I’ve always felt like Christmas and music naturally go together. When I was a little boy, that was one of my favorite parts of the season. Even as a young child, our family was always singing Christmas carols—whether we were at home, riding in the car, or out running errands.
Honestly, I think my mom used singing to keep us occupied. We didn’t have smartphones back then, and half the time we weren’t even buckled in. We were just bouncing around the car while she tried to do her Christmas shopping with four kids in tow. She needed something to keep us under control, so she sang carols with us.
Those memories are deeply ingrained in me, and I think it’s fitting—because music has always been a part of Christmas.
Over the next few weeks, we will study the songs of Christmas from the Bible. In the Bible, Christmas has always had music. Not about snow or mistletoe; about Jesus. Several prophecies, songs, and psalms in the Old Testament foretold Jesus’ birth. And in the New Testament we have the angels singing gloria to announce the birth to shepherds. But, before angels sang, before shepherds rejoiced, before wise men bowed—there was a young girl who trusted God enough to bear His Son. And Mary sang a song about it. Mary’s Song (also known as Mary’s Magnificat) is found in Luke 1:46-55.
Luke 1:46-55
46 Mary responded,
“Oh, how my soul praises the Lord.
47 How my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!
48 For
he took notice of his lowly servant girl,
and from now on all generations will call
me blessed.
49 For
the Mighty One is holy,
and he has done great things for me.
50 He
shows mercy from generation to generation
to all who fear him.
51 His
mighty arm has done tremendous things!
He has scattered the proud and haughty
ones.
52 He
has brought down princes from their thrones
and exalted the humble.
53 He
has filled the hungry with good things
and sent the rich away with empty hands.
54 He
has helped his servant Israel
and remembered to be merciful.
55 For
he made this promise to our ancestors,
to Abraham and his children forever.”
When Mary sang this beautiful song of praise, she was likely only about 13 years old. In her culture, girls typically married between 13 and 16.
Mary was a woman of deep faith, humility, and trust. And that matters, because we often think praise is something we offer after God answers our prayers—when life is good, when things make sense. But Mary praised God before any of it made sense. She trusted God even though His plan would first lead her through hardship.
She was betrothed to Joseph but not yet married, and now she was pregnant—claiming, truthfully, that the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Imagine having to explain that to your parents, your neighbors, and to Joseph, the man preparing to marry you. It wasn’t just embarrassing—it was dangerous. In her culture, an unwed pregnancy could cost you your life.
And yet Mary still said, “My soul magnifies the Lord.”
She sees and trusts that God is going to do great things. She even says, “He has done great things for me.” Now, most people in a life-threatening, humiliating situation like hers wouldn’t be saying, “God has done great things for me.” But Mary does. Through the eyes of faith, she looks far beyond her present circumstances and says, “Generations will call me blessed.”
How many of us have that kind of faith when we’re facing difficulty? When the situation seems overwhelming—when all we can see is sorrow, struggle, or hardship—can we still say, “The Lord has done great things for me”?
Can you see beyond the obstacle in front of you to the blessing God intends to bring in the future?
Mary sings about the dramatic changes God is going to bring through her Son. Her song announces what I call the Great Reversal. God is going to overturn the usual way the world works.
He scatters the proud and exalts the humble.
He fills the hungry and sends the rich away empty.
These are powerful statements. In fact, they can even be threatening. They were in Jesus’ day. There were powerful people—religious, political, and wealthy—who thought very highly of themselves, dressed in fine clothes, and expected everyone else to look up to them. And then there were the lowly—poor, dirty, ignored, and pushed aside.
Yet Mary declares that God is going to reverse all of it.
He will lift up the humble.
He will bring down the proud.
He will feed the hungry, and the rich will walk away empty-handed.
And this dynamic hasn’t been unique to Jesus’ day. It has existed in every time and every place. What we might see as a harmless little passage has often been viewed as dangerous.
Did you know this passage has actually been outlawed or banned by several governments?
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During British rule in India (1910s–1940s), authorities discouraged Indian Christians from reading Mary’s Song because it inspired hope for the oppressed.
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In the 1930s and 40s, Nazi Germany also restricted it for the same reason.
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Other regimes have done likewise, fearing its message of God overturning unjust power.
