Luke 1: Mary's Song, a Call to Do Justice

Introduction

Christiaan van Renselaar serves one day a week at the Vrije Evangelische Gemeente in Elburg, in the Netherlands, among people over the age of 75. This Sunday morning he is preaching at the Vrije Evangelische Gemeente Kampen. Before opening the Bible, he shares a turning point in his life: after seventeen and a half years as a delivery driver for a furniture company, he was offered a job in Elburg with a foundation that cares for vulnerable people, people who are isolated and living on the margins of society.

He hesitated for a long time about leaving his comfort zone. One day he asked God to confirm this path. The verse of the day he received that very day was James 1:27: "Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction." There was no turning back. That is where the theme of this message was born: doing justice in this world and taking care of one another. He hopes this sermon will encourage, motivate and challenge his listeners, "and that goes for me too."

To talk about it, he chose a text we usually associate with Christmas: Mary's song, in Luke 1. "I hope you won't hold it against me," he told himself, since some people are already annoyed by Christmas lights in garden centers. But the message of Christmas goes much further than a few lights switched on in December.

Outline of the message

1. A troubled time, then as now

Mary lives in a time full of tension: between the Romans, the superpower of the day, and the Jewish people; between King Herod and the people; between the religious groups, the Pharisees, Sadducees and Essenes.
Mary is a simple young girl. Faced with all of this, the preacher imagines she could have lost heart and wondered: "Will all of this ever turn out well?"
Our own time resembles hers: wars in Israel, in Russia, in Ukraine, and so many others that do not even make the news; chaos in France; in his own country, people turning against one another and cultures clashing.
"It looks like history is repeating itself." Like Mary, we may ask ourselves: is there still hope for the world?
It is in this context that Mary learns she will become pregnant, that she will call the child Jesus, and that he will be called the Son of God. An incomprehensible story, which must have thrown her into great confusion.

2. Mary and Elizabeth: coming together and magnifying God together

What does Mary do? She goes to Elizabeth, her relative. The two women share their lives and glorify God together. This is the first lesson of the message.
Both are going through bewildering circumstances. We too can face difficult and complicated situations.
How valuable it is to go and see someone, to have a coffee together, to ask each other, "What is on your mind right now?", and to end up magnifying God together, through it all.
Mary begins by giving God all the praise: he looked on her, he did great things, he showed strength with his arm. "She only points to heaven."

3. A revolutionary song, an echo of Hannah's song

The heart of the message is found in Luke 1:52-53: "He has put down princes from their thrones, and has exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things. He has sent the rich away empty."
At the time, this was unthinkable. Everything was based on the law of the strongest, and no one could stand against the Romans. Singing that God brings down the powerful was a revolutionary message.
Then comes concern for others: the hungry are filled. "What a message!"
This song was not new. The preacher asks the congregation: who knows a similar song in the Old Testament? A woman in the front row gives the right answer, greeted with applause: Hannah's song, in 1 Samuel 2.
Hannah could not have children, and she eventually learned she would have one: Samuel. The preacher reads her whole song, because many do not know it.
There are many similarities: "Yahweh makes poor and makes rich. He brings low, he also lifts up. He raises up the poor out of the dust. He lifts up the needy from the dunghill, to make them sit with princes" (1 Samuel 2:7-8).
Mary grew up with the ancient writings. She most likely knew this song and drew part of her inspiration from it, with, of course, the help of the Holy Spirit.
The Old and New Testaments are not two separate books: they are closely woven into one another.

4. God takes justice seriously

The theme of justice comes up very often in the Old Testament: God cares that we take care of one another, of the poor and of vulnerable people.
The preacher quotes a passage he calls radical, Amos 5. The people of Israel oppress the poor, push the most fragile aside, and even put extra burdens on them. And yet they keep gathering and celebrating their feasts.
God answers: "I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can't stand your solemn assemblies. [...] Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the melody of your harps. But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream" (Amos 5:21-24).
Applied to today: if we sing the glory of God on Sunday, then live entirely for ourselves, selfishly, with no concern for the poor or the most fragile, "that doesn't look very good."
God himself has shown that he cares for us: he gave us his Son, the Lord Jesus.

5. Jesus fulfills the mission

Mary's child was born, he grew up, and this message continues in his work. In Luke 4, in the synagogue of Nazareth, Jesus reads the prophet Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed" (Luke 4:18).
Jesus came first of all to bring us back to him. On our own, we cannot make it: we all fail, and we all have a share in the injustice of this world.
On the cross, all the guilt, all the misery, all the chaos and all the injustice of the world were laid on him. "He carried it all."
If we know this deep in our hearts, a question arises: how do we live now? The mission with which Jesus entered the world, we can continue.
Jesus is the ultimate example: he went straight to the most fragile, to those whom society looked at with suspicion.

