Power Reversed, Lowly Lifted

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[0:00] Well, let's go, and I invite you to find in your scriptures, it'll be on the screen as well, Luke chapter 1, verses 39 through 55. We're in the fourth Sunday of Advent. All along, it's been about sort of preparation and introspection. I said at one point maybe Advent should be a little bit more like Lent. It's a time of kind of thinking about the coming of Jesus, preparing our hearts, a time of even evaluating whether we've been sinning or not, and to purify ourselves so that when Jesus comes, we can face him.

[0:36] But I would say at this point, as we're kind of getting closer to Christmas, it's starting to turn into joy and anticipation, because the day really is just around the corner. And so today we're going to read something very joyful, something very beautiful. As Victoria said to the children, it's this hymn of praise that Mary sings. It speaks out sort of contemporaneously, and is traditionally known as the Magnificat, the Magnificat. The reason for that is because that's actually the word that's in the Latin, we call it the Latin Vulgate, the Latin text of the New Testament.

[1:14] Chapter 1, verse 51 reads like this, Magnificat anima mea dominum. That's the Latin. Anima mea means my soul. Magnificat means magnifies or enlarges, kind of brings praise to. And dominum means the Lord. And so as it begins, it says, my soul magnifies the Lord. That's the Magnificat. And she's enlarging the name of the Lord. She's bringing him honor and praise. She's increasing his renown in the world. That's what this idea of magnification means, almost like a magnifying glass. We're making God's name bigger. We're making God bigger to the world. So. As we've said, we kind of asked what kind of text is this? What kind of, what kind of thing is this in Luke? And if you look at it in your Bible, it's kind of set off as poetry. You look in the Bible and there's, there's a lot of meaning to be found, not just in the words of the Bible, but in the typography of the Bible. You'll see in the Bible that it's not just, it doesn't look like this. It doesn't look like this in your Bible at all. This is there so that we can kind of fit more text on the screen. Um, actually go to the next slide there. There you go. See that, see how there's some lines are indented more than others. You'll see that in the old Testament. You'll see that in the new Testament.

[2:37] That's a signal to you that the interpreters of the Bible, the translators of the Bible have decided that this section isn't so much narrative, although it is somewhat narrative because somebody is saying something and doing something, but it's, it's a poem. It's a song. It's a, it's a hymn of praise to God. Now you can make up your own mind as to whether or not this is. One of those things, but it's fairly certain that that's what this is. So let's go back to the first one there. Thank you. Caleb is really quick on this. He's doing great.

[3:08] Um, so it's a Psalm or a song. It could have been used by the early church as a hymn when they gathered, or at least parts of this so that this would have been a familiar text to people. And as part of a dialogue between two women who are pregnant, right? So it's kind of interesting. These two women meet and they're both pregnant. They're related to each other. Mary. And Elizabeth. And it seems to reinforce, as we'll see that John the Baptist ministry who present in this scene, he's a little baby, not yet born. John's ministry was a preparation for Jesus's ministry. And John's ministry was of a lower order than Jesus's ministry. And John himself says that he says, I'm not worthy to untie his sandals. One greater than me is coming. So John has always thought that he was of a lower order than Jesus. And Jesus doesn't, doesn't deny that at all, but he does praise John later on. There are one other thing that's interesting as we introduce this, this reading is that there are far more women who figure prominently in the old Testament than there are in contemporary literature of the time. The old Testament was written almost all the scenes in other literature at the time. The old Testament was written feature almost, almost always just men and what they do.

[4:27] They go into baptism. They go into battle. They make speeches. They rule. They make decisions. Women, if they appear, it only really talks about them in minor ways. But in the old Testament, we have some very famous, strong women. Now, clearly in the old Testament, the men get more action. That's just how the old Testament is also probably the new Testament, but even more so in the new Testament, women figure even more prominently than the old Testament. And you have an example of it here. It says, A book ending of Jesus's life contains the dialogue of women. So at the beginning, before Jesus is born, you have two women talking and one is the mother of Jesus, one is the mother of John. And so this is the beginning of Jesus life. And at the end of life, you'll notice, especially at the resurrection, that women have a favored place because they're the first ones to whom the resurrection is revealed. They're the first ones to whom the news is given. And they are the ones that give the news. They're the ones that give the news to everybody else. And so if you didn't know this, the Bible is progressive. Especially the new Testament is progressive in that way. And I think that's of a piece though, with what we're about to read, because this is a lot about a reversal of roles, a reversal of honor, a reversal of importance.

