Jesus was using mary magdalean as a messinger

JESUS WAS USING MARY MAGDALEAN AS A MESSINGER
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
John HYPERLINK "http://www.biblica.com/en-us/bible/online-
bible/niv/john/20/"20:17 17
Jesus said, "Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet
ascendedto the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, 'I am
ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.'"
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
A Message Full Of Meaning
John HYPERLINK "/john/20-17.htm"20:17
J.R. Thomson The risen Christ was the link between Deity and mankind. Standing beyond the
tomb, yet below the clouds, he sent a message to the disciples whom he was about to leave,
concerning the Divine Father whom he was about to join. How fitly, wisely, and tenderly did he
communicate with them in these words!
I. DOCTRINE CONCERNING CHRIST HIMSELF.
1. His humanity. He still calls the apostles "my brethren." Although he has risen in glory, and is
about to ascend in majesty, "he is not ashamed to call them brethren." Having for men's sake
passed through sorrow and death, so far from forgetting what he has endured, he regards his
humiliation and sorrow as a bond of attachment uniting him to those whose experience he has
partaken.
2. His Sonship. He says, "My Father." Though he has been suffered to drink the cup of
bitterness, though he has uttered the cry of desolation, though his body has lain in the earth, still
his relation to God is the same as before his Passion. In all he has freely done what was pleasing
to God. Still and ever is he the beloved Son, in whom the Father is well pleased. He is mighty as
man's Representative. The Mediator and the Brother of mankind is the Son of God.
3. His subordination. He says, "My God." On three occasions our Lord made use of this
appellation - on the cross, in this connection, and in Revelation HYPERLINK "/revelation/3-
12.htm"3:12 from the throne of glory. Similar language is often used of him by the apostles, who
call the Eternal "the God and Father of our Lord." It is not for us to understand all that our Savior
means when, in his humiliation and obedience and subjection, he declared, "My Father is greater
than I."

II. DOCTRINE CONCERNING CHRISTIANS.
1. They are brethren of the risen Savior. So he here expressly calls them, sending them at the
same time a fraternal message. It is a gracious word of cheer and encouragement to those who
have been enduring suspense, sorrow, and depression.
2. They have with Christ a community of relation with God. What the infinite Father is to Christ,
that - such is the unity between the Master and the disciples - that is he also to the lowliest and
the feeblest of Christ's friends and followers.
3. In this community, however, there is a marked distinction. Jesus does not say, "Our Father and
God," as if there were equality between Jesus and his disciples. In fact, God is Father of Christ
according to the nature of the Godhead, of Christians according to grace and adoption; he is God
of Christ so far as our Lord's humanity is regarded, of Christians by the covenant relation he has
instituted.
4. In this community there is a mediatorial superiority on the one side, and a corresponding
dependence on the other. It is through Christ Jesus that the character, the disposition, the
gracious purposes of the Father are made known to us, and it is especially through him that the
Divine Fatherhood is declared; and it is through Christ Jesus that the relations in question are
actually established and are constantly maintained.
APPLICATION. This message, in the first instance addressed to the apostles, is left with the
whole Church of the Redeemer, that all Christ's people may not only know where he has gone,
but may realize the purpose of his going as far as they are concerned, and may enjoy the
assurance that his Father is their Father, and his God their God. - T.
Biblical Illustrator
Jesus saith unto her, Touch Me not.
John HYPERLINK "/john/20-17.htm"20:17 HYPERLINK "/john/20-17.htm", HYPERLINK
"/john/20-17.htm"18
Touch not
Dean Burgon.What a strange thing that both the old world and the new should have began with
the same prohibition.
(Dean Burgon.)
Noli Me tangere
C. H. Spurgeon.The lesson is to a soul brought into the conscious presence of the Lord. Oh, to be
in that condition! Mary Magdalene had wept because of her Lord's absence, and longed to find
Him; and now she has her desire: He stands before her. Oh, that we knew where, we might find
Him (Job HYPERLINK "/job/23-3.htm"23:3)! Her conduct in holding Him by the feet was
natural, and yet it was forbidden by a higher wisdom than that of mortal men.
I. THE CAUTION. "Touch Me not."

1. We may blunder even in our closest friendship, and need a prohibition. We have never need of
greater caution than in our nearest approaches to God. Courtiers must be most careful in the
throne-room.
2. We may carnalize the spiritual. This has ever been a tendency with even the best of the saints;
and it has misled many in whom affection has been stronger than intellect.
3. We may seek most passionately what is by no means essential. The assurance of sense, by
touch or otherwise: when the assurance of faith is far better, and quite sufficient. The detaining
of one who has no intention of going.
4. We may crave what were better further on. When we are raised to eternal glory we shall be
able to enjoy what now we must not ask.
5. We may be selfish in our enjoyments. Staying to contemplate alone by ourselves, when we
ought rather to bless others by publishing the blessed news (2 HYPERLINK "/2_kings/7-
9.htm"Kings HYPERLINK "/2_kings/7-9.htm"7:9).
II. THE MISSION. "Go to My brethren." She would have preferred to stay, but Jesus bids her
go.
1. This was better for her. Contemplation alone may degenerate into the sentimental, the
sensuous, the impracticable.
2. This was better for them. They heard the best of news from the most trustworthy of
informants.
3. This was unquestionably done by this holy woman. What she had seen she declared. What she
had heard she told. Women are said to be communicative; and so there was wisdom in the
choice. Women are affectionate, and so persuasive; and therefore fit to bear such a tender
message as we have now to consider.
III. THE TITLE. "My brethren." Our Lord, of design, chose this title to comfort His sorrowing
ones. They had so acted as almost to cease to be His followers, disciples, or friends; but
brotherhood is an abiding relationship. They were —
1. His brethren, though He was about to ascend to His throne. He was still a man, though no
more to suffer and die. He still represented them as their risen Head. He was still one with them
in all His objects and prospects.
2. His brethren, though they had forsaken Him in His shame. Relationship abiding, for
brotherhood cannot be broken. Relationship owned more than ever; since their sense of guilt
made them afraid. He was a true Joseph to them (Genesis HYPERLINK "/genesis/45-
4.htm"45:4). Relationship dwelt upon, that they might be reassured. Never let us omit the tender
sweetness of the gospel, its courtesies, benedictions, and love-words, such as the "My brethren"
of the text before us. If we leave out these precious words we shall mar the Master's message of
grace.
IV. THE TIDINGS. "I ascend unto My Father, and your Father." This message was meant to
arouse and comfort them.
1. By the news of His departure they are to be aroused.
2. By the news of His ascension they are to be confirmed.

