Fourth Sunday in Advent

Fourth Sunday in Advent (C)

December 23, 2018

Text: Luke 1:39-56

            All generations call Mary blessed, as she herself prophesied (Luke 1:48).  This is good and right, and we must acknowledge that fact in the face of our Protestant instinct to dismiss her altogether.  She is the mother of our Lord, the mother of God, and you ought to have a little reverence for that.  It’s not Roman Catholic, it’s in the Bible.  Then again, we must not fall off the horse on the other side.  We should not worship Mary.  We should not pray to her.  We have no promise in Holy Scripture that she can hear us, and even if she can, she cannot help us.  Nor do we need her to plead with her Son for us, as Rome would have us believe, that Jesus isn’t all that interested in being nice to us, so we need His mother to soften Him up for us.  All of these Marian abuses, dismissing her altogether, or turning her into an idol or even a co-redemptrix with Christ, we must repent of and avoid.  The key when it comes to Mary is to know why we call her blessed.  Elizabeth tells us, and Mary sings it in her song: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb,” declares St. Elizabeth (v. 42; ESV).  And Mary sings, “he has looked on the humble estate of his servant…”  It is for that reason that “from now on all generations will call me blessed” (v. 48). 

            Mary is blessed because of the fruit of her womb, our Lord Jesus Christ.  She is blessed because God has looked with favor upon her.  He has regarded her in her humble estate.  He has looked upon her in mercy and filled her with Himself.  And the whole world is blessed in her, for in her womb she bears the Savior of us all. 

            Mary is always pointing us to her Son, Jesus.  She does not want the attention on herself.  She is not jealous when the shepherds and the wise men worship her Baby.  She treasures up all these things and ponders them in her heart.  It is not to Mary that Simeon and Anna bow in the Temple, but to Mary’s Child, the new and greater Temple, the dwelling place of God with humanity, the flesh of Jesus.  Mary is scared and angry when twelve-year-old Jesus stays behind in Jerusalem, in the Temple, and she thinks He is lost.  But she remembers the words of the angel and the prophecies of Simeon and from Holy Scripture about her Son, and she believes them.  Elizabeth says that, too, is why she is blessed: “blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord” (v. 45).  Because she believes in her Son, it is Mary who says to the servants at the wedding in Cana, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5), when they run out of wine.  She doesn’t tell the servants to let her butter Him up first.  In fact, it doesn’t work out so well for her when she tries.  “Woman, what does this have to do with me?” is Jesus’ retort (v. 4).  That’s a pretty good indication Jesus doesn’t want us to go to Mary to get around Him when we have troubles.  Instead, Mary shows us the way.  She goes directly to Him.  And even when there is an apparent rebuke, she holds fast to Him in faith.  It’s all in His hands.  Do whatever He tells you.  Stick with Jesus, Mary tells us. 

            Oh, I’m sure she had her moments.  Whether she was there of her own volition, or whether the rest of the family drug her along with them, there she is trying to shut Jesus up and drag Him home when they think He’s gone crazy (Mark 3:21).  Well, Mary is a sinner, too, and like you and I, she has her struggles with faith and doubt.  It must have stung her to the heart on that occasion, although it was also a gracious reminder, when Jesus said to those who sat around Him, “Here are my mother and my brothers!  Whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother” (vv. 34-35), and we know that the will of God is that we believe in Jesus Christ, and so have eternal life, and this same Jesus will raise us up on the Last Day (John 6:40). 

            And so Mary trusts and she follows her Son.  Apparently widowed somewhere along the way, next we meet her at the foot of her Son’s cross.  And the sword pierces her own soul, also, as Simeon prophesied it would (Luke 2:35).  How this mother’s heart must have ached for her Baby Boy, naked and bleeding, wracked with pain, loaded with her sin and the sin of the whole world, nailed to the torturous instrument of execution.  Yet even there, suffering hell for Mary and for us, for our salvation, what great compassion He has for His mother.  He will not leave her alone.  He commends her to St. John, and St. John to her.  “Woman, behold, your son… Behold, your mother!”  “And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home” (John 19:26, 27).  Tradition records that Mary died in Ephesus where St. John was serving as Bishop.   She stays with him the rest of her life.  Jesus settles the solitary in a home (Ps. 68:6).  He joins us in the Church.  We’re family.  Mothers and sons, brothers and sisters, in the House of our Father.  We’re put there by Jesus in His death.  Mary and John are the picture of this. 

