Luke 1:39-55 Fourth Sunday of Advent Pastor Nathan P. Kassulke Sunday, December 19, 2021 “When the Lord Comes Near, He Lifts Up the Humbled” Who would you choose? How would you choose? When an important task needs to be done, many of us would want to see a track record, some evidence that the person we chose is able to get the task done. Companies looking for a spokesperson perhaps look for fame and beauty and charisma to help get their point across. Who would you choose to lead your team or to lead your company or to lead your military? Why would you choose anyone other than the best of the best? Yet when the Lord was coming near to his people in a most unique and special way, he chose differently. When God was choosing the mother of his holy Son, he didn’t look for track record or experience. He didn’t look for fame or outward beauty or charisma. He didn’t choose riches and power. He didn’t place his Son into the arms of a queen or princess, into a palace or a mansion. He went to a lowly town and a lowly virgin within that town. And he gave her the most amazing honor, the most amazing role, the most amazing job. In her, Mary, the Savior was conceived and from her he would be born. And though this unmarried woman would no doubt be humbled by ridicule and dishonor, though she recognized full well her lowliness before God and people, God lifted her up to be the very mother of God. When the Lord comes near, he lifts up the humble. This is a profound truth. It is the theme of the song that Mary sings in her joy, or perhaps better the poem that she recites. It is the character of the whole event recorded for us in Luke 1:39-55, our Gospel read just minutes ago in our service. We see here that when the Lord was coming near he lifted up with unique blessings two women who were humbled before God. And we ought to see that this profound truth is at work throughout God’s dealing with people and in our very own lives as well. So as we look at this event, and as we apply it to our situations and circumstances, let’s consider how the Lord lifts up the humbled from four particular angles: it’s in his promise, his purpose, his present, and his pledge. Lifting up the humbled is the Lord’s promise to his people. God made a promise to Mary when he sent the angel Gabriel to announce that she would be the mother of Jesus the Savior, even though she was a virgin and would remain so until his birth. And God kept that promise. Not because Mary had passed a specific test or shown an amazing aptitude, but because God had chosen her and filled her with his grace and favor. He led her to believe and to act according to what he said. Elizabeth at the very time of our lesson had also been the beneficiary of a specific promise. She may not have heard the angel, but her husband Zechariah did. The angel announced that this elderly man and his elderly and barren wife would have a child. And that child was, by the time of this event, leaping in her womb when Mary’s greeting reached her relative. Another promise of God was being kept. But both of these women knew that God’s promise to lift up the humbled had been around long before they knew their own roles in his plan. Mary sang about God’s promises that he spoke to the fathers of the people of Israel, to Abraham and to Abraham’s descendants. Here were two faithful women who had heard those promises and were waiting for their fulfillment. And God had blessed them with promises that they would play a special role in that fulfillment. And those promises for whose fulfillment they waited went all the way back in time to the newly-created world and to the first man and woman in that world. Those promises go back to the first time that God’s people were humbled by temptation and sin, the first time that they really understood what it meant that death had entered the world and that separation from God was a real thing. From that very moment, God promised to lift up his humbled world through the offspring of a woman. Adam and Eve didn’t need to prove to God that they would try harder or do better. They didn’t need to earn his favor. They received a gracious promise. And in the womb of the Virgin Mary, God was coming near to keep that promise. That was his purpose. It was God’s purpose in making the promise and the purpose of Jesus his Son in keeping that promise, entering the womb of the virgin and taking to himself the flesh of mankind. The
Issuu converts static files into: digital portfolios, online yearbooks, online catalogs, digital photo albums and more. Sign up and create your flipbook.