Commentary on Luke 1:26-45 [46-56]

The announcement of Jesus’ birth brought by Gabriel to his mother Mary elicits perplexity and pondering followed by probing and, finally, permission-giving. These four movements in this scene give us insight into the character of Mary, which can, in turn, help us understand important things about God’s regard for her and for women more broadly.

Perplexity, pondering, probing, permission-giving

The angel Gabriel’s greeting causes Mary to be “perplexed” (Luke 1:29). A better translation might be “perturbed,” because the young woman was certainly caught off guard by this heavenly messenger. Yet her mind quickly pivots to consider the announcement about the son she is to bring into the world. She “ponders”—something she will do again in nine months when the shepherds come to the inn with an astonishing story of angels filling the sky and announcing her son’s birth (2:19).

Just from 1:29, however, we can already tell that Mary is a woman who is alert, thinks deeply, and deliberates without fear. This leads to her probing. She questions how she will give birth since she has not yet conceived a child (verse 34). The angel replies with even more bewildering news. Not only will she miraculously conceive the child through the Holy Spirit, but her cousin Elizabeth, thought to be barren, is also with child.

This brings Mary to the final movement of the scene: permission-giving. “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (verse 38). Mary is giving permission to God to create this miracle within her. In this story, Mary has agency, choice, and control over her own body.

God respects Mary’s body, personhood, and voice

Mary’s autonomy in Luke’s Gospel is no small thing. Written in a time of staunch patriarchy when women had very little say in their own fate, this Gospel stands as a witness to God’s respect for Mary’s body, her personhood, and her voice. Verses 46–55 allow us to hear that voice when Mary sings what could be described as an anthem of revolution.

Of course, this is not the way Mary has been characterized over the centuries. Instead of recognizing her for the powerful woman she is, many have made her small and have dismissed her revolutionary significance. Most images depict a demure (white) woman, domesticated and docile, gazing at her newborn son in a star-washed manger. However, this limited portrait erases the totality of Mary’s personhood.

Mary’s three roles: Disciple, prophet, mother

Beverly Gaventa points out that Mary has not one role, but three—as disciple, as prophet, and as mother.¹ Our dainty, sanitized Christmas cards, however, show us only one of those roles—Mary as mother. This is problematic, because when we believe that the only valid roles for Mary, or any woman for that matter, are as wife and mother, we lose the rest of the gifts they have to offer.

At the very least, Mary’s story and her song force us to confront our attitudes about women and how we treat them. Do we try to make women feel smaller, to cut them down, undermine them, and humiliate them into embarrassed silence? Or do we encourage their full-throated voices to sing, laugh, teach, pray, preach, and fill the space they occupy?

Jerusha Matsen Neal reminds us, “When Mary says that generations will call her blessed (Luke 1:48), this blessing is not for her alone. The great things that the ‘Mighty One has done’ for Mary (v. 49) are a fulfillment of the ‘promise [God] made to [Mary’s] ancestors’” (v. 55).² And those promises are for generations to come.

The solidarity of the women

What’s more, the exchange between Mary and Elizabeth gives us a portrait of women united in their strength and solidarity. Rarely does the Bible show us women working together, but when it does, the results are stunning. Recall the Egyptian and Israelite women protecting the babies from a murderous pharaoh in Exodus 1–2. Remember the daughters of Zelophehad advocating for their property rights (Numbers 27:1–11). And of course, think about the women who proclaimed the good news of the risen Christ (Luke 24:1–10)—the first preachers of the resurrection!

Here at this early point in Luke’s story, we have two women—Elizabeth and Mary—conspiring together about the children whom they will raise to change the world: John the Baptist and Jesus the Christ. Matsen Neal says that this is a story that “communicates the potency of female cooperation rather than competition.”³

These are women who have the power to nurture life with their own bodies. And to ponder and probe, envisioning and voicing a world where the lowly are recognized as having value. They can see on the horizon the structure for a world where food and wealth are not hoarded by a handful of rich men but shared equitably. Where those who try to enlarge themselves by cutting others down find their thoughts scattered and impotent.

Magnifying the Lord

In our own time, we must end the practices that shut out and shut down women. We must not attempt to suppress the power of the Holy Spirit to lift them up. This is exactly the time when we must encourage girls and women to learn all they can, experiment with unbridled curiosity, and manifest the vision that the divine Spirit is placing within them.

Matsen Neal explains, “[Mary’s] song stands as a critique of any codification of tradition that would set up the powerful on thrones or silence the lowly.”⁴ She reminds us that the Holy Spirit is the one who empowers Mary in these three roles of disciple, prophet, and mother. Mary’s discipleship informs her motherhood, and vice versa. Her role as a prophet is informed by her role as a disciple. And all of this is made possible by the Spirit of God.

It is worth noting that Mary has the audacity to say that her soul magnifies the Lord. As in, her soul makes God even larger than God already is. Like a magnifying glass allowing us to see the intricate detail of something at close range, Mary’s body, voice, revolutionary song, and revolutionary son will enlarge the purposes of God.

 Notes

1. Beverly Gaventa, Mary: Glimpses of the Mother of Jesus (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1999), 72–73.
2. Jerusha Matsen Neal, The Overshadowed Preacher: Mary, the Spirit, and the Labor of Proclamation (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans, 2020), 197.
3. Matsen Neal, 117.
4. Matsen Neal, 117.

PRAYER OF THE DAY

Father God,
There is no miracle as grand as birth. As we prepare for the coming of your son, Jesus, create in us new life. Transform us so that we may reflect the light of your son, and become beacons of goodness, kindness, compassion, generosity, honesty, patience, and peace, for the sake of the one whose name brings deliverance and life to all the world, Jesus Christ, infant king. Amen.

HYMNS

My soul proclaims your greatness ELW 251
My soul gives glory to my God UMH 1983, NCH 119
Joy to the world ELW 267, H82 100, UMH 246
Signs and wonders ELW 672

CHORAL

Thou shalt know him when he comes, Mark Sirette