3. By His ascension to the common Father they are to be comforted with the prospect of coming
there themselves. He is not going into an unknown country, but to His home and theirs (John
HYPERLINK "/john/14-2.htm"14:2).
4. By His ascent to God they are to be struck with solemn awe, and brought the more reverently
to look for His presence among them. See how practical our Lord is, and how much He values
the usefulness of His servants. Have we not somewhat to tell? Whether man or woman, tell the
Lord's brethren what the Lord hath told to thee.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Noli Me tangere
Bp. Andrewes.Mary Magdalene, because she loved much, had this morning divers favours
vouchsafed her. Now comes an unkind word and mars all. A cold salutation for an Easterday
morning. A little before He asked why she wept? This is enough to set her on weeping afresh.
For if she wept that others had taken away her Lord, much more now when her Lord takes away
Himself. Christ came unknown, and then known; but, unknown, Christ proves better to her, for
then He asked her kindly why she wept? but known, He grows strange to forbid her to touch.
I. THE RESTRAINT.
1. The thing forbidden. It is nothing to touch; and yet to touch Christ is not nothing. Many strove
to touch Him, and there went virtue from Him even while He was mortal: but now He is
immortal much more. That was not her case to draw ought from Him: it was for pure love. To
love it is not enough to hear, or see; but to touch and take hold. The nearest union is per
contactum.
2. The party. Not Christ. Why not Him? Christ was not wont to be so dainty. He suffered the
rude multitude to throng and to thrust Him. Noli Me tangere would have done well on Good
Friday. Why suffered He them then? why suffered He not her now? For all she had done and
suffered one poor touch had been but an easy recompense. Of all other, this prohibition lay not
against her: of all times, not at this.
II. If we look at THE REASON shall we shall find it yet more strange — "I am not yet
ascended." But when He was ascended, one would think, she should be further off still. Let us
consult upon this prohibition. Noli Me tangere can rise but one of these ways.
1. On His part that was touched. "Touch Me not," you will hurt Me, or, I shall hurt you; I am
fire, I shall scorch you: an edge tool, I shall wound you: pitch, I shall defile you: some
contagious thing, I shall infect you. But Christ was not now in state to receive or do any hurt.
2. We resolve, then, it was notch Christ's part. He might be touched, and was by Thomas; but on
hers she might not touch Him.-1 thinks it was to correct her want of due reverence. After her
wonted fashion, she made toward Him; nor with that regard which His new glorified estate
demanded. The touchstone of our touching Christ is with all regard and reverence that may be.
Two causes of this. One, a defect in her judgment; the other, an excess in her affection. Christ's
reason imports as much. You touch Me, not as if I were upon ascending, but as if to stay here
still. Hence we learn, that when He sees we forget ourselves, Christ will take a little state upon
Him; will not be saluted with Rabboni, but with some more seemly term. Thomas said, "My
Lord and my God." It is no excuse to say all was out of love. Love, if it be right, doth nothing
uncomely. And such love Christ loves. A strange kind of love, when, for very love to Christ, we
care not how we carry ourselves towards Him. This may be said, she was not before so carried

away with sorrow, but she was now as far gone in the other of joy: and so like enough to forget
herself, as Peter on the Mount. He knew not what he said, nor she what she did. Out of which our
lesson is, that in the sudden surprise of any passion no touching Christ then. Say she were unfit,
yet all is not clear. For why then did others touch? Thomas with his faith in his fingers' ends?
They touched because they believed not; she touched not because she misbelieved. They touched
that they might know He was risen: she touched not that she might know He was not so risen, as
in former times she had known Him. If the text be against rudeness, to restrain it; then is it for
reverence to enjoin it.-2 Gregory thinks it was to hasten the message, and that all was but to save
time. As if He should have said, "There is a matter in hand, would be done out of hand; and
therefore for this time hands off." And the reason will follow well so. "You need not be so hasty,
I am not yet ascended. You may do this at some other time." To the disciples and to Christ no
haste was too much; all delay too long. Yet a touch and away would not have taken up so much
time. True, but He easily foresaw if He suffered her to touch that she would have taken hold too,
not have let Him go.-3 thinks it was to wean her from all fleshly touching, and teach her a new
and true touch. As if, till He were ascended, He would not be touched; and then He would. And
there is reason for this sense. For the touch of His body, which she so much desired; that could
last but forty days. Christ Himself touched upon this point in John HYPERLINK "/john/6-
62.htm"6:62. It was her error to be all for the corporeal presence; for the touch with the fingers.
So were His disciples. From which they were now to be weaned. That if they had before known
Christ, or touched Him after the flesh, yet now from henceforth they were to do so no more.
Christ resolves the point. The flesh, the touching, the eating, profits nothing. The words He spake
were spirit. So the touching, the eating, to be spiritual And Thomas, and Mary, or whosoever
touched Him on earth, if they had not been more happy to touch Him with their faith, than with
their fingers' end, they had had no good by it at all. It was found better with it, to touch the hem
of His garment, than without it, to touch any part of His body. Now, if faith be to touch, that will
touch Him no less in heaven than here.
(Bp. Andrewes.)
Mary Magdalene and Thomas with the risen Christ
The Study.I. WAS MARY DENIED AND THOMAS GRANTED, THE SAME FAVOUR?
Then we should see in the case of Thomas a greater condescension to the doubts and fears of the
human heart. Mary did not need proof; Thomas did. The clearing away of Thomas' doubts
strengthened the evidence of our Lord's resurrection.
II. THERE WAS NO DENIAL OF FAVOUR TO MARY. In her case the arrested act was one of
affection, and Jesus may be understood as reminding her that the hour for adoration has not yet
come — "For I am not yet ascended." Nothing of that enters into the act of Thomas. His is not an
act of worship, but of scrutiny. Mary is checked in worship; Thomas is permitted to touch, to
obtain proof that it is indeed the Master.
III. BUT WHY IS MARY'S REVERENCE CHECKED? Because the Master has work for her to
do. Our Lord really forbids not, but checks her reverential act; and His purpose is to transfer her
attention to her mission. Even if Mary's act were merely one of personal affection, there would
be only the more reason why duty should interrupt her demonstrations of regard.
IV. MARY THOUGHT HE WAS COME BACK TO STAY. So He virtually says: Not so; "I
ascend." Think of Me no more in the flesh; think of Me on the throne. For, while in one breath

