Luke 1:39-56

Transcript

00:00:00:57 – 00:00:24:57
Clint Loveall
Hey, everybody. Thanks for joining us as we close out the week here. We hope a good weekend for all of you. We’ll get to a really interesting and very distinctive part of Luke today. In the early part of the Gospel of Luke, there are four sections often called the Force songs of Luke, and they’re not probably actually songs.

00:00:24:57 – 00:00:50:45
Clint Loveall
There’s some discussion about how these should be interpreted or how they should be understood. But they’re, they’re lyrical. They’re, they’re the type said in your Bible probably changes, which indicates that they’re poetry or that they’re writing The first of the four we get to today and this is Mary song. So just to context, if you didn’t have a chance to be with us yesterday.

00:00:51:39 – 00:01:21:07
Clint Loveall
Mary has been with Elizabeth. Elizabeth has praised Mary. Elizabeth has spoken over the child filled with the Holy Spirit. She’s prophesied she’s given this word from God. And now we get Mary’s response. And it really is very lyrical. And so I’ll I’ll read it. We’ll continue. We’re going to see all four of these songs in the next relatively short.

00:01:21:22 – 00:01:49:48
Clint Loveall
They’re all essentially part of the birth story, more or less. But and you’ll be surprised, you may know a couple of them, but here we get Mary’s song, and Mary said, verse 46, My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God. My Savior for years looked with favor on the loneliness 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.

00:01:50:36 – 00:02:18:34
Clint Loveall
His mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength all this arm he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He is brought down the powerful from their thrones and lifted the lowly. He is filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and his descendants forever.

00:02:19:13 – 00:02:51:00
Clint Loveall
And then Mary remained with Elizabeth about three months and then returned to her home. So as I said, these sections of Luke are very distinct to my knowledge. It’s really only Luke that does this, and he formats these poetic utterances in the voices of the characters, three characters and then it’s a Christmas announcement to the shepherds. It’s sort of put in the put in the words of the angel.

00:02:51:27 – 00:03:27:39
Clint Loveall
But here we get the Song of Mary, and each of these say something about both the incarnation and the the whole the intention, the kingdom, the work of the of Christ, who isn’t named yet but is is being prophesied. And each in their own way, Michael kind of only kind of reflect Luke’s themes. We said a couple of days ago, maybe last week that Luke cares deeply about the lowly, the poor, the hungry.

00:03:28:03 – 00:03:53:00
Clint Loveall
And we get a lot of that here. You know, look on his favor, on the loneliness of his servant. He’s lifted up the lowly, filled the hungry with good things, sent the rich away, empty. This this is all pretty much vintage, Luke. And here it is a precursor to the kind of things that Jesus will say and do as we hear it here in Mary’s voice.

00:03:53:24 – 00:04:23:07
Michael Gewecke
There’s so much that we could pause to talk about here. And I think that naming the loneliness and the fact that God is lifting up that lowly is important because on one hand of the spectrum, on one side, Luke is emphasizing that God is lifting up the lowest of humanity. On the other side, Mary begins with the praise and extolling and the and the Thanksgiving for the greatness of God.

00:04:23:07 – 00:04:45:52
Michael Gewecke
And in fact, you might have heard this section of Scripture before called the Magnificat. And if you’ve heard that before, it’s because the word used here comes from a word that is called Magdalene, and that word means great. And so literally, if you were going to translate this section, literally, it would be tell out the greatness of the Lord.

00:04:45:52 – 00:05:16:12
Michael Gewecke
And so Mary is letting us in on this this Thanksgiving, almost like a Davidic psalm. She’s extolling the greatness of God and saying that God is great and that that great God is the one who cares about the lowly the least and is raising them up and you might have seen as the text was going on here, there’s this idea that not only is God raising the lowly, but here He’s also bringing down the powerful from their thrones.

00:05:16:12 – 00:05:42:01
Michael Gewecke
And verse 52, there’s all of this inversion happening when God is on the scene. And I think that this matters. This is important because, A, it already sets up a theme that Luke is going to return to over and over again. And also I think it’s important because it reminds us that Mary here is in the act of worship, teaching us the proper response to God’s action in our lives.

