Mary, What Did You Know?

Mary, what did you know?

If you were listening to the radio around Christmas in 1997, it would have been almost impossible to miss the soulful duet of Kenny Rogers and Wynonna Judd singing Mary Did You Know? The song, which has also been recorded by everyone from Dolly Parton to Pentatonix, asks Mary just how much she knew about her newborn baby's divinity. This beautiful holiday reflection begs the question, just how much did Mary know?

Certainly, Mary knew this sleeping infant was special. After all, it was the first time anyone had ever heard of a baby being born to a virgin. Matthew and Luke record four separate divine messages about Jesus.

1. The angel Gabriel visits Mary (Luke 1:26-38)
2. Joseph has a dream (Matthew 1:18-25)
3. The angels proclaim the birth to the shepherds (Luke 2:8-20)
4. Simeon prophecies about Jesus at the temple (Luke 2:25-35)

Between these four events some things Mary would know was that her baby would be conceived by the Holy Spirit, named Jesus, a son of God and of David, a king over the Jews whose reign would not end, a light to the gentiles, a savior who would be called “God with us”, and one who would be opposed causing Mary great sorrow.

That is a lot of information, but not a lot of specifics. One might say Mary knew he was from God and had a very special purpose, but only a vague idea of what that would look like in Jesus’ life.

Now let’s fast forward three decades to the wedding at Cana. Jesus is a grown man now. He has obtained the full age of Jewish male adulthood, but he has just now started off on his ministry. He has gathered a group of young men as disciples but has not yet performed any of the miracles or signs which would come to distinguish him as being one from God. The apostle John is believed to have spent significant amounts of time with Mary later in her life caring for her as Jesus asked him to from the cross (John 19:26-27). His gospel is the only one to record Jesus' first miracle of turning water into wine at the Cana wedding feast.

On the third day, a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.”

“Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.”

His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”  (John 2:1-6)

The Wedding feast is out of wine to the great embarrassment of the bride and groom. But Mary is stepping in to save the day, and somehow, she knows that her son, Jesus, will know exactly how to do that. Mary, what did you know?

One common way of interpreting this passage is to assume that Mary knew Jesus could perform signs and wonders. She was aware of his ability to do the miraculous and thus implied to Jesus that he ought to perform a miracle in this moment. This might be supported by Luke's last words about Jesus' childhood after he was presented at the temple.

But his mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man. (Luke 2:51b-52).

Throughout history, many have assumed that Mary may have seen glimpses of Jesus' ability to bend the rules that govern nature. The infancy gospel of Thomas is a piece of historical fiction written nearly a century and a half after Jesus' life under false authorship (Thomas did not write it). In it, the author spins vivid tales of Jesus as a young boy putting his special abilities to work by doing such things as bringing clay birds to life. Though this work is certainly fiction, could Mary have witnessed Jesus doing things that gave her confidence in his ability to perform a miracle at the wedding? Perhaps, but I think this misses a crucial point of this story. What Mary knew about Jesus' ability was much less important than what she knew about his character.

To understand what Mary knew, we first must fully appreciate the mess that Mary found herself in. The culture of first-century Judaism was an honor & hospitality culture. Your name and the name of your entire family was on the line if you did not treat your guests well. This created a social pressure that was never more present than at a wedding. When a man and woman became betrothed, that set into motion a lengthy process, often more than a year, in which the groom prepared to provide for his new family. This often even involved the groom’s entire family helping in the construction of a home, being completed before the wedding. The marriage could take place once the house was ready, and the money was saved for the wedding feast. The multi-day wedding feast publicly displayed the groom’s ability to provide for his new bride and future children. This meant that running out of food or wine would humiliating to the groom and his entire family, as they cannot fulfill their social obligations, and thus the groom may be seen as a poor provider.

The most likely site for the Biblical Cana is Khirbet Qana, less than a four-hour walk from Nazareth. Mary and Jesus are invited to the wedding, indicating there was a close connection to the family of the bride or the groom. John tells us that even the banquet master was not aware that the wine had run out, so how did Mary come to know about this? Some have suggested that Mary must be closely related to the groom's family, placing her in the kitchen helping to serve at the wedding. Let’s run with that idea.

Mary is part of the family whose name is on the line. She discovers that due to some mistake or carelessness, the wine is gone long before the party is to end. Her heart breaks knowing that her cousin, nephew, brother, son, or whoever the groom is to her will be humiliated once the crowd learns of this blunder. It is at this moment that she looks to Jesus. And what does she know about Jesus? That he will guard her dignity and the dignity of the whole family.

Perhaps she knew he could turn water into wine. Or perhaps she knew he had twelve young, strong friends with him who could run to a neighboring village to scrounge up and purchase dozens of heavy wineskins which they could haul back to the wedding before anyone noticed. Maybe she had no idea what Jesus would do. But she knew he would do something. She knew he was the type of son who would not let her name and the name of her family be dragged through the mud. She knew that he loved everyone in a way that protected their dignity.

And maybe that is all that Mary knew. And that more than was enough.