the Lord says, "I am not yet ascended," in the next He commands her to tell His brethren, "I
ascend unto My Father."
(The Study.)
Christ and Mary
C. Stanford, D. D.I. IT WAS A REAL BODY THAT APPEARED TO MARY. "Touch Me not;"
then it was possible to touch Him. Wisdom never tells us not to do what cannot be done. The
voice she heard was not a dead voice; the form she saw was not a form that trembled in the
twilight far within the tomb, but one that stood boldly forth in the clear, cheerful day outside.
II. HERE WAS A GENTLE REPROOF, POINTING TO THE LACK OF SPIRITUALITY IN
MARY'S FAITH. To her the supreme object of faith could be touched with fingers. She assumes
that He has come back to the old scenes to be what He was before. She is content with this and
with His unfinished work. The words of Jesus were to discipline and raise her faith, and to break
to her the truth that He is no longer to be revealed under the forms of time, and in the world of
sensation, but to the soul. That we may be helped to watch against this and avoid the tendency to
make a fetish of Him who has now inaugurated the reign of the Spirit; and truly obey the ancient
call of devotion, "Lift up your hearts," let us feel that Christ is still speaking to us, in His words
to Mary.
III. ALTHOUGH MARY HAD THIS CHECK, ALL THE DISCIPLES MAY TOUCH HIM,
NOW HE IS IN HEAVEN. The word "yet" conveys this inference; and the next words, "You are
not to touch Me until I am gone; then you may." "When My earthly manifestation ends, your
privilege of touching Me begins." We actually have open to us a better and happier privilege than
that which Mary thought the ultimatum of dignity and bliss. This true touch is essential to the
true life. All knowledge, all sympathy is from touch; there is no food, no drink, no healing
without touch. Sin is cured by the Saviour's touch; and this perpetual contact is the medium
through which He sends into us the Divine electricity of power and holiness. Only a few could
come in contact with a simple human presence at one time; but all, at one time, can touch that
which is ascended for the very purpose that it may "fill all things." You may touch Him in the
city, in the field, when going out, when coming in, when no eye can see, in the garret, in the
cellar, in the deep mine, in mountain heights, in the turmoil of care, in atmospheres in which,
without a miracle, no grace can live; and wherever He is thus touched, the manifold miracle of
grace is wrought.
IV. THIS MAY HAVE INCLUDED AN INJUNCTION TO MARY NOT TO DELAY HER
ERRAND TO THE DISCIPLES. "Do not linger. I am going, and will soon be gone. Go to My
brethren. There is no time now for tender intimacies and protracted intercourse; I have this more
important employment for you: you must make haste if you would give them fair notice." So
now, Christ is always calling us away from the passive to the active; from personal enjoyment to
practical service.
1. "Go." In the history of the new life, Christ's first word is always, "Come"; His next, in some
form or other, is always, "Go."
2. "To My brethren."(1) Why was this message not sent first to His mother? Through age after
age the nations have called her "Our Lady," yet all through the forty days she is passed by in the
narrative like one forgotten. This is an inexplicable blank, unless we understand that,
foreknowing the idolatry of Mary, it was thus divinely arranged.(2) Why were not the rejecters
of Christ first informed of His resurrection? "Why not go first to the Scribes and Pharisees, &c.,

and those who complain that they want evidence?" Because of this principle: "Whosoever hath,
to him shall be given," &c.; because, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him," &c.
3. "My brethren." He had never so called them before, yet they never seemed to be so unworthy.
He might have said, "Go, tell swearing Peter, dull Philip, doubting Thomas, cautious Nathanael,"
&c. Had they heard of the Resurrection thus, the news might have almost killed them; and they
might have said, "He is risen to smite us." But, as if to prevent this, the despatch is addressed to
His "brethren." Grand instance this of the truth that He "is not ashamed to call us brethren." Take
fresh heart at the thought of it, and learn that it is not in the power of infirmity to unbrother us.
(C. Stanford, D. D.)
But go tell My brethren.
Christ's work in heaven and ours on earth
H. Bonar, D. D.1. Christ's words were addressed to Mary's thoughts, which was, "Now all is
fulfilled. He has returned from the Father; He is going to take us to His kingdom, and we shall be
for ever with Him." "Not so," replies our Lord, "I have more work to do, and so have you."
2. There is a remarkable difference between Mary's case and that of Thomas. She believed too
much; he too little. Her eager faith is corrected by the "Touch Me not, but go"; his unbelief is
removed by "Come, reach hither thy hand." Man would have said to faith, "Touch me"; to
unbelief, "Touch me not."
I. CHRIST'S WORK. He has gone —
1. To get the Spirit for us. Now He has received the promise of the Father — "Gifts for men."
2. To intercede for us.
3. To prepare a place for us.
4. To give repentance and forgiveness. Thus He cautions us — "Be calm and patient; I have gone
to do My work. It must be done, and then no more delay."
II. OUR WORK. Mary had something else to do than touch and enjoy; so have we — work.
1. For ourselves. "Follow Me," "Take up your cross," "Let your light shine," "Grow in grace."
2. For the Church. We are members one of another to "bear one another's burdens," &c.
3. For the world — to pray for it, preach to it, save it. How long Christ's work will last we know
not, but ours will soon be done. Therefore, "Whatsoever thy hand," &c.
(H. Bonar, D. D.)
Christ teaching us how to think about Himself
J. Bowery.We are taught to think of —
I. THE STRENGTH AND CONSTANCY OF HIS LOW. "My brethren" was applied —
1. To those who had recently acted in a cowardly and cruel manner.
2. To those whose state of mind was most dishonouring to Himself (Mark HYPERLINK
"/mark/16-10.htm"16:10-15; Luke HYPERLINK "/luke/24-11.htm"24:11-21).
3. In the most momentous crisis in His history.
4. Without the slightest hint of their unworthy conduct.

II. THE COMPLETION OF HIS EARTHLY WORK — "I ascend." As the farmer leaves the
field when it has been cultivated, awaiting the results of his toil in the harvest; as the mariner
leaps on shore when the voyage is over; as the warrior returns home when the victory is won; so
our Lord turned His attention to heaven immediately on the conclusion of His work on earth,
where He had been an exile.
1. In His life He had presented a perfect example of what men should be.
2. In His person and works He had supplied the most advanced revelation of God.
3. In His death He had atoned for the sins of the world, and laid the basis for a universal offer of
pardon and eternal life.
4. In His resurrection He had given a pledge that His people should rise and that the last enemy
should be destroyed. And now He turns His thoughts homeward.
III. THE POWER AND DOMINION ON WHICH HE HAS ENTERED.
1. His personal rest and honour. "Ascend." What a contrast to His descent (John HYPERLINK
"/john/17-15.htm"17:15).
2. The fulfilment of His promise respecting the Spirit (John HYPERLINK "/john/14-
25.htm"14:25 HYPERLINK "/john/14-25.htm", HYPERLINK "/john/14-25.htm"26; John
HYPERLINK "/john/15-26.htm"15:26 HYPERLINK "/john/15-26.htm", HYPERLINK
"/john/15-26.htm"27).
3. His prevalent intercession (Hebrews HYPERLINK "/hebrews/2-9.htm"2:9-11; Hebrews
HYPERLINK "/hebrews/7-24.htm"7:24-28).
4. His unlimited authority and power to promote our interests. "Lo, I am with you alway"; "The
Lord stood by me."
5. The certainty of His final recompense in the conquest of the world. "He must reign."
6. His return to receive us unto Himself.
IV. THE ONENESS BETWEEN HIMSELF AND HIS PEOPLE. "My Father," &c. Suggestive
of mutual —
1. Relationship.
2. Resemblance.
3. Interests.
4. Possessions.
5. Prospects.
(J. Bowery.)
Christ's message to His brethren
Bp. Andrewes.I. THE PARTIES. "My brethren." Here is nothing that savours of any displeasure
of remembering any old grudge, or of pride. The term "brethren" implies —
1. Identity of nature. Then if He rose as man, man also may rise; if the nature be risen, the
persons in it may. In the first Adam our nature died, in the Second our nature is risen.

