What did Mary Know?
Mary, did you know
That your baby boy will one day walk on water?
Mary, did you know
That your baby boy will save our sons and daughters?
Did you know
That your baby boy has come to make you new?
This child that you've delivered
Will soon deliver you
- Mary Did You Know?
What did Mary expect when she gave birth to this child? According to much modern teaching, she heard the words of:
Elizabeth and Zachariah
the angel
her husband, Joseph
the shepherds
the Magi
Simeon
Anna
… and yet still did not know her son was Messiah. Can we really believe Mary heard all these people and angels and still didn’t understand her son was the Messiah? Do we really want to believe Mary was this unaware or unintelligent?
We have developed a modern habit of mind that downplays or minimizes the intelligence and knowledge of every person we encounter in the Scriptures. Maybe we think this increases their humility. Or perhaps it makes them seem "more human" and "more relatable?" Or do we think it somehow increases the glory of God? Regardless of our motivation, it constantly causes misunderstandings.
Mary did not struggle with her son's ministry because she was ignorant. Mary struggled with her son's ministry because she understood the Messiah in much the same way as every Jew alive at that time.
The Messiah would be a military leader. He would overthrow Roman rule, restoring Israel to its Davidic glory.
The Magi believed the Messiah would be a military leader, asking: "Where is he who has been born king of the Jews?" (Matthew 2:2). Herod also believed this, killing all the children of Bethlehem to prevent this new king from arising.
Messianic expectations were high from the founding of the Hasmonaean Kingdom of Israel about 100 years before Christ (the origin of Hannukah) to the bloody end of the Bar Kochba revolt 130 years after Christ.
Given this strong emphasis on the Messiah's military leadership, how could Mary and the Apostles think differently? The Disciples of Jesus wondered in Luke 19:11 if Jesus was going to "restore the Kingdom," by which they meant the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Israel—they understood the two ideas to be synonymous. Peter drew his sword to defend Jesus. Some argue Judas betrayed Jesus because he expected military leadership or wanted to force Jesus into taking military action against the Romans.
Who better to lead an army against the apparently invincible Romans than someone who could heal the sick and raise the dead? Who could defeat such a king in battle?
But most Jews had a hazy idea there would be two Messiahs rather than one.[1] Each Rabbinical school held slightly different views of when these two Messiahs might appear and their precise roles. For instance, Essene (Yahad) Rabbi's taught:
The procedure for the [mee]ting of the men of reputation [when they are called] to the banquet held by the party of the Yahad, when [God] has fa[th]ered the Messiah (or when the Messiah has been revealed) among them: [the Priest,] as head of the entire congregation of Israel, shall enter first, trailed by all [his] brot[hers, the Sons of] Aaron, those priests [appointed] to the banquet of the men of reputation. They are to sit be[fore him] by rank. Then the [Mess]iah of Israel may en[ter,] and the heads of the th[ousands of Israel] are to sit before him by rank, as determined by [each man's comm]ission in their camps and campaigns.
Michael O. Wise, Martin G. Abegg Jr., and Edward M. Cook, The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation (New York: HarperOne, 2005), 140.
While many Jews might not have understood all the details of each Rabbinical theory, they still expected two Messiahs.
One of these would be a priest (a religious leader), sometimes called Messiah ben Joseph. The second would be a king (a military leader), sometimes called Messiah ben David. The messianic priest and king could never be the same person, as priesthood and kingship were forever separated.
This separation begins with Moses and his brother Aaron. While there is much overlap in the beginning, Moses leads the military campaigns while Aaron leads the Tabernacle services.
The informal separation is prescribed in the Mosaic Law, where the king and priests are given different duties. Finally, the separation is solidified in the Saul's reign:
He waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal, and the people were scattering from him. So Saul said, "Bring the burnt offering here to me, and the peace offerings." And he offered the burnt offering. As soon as he had finished offering the burnt offering, behold, Samuel came. And Saul went out to meet him and greet him. Samuel said, "What have you done?" And Saul said, "When I saw that the people were scattering from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed … So I forced myself, and offered the burnt offering."
1 Samuel 13:8–11, 12
Thus, the bright line between king and priest was etched into the history and thought of Israel.
There was another bright line between the circumcised and uncircumcised. The Pharisees—and most of the mass of Jews—believed Abraham would accept every circumcised person into the kingdom. Those who were not circumcised (or had their circumcision reversed) would be condemned to Sheol. While our modern culture tends to frame this as a racial divide, people of every race could convert to Judaism. Nationality, religious belief, and race were not as neatly separated as today.
What did Mary know?
Mary—most likely—believed her son was the Messiah. She probably believed her son, as Messiah, would not only defeat the Romans in battle, restoring the glory of Israel but that he would cleanly separate the circumcised from the uncircumcised and cause many to convert to the Jewish faith. She would have some idea there must be a Messianic priest as well—perhaps, she thought, this might be John the Baptist.
She did not know this Messiah would be a priest and king. Nor did she know that in the role of priest, her son would die to provide the perfect sacrifice—covering the sins of Israel—and return as king. She did not know he would broaden the blessings of God by bringing Gentiles into the fold without circumcision and the Law.
[1] In fact, according to many sources there are four Messianic figures in Rabbinic Judaism.