Luke 1:39–55
The Magnificat is one of the clearest statements of God’s priorities when it comes to power, yet we frequently ignore it. None of the classic Christmas hymns sung in my tradition (and most likely yours too!) utilize the Magnificat as its biblical referent. It’s a regular feature of some liturgies, but it has disappeared from the popular imagination of Christmas in the United States. Mary’s declaration of what the Nativity will mean is very different from what American Christians frequently ascribe to “the reason for the season,” “the meaning of Christmas,” or “the Christmas spirit.” Why? Because the Magnificat is about power.
The Magnificat outlines God’s agenda for society: scattering the proud, bringing down the powerful, and sending the rich away empty. God wants to lift up the lowly and fill the hungry with good things, because that’s frequently not what is happening in our world.
The reversals of the Magnificat are inherently uncomfortable for a culture that would be subject to them. The prison industrial complex, of course, would be torn apart under Mary’s divine vision. All the authorities and powers Americans feel they depend on for their safety and security (despite how wrong-headed that notion is) would be unseated according to Mary. The police would lose their gargantuan budgets, the private prisons would lose their profits, and the politicians who support them would lose their seats.
And, contrary to the ingrained assumptions of many of us, that’s good news! With these dramatic reversals and massive upheavals come liberation, freedom, and the world God wants. Victims of the carceral system would be lifted up, those left without resources and opportunity because of it would be filled. If we listen to Mary’s song, we hear a call to abolition and liberation—one we can’t ignore.
Wesley Spears-Newsome (he/him/his) is a writer and Baptist pastor in North Carolina.