Dear church,
Every passage of the Bible is profound and weighty in one way or another. Even as you read through genealogies you realize that in order for you to be who you are today God called, protected, and persevered generations of people leading up to you. In fact, if you dig into them, those genealogies can be some of the most remarkable sections of the Scriptures. However, for us who stand thousands of years after the people mentioned in them, it takes some real digging and clawing to capture their significance. On the flip side, you’ve got these passages of God’s Word that jump off the page and weigh on your heart almost instantly.
In these cases, you usually don’t need to know the historical context, any literary features, or much about the author, you just know God is using it to press on you. That’s what should happen as you read Luke 1:46-55. It’s a poem known as Mary’s Magnificat. The title is a Latin word taken from the first word of the poem in the Bible’s Latin translation, magnificat. She begins, “My soul magnifies the Lord…”
The rest of the poem is a testimony of God’s grace for the humble and His vengeance on the proud. As you read this, take a moment to read the Magnificat. Do you sense its weight? Do you want to stand and raise your arms and shout, “Amen”? Or, do you want to cower and shrink back, hoping God won’t notice you reading those words, because now you’re responsible for them? I want to do both.
The topic of humility is never easy. The idea that one person could ever tell another how to grow in humility seems, almost, hypocritical. That’s one of the many reasons I love God’s Word. I will talk about humility this Sunday, because the Bible is dripping with a call for humans to be humble before God, our King, but I will not give you my words. You will not hear me give you a few tips I have learned to stay humble. As I study and prepare, my heart’s desire is to convict us toward greater humility with God’s words and for His glory.
Mary’s Magnificat is a beautiful portion of Scripture, but it is meaningless if it does not draw you toward God and away from yourself. It is my hope and prayer that this Sunday it would cause us to worship Him more profoundly and with greater humility. I hope you’ll be there.
For the sake of His name,
Pastor Adam
