I'm not sure of the author's intent. Here's what I heard...
The beginning, to me, is about a broken romantic relationship. Sometimes, when relationships end, we wonder if we'll ever find (or even deserve... because of the mistakes we've made) love.
Then, as many good songs do, it transitions to deeper more universal realities. Is 'love' even a thing?
The reference to Mary is probably the key to the song. I'd GUESS that he's talking about Mary Magdalene. She is mistakenly (though commonly) combined with an anonymous female character in Scripture who was a prostitute. So the author is using that tradition.
Prostitutes, more than anyone probably, have come to the conclusion that they don't 'deserve' real love. They're always used and left alone. This abandonment, for many, goes back to childhood.
Jesus seemingly left Mary alone by dying on the cross. So the point of the song hinges on what will happen when she rolls away that stone (blocking entrance to his tomb). Will Jesus be there (unlike all the other guys, but in a meaningless way b/c he's dead) or will he be gone (like the other guys, but in a totally different way b/c it means he's alive and able to offer never-ending love)?
I'd say the song purposefully lives in the tension of that moment (her approach to that stone) and is, therefore, as religious or anti-religious as it's listener (depends on what they think she would have found).
I find that many modern songs live in tensions like that... purposefully vague, allowing hearers to interpret from their own perspective.
I'm not sure of the author's intent. Here's what I heard...
The beginning, to me, is about a broken romantic relationship. Sometimes, when relationships end, we wonder if we'll ever find (or even deserve... because of the mistakes we've made) love.
Then, as many good songs do, it transitions to deeper more universal realities. Is 'love' even a thing?
The reference to Mary is probably the key to the song. I'd GUESS that he's talking about Mary Magdalene. She is mistakenly (though commonly) combined with an anonymous female character in Scripture who was a prostitute. So the author is using that tradition.
Prostitutes, more than anyone probably, have come to the conclusion that they don't 'deserve' real love. They're always used and left alone. This abandonment, for many, goes back to childhood.
Jesus seemingly left Mary alone by dying on the cross. So the point of the song hinges on what will happen when she rolls away that stone (blocking entrance to his tomb). Will Jesus be there (unlike all the other guys, but in a meaningless way b/c he's dead) or will he be gone (like the other guys, but in a totally different way b/c it means he's alive and able to offer never-ending love)?
I'd say the song purposefully lives in the tension of that moment (her approach to that stone) and is, therefore, as religious or anti-religious as it's listener (depends on what they think she would have found).
I find that many modern songs live in tensions like that... purposefully vague, allowing hearers to interpret from their own perspective.