Thus far, as we've considered Mary's Magnificat we have heard this young woman praise God for the remarkable personal blessings he bestowed on her, and we have remarked upon her profound theological insight into God's new order of life as it was dawning in the Child she would bear. Mary herself, a lowly country maiden, saw her personal experience as an example of Kingdom values—in his mercy God had somehow chosen her, an obscure village girl, for the greatest vocation in salvation history. And so the meek inherit the earth!Today we look at the final stanza of Mary's song:
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
55According to the promise he made to our ancestors,
To Abraham and to his descendants for ever.
God's plan of redemption was channeled through a specific people, Israel. The promised "seed of the woman" (Genesis 3.15) would be a descendant of Abraham (Genesis 12.1-3). God chose one nation, that all the nations might be blessed (Exodus 19:5-6). Jesus' coming was the climax of the long story of Israel. It represented God's ultimate act of reaching out to his chosen people, and through his people to the world, to bring them home to himself and to inaugurate a new creation. Theologian N.T. Wright puts it like this:
The God of Israel is the creator and redeemer of Israel and the world. In faithfulness to his ancient promises, he will act within Israel and the world to bring to its climax the great story of exile and restoration, of the divine rescue operation, of the king who brings justice, of the Temple that joins heaven and earth, of the Torah that binds God's people together, and of creation healed and restored. (Simply Christian, p. 88)
This young, poor woman from Galilee somehow understood all of that with astounding clarity. In her own body, through her own life, the hope and promise of all generations was being fulfilled! Mary, the ultimate matriarch of Israel, became the Mother of our Lord.
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