[5:51] So this Magnificat that we're about to read, it really sets the tone for all the rest of Jesus's life. It's almost a roadmap. It's almost a roadmap to the rest of the Gospel of Luke. And one of the themes that comes up over and over, and I want you to listen for it, is the reversal of fortunes that comes about when Jesus enters the scene. The most simple way that Jesus puts it is this. He says, the first will be last and the last will be first. Is that familiar, that phrase? I hope it's familiar to you because that's really what's at stake here. So I'm going to ask you to listen for those reversals in our reading next. Let's read. First chapter. Chapter 1 of Luke, verse 39 to start.

[6:32] In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in the hill country, where she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greetings, the child leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and exclaimed with a loud cry, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.

[7:19] And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord. And my spirit rejoices. And I am blessed in God my Savior, for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant. Surely from now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me, and holy is his name. His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.

[7:48] He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones. He has raised up the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty.

[8:10] He 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. And Mary remained with her about three months and then returned to her home. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for this word. We ask that you would add your blessing to it. In Jesus' name, Amen.

[8:38] Well, I want to give some notes, just some quick notes on the text that we just read. There is a connection between Mary and Elizabeth and also between the unborn children inside them. It says that John leaps inside Elizabeth at the sound of Mary's arrival. And it's a beautiful, it's just a beautiful image. Like, of course, babies kick and things like this, but it sounds almost more like a somersault, like something this was out of the ordinary. The word for leap here is like the leaping of a joyful animal, okay? Sometimes they talk about like a young, like a young calf that kind of jumps in the field.

[9:19] We see it, we see it in our house. It's like a prancing around. When our puppy, our new puppy, his name is Jerry, he has to find his way into every sermon. For the next three months, just be prepared. But when he goes to the laundry and he finds a sock and he thinks he's like conquered a mighty beast. And he puts the sock in his mouth and he prances around the house like this, like the proudest little animal in the world. And we're like, he's like, I am the king of the world, you know. That's this prancing, this jumping for joy, this leaping for joy, same idea, okay?

[9:53] So there's this great joy that comes from a child. That hasn't even been born yet, but can hear the voice of the mother of his Lord, Jesus, which is exciting. Another thing that we want to note is that the section that begins in verse 46, which maybe we can show again real quick. That'd be, yeah, there you go. What we would call the hymn or the psalm or the Magnificat. It follows a similar, there's a pattern of similar ones from the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, there are song, I'm going to do it like this here. Oh, this is impossible. Songs and hymns just like this.

[10:32] When there's mention of the Lord saving Israel, there would be a sort of a mirror image of that in the Old Testament at least. There would be a condemnation and prophecy for the destruction of Israel's enemies. So when an old psalm or hymn would say, God will save Israel, it would follow on very quickly with, and he's going to destroy the Assyrians or he's going to destroy the Moabites or all these other things. They're enemies of Israel. But you'll notice that that doesn't happen here. And so this is breaking form with the Old Testament. And it's like God is changing the script with the arrival of Jesus. He's lifting up Israel, not at the expense of other nations, but he's including other nations and other people in the promise of Israel and the hope of a Messiah that will deliver them. You notice at the end and it says, go to the next slide there, Caleb. He's doing great.

[11:29] The final one where it says at the very bottom, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever. And in the Old Testament, we read that God tells Abraham, all nations will be blessed through you. And so now this is coming true in Jesus. So that is not that we're going to raise up Israel and destroy everybody else. We're going to raise up Israel and Israel's Messiah and all nations will be blessed through the Messiah that comes for Israel and for all people. So Luke is reaching out here to the Jews and to the Gentiles. And if you look at Luke, it's one of the most Gentile friendly of all the gospels. But all of the gospels include the Gentiles. All of them do.