00:05:42:01 – 00:06:07:51
Michael Gewecke
We just literally a couple verses ago, I mean, we’ve spent a couple of days in this section clip, but just a couple days ago, Mary heard this word for the first time and her response of faith is, of course, commendable and laudable. But here her song of praise reminds us that she is giving thanks to God, even though this will most certainly make her life difficult and really meaningful ways.

00:06:08:04 – 00:06:15:37
Michael Gewecke
She’s also praising God in the midst of God’s showing up in her life and that that, too, is a lesson for the Christian response to God’s work in our life.

00:06:15:50 – 00:06:46:48
Clint Loveall
Yeah, and we’ve said this a couple of times, Michael, but Luke does an amazing job here of looking both ahead and back. So we have here this talk about, you know, what will, what will be done, what God is going to do. But also we have this language of fulfillment, you know, generation to generation. He has helped his servant, Israel, the promise according to the ancestors, to Abraham and his descendants.

00:06:47:13 – 00:07:18:54
Clint Loveall
So Mary stands at this moment that is both connected to all that has gone before in the history of Israel and the promise is that have carried them and to that fulfillment and what will happen. And notice that she can speak about those things that have not yet happened as though they already have. He has brought down the powerful, lifted the lowly, filled the hungry, sent the rich away, that these are things that have not yet happened.

00:07:18:54 – 00:07:33:59
Clint Loveall
But they are they are so sure in the promise of God and in the work of the Savior that she can all already begin to speak to them as things that are essentially in the past tense or the things that will definitely happen.

00:07:34:35 – 00:08:00:09
Michael Gewecke
You know, we’re not studying Matthew in particular, but I think Matthew’s an interesting counterpoint to Luke because both Matthew and Luke care a lot about the Old Testament, the idea of it being fulfilled. But what’s striking about Luke in the telling of the Gospel here is when Luke tells the story, it’s not about all of the prophetic voices of the Old Testament being fulfilled.

00:08:00:23 – 00:08:25:46
Michael Gewecke
Luke isn’t particularly speaking here in this moment to a Jewish audience trying to show them that look at how this formula’s worked out. This was said, Now this is true, this was said, now this is true here. As we hear Luke retelling us Mary’s words, we hear this bridge being made between this larger story being integrated into this story.

00:08:25:46 – 00:08:51:19
Michael Gewecke
So God is the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God did make this promise to the people. So this generational promise that you name here, Clint, this idea that on the forever descendants of Abraham would be blessed. Mary is showing us and telling us explicitly that this is the promise now being kept, that the bridge into Luke is is being firmed up.

00:08:51:19 – 00:09:19:33
Michael Gewecke
It’s being set on its foundation. And this is, I think, in many ways a much more accessible way for a Gentile audience, someone who doesn’t have that Jewish history and sensibility to really see what is important about that previous story. Because, you know, if you’re a Gentile reader, you’re maybe not particularly interested in obscure Old Testament prophetic references being fulfilled, which is Matthew’s emphasis and concern.

00:09:19:51 – 00:09:53:20
Michael Gewecke
But here you are very interested in the fact that God had made promises to a particular people that God is now keeping. That will be for the sake of everyone that the Luke is building this bridge into the text. And I think what’s beautiful about it is if AX follows Luke, the entire Old Testament precedes Luke. Luke is helping us see that this is connected to the previous work, and that is this sophisticated writing and I think very deep theological meaning we’re already seeing worked into this.

00:09:53:20 – 00:10:20:52
Clint Loveall
We’ll try not to overdo this, but to your point, Michael, just to on the front end here of this gospel, continue to see the way Luke is distinctive. Matthew starts with the genealogy, but if you look at his birth story, it starts in verse 18 of chapter one, and in verse 22, you get told this took place to fulfill what had been spoken by the prophet Isaiah.

