Big Idea - This passage makes the point that Mary was blessed. Some in the Church have taken this to mean that Mary was more blessed than any woman who ever lived, but that is not quite what it says. But she was extremely blessed, to be sure. It was an incredible privilege to be chosen as the one who would bring Jesus, the incarnate Son of God into the world. Her unique place as the mother of Jesus has been taken to great extremes by the Catholic Church, but not without reason. Cyril of Alexandria argued for the important doctrine of the unity of Jesus' divine and human natures by claiming rightly that Mary was the Theotokos, the God-bearer or Mother of God. But what does this passage actually say about what it means to be blessed? Luke shines a spotlight on Mary here, but what is he seeking to highlight by shining the light on Mary? It is important to see that Luke is shining a spotlight on Mary in order to hold her up as an example that we all can follow! In other words, being greatly blessed is something that is available to anyone, not just Mary! So what is it about Mary that made her so blessed, and how can we have the same kind of blessed life?

First, Mary was blessed most of all, not so much because she was the mother of Jesus, as great as that was, but more importantly, because of her faith. She simply believed that God would accomplish exactly what He said He would do. This is what makes her life most remarkable and an example to follow. And this is not just Luke's take on things, or even Elizabeth's opinion. It is a prophetic word from God given to Elizabeth through the Holy Spirit. Her life, and indeed the whole world, was blessed because of who this child is, but she was chosen by God for this job because she was a woman of faith. There is absolutely nothing more important in the Christian life than to believe that God is who He says He is and is going to do what He says He will do. This is the first and most fundamental requirement for a blessed life! And, as it turns out, it is easier said than done. In the Gospel of Luke, Mary stands in sharp contrast to Zechariah, who does not believe God will do what He says! So, we need this kind of faith! But anyone who has tried to increase the measure of their faith knows that it is not as simple as dialing it up, like turning up the heat in your oven. In fact, trying to increase your faith by just trying harder to believe doesn't work. What can we do then to increase our faith?

We learn a great deal about Mary from her song of praise. What we can learn is the kind of life where faith grows and thrives. Faith is like a seed planted in the soil. The seed grows all on its own, but in order to grow, it has to be in the right kind of soil. Mary's life was the right kind of soil where faith could grow and flourish. We cannot control how the seed grows, but we can do something about the soil where it is planted! Here is what we can learn from Mary about preparing the soil of our hearts to be a place where faith thrives. First, faith thrives in a heart full of worship. What is worship? Mary shows us that worship is seeing the greatness and majesty of God. Worship is also finding our greatest joy and delight in God because He is the one who saves or rescues us. One reason that we lack faith is that we worship the wrong things. We look to the things of this world to save us and to make us happy. In fact, most people define a blessed life in terms of material possessions and earthly prosperity! But faith grows in a heart that finds its greatest joy and happiness in God alone!

Secondly, faith cannot grow anywhere but in the soil of humility. Mary was humble. She knew who she was, a person of the lowest status and position. The reason this is an essential requirement is that faith is ultimately trusting in God alone to work, based on His gracious love, not based on my goodness or merit. Mary declares that God had done great things for her, even though she was nothing. She rightly calls this God's mercy. As long as we think we have any right to God's help or His saving power, we will be trusting in ourselves, and not in God's grace and kindness that is undeserved and based on His goodness alone. As soon as we fail, mess up, or fall short, we will begin to doubt God's promises, because we think He will keep His promises because we need to earn them.

Thirdly, faith grows in the heart of those who fear God. Mary is now looking beyond herself, and she is proclaiming that the blessed life belongs to all those who, like her, "fear Him." But what exactly is the fear of the Lord? This young maiden, who scholars often look down on as uneducated and unwise, because she is young and poor, gives us one of the clearest and most profound pictures of the fear of the Lord in all of Scripture. She says that the fear of the Lord is seeing God's great power at work to do two things at once. First, it is His power to bring down the powerful. The powerful are described as those who are proud in their own thoughts, mighty because of the positions of authority, and rich. In a word, it is those who think they are in control of themselves and often of the whole world because they know what is best, and they have the positions of power and the resources to do what they think is best, at least for themselves. It is the very opposite of what Mary is, a humble servant who trusts in God to save her. Instead, these are the people who trust in themselves to save themselves. But God, with the strength of His arm, will bring them to nothing. He will scatter their proud thinking, He will remove them from their positions of power, and He will send them away empty, with nothing to satisfy their hunger. In the end, they will find out who is really in control, and it is not them. What is more, they will find out that they cannot save themselves. But the fear of God is rooted in the power of God, which is doing something else at the same time. He is also doing great things by showing mercy to the humble. He is lifting up and exalting those who are nothing. He is filling those who are hungry. And most importantly of all, He is helping His servant Israel by keeping the promise He made to Abraham. In a word, God is helping those who are not in control, and who are not trying to save themselves, but are seeking God's mercy. What does it mean, then, to fear the Lord? It ultimately means to know that we are not in control; He is, and we cannot control Him. It is the lack of control that is at the heart of every fear. And of course, when we are in control, we do not need faith, for faith is trusting someone else to be in control. This is probably the single most significant step toward faith when we come to accept that we are not in control. The pride of our own thinking, our confidence in our positions of power, and our trust in our own resources and wealth to save us and fix ourselves may give us the illusion that we are in control, but we are not. And God, who is in control, will bring to nothing everyone who trusts in themselves! But He will lift up and exalt everyone who humbly trusts in Him for mercy.

Mary believed that God would accomplish what He said, but that was not only that she would give birth to the Messiah, even though she was a virgin. It also meant that she believed that God would fulfill His promise to Abraham through this child. When God made a covenant with Abraham, He told Abraham to cut in half several animals and walk between them. The idea was that if Abraham failed to keep his end of the bargain, he would be cut in pieces like those animals. But when it came time to walk between the animals, God walked between them. Which meant that if Abraham failed to keep the covenant, God Himself would pay the price! The child being born to Mary was coming to fulfill the covenant which had already been broken so many times that it was beyond counting. He was coming as the only man who ever truly kept the covenant, but more than that, He was coming as the Son of God to be torn in two, and by His death to pay the great price for breaking the covenant, so that those who trust in God may be restored to covenant relationship with Him!