How much did Mary know?

Micah 5:2-5a      Hebrews 10:5-10      Luke 1:39-56

How much did Mary know?

There is a modern carol that seems to irritate the living daylights out of some people. It is the song written by songwriters Rufus and Alan and entitled simply: Mary Did You Know. The problem with this song for those who don’t like it, is that it has one of those earworm-type tunes that get stuck in your head and once the music starts the words follow.

Mary, did you know that your baby boy Would one day walk on water?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy Would save our sons and daughters?

Did you know that your baby boy Has come to make you new?

This child that you delivered, will soon deliver you

Mary, did you know that your baby boy Will give sight to a blind man?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy Will calm the storm with his hand?

Did you know that your baby boy Has walked where angels trod?

When you kiss your little baby You kiss the face of God

Mary, did you know?

The blind will see, the deaf will hear The dead will live again

The lame will leap, the dumb will speak The praises of the Lamb

Mary, did you know that your baby boy Is Lord of all creation?

Mary, did you know that your baby boy Would one day rule the nations?

Did you know that your baby boy Is heaven's perfect Lamb?

That sleeping child you're holding is the great, I Am

Now, personally, I think the song writers ask a good question. Mary did you know? Or, for the sake of this talk, we could ask it a bit differently: How much did Mary know? Did she know the answers to all the questions the songwriters pose…or did she know some answers…or perhaps none?

I think the best place to start in an attempt to answer this question, is with the annunciation…when Gabriel came to tell Mary that she would give birth to a son whom she would call Jesus but who, at the same time, would be called the Son of the Most High. We read over this passage so quickly that we miss something quite startling. Think about this. Mary’s only question is about the method of impregnation. How will this be possible, she asked…I’m a virgin. So, at least we know that, even though she was more than likely only about 14 years of age, she knew how that worked! She knew that in order to have a child, you needed both a man and a woman. Now, please, I am not making a political statement here, I am merely stating the obvious biological necessity…this is the way God created us…without a man somewhere in the picture, a woman cannot get pregnant. And Mary knew that. She was a virgin…she was not married…so how was this prediction to be fulfilled? That was her only question.

Now, in the light of this knowledge, I think it is astounding to hear her respond to Gabriel’s explanation, “I am the Lord’s servant,” she replied. “May everything you have said about me come true.” Whatever we may think of this young girl, she knew that the baby she would bear was no ordinary baby. Note that she never asked the angel about the Holy Spirit or about how he would bring about such a miraculous conception…she did not ask what it meant that the baby to be born was the Son of God. Either she was the most naïve human being that ever walked this planet, or she suffered from a deplorable lack of curiosity, or she actually knew at least something of what Gabriel was talking about. In one sense - in his humanity - the child would be fashioned in the same way as Adam. God himself would take on human form, not out of clay this time, but rather out of the flesh and blood of a woman. And I think, given Mary’s lack of further need for clarification, that she knew that this man to be born from her womb would be the promised seed of a woman…that he would be the fulfilment of God’s promise in the Garden right after Adam and Eve plunged our race into darkness through their disobedience. One day, God had said, the seed of the woman would deal with the demonic usurper by striping him of his stolen authority.

Then there is the meeting between the aunt and the niece. When the older Elizabeth heard the greeting of the younger Mary, the 6-month-old baby in her womb (what is today known as a foetus) leaped for joy…a movement unlike any other she had experienced thus far as she interpreted it as a display of worship not just a shift of foetal position. This in itself is something worthy of meditation and contemplation – that a 6-month-old foetus in one womb could respond to the presence of a month or less old foetus in a different womb. It tells us something about life before birth.

But be that as it may, notice once again Mary’s response to the words of Elizabeth. Mary does not question her as to what she meant by calling her blessed or what she meant by calling her child blessed or what she meant when she referred to her as “the mother of my Lord”. 

As a side note here, someone once stated quite emphatically that he believed Elizabeth did not use the word “Lord” as a title of divinity, but rather as a form of respect, very much like calling a senior male person, ‘sir’. My response then is still the same today…seriously? The text tells us clearly that she was filled with the Holy Spirit and was therefore making a prophetic declaration of some sort, and then at the end of her short speech she once more uses the same word ‘Lord’ to refer clearly to God. No brainer…

But back to my line of reasoning. Note how Mary responded to her aunt’s declaration…she did not disagree nor did she ask all sort of questions, but rather she responded with a hymn of praise and affirmation.