00:10:21:16 – 00:11:01:57
Clint Loveall
So you get four verses essentially before Matthew is quoting an Old Testament prophet to tell you that this was fulfilled. We have yet to hear a quotation from Luke and we are deep into this story. Luke doesn’t find it necessary for the people he’s writing to, to give them chapter and verse and to quote. Now, we’ve had some, if not quotations, we’ve certainly had some allusions to the Old Testament, but it’s not important to the people Luke is writing to that they be named as such.

00:11:01:57 – 00:11:33:37
Clint Loveall
And I think your point stands really well there. Michael. The other thing that I think is fascinating is in the Matthew Gospel in the in the Christmas portion, we never hear a word from Mary. And here in Luke, remember we told you Luke has Luke, doesn’t he? You know, he’s not going to rewrite his entire culture, but Luke gives a little more opportunity for women’s voices to be heard.

00:11:33:57 – 00:12:07:19
Clint Loveall
There’s a little more looseness in Luke as it as it pertains to the role of of women in the text. And here, the only place really that we hear directly from Mary, a song of praise, this young teenage maiden now pregnant, we assume. And she proclaims not only that God has been good to her, but that God has fulfilled the promises to be good to Israel.

00:12:07:42 – 00:12:19:15
Clint Loveall
And it really again, it’s just it’s vintage Luke. It’s really well done. And it says a lot more than you might pick up. Just browsing through it quickly.

00:12:19:49 – 00:12:45:43
Michael Gewecke
You know, I think one emphasis on Luke that may strike us as strange if we’re willing to slow down and really consider it comes here towards the end of this this passage, this idea that God’s mercies for those that fear him and then he’s brought down the powerful from their thrones, lifted up the lowly, filled the hungry with good things, sent the rich away, empty.

00:12:46:08 – 00:13:22:31
Michael Gewecke
These are very, very harsh words for those who are in a position of power, those who have an assumption of comfort and and the material needs of the world are material possessions. Luke, you’re going to see this consistently throughout the gospel. I don’t think you you would make an argument that he’s anti those things, but he makes it very clear that when God is at work in the world, everything human, everything physical, everything that is clamor of laughter in this life is subject to the rot, decay of eternity.

00:13:22:31 – 00:13:43:40
Michael Gewecke
That is only the things have God that have permanent lasting value, and certainly power, prestige, consumption and stuff. All of that is unimportant when framed against the most important thing. And Luke is going to return to that theme over and over again. It’s a thing that might surprise us if we’re willing to hear it in the beginning. Story of Jesus as Birth.

00:13:43:40 – 00:14:03:50
Michael Gewecke
You don’t generally think of birth story as being connected to the lowering of earthly power, but here this is included, and it’s here, I think, Clint, to show us remind us that when Jesus shows up, all other earthly power steps into the background because ultimately it’s his divine power that we see on full display.

00:14:04:10 – 00:14:42:55
Clint Loveall
Yeah, I think that’s a theme throughout all the gospels, Michael. In fact, I think it’s a theme throughout the entire New Testament, but it may be most clearly seen and most often seen in Luke, this idea of the great reversal that what Jesus does is turn upside down the hierarchies and the importance and the biases of the world that those at the bottom or lifted those who pride fully and oppressively sit at top are lowered, are knocked down the the hungry have access to food.

00:14:43:19 – 00:15:08:47
Clint Loveall
The selfish lose what they’ve hoarded. There is this sense in which part of the reality of of the Kingdom of Christ is that everything is turned upside down. This sort of as it’s been called, the great reversal. And Luke is going to I think I mean, I think it’s fair to say he’s in Miami. I think it’d be hard to argue.

00:15:08:47 – 00:15:29:47
Clint Loveall
Luke leans into that idea. I think the hardest of the gospel writers, he just this becomes significantly important to Luke and it will show up again and again and again. And if you keep that in mind, that idea of flip flop or reversal, I think you’ll see it. I think it’ll help you as we go through this gospel.