2. Risen with the same love and affection He had before, or if changed changed for the better.
Before He said, "My friends." Here, "My brethren."
II. THE COMMISSION. The fathers say that by this word she was by Christ made an apostle.
Nay, an apostle to the apostles.
1. An apostle: for what lacks she?
(1)Sent immediately from Christ.
(2)Sent to declare.
(3)Sent to make known Christ's ascending, the very Gospel of the gospel.
2. This day, with Christ's rising, begins the gospel; not before. Crucified, dead and buried, no
good news in themselves. Them the Jews believe as well as we. At her hands the apostles
themselves received these glad tidings first, and from them we all.
3. Which, as it was a special honour, so was it not without some kind of reproach to them for
sitting at home. Christ is fain to seek Him a new apostle.
4. And by this the amends is made her for Noli Me tangere. For to be thus the messenger of so
blessed tidings is a more special favour than if she had touched Christ. Christ would never have
enjoined her to leave the better to take the worse. So that hence we infer that to go and carry
comfort to them that need it, to tell them of Christ's rising that do not know it, is better then to do
nothing but touch Christ. Touching Christ gives place to teaching Christ. How well this agrees
with her offer in ver. 15: "You that would take and carry Me, being dead, go take and carry Me
now alive." It shall be a carrying in a better sense. Stand not here then touching Me; go and touch
them, and with the very touch of this report you shall work in them a resurrection from a doleful
and dead to a cheerful and lively estate.
III. THE MOTION.
1. "Tell them that I ascend." Why not rather "I am risen" (more proper for this day)? Because He
needs not tell her that. She could tell that of herself. And besides, I ascend implies as much. Till
He be risen, ascend He cannot. But as she saw by His rising that He had the keys of hell and
death, had unlocked those doors and come out from thence, so by ascend He tells her that He
hath the keys of heaven's gates also, which He would now unlock, and so set open the kingdom
of heaven to all believers.
2. To show us what was the end of His rising. Christ did not rise, to rise; no more must we.
Christ rose to ascend; so are we to do. To rise from the bottom of the grave to the brink of it, and
stand on the grave-stone, is but half a rising. To rise up as high as heaven, that is to rise indeed;
that is Christ's rising, and that to be ours. As there was no gospel till the Resurrection, so the
Resurrection is no gospel unless "ascend" follow it. Resurrexit, tell that to all the world — all
that die in Adam shall rise in Christ: miscreants, Jews, Turks, and all. No gospel that, properly.
Tell the Christian of ascendo, too, the resurrection to life and not to condemnation. Better lie still
in our graves, than rise, and rising not to ascend.
3. He saw upon these tidings they would say, "He risen, then shall we have His company again
as heretofore." But by sending them word of His ascending He gives them warning that He rose
not to make any abode with them. This He knew would be a hard lesson. They were still and
ever addicted to His bodily being with them. They would have built Him a tabernacle here. To
rid them of this error He shows them thus, that for Him to be here below on earth that is not it;

but for them to be with Him there above in heaven that is it. Thither would He raise them and us
with this His ascendo.
4. So then seeing Christ stayed not here, we are not to set up our stay here; not to make earth our
heaven.
IV. TO MY FATHER. Every motion hath a whence and a whither. To ascend is, to Christ, His
natural motion; heaven is His natural place. His work being done. And "to My Father" no less
(chap. John 14:28). But to go from them is no good news. It was like "touch Me not" to Mary.
What then is their comfort or ours? In this, "To your Father" as well as Mine. And He doth
express here the whither by the party to whom, rather than by the place to which, because the
party will soon bring us to the place, and to somewhat besides. So we have good right to make
His Father ours, and His Father's house ours, that there we may dwell together fratres in unum.
There be of the Father's that make these words as so many steps of Jacob's ladder, which we are
to ascend by, or so many wheels as it were of Elias's chariot, in which he was carried up to
heaven. There lie before us four pairs or combinations by which ascendo is drawn in the text.
1. Father and God, instead of "the Lord God" of the law. Father is a name of much good will, but
many a good father wants good means to his good will. God is added that He may not be
defective that way.
2. His, ours; and ours His, interchangeably. A blessed change: His great Meum for our little
vestrum, little ours for great His. As there is no comfort in heaven without God, nor in God,
without a Father, so is there not any either in Father, heaven, or God without ours to give us a
property in them.
3. "My Father" will do us no good. That which must do us the good is "your Father," and we
need no more (John HYPERLINK "/john/14-8.htm"14:8). But how should His be ours?
4. This leads us to the last combination, "My God and yours." For that His Father may be our
Father, no remedy but our God must first be His.(1) His Father, as God; His God, as Man. As the
Son of God, a God He hath not; a Father He hath: as the Son of Man, a Father He hath not; a
God He hath.(2) But now, how shall we get His Father to have Him to be our Father? First, His
Father He was from all eternity; He only can say properly, patrem meum. But He is content to
quit that and to take us in; and He being our Brother before to make us His now. For upon His
ascending He adopts us, and by adopting makes us, and by making pronounces us His brethren,
and so children to His Father. But, till then, a God we had, but not a Father; at least, not such a
Father of Him as since we have. So we see the necessity of both these combinations. But we are
not so to look to our own comfort, but that we preserve His honour. There is order taken for that
by severing each pair — mine and yours; yet otherwise His and otherwise ours; both as Father
and as God. As Father: His by nature, ours by grace. As God: our God by nature. His no
otherwise, then as He took upon Him our nature.
(Bp. Andrewes.)
The brother-hood of Christ
J. T. Whiteley.I. TO WHOM IS CHRIST A BROTHER.
1. To the apostles and their associates.
2. To all who do God's will (Matthew HYPERLINK "/matthew/12-46.htm"12:46-50).
3. To all who are undergoing sanctification (Hebrews HYPERLINK "/hebrews/2-11.htm"2:11).

II. HOW DOES HE FEEL TOWARDS HIS BRETHREN?
1. He is not ashamed to own the relationship (Hebrews HYPERLINK "/hebrews/2-
11.htm"2:11).
2. He sympathizes with them and loves them (Hebrews HYPERLINK "/hebrews/2-
17.htm"2:17).
3. He identifies Himself with them (Matthew HYPERLINK "/matthew/25-40.htm"25:40).
III. WHAT BENEFITS DO HIS BRETHREN DERIVE FROM HIS RELATIONSHIP?
1. Teaching (Hebrews HYPERLINK "/hebrews/2-12.htm"2:12).
2. Providential care (Matthew HYPERLINK "/matthew/25-40.htm"25:40).
3. Consciousness of His sympathy,
IV. LET US LEARN.
1. To establish this relationship by faith, love, obedience, growth.
2. To appreciate it with the honour, and help it brings.
3. To extend it to others by leading them to salvation.
4. If we are faithful we shall live with our Eider Brother for ever.
(J. T. Whiteley.)
I ascend unto My Father.
The ascension of our Saviour
W. Jay.: —
I. THE PERSONS TO WHOM THE MESSAGE IS ADDRESSED.
1. Why not the Scribes and Pharisees, &c., and render His resurrection undeniable? Because —
"Whosoever hath to him shall be given," &c. He never refused explanation to any humble
inquirer — but He will not force information upon those that "hated knowledge." To what
purpose is it to adduce evidence to those that shut their eyes? They knew the report of the guards.
But His own followers only laboured under infirmities. They wished to be established in the
truth. These He calls — "My brethren." This is more than He could have said of angels. He is
only their Lord. "It behoved Him to be made like unto His brethren," &c. Many an elder brother
has stood between the affections of the father and the rest of the children, and by engrossing the
whole of the inheritance has reduced the younger branches to dependence, if not to want; but
Jesus pitied those who were less happy than Himself, and determined to make them partakers of
all His honours and riches. Thus they are "heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." By using
this name He would —
1. Show that His elevation had not made Him forgetful of those He was to leave behind.
2. Comfort them. They had acted a very unworthy part, and their consciences made them uneasy.
By this He seems to call after them, and say, "Return, ye backsliding children." Thus He dispels
their anxiety, and fills them with hope. And thus He realizes His illustrious type.
3. Intimate their duty? "Since I do not disown you, notwithstanding your imperfections — follow
My example; love as brethren."

