GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
LUKE 1:52-55
52 He has brought down the mighty from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly.
God’s people had seen some very powerful rulers and nations brought down by the Mighty One: Egypt, Assyria, Babylon and Persia. In the years between the Testaments, the (Egyptian) Ptolemies and the (Greek) Seleucids had been defeated, the Seleucids only about 60 years before Mary sang this song. One of the books produced in Israel in those days of Greek occupation was “Ecclesiasticus,” not the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes but a collection of proverbial sayings by Jesus ben-Sira, also called Sirach. One of the verses of Sirach combined Job 12:19 (“He leads priests away stripped, and overthrows the mighty”) with Job 5:11 (“he sets on high those who are lowly, and those who mourn are lifted to safety”). The resulting passage is this: “The Lord has cast down the thrones of rulers, and has seated the lowly in their place” (Ecclesiasticus 10:14). Mary was probably familiar with the writings of Sirach. By borrowing this phrase (if that is what she did), she was not elevating the whole book, but simply this phrase. Paul does the same thing when he quotes lines from Greek plays and poets: Aratus (Acts 17:28), Cleanthes (Acts 17:28), Epimenides (Titus 1:12) and Menander (1 Corinthians 15:33). There are more than thirty places in the New Testament which touch on Ecclesiasticus (a third of them are from Revelation, quoting part of Sirach 1:6, “There is One who is wise, greatly to be feared, sitting upon his throne”).
53 He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he has sent empty away.
One of God’s attributes is that he is immutable (unchanging). “God is not a man, that he should repent” (1 Samuel 55:29). The lesson we learn from this depends on the position of our own faith. God is unchangeable toward the wicked, for whom he has only wrath (Mark 9:48), and he is unchangeable toward believers, because his gracious love never fails (Isaiah 54:10). This is expressed by Mary in these two simple lines. The hungry are the faithful who have been oppressed. They are filled with good things, even if those things are not food, because the best thing we have is faith in Christ. The rich, on the other hand, go away empty if they have relied on their wealth or power rather than on the riches of Christ’s merits. This is the “deceitfulness of wealth” Jesus warns about in the Parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:22). As Luther explained the First Commandment, we should fear, love and trust in God above all things.
54 He has helped his servant Israel,
by remembering his mercy,
55 just as he spoke to our fathers,
to Abraham and to his children, forever.”
In her song, Mary has praised God for all of the things he has done for mankind and for her, personally. Now in the closing words, she returns to the most important thing: the most important point, the most important act God has done, even above the creation itself. It is the incarnation of his Son, Jesus Christ. If we had never been created, there would be no need for a Savior because there would be no sin, and no us, and to be cast into hell for betraying Christ is worse than never being born (Mark 14:21). But since we were made by God, and since we fell into sin, the sending of our Savior Jesus was the supreme act of mercy from God. It was always his plan to bring us to heaven (he is immutable even in this), and through the blood of Jesus, everyone with faith has that gift of eternal life. This is what she means when she says “by remembering his mercy.”
It isn’t difficult to point out the promises made to Abraham and his descendants. “Through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed,” Genesis 22:18, etc. The final word, “forever,” is not about God’s speaking to the Patriarchs, but about his remembering his mercy and his help for the true Israel. He has remembered you, and he will bless you forever and ever.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Archives by Wisconsin Lutheran Chapel: http://www.wlchapel.org/worship/daily-devotion/
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota