God’s Upsetting Choice
St. Luke 1:39-56
December 18, 2022 anno Domini
Martin Luther at one time believed Mary, the mother of our Lord was sinless. He also believed she was semper virgo – always a virgin, that Jesus was her one and only child. Yet, even believing these things about Mary, Luther argued that Mary was not chosen because of her sinlessness, purity or piety. Think about that – even if Mary was sinless (and we don’t believe she was) and even if she remained a virgin her entire life for the sake of Christ, everything she received was still an undeserved gift from God. If that’s the case with Mary, then it’s even more so for you, because let’s face it – you’re no Mary.
Even though we are Luther fan boys, we have a better Word than Luther. We have Mary’s own words recorded in God’s Word (read vs. 48-49). What we learn from Mary is that she was Lutheran, or better, that Lutherans believe what she believes. Our Lord does great things to the lowly and through the despised and it upsets the whole world including you.
There were better candidates for the Mother of God than Mary of Nazareth. If God wanted to make a splash on the scene and get news coverage in all the local papers, He could have chosen the High Priest’s daughter or Herod’s daughter. Even in Nazareth there were certainly more sophisticated and popular young maidens than Mary. But those high and mighty and popular folks would have expected it. They felt they deserved it. Of course, they would be chosen.
But that is not the way of God. If you think you are something God gives you nothing. If you think you’ve earned his favor you go away empty handed. If you want to sit at His wedding banquet wearing the grimy garments of your own accomplishments, He will throw you out and lock the door. The Scriptures are filled with the simple truth Mary confesses in the Magnificat. God brings the mighty down from their thrones and exalts the humble. The arrogant world is drowned in the flood and Noah, that crazy boat builder, and his family are saved. Pharoah and his army are destroyed in the Red Sea while Moses and nation of slaves goes free. Jericho’s fortified walls crumble and Rahab a prostitute marries into God’s people and becomes a very great grandmother of Jesus. Gabriel visits the little village of Nazareth because God has chosen a poor teenage virgin named Mary to be the mother of God.
One of the first things the Divine Service does is humble us. The liturgy doesn’t begin by me telling you how glad I am that you are here and how wonderful you are. It begins with you and me confessing our sins, revealing our lowliness, our despicable deeds done not to strangers and enemies, but to our own families, to your wife, your husband, your daughter, your mom, your sister. Our confession should end echoing the words of Elizabeth when Mary visited her, “Who am I that the Lord would come to me?”
But that is the very meaning of Advent – the Lord comes. He comes with mercy, grace, undeserved kindness. He comes with unbelievable gifts for poor sinners. He comes in lowly and humble means. He chooses Mary. In her high school yearbook she would have been the last girl to be pictured as “most likely to be the mother of God.”
Salvation begins with the conception of a baby by the Holy Spirit in Mary’s womb. Is there anything more despised in the United States than the conception of a human? We cannot call it a human. We cannot call it a life. We cannot call it a baby. Gabriel tells Mary she will have a son. We can’t call it that either. I pity the first doctor who is sued because he dares to announce to the parents in the delivery room, “It’s a boy.”
But it is a boy and He becomes a man and He does exactly what Mary says. He brings down the mighty and exalts the lowly. The Pharisees and High Priest want Jesus dead, but the sinners and tax collectors gather around Him at Boulder Tap House. His greatest work is the grossest death any eye could see – naked, hanging on a cross, suffocating to death. Mary gave birth and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in manger. Joseph took his body down from the cross, wrapped Him in swaddling clothes and laid Him in a tomb. Those are the great things God has done for you – the Son of God became a man and that man, Jesus of Nazareth, died for you on the cross.
In the world’s eyes there are a thousand greater events than the Divine Service. A greater majority of people put their hope in President Biden or President Trump than in Jesus. In the U.S. being a Bible confessing Christian is despised and lowly. But remember this – the Virgin Mary, to this day, is more revered than King Herod or Pontius Pilate. Christ has ruled for 2000 years over sin, death, and the power of the Devil and His followers have forever changed the world. Trump had four years. Biden has two. And in a hundred years, Christ will still be worshipped and our idols will be dead and gone.
God uses the lowly and despised to do His Work. He used Mary. He used the conception, birth and death of human flesh to save the world. After Jesus rose, He didn’t choose fog lights, screens, and bands to do His work. He chose humble men, plain water, simple bread and wine, to deliver His gifts to His people. He doesn’t use shock and awe so that your faith is not based on your emotions or your sight. He puts nothing in the way of His Word. Mary got pregnant by His Word. Jesus saved us according to God’s Word. The water of baptism, the bread and wine of the Supper, and the sermons of your preacher save and deliver by the command and promise of God’s Word.
The way God works is upsetting. It isn’t just upsetting to the world, it upsets you. Look at what Jesus did to Mary. He almost cost her her marriage to Joseph. She hastened to see Elizabeth, her 57 year old cousin who was pregnant. Don’t you think that wild man, John the Baptist, upset Elizabeth’s tranquil life? The unborn John leaped in his mother’s womb because he was jacked – the Savior was right next to him in Mary’s womb.
When Jesus saves you He upsets you. Just like Mary left the comforts and security of home to see Elizabeth, now you want to leave the comforts and pleasure of sin to follow Jesus. Jesus will make you hate the wisdom of the world and love the folly of His cross. While unbelievers boast about themselves you boast about the Lord who has done great things for you – great things even when you’re suffering, even when you don’t have what your neighbor has, even when the world looks down on you, yes even as you struggle with sin.
Even if, as Luther believed, Mary was sinless and semper virgo she was still chosen by God as a gift. She didn’t deserve Jesus. You’re no Mary, so you don’t deserve Jesus either, but this is God’s foolishness, that upsets the world’s wisdom. It isn’t about you. It’s about God and He chooses His way to deliver His Son to sinners. He chose Mary and He chose you and I truly hope you’re as upset about that as the world is – upset at your sin, upset with the world’s wisdom, upset in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Very well explained.