II. THE SUBSTANCE OF THE INTELLIGENCE. This ascension was real and local. Let us
consider it in reference to —
1. Himself.(1) He returned to the place whence He came, and assumed the glory which He
obscured.(2) To enjoy the reward of His humiliation and sufferings.
2. His enemies.
(1)Thus He is a Conqueror. He had foes, but He vanquished them; "and having spoiled
principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly." Sin, the devil, the world, death —
these are the enemies He has overcome. And to-day He enjoys His triumph. "Lift up your heads,
O ye gates," &c.
(2)But as He triumphs, He also bestows upon us various and inestimable blessings — "gave gifts
unto men."
3. His people.
(1)He ascended as the High Priest of their profession.
(2)As their Head and Representative.
(3)As their Protector and Governor.Conclusion: And now what remains but that we translate this
article of our creed into our lives.
1. Follow Him where He now is. "If ye then be risen with Christ," &c., why then are you so
attached to earth? Why seek ye the living among the dead?
2. "Seeing that we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God,
let us hold fast our profession."
3. What encouragement can you want to rejoice in Him? You have a Brother at court.
4. "But where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?"
(W. Jay.)
Christ's interview with Mary at the sepulchre
H. Kollock, D. D.Nothing is more grand, more precious, than the news to be announced to them.
"I ascend to My Father," He who is so by nature; "and to their Father," by adoption and grace;
"to My God," in covenant with Me as their Head, and "to their God," in covenant with them
through Me and under Me. Words which at once show the triumph of Jesus Christ and the
triumph of the Christian. Let us illustrate these two ideas.
I. IT WAS THE TRIUMPH OF JESUS CHRIST, AND REMROVED THE SCANDAL OF
THE CROSS. "If thou be the Son of God," said the blinded Jews when insulting Him, "come
down from the cross." Jesus did more — He came alive from the tomb; and this miracle of
Divine power is only the first step of that elevation into which He is entering. "Go to My
brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto My Father and your Father, and unto My God and
your God." This is, then, the triumph of Christ.
II. IT IS A SOURCE OF THE RICHEST CONSOLATION AND TRUST TO ALL
BELIEVERS. "I would wish this text," says the excellent Baxter, "written on my dying bed; I
would wish to view it with my closing eyes, that I might exult in the agonies of dissolution." All!
Christians, never forget it! And let it also be your rule in all your conduct; your consolation in
your trials; your trust in the most disastrous situations.

1. If the Father of Jesus Christ is your Father and your God, always listen with docility to a voice
at once so august and tender; follow the glorious example of the "first-born among many
brethren."
2. If the Father of Jesus Christ is your Father and your God, submit with an entire resignation to
all the dispensations of Providence, as Jesus submitted to them.
3. If the Father of Jesus Christ is your God and Father, then let this tender assurance augment
your faith, your love, your detachment from the world.
(H. Kollock, D. D.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(17) Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my
Father.—The probable explanation of these words is to be found in the fact that she had cast
herself at His feet with the customary reverential embrace of the knees, and perhaps to make
doubly sure the fact that it was the Lord’s body, and that His words are meant to prevent this.
The words themselves must be carefully considered. “Touch” represents a Greek word which
means to “cling to,” to “fasten on,” to “grasp” an object. The tense is present, and the prohibition
is, therefore, not of an individual act, but of a continuance of the act, of the habit, “Do not
continue clinging to Me.” Her act supposed a condition which had not yet been accomplished.
He had not returned to earth to abide permanently with His disciples in the presence of the
Paraclete (comp. John HYPERLINK "/john/14-18.htm"14:18), for He had not yet ascended to
the Father. There should come a permanent closeness of union in His presence in the soul; but
then the spirit which her act was manifesting was one which would prevent this presence. The
coming of the Paraclete depended upon His going to the Father (comp. John HYPERLINK
"/john/16-7.htm"16:7), but she would cling to a visible presence, and has not learnt the truth so
hard to learn, “It is expedient for you that I go away” (John HYPERLINK "/john/16-
7.htm"16:7.)
But go to my brethren, and say unto them.—Comp. Notes on Matthew HYPERLINK
"/matthew/28-10.htm"28:10, and on John HYPERLINK "/john/15-15.htm"15:15. There is a
special force in the word “brethren” as spoken by the risen Lord, in that it declares the
continuance of His human nature. (See Hebrews HYPERLINK "/hebrews/2-11.htm"2:11.)
I ascend unto my Father, and your Father.—The present is used of the future, which He regards
as immediately at hand. The message to the brethren is an assurance that the going to the Father,
of which He had so often spoken to them, was about to be realised. The victory over death has
been accomplished. This appearance on earth is an earnest of the return to heaven. “Unto My
Father,” He now says, “and your Father.” It is a more emphatic expression than “our Father”
would have been. “I ascend unto My Father. Because He is My Father, He is also your Father,
and you are My brethren. My victory over death was the victory of man, whose nature has in Me

