This Sermon was preached on Sunday 22nd December 2025 at All Saints Church, Oakham.
Bible Reading: Luke 1.39-55
So, you’re an unmarried teenager who has just found out that you are pregnant. But this isn’t today in the UK; this was 2000 years ago in the Middle East, which was a very different place compared to today. Being pregnant outside of marriage in first-century Palestine carried strong risks of exile from the community and possibly death. And if it wasn’t bad enough, your fiancé isn’t the father. If that doesn’t sound like a complete catastrophe, then I don’t know what is.
Yet, for young Mary, she didn’t see this as a catastrophe or a disaster. Do you know what she said? Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, for he has looked with favour on the lowliness of his servant.’[1] What on earth is going on? Mary’s life feels like an episode of the Jeremy Kyle Show, but she doesn’t see her situation as bad. In response to her unexpected teen pregnancy, Mary bursts into song with the spontaneity of a Disney movie as she praises God from the depths of her soul. And this burst of inspiration produces one of the most famous songs in the Bible and the whole of human history, which we call the Magnificat.
So, let’s have a look at Mary’s song. For a bit of context, after Mary found out that she was pregnant, she went to visit her cousin Elizabeth, who was also pregnant. As the two of them spoke, the Holy Spirit came upon Elizabeth as she declared God’s words over Mary. Then, after this, Mary responds to what God is doing in her by bursting into song.
In the opening lines of Mary’s song, we see that her soul, her spirit, her very being magnify and glorify God, rejoicing in him as a Saviour. Mary isn’t screaming at God, saying, ‘What have I done? Why is my life over?’ She praises God and says that he has been her saviour. She declares that God, the Mighty One, has done a great thing for her.[2] Mary is so confident and assured in her good fortunes that she says, ‘Surely from now on all generations will call be blessed.’[3]
Looking back at the Biblical story with hindsight, it is easy for us to agree that Mary is blessed to be the mother of the Messiah, Jesus. But if we are honest, how many of us are going to believe a teen girl’s pregnancy happened because the Holy Spirit made her pregnant? ‘It wasn’t me, God did it’ isn’t going to get past many people. Mary’s situation was scandalous, risky and very costly to her. So how could she say that she was blessed?
C.S. Lewis, author of the Chronicles of Narnia, wrote in his book, Mere Christianity, that there are only three reasons someone would make all these claims about Jesus. First, they lie, and they do so for trickery and deception. Second, they are what C.S. Lewis calls ‘mad’ or what we might today describe as mentally ill. In their illness, they don’t understand what is going wrong, and so they make these grand claims about Jesus. Third, they are simply telling the truth.
Mary could be lying when she says she is blessed, she could be confused about being blessed, or she is truly blessed. There seems to be no logical reason for Mary to lie about her situation, nor has she given any indication to suggest she is unwell, so logically, it follows that she is being truthful about her situation and feels blessed by it.
Mary is blessed because the goodness of what she is doing and what God is doing in her far outweighs the risks her situation poses. And you know it must be good if it looks that bad, and Mary can still call it a blessing. Jesus came to this world so that he may be in each of our lives, and Mary is the first person to experience this living presence of Jesus in her (literally). This is Mary’s great blessing. She is the first to receive the Emmanuel, God with us.
Throughout the rest of the Magnificat, Mary unpacks more about the details of this blessing. Mary continues in her song, saying that God’s ‘mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.’[4] As Mary is a God-fearing woman, this suggests that Mary sees her challenging task, one that most people would reject, as a mercy from God. God has been merciful to choose her to receive this blessing of taking on this great task of carrying the Messiah. I think it’s important to stress that God’s mercy on Mary is not an easy one. Nevertheless, it is still a blessing to her. Today, I think we can so easily fall into this false narrative that a person if blessed if they are freed from hardship and difficulty. But Mary’s story perfectly illustrates that God’s blessing is not necessarily free of challenge, risk and hardship. In fact, God’s blessing often comes in the hardest and most difficult challenges of life. Think about becoming a parent, taking on a new job, moving across the world, or getting up early to watch the sunrise (in the summer; it’s too easy on the weekend of the shortest days of the year).
Mary’s song foretells something of the kind of Messiah that Jesus will be. Jesus being born of Mary is an act of strength from the arm of God. If you say to someone, show me how strong you are, what are they most likely to do…show you their arm muscles, often in a Herculean bicep curling way. Jesus was born to Mary as a little child, weak and lowly. Everything about the birth makes out the Son of God to be weak. But the Magnificat reminds us that the birth of Jesus is an act of strength, as God does what has never been possible before: bring himself to us, Emmanuel.
Mary explains further that this counter-cultural act of humility will scatter the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. Jesus’ birth is so weak and humble to the powerful rulers of this world. The Jews were expecting their Messiah to be a mighty leader and warrior who would defeat the powerful Romans who ruled over them. What would a small baby born to an unknown teenage girl do? Yet, it is exactly these humble actions of Jesus that will overthrow the powerful. It is an eternal maxim of life that the rich get richer and those on top stay on top, and the poor become poorer and those at the bottom stay at the bottom. It’s this sad cycle of life that we feel cannot be escaped. But through Jesus, the powerful, who we thought could never be toppled, will be brought down from their thrones. When we see evil leaders declare war on the innocent, and it seems impossible to stop them, God will be the one to topple them and bring them low. In its place, God is instituting a new way of life and a new way of being. In God’s new kingdom, the lowly are lifted up. The rich no longer revel in their riches but are sent empty away. Instead, those who had nothing and were without hope are now fed.
Mary’s song speaks powerfully about how Jesus comes to turn the world upside down. God’s kingdom is counter-cultural to our world, and it is formed in a counter-cultural way, too. But this is the good news of Christmas, that God was not happy to let the world continue on in the way that is with all its wickedness and things not of God. God chose to breach the distance between us and come into our very lives as he did with Mary: Emmanuel, God with us.
As a final note, I want us to turn our attention to the last few lines of the Magnificat. Mary says God ‘has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever.’ So, God has helped his servant Israel, that is, God has helped the people of God, which are the people that chose to follow him (we are now included in the term Israel since we are God’s holy people [c.f. Romans 9-11]). It’s great that God helps us and saves us. But look closely at what Mary says. God has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy. God helps and saves us because God remembers who he is. He remembers his promises to Israel that Abraham’s descendants shall be as numerous as the stars. He remembers that he, Yahweh, is mercy. He remembers that he is the Lord, who is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness.[5]
Mary’s song reminds us that God sent Jesus at the first Christmas to save us because that is who God is. God is the Lord who saves. God is the Lord who is merciful. For him to not save or not be merciful is to stop being who he is. It would be for God to not be God. There was nothing else that God would do but send Jesus to be born of Mary to save us because that is who God is. God is the Lord and Saviour. Mary’s great blessing is that she was seeing and realising this with her very life, soul and being.
Jesus came at Christmas to save us because that is who God is. There is nothing else that God would do. And this good news of Christmas is why Mary’s soul magnifies the Lord, and her spirit rejoices in God, her saviour. My question to you is, what is your soul going to do this Christmas? Do you know how blessed you are because of the first Christmas and what God did? Do you know how much God loves and cares for you? This Christmas, I hope you find some of Mary’s joy and begin to discover just how blessed you are.
Amen.
[1] Luke 1:46-48 [NRSV].
[2] Luke 1:49 [NRSV].
[3] Luke 1:48 [NRSV].
[4] Luke 1:50 [NRSV].
[5] Exodus 34:6.
Shakeel Nurmahi 