We Don't Know What Mary Knew

There's a nasty bit of social media controversy going around among folks who care enough about Scripture to worry about a Christmas song.  Evidently "Mary, Did You Know?" is offensive to some Christians as it is alleged to ignore the plain evidence of Gabriel's message to Mary at the Annunciation, as well as Mary's response to her pregnancy as recorded in the Magnificat.  

Well, I quite enjoy this song.  First of all, it's one of the few newer Christmas tunes that actually addresses the religious side of Christmas - it's not about Santa, or snow, or "all I want," or any of that.  It's about the miraculous birth of the Christ Child, which is what I treasure about this celebration.

Second, my first hearing of the song was Pentatonix's luminous, reflective arrangement, which captures for me a kind of awe and wonder at Mary's courage in the face of so much that was both known and unknown at the moment when she consented to bear the Son of God.  The sense of questioning - Mary, did you know? could you have known? what must that have felt like? - sounds quite genuine to me.  Not a "Hey, bro, did ya know...," kind of 'splaining, as some suggest, but a wonderment at her choice and its consequences.

To those who object on the basis of Luke's two passages - the Annunciation and the Magnificat - well, the patristic fiction that the author of this gospel was somehow Mary's chosen confidante and so received these accounts directly from her has long been discredited.  Better to see those as parables, or midrashim, later commentaries on what Luke's community understood after the resurrection to be the truth of God's presence in their midst.

And to those who can't resist posting snarky memes to the effect that "of course she knew," please stop.  There's no need to assume that some of us who genuinely enjoy that song are somehow biblically illiterate.  I'm not.  I simply choose to hear it as another midrash, one in which a faithful believer is looking back in awe at a critical moment in human history, and reaching out to their fellow human who had the courage to say "Yes."  And to ponder for just a few moments what that was like for her.