How to Be Blessed at Christmas
If you’ve ever thought Christianity is only for “super polished and put-together people,” my guess is you’ve never tried to read through the entire Bible. There are entire books—like the longest one, the Psalms—that are written by people full of sadness, doubts, and even anger toward God. Sure, some Christians today might portray themselves as polished and put together. But believers in the Bible were anything but.
This Christmas, I’ve been struck by a sort of New Testament psalm, written by Mary, the mother of Jesus. She was an incredible woman of faith, but not many of us would call her life polished and put together. Her psalm is found in Luke 1, right at the beginning of the Christmas story. And it’s a story of blessing in the midst of turmoil.
Here’s the context: Mary wrote her psalm shortly after the angel Gabriel announced to her that she, a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, would conceive a child by the Holy Spirit and give birth to the Messiah, the Son of God, who would be the Savior of the world. That’s a lot to take in, so it’s probably not a surprise that Mary’s response was as grand as it was. (If God gave me news like that, I’d have a big response, too, but I doubt it would be poetry.) Mary’s psalm is traditionally called The Magnificat, since “Magnificat” is the first word in the Latin translation. Mary must have known her Bible, because nearly every line of the Magnificat alludes to some kind of Old Testament passage.
I want you to think about the circumstances of Mary’s life when she wrote this psalm. She was an unmarried, pregnant, teenage girl in a culture where that was about the biggest scandal possible. The angel Gabriel hadn’t explained Mary’s miraculous conception to anyone else—only to Mary.
But here’s what people did know: Everyone knew that Mary was engaged to a man named Joseph. And the custom in those days was that the engaged couple would intentionally live completely apart for the year leading up to their marriage, and didn’t see each other that much. So people knew the baby wasn’t his. What this means is that people would have assumed that Mary had betrayed Joseph.
Joseph assumed as much (what else could he assume?), which is why Matthew’s Gospel tells us that he planned to break off the engagement. Eventually, Gabriel appeared to Joseph and explained all this to him, but at the time Mary wrote this psalm, that hadn’t happened yet.
To make matters even worse, we know Mary was poor. The law required a Jewish couple to offer a lamb as a sacrifice after the birth of their firstborn son, but Mary and Joseph offered two turtle doves, which was a provision in the law made for the exceptionally poor who couldn’t afford the lamb required for sacrifice.
Get your mind around this. Pregnant out of wedlock. Reputation ruined. Fiancé is about to dump her. The poorest of the poor. These are Mary’s circumstances. And yet, what does Mary call herself?
Blessed.
What was that? Blessed? How in the world does a woman in the midst of a scandal see herself as the recipient of a blessing?
Here’s how: As her psalm declares, Mary knew that whatever terrible circumstances surrounded her, God was in it. And that made all the difference.
Mary’s psalm points to two realities that the birth of this baby guaranteed her—realities that are just as available to you and me today.
1. Mary was blessed because God’s presence was with her (vv. 46–53).
Notice in Mary’s psalm how intimately she speaks about God:
-v. 46: He is God, my Savior.
-v. 48: He has looked upon me.
-v. 49: He has done great things for me.
-v. 52: I was lowly and he exalted me.
-v. 53: I was hungry and he fed me.
God was not just a power “up in the sky” to Mary. Through the birth of this baby, Mary felt intimately connected to God. After all, that’s what the angel promised her: “The Lord is with you!” (Luke 1:28). Mary was the first person on earth to experience the reality of Emmanuel, God with us. And when you know God is with you, your whole world changes—even if your external circumstances remain pretty bleak.
2. Mary was blessed because she knew that God’s promises were for her (vv. 54–55).
Look at how Mary finishes her psalm:
“He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever” (Luke 1:54–55).
You might think, given how personally Mary refers to God in vv. 46–53, that she’s really just thinking about God and her. But Mary knew better than to assume this was just her own personal religious experience. Mary recognized that through this baby in her womb, God was fulfilling the promises he had made to Abraham and his descendants many years ago.
Do you remember what those promises were? In Genesis 12, God says, “I will bless you and make your name great, and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” Through the birth of this baby, Mary understood she had received that blessing, and others would call her blessed because through her, they would receive the blessing, too. God seemed silent for centuries before he appeared to Mary. But the moment the angel opened his mouth, Mary recognized that God had been active all along. His promises didn’t fail for a moment. They were true, gloriously true—not just for Israel, but for Mary, too.
And for you and me.
The blessing of God is the personal, intimate knowledge that God is with you and that he is for you. This Christmas, God wants you to be blessed just like Mary was; he wants you to know him as Father as tenderly and intimately as Mary did; he wants you to be as sure of his presence with you and his favor upon you as Mary was.
Photo Credit: SWN Design
Pastor J.D. completed his Ph.D. in Theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. He serves as a member of the Board of Directors of Chick-fil-A, serves as a Council member for The Gospel Coalition, and recently served as the 62nd president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Pastor J.D. and his wife Veronica are raising four awesome kids.
"Editor's Note: Pastor JD Greear's "Ask the Pastor" column regularly appears at Christianity.com, providing biblical, relatable, and reliable answers to your everyday questions about faith and life. Email him your questions at requests@jdgreear.com."
