We are getting into the Christmas season, probably my favorite time of year. One thing that marks this time of year is all the Christmas music. I particularly like songs that deal with Mary and/or Joseph. One of my favorites is “Mary Did You Know”. This song sometimes draws criticism, with people saying things like “of course she knew”. However, I don’t think she did know, at least not everything. I think that to say that she did know both gives her too much and too little credit. So, from a Biblical prospective, let’s try to answer the question, what did Mary know?
Let’s start with the Biblical evidence for what Mary did know.
Mary was told, by the angel Gabriel, that she would have a son and that she was to call him Jesus (Luke 1:31). The name Jesus means “savior”, or, more specifically, “the Lord is salvation” or “God saves”. In verses 32 and 33, she was then told “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” Then, in Verse 35, she was told “that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God”. After Mary’s pregnancy had begun to progress, Joseph, to whom Mary was betrothed, was told that Mary’s child was of the Holy Spirit and that He was to be called Jesus (Matthew 1:20-21). Clearly, both Mary and Joseph knew that this was no ordinary child.
Now, fast forward to just before Jesus began His Earthly ministry. We are told, in John, Chapter 2, of a wedding which both Mary and Jesus were attending. This is when Jesus turned water into wine, because they had run out of wine. The thing that is significant about this, for our purposes, is that Jesus doing this was Mary’s idea. This is the first recorded miracle that Jesus performed and it is probably the first miracle that He ever publicly performed, because He initially objected to doing it, saying that His time had not yet come. As she asked Him to do this, Mary obviously already knew that He could do miracles. It makes you wonder what else He may have done privately at home, doesn’t it? Maybe he healed the family pet. In any case, by this point, Mary clearly knew at least something of the specifics of Jesus’ divine nature.
Now, let’s take a look at the Biblical evidence for what Mary, perhaps, did not know, and there is more of it than you may think.
In Luke, Chapter 2, verse 11, the shepherds were told “there is born to you this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord”. This is the first time in Scripture that Jesus is referred to by the title of Christ, which means Messiah. This is significant. At this point, it had already been made known that Jesus was to be named, well, Jesus, which does mean “savior” but this, in itself, doesn’t convey as much as you may think. This was basically a more modern rendering of the name Joshua and this was not an uncommon name at the time. However, adding the title Christ to the name Jesus said much more about just Who He was. Now that we have laid this foundation, let’s look at verses 16 through 19.
16 And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the Babe lying in a manger.
17 Now when they had seen Him, they made widely known the saying which was told them concerning this Child.
18 And all those who heard it marveled at those things which were told them by the shepherds.
19 But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart.
We have established that, at this point, Mary certainly already knew that Jesus was not a normal child. Perhaps she knew enough that she could have deduced that He was the Messiah, Who’s coming had been so long for-told. And yet, when she heard what the shepherds had to say about Jesus being the Christ, the Messiah, she had to ponder these things, as though she did not already know them, or did not understand them, at least not fully.
In verses 22 through 39, we are told of Mary and Joseph taking Jesus to Jerusalem, to the temple, to present Him to the Lord, according to Jewish custom. There was a man there, named Simeon, who had been promised by God that he would not die until he had seen the Christ. Let’s look at what is said in verses 27 through 33 concerning this situation.
27 So he came by the Spirit into the temple. And when the parents brought in the Child Jesus, to do for Him according to the custom of the law,
28 he took Him up in his arms and blessed God and said:
29 “Lord, now You are letting Your servant depart in peace,
According to Your word;
30 For my eyes have seen Your salvation
31 Which You have prepared before the face of all peoples,
32 A light to bring revelation to the Gentiles, And the glory of Your people Israel.”
33 And Joseph and His mother marveled at those things which were spoken of Him.
Mary and Joseph marveled at what Simeon said about Jesus. Just as before with what the shepherds said, it appears that they did not yet fully know or understand Who Jesus was and His role as Savior. Then, in verse 35, Simeon said to Mary “a sword will pierce through your own soul also”, seemingly in reference to The crucifixion. There is no indication that Mary understood this reference. Also, why would God have had Simeon make this revelation to Mary if this is something she already knew. She doubtlessly looked back later and understood all of this but it appears that she did not fully understand at the time.
Fast forward to Jesus at age 12, when He stayed behind in Jerusalem, after the celebration of the Passover, to sit in the temple and talk with the teachers. Mary and Joseph did not know that He had stayed behind and they went back to look for Him. Let’s look at verses 46 through 51 concerning this.
46 Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions.
47 And all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers.
48 So when they saw Him, they were amazed; and His mother said to Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, Your father and I have sought You anxiously.”
