Elizabeth was very old lady. We do not know how old she was, could be in her fifties or sixties or even seventies; simply it says that she was old and barren. But Mary was very young, teenaged. But Elizabeth called her mother of her Lord. The baby in her womb is Elizabeth’s Lord ; in this way she recognize the baby in Mary’s womb is the coming Messiah. By sight it is unlikely that Elizabeth recognized that Mary was with child since soon after the receiving the message of the Angel she visited Elizabeth.

Overall, what happened to Mary was all blessing of God. This removed all doubts and uncertainties and fears and anxieties of this novel event in her life.

How could this possible?

V45 describes what happened in her mind.  We read in v38 "I am the Lord's servant," "May your word to me be fulfilled." This is the expression of her belief on the word delivered to her by the Angel Gabriel.

Mary believed that the Lord.  She believed what God said.

She believed that she would have a child through the Holy Spirit and the Power of God; she believed that that baby is the Savior and she believed that God has come to restore the kingdom forever for his people.

So here her belief was expressed in her submission to God by believing that God’s word would be fulfilled in her life.

Faith always expresses itself through submission to God. It is not just something that I have in my heart. It always comes out in action in submission to God in his word and hope in God’s promise. This is how God began to be with God in blessing.

Most likely at this time she did not feel any different in her body because she was just in her very early pregnancy. But it is all too clear to her through the words of Elizabeth that she is with child. Through these encouraging words, all the doubts were removed and she became convinced of God’s power and his work in her life.  In this certainty of the work of God in her life, she came to sense a great joy.

3.    Mary’s Joy of having Jesus the Salvation (46-56)

In exuberant joy, Mary sang a song. Her song has two parts. One is about her life and the second part is about what she came to realize on God’s blessing for the world.  

V46-49

Song is an expression of inmost feelings of a person. It is filled with words of emotions. Through these expression of feeling that flowed in her mind, we come to know what it means to have Jesus in her life or to have salvation; three feelings dominate this; joy, peace and exuberant victory in her life. 

·         (46-47) her entire being was filled with joy in salvation by God. This joy is from the knowing her salvation. This joy led her to glorify God. The true joy in God’s salvation leads one to glorify God always.

·         God has been mindful of the humble state of her: It is about God’s mercy and grace on her life. in the beginning we discussed who Mary was; since the Bible did not say anything particular about her, it is more than reasonable to say that she was an ordinary girl in humble life. There was nothing in her to be worthy of God’s attention and God’s blessing. But God in his own accord, purely in His grace, God made a visit and blessed her to have the Baby Jesus the Savior. It is God’s willingness to accept her as God’s chosen but also God’s will to impart all of God’s blessing to her. So having Jesus is equal to having God’s full blessing.

·         Having the baby Jesus was a great thing; nothing less than miracle. It is greater thing than healing a paralyzed man or feeding 3000 people with 5l and 2f. It is the greatest mercy of God on any human being.

V50-56

In the second part, Mary came to see God’s will to bless the world (50) This amazing love and mercy is not just for her but to all who fear him. The blessing and joy Mary got began when Mary feared the Lord. If anyone fears the Lord like Mary, God will bless and impart the same blessing that God gave to Mary.  

Here fear does not mean ‘being afraid of’ It means to honor fully in reverence and respect. Mary did this when she said I am the Lord’s servant. May it be to me as you have said! This is expression of her fear to the Lord.
Psalm 111:10a The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
She came to know the amazing truth about God and His will to save the world. Salvation is available to all human being if he or she is willing to fear him like Mary!

The antithetical to the ‘fear of the Lord’ is pride in their understanding, in their power and in their riches. God has already judged the proud in their thoughts by sending Jesus through humble Mary. Through this it is certain that rulers who sit on thrones and the riches in their pride will surely be judged.  This principle was shown in Israel as God subjected them under the rules of Babylonia, Persia, Greek and now under Roman Empire. Israel was humbled to the bottom. Now God has shown his mercy and decided to show mercy upon his people Israel.

Such principle was seen first in Abraham to whom God gave promise of blessing. So this principle of God’s blessing began from the beginning of God’s call to Israel as the source of blessing for the world.

In this way she came to have exuberant joy and she came to have a keen understanding of God’s purpose for her and for the world, saving of human race through the grace in Jesus.  All these can begin in each of our lives as we ‘fear’ the Lord as Mary showed in her confession;

38 "I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May your word to me be fulfilled."

May God richly bless us through this Christmas!