Mary, the mother of our Lord Jesus, was a simple village girl from Nazareth in Galilee. The picture we have of her is one of purity, devotion, humility and above all, obedient faith. She had heard the scriptures and she believed the prophecies that God would send his Messiah to deliver his people.
When the angel Gabriel appeared to her and announced the miracle that she was to be the honored mother of the Son of God, she responded with surprise and perplexity. “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” she asked.
“The Holy Spirit, the power of the Most High will overshadow you,” the angel said in reply. She was to be the human vehicle for the incarnation of God in the infant who would be named Jesus. This miracle always prompts amazement.
We can only imagine the heart palpitations, the rush of adrenaline and the tears that must have flowed when the angel explained that Mary had found favor with God and that she would bear a son, “the Son of the Most High.” He will be a king in the line of David and his kingdom will have no end.
Her response is an example to us. She surrendered to the will of God. “I am the Lord’s servant.” In the quaint language of the King James Bible, she calls herself the Lord’s “handmaid,” or household slave. If we want the Advent season to have special meaning for us, then surely we will want to surrender our lives anew to the will of God, as Mary did.
This humble maiden expressed her devotion in a profound and beautiful hymn which is recorded in Luke’s gospel (Luke 1:46-55). Her song quotes freely from the Old Testament, indicating that Mary knew her Bible. Samuel Terrien said that Mary’s song is “a biblical theology in miniature. It begins and ends in exaltation — not of Mary — but of the Lord.”
Right away we notice how Mary glorifies the Lord. This is a song of worship. It calls attention to what God has done for his people. It is a song of gladness. “My spirit has rejoiced,” she sings. Why is she glad? Because her song is also a song of salvation. God is “my savior,” Mary exclaims. She is expressing solidarity with the rest of humanity. She was not exempt from the need for a savior from sin. And neither are we.
That is why God sent his, and Mary’s, son. “You shall call his name Jesus, for it is he who will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).
Many of the songs Christians love to sing are testimony songs, songs about what the Lord has done for them. That is what Mary is singing. She is testifying about what the Lord is doing for her. “My spirit has rejoiced in God my savior” is precisely the testimony song every believer in Jesus can sing during this season of Advent.