            Jesus breathes His last, and Mary is there to witness it.  Who cannot be moved by the artists’ renderings of Mary holding the crucified corpse of her Son?  But He does not abandon her to her sadness.  For He is risen.  And Mary believes.  There she is with the Church and with the Twelve after our Lord’s Ascension into heaven, devoting herself to prayer, and now even the brothers of Jesus have come to faith.  But she’s the one constant.  God kept her in the faith, through some pretty rough going, from the moment she heard the angel’s words that she would bear the Son of God. 

            The Lord looked upon her in mercy, and she believed, and so she is blessed.  And so you.  Mary is a picture of you and your life of faith.  The Lord looks upon you in mercy.  He has regard for you.  You hear His Word, and you believe there is a fulfillment to that which is spoken to you by the Lord.  Yes, you have your struggles with faith and doubt.  You are a sinner, like St. Mary.  But your sins are forgiven by virtue of the incarnation and death of Mary’s Child.  God sustains you in the faith, and through some pretty tough going.  He sustains you by placing you in a family, the Church, where He continues to strengthen you and nurture your faith with the preaching of His Word and the Holy Supper.  You are brothers and sisters, of Jesus, and of one another, children of the heavenly Father.  You have a place and a home and a family. 

            To be sure, you have your sorrows, swords that have pierced your soul.  Some of you have lost children.  Not forever, but they have died.  We have all been touched by death.  There is not a lot of hope in the world.  Not real hope, anyway.  We are all worried about the state of our nation and the uncertainties of the world.  There are fightings and fears within, without.  Imagine the fear of unwed mothers who have to face the judgment of their families this Christmas, or have to face the future with the very real possibility that the father of the child will not be present.  We must help these women and their babies, and speak to them the forgiveness of Christ, include them in this family, the Church.  In the meantime, they have an example in St. Mary.  Granted, Mary hadn’t made the mistakes some of these dear women have made, but the rest of the world didn’t know that, and they certainly didn’t believe it.  Still, she embraced her calling to bear her Son for the sake of the world, to give birth, to be a mother come what may.  Others will have a different struggle this Christmas.  There will be strife in families as we gather around the table, unresolved issues, deep hurts and grievances.  Don’t forget Jesus’ brothers thought He was insane.  He was not immune from the brokenness. 

            Jesus is born right into this mess.  To redeem it.  To redeem you.  And He turns everything on its head.  It is like Mary sings: He scatters the proud in the imagination of their hearts.  He brings down the mighty from their thrones.  Those who seem to be something in this world, He brings to nothing.  But the lowly, the repentant sinners, the nobodies, the despised and rejected, these He lifts up and exalts.  He fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty.  He has mercy on all who fear Him, which is to say, those who believe in Him, like Mary, like you.  You who have loved ones who have died in Christ will hold them again.  Jesus will fill your empty, aching arms.  You who worry about our nation and our world will inherit the earth.  For your Lord has purchased it for you with His own blood.  You who have suffered rejection and shame, your sins are forgiven.  You are pure and holy in Jesus, Mary’s Son, the pure and holy Son of God.  And there is always a place for you in this family, in this house.  And a place has been saved for you at this Table.  You see, things are not as they appear.  You cannot see it now with your eyes.  But you will.  And in the meantime you believe, and you are blessed.

            So give Mary a break.  More than that, embrace her.  But do so in the way that truly honors her: by believing in her Son.  Mary is blessed because the Lord regards her, because of the fruit of her womb.  And for the same reason, so are you.  Let us magnify the Lord with her.  Mary takes her proper place in the Christmas Gospel when our spirits rejoice in God our Savior, even her Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.