poverty and plenty

Just as Luke’s Eastern Mediterranean urban community was caught in the conflict between diverse social and economic situations, Mary’s song also stands in this battlefield.  Throughout his gospel, Luke ‘shows special interest in the relationships between rich and poor.’   It must not be forgotten that Joseph and Mary were ‘extremely poor.’   But into this hunger and poverty, new life is lodged.  God fills ‘the hungry with good things,’ even filling the womb of a faithful Jewish teenager with God’s own.  Godet would argue that ‘the poor and hungry’ in Mary’s song are ‘the true Israel,’ the faithful remnant, and that ‘the proud and mighty and rich’ are the elites, ‘Herod and his court, the Pharisees and Sadducees, the foreign oppressors, Caesar and his armies, the powers of heathendom.’   As the stage is set and the players are in place for this confrontation between the rich and the poor, the hungry and full, the third strophe of Mary’s song introduces ‘the great Messianic revolution.’  Songs have always accompanied revolutions, set the tone and tempo for them, given voice to the voiceless.  It is no different in Mary’s song.  The great reversal has a melody.