When people cling to their own kingdom—when they want to stay in control—Mary’s song is a threat. It declares, “It’s not about you. It’s about God’s kingdom.” Some people don’t like that.
So what does this Great Reversal mean for us? Most of us may not feel wealthy, but compared to much of the world, we are. We have resources. We have influence. We like to be respected. And Mary’s Song reminds us:
Stay humble.
Don’t be too proud. Take pride in your work, but don’t think the world revolves around you. Don’t look down on others because they have less. Don’t think you are better than anyone else. If pride takes root, Mary warns us: Christ will scatter the proud and lift up the humble.
And don’t trust in your riches.
The Bible doesn’t condemn having wealth—many heroes of faith were wealthy. The issue isn’t possession, but dependence. The danger comes when we trust our wealth, our position, or our status more than we trust the Lord. Wealth can disappear in a moment. It cannot save us, protect us, or give us identity.
Our trust must be in God alone. Because God, through Christ, still scatters the proud, exalts the humble, fills the hungry, and sends the rich away empty.
But Mary’s not just singing of social reversals. She is announcing the greatest reversal in human history. As Isaac Watts wrote in Joy to the World: “No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground! He comes to make His blessings flow Far as the curse is found Far as the curse is found Far as, far as the curse is found.”
Jesus
reverses the curse of Genesis 3,
the curse brought on us by Adam and Eve’s sin in the garden.
You may remember the specifics of the curse: pain in childbirth. But as I thought about that this morning, it’s not just the pain of childbirth—it’s also the pain of raising children. There are all kinds of pain wrapped up in parenting. Sometimes it’s as simple—and as heartbreaking—as watching your kids grow up and move out. There’s a joy in seeing them become who God created them to be, but it also leaves a hole where they once were. That’s a kind of pain you can’t avoid—and honestly, you wouldn’t want to. It means they’re growing.
There’s also the pain that comes from generational differences. I hear my kids talk sometimes and think, “They’re just young whippersnappers—they have no idea!” And then I remember I used to think my parents views seemed old-fashioned to me; and now my kids think my views are old-fashioned. And one day their kids will think the same about them. Every generation thinks differently. That’s part of the curse—this tension, this inability to fully see eye to eye.
Then there’s the curse on marriage. God told Eve that her relationship with Adam would be strained:
“Your husband will rule over you.” In other words, what was once perfect unity would now be marked by conflict, power struggles, and misunderstandings.
There’s also the curse on the ground. God told Adam he would have to scratch out a living from the dust and that the soil itself would fight him—thorns and thistles instead of fruit. That’s why I love that line from the hymn Joy to the World: “No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground.”
Imagine being a gardener with no weeds, no thistles, no pests… everything you plant just springs up beautifully. Anyone who has ever worked in a garden knows that is not the world we live in. Gardening is often a battle.
And finally, there is the curse of physical death. Our bodies wear out. We grow tired. And eventually, we pass away.
But Jesus came to reverse all of this. Imagine:
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No more pain in childbirth—or in raising children
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No more strain in marriage, but perfect unity and harmony
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No more curse on the ground—work becoming joy instead of toil
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No more physical death—eternal life with our King
This is what Mary is singing about.
Her Son came to undo the curse and restore the world to what God always intended it to be.
Mary didn’t fully understand God’s plan.
She didn’t know she’d flee to Egypt.
She didn’t know she’d watch her Son die for the sins of the world.
She didn’t know He would rise from the tomb.
But she
knew this:
God keeps His promises. God sees the
humble. God lifts the lowly. God saves
His people.
And so she sang.
The first
Christmas carol is not about nostalgia, snow, or sleigh bells.
The first Christmas carol was sung by a teenage girl who believed the
impossible—
that God was about to undo the Curse and rewrite human history.
The same
God who did great things for Mary wants to do great things in you.
The same
God who brought His Son into the world through her trust
is still looking for people who will say,
“I am the Lord’s servant. May everything you have said about me come true.”
So today,
as we enter this Advent season,
may your soul magnify the Lord,
may your spirit rejoice in God your Savior,
and may you trust that Christ has come to reverse every curse, heal every
wound,
and make “His blessings flow far as the curse is found”—even to you.
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