conquered death. My ascension into heaven will be the ascension of human nature, which in Me
goes to the Father.”
My God, and your God.—This phrase contains the same fulness of meaning, and adds the special
thought of the continuity of the human nature of our Lord, which has already appeared in the
word “brethren.” (See Note above.)
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary20:11-18 We are likely to seek and find, when we seek
with affection, and seek in tears. But many believers complain of the clouds and darkness they
are under, which are methods of grace for humbling their souls, mortifying their sins, and
endearing Christ to them. A sight of angels and their smiles, will not suffice, without a sight of
Jesus, and God's smiles in him. None know, but those who have tasted it, the sorrows of a
deserted soul, which has had comfortable evidences of the love of God in Christ, and hopes of
heaven, but has now lost them, and walks in darkness; such a wounded spirit who can bear?
Christ, in manifesting himself to those that seek him, often outdoes their expectations. See how
Mary's heart was in earnest to find Jesus. Christ's way of making himself known to his people is
by his word; his word applied to their souls, speaking to them in particular. It might be read, Is it
my Master? See with what pleasure those who love Jesus speak of his authority over them. He
forbids her to expect that his bodily presence look further, than the present state of things.
Observe the relation to God, from union with Christ. We, partaking of a Divine nature, Christ's
Father is our Father; and he, partaking of the human nature, our God is his God. Christ's
ascension into heaven, there to plead for us, is likewise an unspeakable comfort. Let them not
think this earth is to be their home and rest; their eye and aim, and earnest desires, must be upon
another world, and this ever upon their hearts, I ascend, therefore I must seek the things which
are above. And let those who know the word of Christ, endeavour that others should get good
from their knowledge.
Barnes' Notes on the BibleTouch me not ... - This passage has given rise to a variety of
interpretations. Jesus required Thomas to touch him John HYPERLINK
"//biblehub.com/john/20-27.htm"20:27, and it has been difficult to ascertain why he forbade this
now to Mary. The reason why he directed Thomas to do this was, that he doubted whether he had
been restored to life. Mary did not doubt that. The reason why he forbade her to touch him now
is to be sought in the circumstances of the case. Mary, filled with joy and gratitude, was about to
prostrate herself at his feet, disposed to remain with him, and offer him there her homage as her
risen Lord. This is probably included in the word touch in this place; and the language of Jesus
may mean this: "Do not approach me now for this purpose. Do not delay here. Other
opportunities will yet be afforded to see me. I have not yet ascended - that is, I am not about to
ascend immediately, but shall remain yet on earth to afford opportunity to my disciples to enjoy
my presence." From Matthew HYPERLINK "//biblehub.com/matthew/28-9.htm"28:9, it appears
that the women, when they met Jesus, held him by the feet and worshipped him. This species of
adoration it was probably the intention of Mary to offer, and this, at that time, Jesus forbade, and
directed her to go at once and give his disciples notice that he had risen.
My brethren - See John HYPERLINK "/john/15-15.htm"15:15.
My Father and your Father ... - Nothing was better fitted to afford them consolation than this
assurance that this God was theirs; and that, though he had been slain, they were still
indissolubly united in attachment to the same Father and God.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary17. Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not, for I am not
yet ascended to my Father—Old familiarities must now give place to new and more awful yet
sweeter approaches; but for these the time has not come yet. This seems the spirit, at least, of
these mysterious words, on which much difference of opinion has obtained, and not much that is
satisfactory said.
but go to my brethren—(Compare Mt 28:10; Heb 2:11, 17). That He had still our Humanity, and
therefore "is not ashamed to call us brethren," is indeed grandly evidenced by these words. But it
is worthy of most reverential notice, that we nowhere read of anyone who presumed to call Him
Brother. "My brethren: Blessed Jesus, who are these? Were they not Thy followers? yea, Thy
forsakers? How dost Thou raise these titles with Thyself! At first they were Thy servants; then
disciples; a little before Thy death, they were Thy friends; now, after Thy resurrection, they were
Thy brethren. But oh, mercy without measure! how wilt Thou, how canst Thou call them
brethren whom, in Thy last parting, Thou foundest fugitives? Did they not run from Thee? Did
not one of them rather leave his inmost coat behind him than not be quit of Thee? And yet Thou
sayest, 'Go, tell My brethren! It is not in the power of the sins of our infirmity to unbrother us'"
[Bishop Hall].
I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God—words of incomparable
glory! Jesus had called God habitually His Father, and on one occasion, in His darkest moment,
His God. But both are here united, expressing that full-orbed relationship which embraces in its
vast sweep at once Himself and His redeemed. Yet, note well, He says not, Our Father and our
God. All the deepest of the Church fathers were wont to call attention to this, as expressly
designed to distinguish between what God is to Him and to us—His Father essentially, ours not
so: our God essentially, His not so: His God only in connection with us: our God only in
connection with Him.
Matthew Poole's Commentary There are in this verse two no mean difficulties: the one about the
sense of the prohibition, when our Saviour forbade this woman to touch him; when after his
resurrection {Matthew HYPERLINK "/matthew/28-9.htm"28:9} he suffered the women to hold
him by the feet, and himself {John HYPERLINK "/john/20-27.htm"20:27} called Thomas to
thrust his hand into the hole of his side. There are many opinions about it: the best seems to be
the opinion of those who think that our Saviour saw Mary too fond, and too much in the
embraces of her Lord, as if she thought he had been raised up to such a converse with them as he
had before his death; and this error is all which he tasks her of, not forbidding her any kind of
touching him, so far as to satisfy herself that he was truly risen from the dead, but restraining any
such gross conception. The other difficulty, What force of a reason there could be for her not
touching him because he had not yet ascended? is much solved by that answer to the former;
reminding Mary that he was to ascend to his Father, though he had not yet ascended, and
therefore not to be enjoyed by them with so much freedom and familiarity as before. But (saith
he) go and tell
my brethren, that is, my disciples; whom the apostle tells us he is not ashamed to call brethren,
Hebrews HYPERLINK "/hebrews/2-11.htm"2:11,12; that I ascend, that is, I shall shortly
ascend,
to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God: though I shall very suddenly leave them,
yet I shall go but to my Father and my God, and to their Father and their God.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleJesus saith unto her, touch me not,.... Not that his body was
an aerial one, or a mere "phantom", which could not be touched; the prohibition itself shows the
contrary; and besides, Christ's body was afterwards presented to Thomas, to be touched by him,
and to be handled by all the disciples; and his feet were held by the women, which is what Mary
would have now done: upon the discovery of him, she threw herself at his feet, and was going to
embrace and kiss them, to testify her affection and joy, when she is forbid; not as unworthy of
the favour, because she sought him among the dead, for which the angels reproved her and the
rest; but either because he was not to be conversed with, as before his death, his body being
raised immortal and glorious; or rather, because he had an errand to send her on to his disciples,
which required haste; nor need she stay now to show her respect to him, since she would have
opportunity enough to do that, before his ascension; which though it was to be quickly, yet not
directly and immediately; and this seems to be the sense of our Lord's reason:
for I am not yet ascended to my Father; nor shall I immediately go to him; I shall make some
stay upon earth; as he did, forty days before his ascension; when he intimates, she might see him
again, and familiarly converse with him; at present he would have her stay no longer with him:
but go to my brethren; this he says, to show that their carriage to him, being denied by one of
them, and forsaken by them all, and the glory he was raised unto, as all this made no alteration in
their relation to him, so neither in his affection to them: Mary was a very proper person to be sent
unto them, since she had lately been with them, and knew where they were all assembled
together:
and say unto them; as from himself, representing him as it were:
I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God; God was his Father, not
by creation, as he is to angels, and the souls of men, and therefore is called the Father of spirits;
nor by adoption, as he is to the saints; nor with respect to the incarnation of Christ, for, as man,
he had no father; or with regard to his office as Mediator, for as such he was a servant, and not a
Son; but he was his Father by nature, or with regard to his divine person, being begotten of him,
and so his own proper Son, and he his own proper Father; which hold forth the natural and
eternal sonship of Christ, his equality with him, and distinction from him: and God was the
Father of his disciples by adopting grace, in virtue of the covenant of grace made with Christ,
and through their spiritual relation to him, as the natural and eternal Son of God: God the Father
is the God of Christ as man, who prepared, formed, anointed, supported, and glorified his human
nature; and in which nature, he prayed to him as his God, believed in him, loved and obeyed him
as such; wherefore the Jew (o) very wrongly infers from hence, that he is not God, because the
God of Israel was his God; since this is spoken of him as he is man: and he was the God of his
disciples, in and by the covenant of grace made with Christ, as their head and representative; so
that their interest in God, as their covenant God and Father, was founded upon his being the God
and Father of Christ, and their relation to, and concern with him; and which therefore must be
firm and lasting, and will hold as long as God is the God and Father of Christ: this was good
news to be brought to his disciples; which, as it carried the strongest marks of affection, and
expressions of nearness of relation; and implied, that he was now risen from the dead; so it
signified, that he should ascend to God, who stood in the same relation to them, as to him; when
he should use all his interest and influence on their behalf, whilst they were on earth; and when
the proper time was come for a remove, that they might be with him, and with his God and
Father and theirs, where they would be to all eternity.
(o) R. Isaac Chizzuk Emuna, par. 2. c. 58. p. 446.