00:15:30:07 – 00:15:58:19
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. And let’s not pass by this conversation without mentioning just how distinctive. Yes. This song, this psalm is in the midst of this part of the storytelling. But also let’s not pass by how much diversity we’ve already had in this book. We’ve only made up to verse 56, and we had some very high prose, you know, Latin almost phrased text at the beginning of Luke.

00:15:58:33 – 00:16:27:55
Michael Gewecke
Then it shifted into a much more Old Testament type prose in the way that the story was told. And now here we already have brought in this this other form of writing and genre that this psalm that’s been included. Luke is doing some very sophisticated things here and he’s including sources, he’s including styles and genres. And this is the diversity of this writer, and it’s some of the distinctive and beautiful flavors that Luke brings to the story.

00:16:27:55 – 00:16:59:04
Michael Gewecke
Because if you’re an attentive reader, the text is moving. It’s always shifting from this to that, and it’s incorporating different styles and perspectives to help us see the story. And I think that does play back into Clint, that narrative that we heard at the very beginning that that Luke was researching or that Luke did work to compile this because we can already see 56 verses in that that work has resulted in a nuanced and textured narrative and that that is part of what makes Luke’s telling beautiful.

00:16:59:42 – 00:17:26:13
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And the, the way that, that these kind of passages function here in the beginning of the story, Michael I think does kind of bear that out. I mean, obviously these are carefully written, they’re crafted and it matters that each time a character in the early part of this story encounters what God is doing, next week, we’ll see that it’s Zachariah on the birth of his child.

00:17:26:31 – 00:18:12:09
Clint Loveall
He gives us a similar type song. Right then it’s the angels that announced to the shepherds, and then it’s Simeon in the temple who sees the Messiah. He’s been promised he he would stay around until that moment. And whenever they see it, there is this bursting forth of worship. There is this praise that that flows out of the character and that, you know, that’s telling, that that’s indicative of Luke’s idea that when you encounter the Christ, that the only real response to understanding what God has done in Jesus is gratitude and praise that you can’t help it.

00:18:12:09 – 00:18:19:42
Clint Loveall
And the the early part of this story, this narrative is just is full of that in some really good ways.

00:18:20:07 – 00:18:42:34
Michael Gewecke
And I do think that that should I don’t want to go too far afield from the text, but that last point I do think raises an implication that we should make explicit that if a Christian lives one’s life for some period of time and is filled with arrogance and pride and self-centeredness, that is generally a sign that we’ve not seen the greatness of God.

00:18:42:50 – 00:19:11:07
Michael Gewecke
How could you like Mary see the greatness of God, God’s providence when God shows up and still revel in ourselves, still be proud, still be arrogant? I would hold, I would make the case it’s impossible. And I think that being moved to joy, being moved to gratitude, being moved to Psalm as Mary has been here, is in many ways a pattern for our own Christian lives that when we encounter the living God, it should move us the same.

00:19:11:22 – 00:19:27:05
Michael Gewecke
And I think that that is a thing to that can be a tool to check the state of our own soul. Because if if we’ve not been moved to gratitude, we’ve not been moved to magnify the God of whose great then it might cause us to ask, Have have we been missing seeing that God?

00:19:27:19 – 00:19:45:58
Clint Loveall
Yeah. I think from the gospel perspective, those who have not responded that way really haven’t seen Jesus clearly. Yeah. And that’s I mean that that’s pretty, pretty standard. Well, it’s pretty clear. Yeah.

00:19:45:59 – 00:19:47:22
Michael Gewecke
That’s easier said than done.

00:19:47:22 – 00:19:59:29
Clint Loveall
Yeah of course but I think are Yes. Those those who encounter the living Christ in the Gospel are moved by it. And if they’re not moved they haven’t, they haven’t had that experience yet.

00:19:59:47 – 00:20:22:39
Michael Gewecke
Yeah. And if they’re not moved they tend to argue with Jesus. Yeah. Frances, good to have you with us. I hope that there’s been something encouraging, challenging, insightful in our conversation today. Certainly hope that you would like this video to help others find it. Subscribe. We’ll see you next week by everybody.