Unexpected Jesus

Luke 1:46 (NRSV)

And Mary said,
"My soul magnifies the Lord,
and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.
Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
for the Mighty One has done great things for me,
and holy is his name.
His mercy is for those who fear him
from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with his arm;
he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things,
and sent the rich away empty.
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." 

A lot has been said about this beautiful poem spoken by Mary in response to the amazing thing happening to her.  It has been called radical, a protest song, a song of liberation.  And I think it is those things.  Mary speaks these words to Elizabeth - her cousin and also future mother to be. A woman also blessed with an unlikely pregnancy of a special child. Mary says these words in the context of being a women who will bear God's child in a time when her people are put down and in need of liberation.  It is likely that Mary, as well as the people who will follow her son in the future, sees the liberation that will happen as something very different than what would unfold.  Freedom from tyranny (or anything else really) normally in our minds comes across looking like a zero sum game: the losers get to win, and the winners get to lose.

I don't dismiss then the ideas born out of this song that God does have a heart for the poor and the lowly and the downtrodden.  I affirm God's desire for us to have a heart for the poor and the lowly and the downtrodden as well.

But Mary will likely be surprised with how God's mercy for his servant Israel will unfold.  From the moment her child will be born in the stable, it will be clear that with Jesus, nothing goes as expected.

So as we move to Christmas this week, with apologies to Charles Wesley the great hymn-writer, I would say that rather than singing "Come thou Long Expected Jesus," perhaps we should be singing "Come thou UN-expected Jesus."  

Jesus will shock and surprise us.  He will do the unexpected, love the unlikely, and will not act in the ways his followers want him to.  He will not always act in the ways we want him to.

He won't be held to a standard set by us, or even on set by his adoring, pondering mother.  He will set the captives free and lift the lowly and scatter the proud to be sure, but not in ways we would ever imagine.

And even as we await the incarnational mystery of Christmas, we look ahead to the cross where freedom will be found in the most unexpected place of all.

***

Come Lord Jesus.  Surprise us!  Amen.