“His mercy extends to those who fear him,
from generation to generation.
He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
He has brought down rulers from their thrones
but has lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
but has sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel,
remembering to be merciful
to Abraham and his descendants forever,
just as he promised our ancestors.”
This quote from the Gospel of Luke is Mary’s Song (sometimes called the Magnificat). She is overjoyed at the news that she is the chosen one from among generations of young women praying to be the mother of the messiah.
I think this passage, just like many others, has been subject to much interpretation by reading our own personal hope and attitudes into it. Some say that this is prophecy (meaning forecasting) of what will happen. But to me, the not-Greek-scholar) reads the verb tenses not as future tense but as events done in the past pointing to God’s continuing work.
What captured my interest with this year’s reading coupled with the next passage recording Zechariah’s joy at having a son was how they both interpreted this coming Messiah in terms of the long tradition of hope in Israel.
John was the forerunner of Jesus. Jesus was the Messiah. But both reinterpreted the tradition.
John taught repentance. Turn your life around and start doing what God wants. Jesus also preached that when he began his ministry. He didn’t preach arming yourselves, forming an army, and kicking the Romans out of the land. In fact he taught the opposite.
He turned the entire Roman ethos of all relationships based on power to an ethos of being strong through serving. He was not the traditional version of the Messiah as savior meaning saving the country from foreign invaders. It was more saving people from their sinful lives and totally inverting culture and society.
I do not find fault that Mary and Zechariah had a different view. They simply gave voice to what they had been taught. Much to everyone’s surprise, Jesus changed things.
Many today continue to view relationships from personal to society in terms of power dynamics. Jesus followers take a different attitude toward life. Someone told me recently that many believe in Jesus, but few follow him.
Have you been awakened by Advent and the stories of Jesus’s appearance this year? Or re-awakened? Is it time to become a follower?
Enter email address on the right and click follow to receive updates via email. I will never spam you. I’m not in that business! Thank you.
Faith Venture 
Leave a comment