This hymn, known to most of us as the Magnificat, is quite informative. It tells us something about how much Mary really knew. The entire hymn is made up of quotations from several Old Testament texts, some from the Torah and the Psalms, which would be understandable as every Jewish child had memorised at least the Torah and the Psalms by the age of ten, but there are also quotations and allusions to other writings such as from the first book of Samuel, the book of Job, as well as some of the prophets like Isaiah, Micah, and Zephaniah. Clearly, Mary knew more than we often have thought in the past. True, some critics have said that this was Luke exercising extreme poetic license, but that does not concur what Luke says about his own writing in Luke 1:3, that he had carefully investigated everything about Jesus from the beginning and that he had endeavoured to write down an accurate account of these things. So, either the modern-day critics are wrong, or Luke is wrong…I think I would prefer to stick with the Holy Spirit inspired author of the Gospel. 

And then there is that wonderful verse that is often overlooked. Mary stayed with Elizabeth about three months and then went back to her home. Now, besides the fact that this seems to be the exact opposite of what we would do if our unmarried teenage daughter got pregnant – Mary went home once she was showing rather than waiting till after the birth – but besides that, she stayed three months with, not only the wife of a priest, but also a righteous and devout woman in her own right who was a direct descendent of the first High Priest of Israel, Aaron himself. Add to this the fact that Elizabeth and Zechariah had had their own angelic visitation and angelic communication, and I think you have the recipe for a very interesting three-month long Bible Study. 

Have you ever wondered what these two women talked about for three months? Surely not about the right amount of salt to throw in the dough for challah or matzos. Ok, maybe they did swap some recipes, but I think these two remarkable women talked about what God was about to do for the world through the children they were bearing in their wombs. 

You know, I wonder if Elizabeth perhaps sent her mute husband to the local synagogue to retrieve the scroll containing the prophecy of Micah…the prophecy we read from today. Maybe they discussed how Mary would be able to have the Child in Bethlehem when she lived in Nazareth. As descendents of David, that was both her and Joseph’s ancestral town, but how would God work it out that they would need to relocate just in time for the birth? I think here we could probably safely assume that Mary did not know that Augustus would soon call for a census that would necessitate such a move. 

But I do wonder if the two women did not study all the messianic prophecies in detail and if they discussed them at length and deliberated how they might be fulfilled. The entire nation was speculating about the advent of the messiah…why would Elizabeth and Mary be any different?

I wonder if they talked about how Jesus would save his people from their sins. It seems clear from what we read in the Gospels that the disciples did not anticipate the crucifixion…that Jesus would give his body as a sacrifice to fulfil the requirement of the Law. But did Mary know? Did Mary know that when she wrapped her baby in the same cloths used by shepherds to prevent the sacrificial lambs birthed in Bethlehem from injury so that they might be without blemish – did she know that when she did this, she was performing a prophetic act that Jesus would be the Lamb of God that would take away the sins of the world? 

When Simeon, the righteous and devout man who was eagerly awaiting the coming of the Messiah, declared that Jesus would be a light to the nations, did Mary have any idea of the global spread of the church through mission? Probably not, but have you ever wondered what she made of his comment that a sword would pierce her very soul? Did she recall Simeon’s words when the leaders in Israel began to oppose her son? Could she see the writing on the wall, so to speak, when Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem that one last time? 

Now, although Mary most probably did not know exactly how her son would fulfil all what had been said about him in the words of Gabriel, Elizabeth, Joseph, the Shepherds, Simeon, Anna, and the Magi, Luke tells us that she pondered all these things in her heart. She meditated on them…mulled them over in her mind…contemplated these things.

But regardless of how much she actually knew or how much she actually understood, there is one overriding “knowing” that every follower of her son can learn from. It is simply this. She knew in whom she believed. When faced with what she knew was humanly speaking impossible, she humbly stated: I am the Lord’s servant. Let it be done to me as you have said.

Dearest beloved brethren, none of us know what tomorrow may bring. We all face an uncertain future. And while we may be able to predict a few things based on simple logic, we ultimately do not know if we will take the very next breath. 

But this we do know…together with Mary, we know that our God loves us so much that he was willing to send his one and only son into the world so that, through the sacrifice of his body, we might become the adopted children of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus, once for all time.

Let us pray…

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2021