[12:19] So those are some notes. But now I want to come back to this question of reversal. And I asked you to listen for it. I knew you heard some of those. I know you heard some of those reversals in our reading. Remember this simple formula. The first will be last and the last will be first.

[12:35] And so, you know, sometimes I would kind of play with this. I would try to model this for children when I was like a youth pastor and we'd go to camp. And they would want to line up for something. Like they would go on the ropes course. And it was fun. You get to climb on ropes and everybody wanted to go first. And so they're like, I want to go first. And they kind of push each other out of the way. And so I would say to them, I said, I think the most important person here should go first.

[13:05] And then they were like, ugh. Put them in a bind if they were thoughtful. Because they were like, I don't want to claim to be that. I don't want to look that bad. So then they would say things like, well, you're the most important person here. And I said, well, then I'm going to go last. So I just mess with them a little bit to try to get them to be thinking about this. That the kingdom is upside down. Now, if I had to go first. And I would have done this even better. I would have said, I think the least important person should go first. But I didn't want to do that in that case. Because I thought then the kids would say, oh, I'm the least important. Look how humble am I. And I get to go first. So I kind of had to jiggle it around a little bit. But I was always trying to use this inverted kingdom of Jesus as a teaching point. Even with kids. And say, you know, the first will be last. The last will be first. You put yourself first. You may come in last. But if you're humble. And a servant to others. God sees that as first. Now, you can also game the system. And that's not really being honest. Like I'm going to be last so that I can be first. Then you still really want to be first. So you know the motive actually counts too.

[14:09] So don't think you can trick God. You can't. I mean, he would know. Okay. So over and over in the gospels. And it actually happens a lot in the Old Testament too. This is really fascinating. And I could give you a list of places in the Old Testament. Where it also says the lowly will be exalted. And the exalted will be brought down. The proud will be brought down. This is a very much an Old Testament theme. But it really gets developed with Jesus. The first will be last. The last will be first. And take a look at verse 52. I'm making Caleb work for his pay today. He gets paid nothing for doing all this. But he's doing a great job. Where you look at that. He says, he brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. The lowly. This is the word we want to focus on today.

[14:57] He has brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted up the lowly. And lowly here means, the Greek word behind it means humble. It means of low levels of honor. Which was an important sort of stratification of the society. How much honor you had. It meant you had low honor. It means somebody who is more likely a servant than a master. And the Greeks used this word to talk about a reversal. To about. To about somebody who had been high. Who then became very low. There's a Greek playwright named Euripides. And he wrote a play called Andromache. Which is about the aftermath of the Trojan War. It's a Greek tragedy. It's very sad of course. The main character Andromache is the wife of Hector. Who is the prince and the mightiest warrior of Troy. You know the story of Troy. The horse comes in. You know the Trojans are defeated.

[15:51] And Hector is a great warrior. But he's defeated in battle. Hector is killed. Hector and Andromache have an infant son. And the invaders take that little boy. And they throw him over the walls of the city and kill him. This is. I'm sorry. This is the PG-13. Like this is a Greek tragedy. They're not going to pull any punches in this. This is sad stuff. Right? So here's this woman. Her husband's dead. She watches her child get thrown over the wall. She becomes a servant. In that. The house. Of the man who killed her son. That's her lot after that. She's taken captive away. And by the way that woman's name is Hermione. That name is familiar to us because of Harry Potter. But it predates Harry Potter. By several thousand years.

[16:42] And this is what. So Andromache goes from being a princess. Married to a prince. And a mother of a princeling. To a widow. And she's made a servant in the house. Of Pyrrhus. Who's the same one who murdered her son. And this is what Hermione says. To Andromache. When they're back at their home. On Epirus. Which is where they're from. She says to Andromache. If some god or mortal means to save your life. You must cease from those rich and proud thoughts. You once had. And cower in humility. Fall at my feet. And sweep my house. Scattering Ascalis water by hand. From my gold-wrought vessels. And know where in the world it is you live.