Geneva Study Bible{4} Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my
Father: but go to my {d} brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto {e} my Father, and your
Father; and to my God, and your God.
(4) Christ, who is risen, is not to be sought in this world according to the flesh, but in heaven by
faith where he has gone before us.
(d) By his brethren he means his disciples, for in the following verse it is said that Mary told his
disciples.
(e) He calls God his Father because he is naturally his Father in the Godhead, and he says your
Father because he is our Father by grace through the adoption of the sons of God: that is, by
taking us by his free grace to be his sons; Epiphanius.
EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Meyer's NT Commentary HYPERLINK "/commentaries/meyer/john/20.htm"HYPERLINK
"/context/john/20-17.htm" HYPERLINK "/commentaries/meyer/john/20.htm"John
HYPERLINK "/commentaries/meyer/john/20.htm"20:17-18. Mary sees: it is the Lord. But
affected and transported in the highest degree by His miraculous appearance, she knows not: is it
He bodily, actually come forth out of the grave,—again become corporeally alive and risen? Or
is it, on the other hand, His glorified spirit, which has been already raised up to God, and which
again has descended to appear to her, so that He has only the bodily form, not the corporeal
substance? Therefore, to have the certainty which her love-filled heart needed in this moment of
sudden, profoundest emotion, she would take hold of, handle Him, in order by feeling to obtain
the conviction which the eye alone, in presence of this marvellous happiness, could not give her.
This, however, Jesus prevents: touch me not! and gazing into her soul, gives her, by His own
assurance, the certainty which she seeks, adding, as a reason for that repulse: for I am not yet
ascended to the Father, therefore, as yet, no glorified spirit who has again come down from
heaven whither he had ascended.[261] She would touch the Lord, as Thomas did subsequently,
not, however, from unbelief, but because her faith strives after a definiteness with which her love
cannot dispense. Only this interpretation, which is followed also by Baeumlein, strictly
corresponds to the words generally, especially also to the ΓΆΡ, which assigns a reason, and
imports no scenic accompaniments into the incident which are not in the passage; for ἍΠΤΟΥ
leaves the reader to suppose nothing else that Mary desired to do, save simply the mere
ἍΠΤΕΣΘΑΙ, therefore no embracing and the like. But scenic accompaniments are imported, and
go far beyond the simple ἍΠΤΟΥ, if it is assumed that Mary clasped the knees of Jesus (comp.
the frequent ἅπτεσθαι γούνων in Homer, Od. α. 512, Ο. 76, Φ. 65, Ω. 357, et al.), and desired, as
supplex, to manifest her προσκύνησις to Him, as to a Being already glorified and returned from
God (my first edition), or as venerabunda (so Lücke, Maier, Lange, Hilgenfeld, comp. Ewald).
This could not be expected to be gathered by the reader from the mere noli me tangere; John
must, in that case, have said, μὴ ἅπτου μου γονάτων, or ΜῊ ΓΟΝΥΠΕΤΕῖ ΜΕ,, or ΜῊ
ΠΡΟΣΚΎΝΗΣΌΝ ΜΟΙ, or the like, or have previously related what Mary desired,[262] to
which it may be added, that Jesus elsewhere does not refuse the ΠΡΟΣΚΎΝΗΣΙς; comp.
especially Matthew HYPERLINK "/matthew/28-9.htm"28:9. He does not, indeed, according to
Luke HYPERLINK "/luke/24-39.htm"24:39, repel even the handling, but invites thereto; but in
that instance, irrespective of the doubtfulness of the account, in a historical point of view, it
should be noted (1) that Jesus, in Luke, loc. cit. (comp. John HYPERLINK "/john/20-
24.htm"20:24 ff.), has to do with the direct doubt of His disciples in the reality of His bodily
appearance, which doubt he must expressly censure; (2) that in the present passage, a woman,

and one belonging to the narrower circle of His loving fellowship, is alone with Him, to whom
He might be disposed, from considerations of sacred decorum, not to permit the ἅπτεσθαι desired
in the midst of overflowing excitement. How entirely different was the situation with the sinning
woman, Luke HYPERLINK "/luke/7-37.htm"7:37 (in answer to Brückner’s objection)! Along
with the correct interpretation of ἍΠΤΕΣΘΑΙ, in itself, others have missed the further
determination of the sense of the expression, either in this way: Jesus forbade the handling,
because His wounds still pained Him (Paulus)! or: because His new, even corporeally glorified
life was still so delicate, that He was bound to keep at a distance from anything that would
disturb it (so Olshausen, following Schleiermacher, Festpred. V. p. 303); or: because He was still
bodiless, and first after His return to the Father was again to obtain a body (Weisse). There is
thus imported what is certainly not contained in the words (Paulus), what is a thoroughly
arbitrary presupposition (Paulus, Olshausen), and what is in complete contradiction to the N. T.
idea of the risen Christ (Weisse). Others take the saying as an urging to hasten on with that
which is immediately necessary;[263] she is not to detain herself with the ἅπτεσθαι, since she
can see and touch Him still at a later period (so, with a different explanation in other respects of
ἍΠΤΕΣΘΑΙ itself, Beza, Vatablus, Calovius, Cornelius a Lapide, Bengel, and several others); by
which, however, an arbitrarily adopted sense, and one not in keeping with the subsequent
ἈΝΑΒΑΊΝΩ, Κ.Τ.Λ., would be introduced into the confirmatory clause, nay, the prospect
opened up, in reference to the future tangere, would be inappropriate. Others, that Jesus demands
a greater proffer of honour; for as His body has already become divine, the ordinary touching of
feet and mode of intercourse is no longer applicable (Chrysostom, Theodore of Mopsuestia,
Theophylact, Euth. Zigabenus, Erasmus, Jansen, and several others). How inept in itself, and
illogical in reference to the following οὔπω γὰρ, κ.τ.λ.! Others: it was a refusal of the enjoyment
now sought in His appearance, which as yet is untimely, and is to take place not “terrestri
contactu,” but spirituali (Melanchthon, Calvin, Aretius, Grotius, and several others; substantially
also, but under various modifications, Neander, De Wette, Tholuck, Luthardt, Lange,
Baumgarten, Hengstenberg, Godet),[264] by which, however, the proper contents, constituting
the essence of the supposed sense, is arbitrarily read between the lines. Others still differently, as
e.g. Ammon: Jesus desired to spare Mary the touch of one levitically unclean! and Hilgenfeld,
Evang. p. 318: the refusal of the reverential touch was made by Jesus, for the reason that He was
not yet the man again united with the Logos, but at present only the Man raised again from His
grave.[265] Both interpretations are entirely foreign to the meaning. Scholten’s view (p. 172) is
also an impossibility, as if Jesus had said οὔπω μὲν γὰρ, κ.τ.λ., as one already glorified.
Conjectures even have been attempted; Vogel: μὴ σὺ πτόου, Gersdorf and Schulthess: ΜΟΥ
ἍΠΤΟΥ, or ΣΎ ΜΟΥ ἍΠΤΥ.
ΠΡῸς ΤΟῪς ἈΔΕΛΦ. ΜΟΥ] This designation of the disciples as His beloved associates in the
filial relation to God, through His now fulfilled earthly work (comp. πρὸς τ. πατέρα, κ.τ.λ.), is
not at all intended to serve the purpose of tranquillizing them on account of their flight (Bengel,
Luthardt, comp. Luther). Of this the text contains no indication, all the less that the expression is
found only in the address to Mary, but not as to be communicated to the disciples. Rather has the
designation its reference to Mary herself, who is to gather from it, that the loving fellowship of
the Lord with His own, far removed from being dissolved by the new conditions of this
miraculous manifestation, rather continues, indeed, now first (comp. John HYPERLINK
"/john/15-15.htm"15:15) has its completion. Note the like expression in Matthew HYPERLINK
"/matthew/28-10.htm"28:10, where, however (see in loc.), the pointing to Galilce is an essential