49 And He said to them, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”
50 But they did not understand the statement which He spoke to them.
51 Then He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them, but His mother kept all these things in her heart.
Again, though Mary very clearly did have some understanding and knowledge of Jesus’ divine nature, she just as clearly did not have full understanding (verse 50) but she did consider what had just happened to be significant and kept it in her heart, as though for further reflection (verse 51).
Now, fast forward to a time during Jesus’ Earthly ministry, and let’s look at Mark, Chapter 3, verses 20 and 21.
20 Then the multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread.
21 But when His own people heard about this, they went out to lay hold of Him, for they said, “He is out of His mind.”
The “His own people” here is referring to Mary and Jesus’ brothers, as can be seen later in verse 31, as well as in the parallel accounts of this incident, in Matthew 12:46 and Luke 8:19. The things that Jesus was doing and saying were consistent with the prophecies concerning the Messiah but they did not fit with the popular image which had been formed in Jewish culture of what the Messiah would be like and He was making a lot of powerful enemies. Jesus’ family was concerned about Him and probably feared for His safety. They did not appear to understand that the things He was saying and doing were part of filling His divine role and they did not appear to understand that that role would include Him dying for the sins of humanity.
There is more that could be said about all of this but I think we have established that Mary did know and understand some, but not all, of exactly Who Jesus was and what His mission was in His Earthly ministry. Her understanding probably increased as her life, and His life, progressed. This is the way God often does things. God often operates on a “need to know” basis.
For example, in April of 2014, God revealed to me that He was calling me to Christian ministry. Within the first month or so after that, I realized that this ministry would involve my writing. I had already written one book. I came to understand that I was to make some modifications to the book and republish it, as the beginning of my ministry work. Then, I felt lead to begin to do some public speaking, as the next step, something that scared me to death. I began to seek opportunities to share my Christian testimony with local congregations. Over time, God lead me to write more books, to begin to write articles, to expand my speaking to include preaching, to start a podcast and a YouTube channel, to incorporate the ministry, etcetera. At each step in this process, God equipped and empowered me to take the current step, while laying the foundation for the next step, and in this way, He has lead me down the path He would have me to walk in His service. All those years ago, if He had revealed to me what this ministry would look like today, I might have run screaming at the thought of all the work and responsibility that I would have felt unequipped to handle. God always does things the way He does them for a reason.
Let’s think about this as it relates to Mary. She was given a great deal of revelation concerning Jesus, right from the beginning. It is easy for us to look back at that and think that she was told enough to put everything together about Who Jesus was and what His mission on this Earth was. However, it is much easier to see all these things in hindsight. Also, we must remember that all true knowledge is revealed by God and, though He gave her the revelation, He apparently did not give her full understanding of that revelation. Why might He have done it this way?
Suppose God had told Mary something like this:
“I am about to send my only Son to Earth, in human form, through you. Though He will take the form of a baby and then a boy and then a man, He will also fully have My divine nature. He will choose to submit to you but you will literally be raising God incarnate. He will be the only human to ever live a perfect and sinless life and then, through no fault of His own, He will be executed, using the most horrific means ever to be devised. As part of this process, he will take your eternity in Hell upon Himself, along with that of every other person. You will stand there and watch Him suffer and die for your sins. If it is any consolation, He will then rise, victorious over your and all other sin and death and, if you will then be willing to submit to Him as Lord and Savior, you can have eternal life in Him, as can all others.”
If God had said something like this to Mary, do you think this may have been a bit intimidating and caused her to treat Him differently, to raise Him differently? Remember, she was only a woman, apparently an extraordinary woman who had found particular favor with God, but still only a woman, just as Joseph was still only a man. If they had the burden of all this knowledge from the beginning, it may have been more than they could handle and still be able to raise Jesus normally and well. It would have been important that He was raised as others were, so that He could sympathize with our weaknesses, which He does (Hebrews 4:15). Perhaps that is why God did things this way.
This does not reflect negatively on Mary. After all, she was highly favored by God (Luke 1:28), so much so that He chose her, of all of the women on Earth at that time, to carry His only Son and to raise Him. God must have known that she would handle her role, in preparing Him to fulfill his Messianic role, extraordinarily well. However, this does not change the fact that there is a great deal of Scriptural evidence which indicates that she did not understand it all from the beginning. That’s OK. In fact, I find this encouraging and I hope you will as well. When God does not reveal to us what He is doing in and through our lives, we can look at Mary’s example and know that this lack of knowledge about what He is doing does not mean that He isn’t doing something. If we will follow Mary’s example, trusting God, as we take each step, even when we don’t understand the next step, He can and will accomplish great things through us, just as He did through her.
Be encouraged by Mary’s example and have a Merry Christmas!