[17:33] That's like. They were not friends. These were not friendly. This was the woman. This was the wife of the man who killed her husband and her son. This is what she says to Andromache. This is what Hermione says. You must cower in humility. And that's that word. Your station has changed from here to here. You were once the master. Now you are the servant. Now why am I talking about this? That's the same word that Mary uses here. He has brought down the powerful from their thrones. And lifted up the lowly. The ones who have had lowliness. Forced upon them. Who have been born into it. Right?

[18:14] Somebody who has been thoroughly subjugated. As they entered the world. Now a Greek tragedy. Kind of ends up with almost everybody dying. And it often seems like nobody learns any lessons from it. The real lessons are to be kind of learned by the people watching the tragedy. But the people in it rarely seem to ever get much.

[18:38] But this isn't a Greek tragedy we're talking about here. It's the same word. But this is how different the New Testament is from those stories of war and exploit and violence. Mary is holding out. That what God is going to do through the child in her womb is to reverse humiliation.

[19:00] Reverse the fate of those who have been born into humble places. Or who have been humbled by circumstances. And so she says it's going to be quite the difference. It's the rich that will go away empty. And the proud will be scattered. Which is to say they will lose their anchor in the world. They will lose their place. The powerful will be brought down. From their places of power. Their thrones. But on the other side. She says those who fear and respect him with the proper awe. Will be shown mercy. And he will show the strength with his mighty arm to save them. When she says this she's hearkening back. All the way back to the language that Exodus uses. To talk about God rescuing his people from slavery in Egypt. It always says in Exodus. With a mighty right hand God brought his people out of Egypt.

[19:55] So if you remember Exodus. Exodus is the end for them. Exodus is the end for them. Exodus is the end for them. happen when Jesus comes into the world. He will do these things. And what's more, this is the important part, I want you to hear this because it has to do with the Incarnation, it has to do with Christmas, is that Jesus Himself embodies all the things that Mary just said. I'm gonna say that again because this is really the point. He embodies Jesus in His body actually, but in His life He embodies everything that Mary says in the Magnificat. How many times does Jesus say that to truly be great one must become the servant of others, to be humiliated? Does He take off His cloak at the Last Supper and wash the disciples feet, which is a servant's job? Absolutely. Does Jesus say you should lay down one's life for a brother or a sister? Yes, He does. Does He say do not take the first place when you come to a banquet, but come to the first place? No, He says, take the lowest place. This is what Jesus says. And we could go on and on. I mean if we had five more hours we could talk about, it wouldn't take that long, but it would take a long time to talk about all the ways that Jesus says as followers you must take the low, the humble, the lowly spot. And God will

[21:41] exalt you. Don't worry about that. You don't have to worry about it. But the proud and the mighty, all this will be leveled out. All of it will be leveled out. But in the end it wasn't, it was Jesus who didn't just say all of this. He did all of this. He, and that's the great thing, He never asked us to do something that He Himself wouldn't do. And so He does. And I'm just gonna finish with reading Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 11. I'm gonna let Scripture have the last word today. This is a passage I've told you before. It's pretty long so it's hard, but you could either memorize it or be familiar with it. At least memorize where it is. Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 11. It won't be on the screen.

[22:26] These are verses that are good to memorize or at least know. And I want to give the Scriptures the last word today because it can conclude far better than I can. So this is Philippians 2 5 through 11. It's how Jesus does what He tells us to do. Paul writes this, God as something to be exploited, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a slave or servant, being born in human likeness and being found in human form, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of God the Father. Let's pray. Father, thank you again for this word, this Magnificat. Lord, we magnify your name today. Lord, we come to you as people who desire to be your humble servants and will let the rest fall where it may. Teach us this season to come to you in joy. Amen. And in humility.

[23:52] And we ask it all in Jesus' name.