Advent Songs of Salvation: Mary's Song - The Magnificat
Luke 1:46-55; Galatians 4:4-7; 1 Samuel 2:1-10
In the Name of the Father and of the + Son and of the Holy Spirit.
A woman named Hannah was barren and had no son. Each year she traveled with her husband Elkanah to the house of the LORD in Shiloh, and each year she poured out her heart before the LORD, pleading that He would grant her a child. In her desperation she vowed that if the LORD gave her a son, she would dedicate him wholly to the LORD’s service under a Nazirite vow.
When Eli the priest observed her lips moving without sound, he assumed drunkenness and rebuked her. But Hannah answered with quiet dignity: “No, my lord, I am a woman troubled in spirit… I have been pouring out my soul before the LORD… out of my great anxiety and vexation.” And the LORD remembered Hannah. In time she conceived and bore a son, Samuel. True to her vow, once the boy was weaned she brought him to Eli and said: “For this child I prayed, and the LORD has granted me my petition… therefore I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he lives, he is lent to the LORD.”
Then Hannah prayed, “My heart exults in the LORD; my horn is exalted in the LORD… for I rejoice in Your salvation. There is none holy like the LORD.” Her song is one of joy, humility, and a deep recognition of God’s saving work.
It should sound familiar. For Hannah’s song becomes the pattern and the foreshadowing of another woman’s song—Mary, the Mother of Our Lord. When Gabriel’s Word brought about the conception of Christ, Mary hurried to the hill country to visit her kinswoman Elizabeth, herself miraculously pregnant in old age. At Mary’s greeting, the child in Elizabeth’s womb leapt for joy, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. And Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked on the humble estate of His servant.”
The similarities between these two faithful women are striking—but the differences are even more revealing of God’s mercy. Hannah was barren because “the LORD had closed her womb.” Mary was a virgin, not yet married, who had never known a man. Both conceive through the miraculous working of God—Hannah in answer to prayer, Mary by the performative Word of God spoken through an angel. Both respond not with pride but with humble, joyful faith. Hannah exults in the LORD who lifts her up; Mary magnifies the LORD who has regarded her lowliness.
Both songs proclaim the same pattern of divine action—what Luther calls the great reversal. Hannah sings of the LORD who breaks the bows of the mighty but strengthens the feeble, who feeds the hungry but leaves the full empty, who raises the poor from the dust and seats them among princes. Mary echoes the same truth: “He has scattered the proud… brought down the mighty… exalted those of humble estate… filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.”
This is the way of God. He works through weakness, barrenness, lowliness, and humility. He brings His saving purposes to completion through those the world would overlook. And now the pattern reaches its fulfillment in Mary’s Son—the promised Seed of Abraham through whom all nations are blessed, the One in whom Hannah’s hope and Mary’s praise converge.
Central to Mary’s song is her humility and her confession of need: “my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” Here is no immaculate woman without sin, but a sinner redeemed by the very Child she bears. As Luther notes, “Mary does not glory in her virginity… but only in God’s gracious regard.” Mary becomes the model of the believer: one who receives God’s Word, trusts His promise, and rejoices in His mercy.
Notice also the tense of her verbs: “He has shown strength… He has filled the hungry… He has helped His servant Israel.” Mary speaks of God’s saving acts as though they are already accomplished, even though the Child through whom they are accomplished is still hidden within her womb. This is the language of faith. As Paul writes, “In the fullness of time, God sent forth His Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law.” What God has begun, He will bring to completion. The Magnificat is therefore an Advent hymn: rejoicing in what God has already done in Christ and longing for the day when He will reveal its fullness.
Mary also stands as a type of the Church. She bears Christ and sings His praise; so too the Church carries Christ in Word and Sacrament and magnifies the Lord whenever Christ is present among us. Hannah’s barrenness mirrors our own spiritual barrenness—our inability to produce righteousness or hope from ourselves. Mary’s virginity mirrors the sheer grace of God’s salvation, which comes not from human will or effort but as pure gift, from outside ourselves. The Church joins Mary in confessing that all the blessings of salvation come by God’s gracious initiative, not by our own power.
And so with Mary we continue to sing: “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” For the Child she bore—crucified, risen, and soon to return—is the One who fills the hungry, lifts up the lowly, and redeems those who sit in darkness. He is the One who turns our barrenness into fruitfulness, our emptiness into fullness, our lowliness into glory.
In this season of Advent, may the song of Hannah and the song of Mary become our song as well: a song of humility, faith, and joy in the God who keeps His promises and exalts the lowly in His Son.
In the + Name of Jesus. Amen.
