I Cried for You - Katie Melua

Usually I post the a video I want to feature and then comment on it. I try not to be a passive listener to the audio and visual arts. I want to think about what is the writer of a song or of a script for a play/movie are trying to say. I filter them through my Christian world-view to discern their message. My friends chide me for being too much of a critic. I just say "Thank you and still share my observations.
I really like this song and the video. It has themes I could relate to as a Christian. But since I examine everything with the Bible, I needed to learn more about Kate Melua and the lyrics to this song.

Katie Melua is an artist that my friend Stephen Pugh at Facebook introduce me to her song "When You Taught Me to Dance" in the movie "Miss Potter." Ever since I have listened to this artist and find I am becoming a fan. Her voice, visual style in her videos, lyrics, etc. have impressed me. Katie is religious having been baptized an Orthodox Christian, whilst living in Belfast, Melua attended the Roman Catholic schools St Catherine's Primary School and Dominican College, Fortwilliam, while her younger brother attended Protestant schools. In her interview the National, the author P. Kennedy said:

A song she wrote for her second album is a childlike memory of her time there. Called Belfast, it’s about cats and penguins, her own analogy for Catholics and Protestants.

So she not a Christian as defined in the Bible. However her upbringing does influence her music with themes Bible Christians are familiar with.

I recommend this video for its visual style. Also the lyrics of "I Cried for You" as she conveys in her imagination of what it might have been like for Mary Magdalene to watch Jesus dies on the cross. In her interview with R.J. Cater for "The Trade" that ""on Piece by Piece is "I Cried for You", also called "Mary's Song"."

R.J. Carter; Another song you have on Piece by Piece is "I Cried for You", also called "Mary's Song". With the recent release of the film The Da Vinci Code, there's a lot of speculation on Mary Magdalene and the implication that she was involved with Jesus. I found that there was some discussion that this song may have been a Mary Magdalene reference, and I was wondering if you could expound on that.

Katie Melua; Funnily enough, you're one of the few people that ever caught onto that. It's not really from "The Da Vinci Code", it's more from the book, "Holy Blood, Holy Grail", which is one of the first ever books that introduced the idea of Mary Magdalene and Jesus.

The reason why I wrote the song was because I met Michael Baigent, who was the writer of Holy Blood, Holy Grail, and we just got into this discussion, and he told me his theory. And it just kind of really inspired me, purely from the point of view that... Everyone's getting really uptight about the whole religious aspect of it, and to me, I kind of just wanted to look at it in a different point of view. Let's, just for argument's sake, pretend that it really did happen. Maybe they really were in a relationship of some sort, maybe they were married. Imagine the suffering that she'd have had to have gone through to see someone she loved so dearly go through that much while he's being crucified.

And suddenly I just had all these waves of emotion, and I thought this could be a song. I don't really look at it as purely being about Mary sort of missing Jesus or anything like that, but that was kind of where the song came from for me. Now a lot of people listen to that song and they can relate it to anyone that they've ever lost. I didn't want to be all about the controversy of the whole religious thing. Let's just pretend it's a love story for a second, and it could be a really nice love story.

Let us set aside for a moment her wanting to speculate that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married. She does not say that she believes this is true. It is just her using her imagination after talking to Michael Baigent the writer of Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Let us focus instead on imagining "the suffering that she'd have had to have gone through to see someone she loved so dearly go through that much while he's being crucified. Let's just pretend it's a love story for a second, and it could be a really nice love story." If you are still with me and haven't lost interest because of what I have found out...let me continue.

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Mary reminiscences as she is standing at the cross:

1. You’re beautiful so silently
It lies beneath a shade of blue
It struck me so violently
When I looked at you.

Mary Magdalene is remembering about looking into Jesus' eyes. [a]

2. But others pass, they never pause
To feel that magic in your hand
To me you’re like a wild rose
They never understand, why

Mary talks about the touch of His hand.

Refrain:

I cried for you
When the sky cried for you
And when you went
I became a hopeless drifter

Mary is in the present, as it rains[b] she weeps. Without Jesus, she sees her life having no direction.

But this life was not for you
Though I learned from you
That beauty need only be a whisper

Mary remember's what Jesus had taught her that this world is not His home. Jesus' lessons were beautiful to her because He had a quite, whisper like quality to how he taught. It was attractive, beguiling and profound.

3. I’ll cross the sea for a different world
With your treasure, a secret
For me to hold

Mary has a secret that she will hold and carry to a different world.[c]

4. In many years they may forget
This love of ours or that we met
They may not know how much you meant to me

Mary looks to the future and knows that her love for Jesus will be forgotten. [d]

Refrain

5. Without you now I see
How fragile the world can be
And I know you’ve gone away
But in my heart you’ll always stay

Mary is back to her dispare before the cross. As she watches Jesus die her hope is dying too.

Refrain

Repeat

That beauty need only be a whisper
That beauty need only be a whisper

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This song is not one that a Bible Christian can endorse uncritically. But it can be a touchstone to share with religious Christians or agnostics (who accept the speculations of Dan Brown and Michael Baigent) with the true Jesus and Mary Magdalene recorded in the Bible. I will make a second post on the video.

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Holy Blood, Holy Grail Review by Brian Oaken; From the Christian Research Journal, issue 6-01

[a] An Angelo-European with blond hair and blue eyes Jesus is the typical image of Catholic, Orthodox and some Protestant representation.


[b] It never mentions rain in any of the accounts in the New Testament. It is a tradition that has been passed on to movies.

[c] This is ambiguous and I believe she has two meanings.
First- A meaning for her as a religious Christian is that the "treasure" is Jesus' promise of resurrection and "a secret to hold" is that after His resurrection He would send His Spirit to dwell in her heart. "Crossing the sea" is the passage from death to life. "A different world" is her following Jesus to heaven.
Second - "Crossing the sea" is the Mediterranean when she leaves for the south of France. "With the treasure, a secret" is the baby she has conceived from her husband Jesus. "For me to hold" is the baby after she gives birth.

[d] Again this is ambiguous to have two meanings.
First - A meaning for her as a religious Christian is that Mary in her dispare at the cross does not know that her love will be preserved in the scriptures.
Second- Mary is pondering that the love they had as husband and wife will be lost.