Mindful of Mercy

Mindful of Mercy

“The Mighty One has done great things for me, and His name is holy. His mercy is from generation to generation on those who fear Him.” Luke 1:49, 50

If we listen carefully to Mary’s beautiful song the Magnificat, we may hear the foreshadowing of Jesus’ words about His reason for coming. Mary sings of proud hearts scattered, thrones toppled and the lowly exalted. Her song envisions the hungry satisfied with good things and the rich sent away empty. At the conclusion of her Prophetic refrain, she say, “He has helped His servant Israel, mindful of His mercy,…” (Luke 1:46-55)

And so Jesus, perhaps hearing this song throughout His childhood, echoes His mother’s song when He reads from Isaiah in his own home town, “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 proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:18-19). With either grand truth or great audacity, Jesus says to the synagogue crowd, “As you listened, this Scripture has been fulfilled.”

Can we learn something from our mothers after all? Jesus isn’t just making things up. Mary received this glorious song of God’s intention for the world. The core, the chorus of this song, and of Jesus’ reading in the synagogue are both Mercy! I think Jesus is giving voice to how He grew up. His mother taught Him, it is how Mary interpreted Scripture; “it is God’s mercy, my son.” And so, with the mission from Father-God who loved the world so much He gave His only Son, and the influence of His earthly mother, Jesus’ mission is clear, abundantly clear, from the beginning; “the year of the Lord’s favor”. Mercy.

In the time Jesus lived Judea was an occupied country. Living under Roman law, they had to watch their backs to not misstep the demands of occupational rulers. Not only that, their own faith had been taken over by a devotion to rules. There are 613 commandments in the Old Testament. (I have enough trouble staying true to the Ten.) The religious elite of the day expanded upon those rules, not only trying to obey the 613 commands, but thousands of new commands created to clarify the original 613.

As an occupied country chained to a religion that caught you breaking a command about as often as taking a breath, the burden on individuals was immense. Though Jesus did not come to create a new system of government, He did come to bring a new system to the hearts of men and women.

We must keep our eyes on the mark. Like the Magi who saw the star and never took their eyes off it, we must keep our eyes upon the message of Mercy that is central to all Jesus came to do. We get distracted by many things. I will not name them; let the Holy Spirit speak to you. But, take some time and listen when the message becomes harsh, and ask yourself, “What is actually being said?” Then consider, does it sound like Mary’s song that joyously exclaimed the Lord has been “mindful of his mercy…”? Does it sound like Jesus’ own definition of His mission saying he came to proclaim the “year of the Lord’s favor”?  Do not be pulled aside by fear, by demagoguery, or by the songs of people who can only speak of destruction.

You could take any line in the Magnifcat and preach a whole sermon on that one phrase, that one truth, that her world needed to experience and that our world desperately needs to hear. But especially hear these words, “He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever."

Mercy is hard to come by these days. Yet, here’s Mary, who probably received very little mercy from her neighbors. Because of her suspicious pregnancy she should have been silenced, separated as one unworthy of God’s love. But she knew better, she had the Word of God to her. I haven’t seen much mercy lately, either. But, there are many ways to respond to this lack of mercy.

As we think about Jesus’ birth what difference would it make if our starting point were mercy? If we sang Mary’s song? A song to sing instead of talk of indifference and intolerance? A song to sing instead of speaking words of hate and fear? A song to sing instead of closed mouths, unwilling to speak up for or speak out against? Mary’s song would make our world a different place, a better place, a place where we might even catch a glimpse of the kingdom of God.

Thank you Prophet Mary.