Mary’s story is your story. By yourself, of humble estate. With Jesus, of blessed estate. By yourself, weak. With Jesus, strong. By yourself, hungry. With Jesus, filled with good things. By yourself, condemned by your sin. With Jesus, saved by his mercy.
Mary was a lowly virgin. Since purity before marriage is so rare in our day, we hear the word virgin and think of something admirable. In Jesus’ day, they heard the word and simply thought of one who was not yet married and bearing children. To call someone a virgin was not so much saying something about one’s purity as much as it was to simply speak of their life situation. To say that a woman wanted to lose their virginity in Jesus day was not to speak ill of them. It was to say that they wished to marry and be about the business of family and children. To be a virgin was in and of itself a humble estate.
God beheld Mary’s estate and turned her lack into plenty. He gave her not only a child but the child, the one promised as soon as sin entered into the world. The one who would crush the head of the evil one and make all things new. Yes this virgin would now be called mother. And not just a mother. But the mother. The mother of the promised one. The mother of Jesus. The mother of God.
He gave her such a gift that now we and all generations uniformly confess her as blessed. We take Elizabeth’s confession as our own. Of Mary we confess, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!â€
Mary was not really anything to talk about. Then God placed Jesus inside of her. And that made her blessed. It made her worthy of eternal conversation. It made her holy and able to magnify the Lord.
You too are really nothing to talk about in and of yourself. And if that statement bothers you, know this. God scatters the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He brings down the mighty from their thrones. He sends the rich empty away. So if you want to claim something of your own, prepare to be scattered, prepare to be brought low, prepare to be sent away.
But if you confess your sins, God is faithful and will forgive your sin. He will place Jesus inside of you. Today he does it through this word He does it each time you open you mouth to receive his supper. He did it first at your baptism. And when he does this, you too are blessed and your mouth is opened to magnify the Lord. Your spirit rejoices in God your Savior.
Mary’s story is your story. By Yourself of humble estate. With Jesus of blessed estate. By Yourself weak. With Jesus strong. By Yourself hungry. With Jesus filled with good things. By yourself condemned by your sin. With Jesus, saved by his mercy. Amen.
Phil,
You wrote: “Mary was not really anything to talk about. Then God placed Jesus inside of her. And that made her blessed. It made her worthy of eternal conversation. It made her holy and able to magnify the Lord.” You forgot a very important action of Mary between “Mary wasn’t really anything to talk about” (which I’m not sure what you mean, unless you’re just trying to be insulting): her ascent, her obedience to the will of God. Deliberately forgotten or just a mistake? Because if she had said no, there would have been no incarnation.
Absolutely beautiful, Phil! And Chris, your question makes me ask, “Does everything then depend upon us? Upon our assent?” It seems me that makes our God rather puny and powerless in the face of human will. I would rather say that the gift itself creates the faith that receives it – for Mary and for us.
Mr. Wagner,
No where did I imply that everything depends upon us, but if you remove Mary’s assent to the words of the angel, then humanity becomes a mere automaton. And don’t respond with the usual response that God could have chosen just anybody since it really doesn’t matter. Mary was given choice and she made it. That does not, in any way, suggest that she caused the incarnation (The Trinity did) but she did carry, literally, Christ in her and gave birth to the God-Man. That was not accidental and that was not done due to Mary having a constrained will as Lutherans would incorrectly argue.
Gee whiz, did I write or even suggest that God could have chosen anyone? Or that Mary’s will was constrained? Funny, but I do not remember that. What I said was that the the gift creates the faith that receives it. You, on the other hand are the one who mentions choice. If Mary had a choice, then she is in control of her situation. That does NOT mean that she caused the incarnation, or anything of the sort. But it is surely a valiant attempt to protect the greatest of American Protestant (and, incidentally, Roman Catholic) doctrines: free will, which, in the end, puts humans in charge of their own salvation and not the Holy Spirit.
Mary’s will was NOT constrained. Nor did she make a “choice” in the standard American Evangelical sense. She was euangellionized, Gospelized, and the gift of the Christchild did to her what it has done to so many of us: it made her a believer, a truster in the promise. As I said before, the gift creates the faith that receives it.
This, it seems to me, is at the heart of the Biblical and indeed, Lutheran, understanding of the faith. But obviously many American Evangelicals just do not see it this way. I suspect we will just have to agree to disagree.
Mr. Wagner,
I am not Evangelical nor Lutheran. But however you may wish to label me, the fact that you deny Mary to make a choice, let alone the right choice, except it be from her being compelled reduces humanity to nothing, to a mere automaton. That is mocking God. I do not subscribe to Martin Luther’s Bondage of the Will. I simply cannot. And if Mary has no choice, no will, no nous, it’s easy to go to the “anyone would do” complaint as I laid it out.
Agree to disagree? Fine. But you’re still wrong.
Chris, thanks for you gracious and gentle reproof. You almost make me want to continue this conversation. But not quite.
I will only end my half with two comments. First, I do not think you have the foggiest idea of what Luther means by “bondage of the will,” and I simply do not have the time or patience to teach you. Secondly, whatever your label, the old saying still holds, “You can take the boy out of evangelicalism, but you cannot take the evangelicalism out of the boy.”