Mary's Song of Praise

 

The song of Mary in Luke 1:46-55 is appropriately chosen as the gospel reading for the Feast of Mary, Mother of our Lord, a festival celebrated every year on August 15.  Because it rarely falls on a Sunday, and perhaps because to some it suggests praise of the mother of Christ that may be problematic for Protestant congregations, it is often overlooked as a text for preaching.  As such, however, it is a rich text for preaching, giving the preacher a grand occasion to lift up the mighty acts of God.

(The following questions are part of a method that seeks to lift up the function of the Word in the text, a fundamental concern of Law and Gospel preachers.  These questions are not meant to be exhaustive, but are best used with other helpful sets of questions available to exegetes.  For more on this method and on Law and Gospel preaching in general, see my brief guide, Afflicting the Comfortable, Comforting the Afflicted, available from wipfandstock.com or amazon.)

1.  How does the Word function in the text?  The Lutheran Study Bible entitles this passage "Mary's Song of Praise," and so it is.  It is pure praise.  God is the subject of nearly every sentence and God is doing great things.  This is all good news.  The Word is clearly functioning as Gospel, for the work of Christ can be seen again and again in these phrases.

2.  How is the Word not functioning in the text?  There is a sense here that the Law is not present.  That is true except for those who might suspect they fall into the role of "the proud, the powerful, or the rich."  Of course, the fact is that not many of us could deny that we are sometimes proud; certainly some of us have power, and even the rich are amongst Christ's followers, so yes, there is a sense of the Law here, yet it must be said that this is not at all the primary function of the Word in this text.

3.  With whom are you identifying in the text?  Our mantra is always to identify with those to whom the Word is addressed, but here the Word is addressed to all listeners, none in particular.  For that reason, we may have to choose if it is the lowly or the proud, the hungry or the filled, the poor or the rich, that we most closely identify with.

4.  What, if any, call to obedience is there in this text?  The call to obedience comes to us in this text only through the example of Mary.  She is faithful, humble, and filled with joy.  She is not calling us to this in her words, although she is certainly a model for us.

5.  What Law/Gospel couplet is suggested by this text?  There are, of course, some couplets obviously present in the text:  brought down/lifted up; hungry/filled; empty/rich.  Perhaps an overarching couplet could be:  lowly/looked upon with favor.

6.  Exegetical work:  When one translates the text it is immediately noticeable that most of the action attributable to God is in the past tense (aorist).  The aorist tense is, of course, not best understood as an  action in the past, but in a punctiliar sense, that is, as something done once and completed for all time.  Fred Craddock, in his commentary, speaks about the timeless quality of this construction:  "...it is most striking that the lines that clearly refer to God's establishing justice and mercy in the future, in the end time (eschaton), contain past tense verbs, not future verbs.  Why?  This particular use of the past tense (aorist) of the Greek language here expresses what is timelessly true; past, present, and future without differentiation."  (Interpretation series, Luke, p. 30).  Craddock goes on:  So sure is the singer that God will do what is promised that it is proclaimed as accomplished fact." (Ibid.).  Levine and Witherington concur:  "Mary is also prophesying:  the verbs in the hymn are aorist or past tense:  in Mary's imagination, God has already performed these social reversals.  For Mary, the victory is already won." (New Cambridge series, The Gospel of Luke, p. 42).  Luther, in his sermon on the Magnificat, seems to agree, when he comments on verse 51:  "...I rendered this verse, 'He shows strength,' and here, 'He has shown strength.'  I have done this in order that we may the better understand these words, which are not bound to any one time, but are intended to set forth in general the works of God that He always has done, always does, and always will do.  Hence the following would be a fair translation: 'God is a Lord whose works are of such a nature that he mightily scatters the proud and is merciful to those who fear Him.'" (Luther's Works, "The Sermon on the Mount and the Magnificat", vol. 21, pg. 339).  

7.  How does the Crossings Community model work with this text?  Kris Wright, in an interesting analysis, lifts up the three models of sin in the text:  the proud, the powerful, and the rich, and sets them as examples of lostness.  The 'sweet swap', as Ed Schroeder used to say, comes when we are called blessed, when Christ is lifted up, and when mercy reigns.  See this interesting 2014 analysis at crossings.org/text-study, archived under its reference.

Blessings on your proclamation!