6. Caring for those on your path

It is not easy, and the preacher sees it in his own street. He lives in a rental housing complex where asylum seekers from faraway countries have arrived. He knows it is a complicated subject, but he tells himself: "These people live on my street. I have only one mission: to love them from the bottom of my heart."
This mission applies to you too: "Whoever crosses your path, whether you like them or not, we have only one mission: to give out the love of the Lord Jesus without condition."
We do not have a solution to all the world's problems. But on the small patch of ground where we have been placed, we can pass on hope and love to those who need it so much.
He knows people in mourning who feel avoided: at the supermarket, some quickly switch aisles, because it is hard to be confronted with pain. "Take care of one another. Even when it is hard, even when it hurts."
One example inspires him: a nephew of his, in his early twenties, lived far from God a few years ago, "in darkness." God "grabbed him by the collar" and he became a child of God. He is now going to take part in a Muskathlon in the Philippines, an effort mobilized for the most vulnerable, including very young children sometimes already forced into prostitution. Since it began, the Muskathlon has raised 32 million for organizations that work for justice, such as Open Doors, Compassion or International Justice Mission.
"Let us not be brought down by the darkness and by the dark powers raging in this world." Let us follow Mary's example: a very simple young girl, used to bring the message of salvation into the world.
The preacher comes from the Veluwe, where people are quick to say: "Doe maar gewoon, dan doe je al gek genoeg" (just act normal, that is crazy enough already). We are only ordinary people. But with the power of the Holy Spirit in us, we can count for a great deal in this world.
If all of this seems too big and you wonder where to start, look at Jesus: he took time for a single person, as when he tells Zacchaeus that he must go to his house (Luke 19:5). He is also the shepherd who leaves the 99 sheep to look for the one that is lost (Luke 15:4).

7. "Forever": the hope that sends us out

The song ends like this: God has helped Israel, his servant, and remembered his mercy, "to Abraham and his seed forever" (Luke 1:54-55). A conclusion often found in the Psalms.
This "forever" gives perspective: this world, with its misery and pain, is passing. We are waiting for the day when Jesus will return to put an end, once and for all, to every injustice.
"What a relief that will be," to be with God forever, in peace, where people will no longer hurt one another, where death will be no more and there will be no more sorrow.
It is from this hope that we carry out our mission today. It begins as soon as we leave church: in your family, among your neighbors, by showing love and light.
The message ends with a song chosen in response, "Hij kwam bij ons heel gewoon" (He came to us quite simply), which reminds us that Jesus paid the price and that his example calls us to serve every day.

Key takeaways

In troubled times, it is precious to come together, like Mary and Elizabeth, to share life and magnify God together.
Mary's song, like Hannah's, announces a God who brings down the powerful, lifts up the lowly and fills the hungry.
God takes justice seriously: praise that does not translate into care for the poor and the most fragile does not please him (Amos 5).
Jesus carried all the injustice of the world to the cross. We can continue his mission by loving unconditionally those who cross our path.
We are only ordinary people, but with the power of the Holy Spirit, and in the hope of Jesus' return, we can count in this world.

Personal application

Whom could you go and see this week, over a coffee, to ask what is on their mind and to magnify God with them?
Is there a gap between what you sing on Sunday and the way you live the rest of the week?
Who on your street or in your circle needs you to love them unconditionally, even if you do not naturally like them?
Do you sometimes avoid someone who is grieving or suffering because their pain makes you uncomfortable? What step could you take toward them?
When the injustice of the world seems too big, who is the "one person" you could go to, as Jesus went to Zacchaeus?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Why do people say Mary's song is about justice?

In Luke 1:52-53, Mary sings that God has brought down the powerful from their thrones, lifted up the lowly, filled the hungry and sent the rich away empty. For Christiaan van Renselaar, this was a revolutionary message at a time when everything rested on the law of the strongest and Rome seemed all-powerful.

What is the link between Mary's song and Hannah's song?

Hannah's song, in 1 Samuel 2, shares several points with Mary's: God brings low and lifts up, and he raises the poor from the dust. The preacher thinks that Mary, who had grown up with the ancient writings, knew this song and drew part of her inspiration from it, with the help of the Holy Spirit. He sees in this a sign that the Old and New Testaments are closely linked.

How can you do justice when the world's problems seem too big?

Christiaan van Renselaar acknowledges that we do not have a solution to all the world's problems. But where God has placed us, we can pass on hope and love. He invites us to follow the example of Jesus, who took time for a single person, like Zacchaeus, and to love unconditionally those who cross our path.