From the Pastor's Desk . . . .
“Mary’s Magnificat Is Also Ours”
“And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.”
Luke 1:46-47
Mary wasn’t the first Israelite women to compose a hymn of praise. Deborah of old had resolved (Judges 5:3), “I will sing; I will make melody to the LORD, the God of Israel.” Hannah, the mother of Samuel, opened her hymn with, “My heart exults in the LORD” (1 Samuel 2:1). Others before Mary had acknowledged God’s favor with both joy and humility.
But there’s something unique about Mary. She stands alone among all the women of the world—past, present, and future—because God chose her to be the virgin-mother of His Son, the long-awaited Messiah. She is right in saying, “from now on all generations will call me blessed” (Luke 1:48b).
Note, however, in her Magnificat, Mary doesn’t rejoice primarily over a personal honor but over the salvation God is providing for His people as He promised: “He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever” (Luke 1:54-55). When she rejoices in “God my Savior,” she includes herself in the salvation all sinners need—the blood-bought salvation wrought by Jesus, her own Son. Not only is it true that at the fulness of time that God’s Son was born of a woman, namely Mary, but also for her as well as for all, without distinction—Jew and Greek, slave and free, male and female—for by faith they are all one in Christ Jesus.
We too are included. Therefore we can make Mary’s Magnificat our own and sing of how God “has looked on the humble estate of His servant” (Luke 1:48a).
By Pastor Edwards
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