Turning the World Upside Down

When Mary and Elizabeth meet, Mary bursts into song (Luke 1:46-55). Throughout the Gospels, Mary seems to be a very quiet woman. Once in a while she speaks out, but generally all we see her doing is pondering the imponderables in her heart. She apparently was a very reflective woman.

At this meeting with Elizabeth, however, she is quite expressive, exalting God because He has granted favor to her even in her lowly position or status in life. Who is she but a commoner? And yet, God has chosen her as the mother of the Messiah. So it will be that from now on, all generations will call her blessed.

The focus of her song, however, is not on herself. It is on God. The “Mighty One”, as she calls Him, is holy. She speaks of His mercy to those who fear him from generation to generation. He has done mighty deeds and scattered the proud, even those no one else knows are secretly proud. But God knows, and all who are proud, openly or not, are tossed about like so much chaff. What an upsetting God this Mighty One is, bringing down rulers and lifting up the humble, filling the hungry and sending the rich away empty!

Mary senses in her heart that the child in her womb is going to turn the world and the world’s order upside down. What vision in one so young! She, who is just a common village girl, a teenager who appears to the world around her to be in trouble, is going to be the mother of this marvelous man. Later when she and Joseph get to Bethlehem where Jesus is born, they will have neither name nor money to open doors. Yet, Commoner Mary has been chosen to bear the Messiah. It will take thirty years for this truth to be revealed and even then that truth will be rejected. Such will be her cross to bear. But right now, she is not thinking of pain. She is only aware that she of such low status has been chosen for such a high and noble role.

Mary’s song reminds me that security is not found in human achievement or status or rank or position or earthly possessions. Security is not in friends, not in place, not in power, not even in purpose. Security is found only in God.