variation in the tradition; against which Luthardt, without reason, objects that Matthew
HYPERLINK "/matthew/28-10.htm"28:10 refers to the promise, Matthew HYPERLINK
"/matthew/26-32.htm"26:32. Certainly; but this promise already has, as its historical
presupposition, the appearance of the Lord before the disciples, which was to be expected in
Galilee, as the same also, Matthew HYPERLINK "/matthew/28-16.htm"28:16 ff., is actually set
forth as the first and only one in Matthew.
ἀναβαίνω, κ.τ.λ.] The near and certain future. To announce this consequence of His resurrection
to the disciples, must be all the more on His heart, since He so frequently designates His death as
His departure to the Father, and had associated with it the personal hope of the disciples. That
should not be different through His resurrection; it was only the passage from death to the
heavenly glory. As to the mode and way of the ascension ἀναβ. contains nothing. The added κ.
πατέρα ὑμῶν and Κ. ΘΕῸΝ ὙΜῶΝ was, however, intended to confirm the hope of the disciples
in respect of their own ΣΥΝΔΟΞΑΣῆΝΑΙ, since in truth, in virtue of their fellowship with
Christ, the Father of Christ was also become their Father, the God of Christ (to whom Christ
solely belongs and serves, comp. Matthew HYPERLINK "/matthew/27-47.htm"27:47, and see,
in detail, on Ephesians HYPERLINK "/ephesians/1-17.htm"1:17) also their God (comp. on
Romans HYPERLINK "/romans/1-8.htm"1:8); that is now, after the execution of the redemptive
work, entirely accomplished, and will one day have also the fellowship in δόξα as its final result,
comp. Romans HYPERLINK "/romans/8-17.htm"8:17; Romans HYPERLINK "/romans/8-
29.htm"8:29. Note in ΠΡῸς ΤῸΝ ΠΑΤΈΡΑ, Κ.Τ.Λ., that the article does not recur, but
embraces all in the unity of the Person. To understand the pres. ἈΝΑΒ., however, of that which
ensues forthwith and immediately, and in the following way (Baur, p. 222 ff., and Neutest.
Theol. p. 381, Hilgenfeld, and others), that already the appearance that follows is to be placed
after the ascension (comp. Ewald, who understands the pres. of the ascension as already
impending), is decisively opposed by the fact of the later appearance, John HYPERLINK
"/context/john/20-26.htm"20:26-27, if this is not given up as actual history, or if the extravagant
notion of many ascensions is not, with Kinkel, laid hold of.
[261] In οὔπω γὰρ, κ.τ.λ., is expressed, therefore, not “the dread of permitting a contact, and that
which was thereby intended, before the ascension to the Father should be accomplished”
(Brückner); but Jesus means thereby to say that Mary with her ἅπτεσθαι already presupposed in
Him a condition which had not yet commenced, because it must have been preceded by His
ascension to the Father.
[262] This also in answer to Baur, who thinks that Jesus was precisely on the point of ascending
(see on ver. 18), and therefore did not wish to allow Himself to be detained by Mary falling at
His feet. Comp. Köstlin, p. 190; Kinkel in the Stud. u. Krit. 1841, p. 597 ff.—Among the ancient
interpreters I find the strict verbal rendering of ἅπτεσθαι most fully preserved in Nonnus, who
even refers it only to the clothing: Mary had approached her right hand to His garment; then
Jesus says: ἐμῶν μὴ ψαῦε χιτώνων.
[263] At this conclusion Hofmann also arrives, Schriftbew. II. 1, p. 524: Mary is not, in her joy
at again having Jesus, to approach and hang upon Him, as if He had appeared in order to remain,
but was to carry to the disciples the joyful message, etc. But even with this turn the words do not
apply, and the thought, especially that He had appeared not to remain, would be so enigmatically

expressed by οὔπω γὰρ, κ.τ.λ., that it could only be discovered by the way, in nowise indicated,
of an indirect conclusion. That ἅπτεοθαι may denote attach oneself, fasten oneself on (comp.
Godet: “s’attacher à”), is well known; but just as frequently, and in the N. T. throughout, it
means take hold of, touch, handle, also in 1 HYPERLINK "/1_corinthians/7-1.htm"Corinthians
HYPERLINK "/1_corinthians/7-1.htm"7:1; 1 HYPERLINK "/1_john/5-18.htm"John
HYPERLINK "/1_john/5-18.htm"5:18.
[264] Melanchthon: “Reprehenditur mulier, quod desiderio humano expetit complexum Christi
et somniat eum revixisse ut rursus inter amicos vivat ut antea …; nondum scit, fide praesentiam
invisibilis Christi deinceps agnoscendam esse.” So substantially also Luther. According to
Luthardt, Mary would grasp, seize, hold Jesus fast, in order to enjoy His fellowship and satisfy
her love. This Jesus denies to her, because at present it was not yet time for that; abiding
fellowship as hitherto will first again commence when He shall have ascended, consequently
shall have returned in the Paraclete; it will not then be brought about corporeally, but the
fellowship will be in the Spirit. According to Baumgarten, a renewed bodily fellowship is
promised to Mary, but completely freed from sin, and sanctified by Christ’s blood. According to
Hengstenberg, Mary would embrace Jesus in the opinion that now the wall of separation between
Him and her has fallen; but the Lord repels her, for as yet His glorification is not completed, the
wall of separation still in part subsists, etc. Godet: “It is not yet the moment for thee to attach
thyself to me, as if I were already restored to you. For I am not as yet arrived at the state in which
I shall be able to contract with my disciples the superior relation which I have promised to you;”
thus substantially like Luthardt.
[265] In his ZeitsChr. 1868, p. 436, Hilgenfeld modifies his interpretation to the extent that
Jesus, as the Risen One, did not as yet desire to be the object of the reverence which belonged to
Him as Lord of the Church (Php HYPERLINK "/philippians/2-10.htm"2:10). This was then first
to begin, when, after His ascension, He should appear before His believing ones as Dispenser of
the Spirit (John HYPERLINK "/context/john/6-62.htm"6:62-63). But even thus the points to be
understood are imported from a distance.
Expositor's Greek Testament HYPERLINK "/commentaries/egt/john/20.htm"HYPERLINK
"/john/20-17.htm" HYPERLINK "/commentaries/egt/john/20.htm"John HYPERLINK
"/commentaries/egt/john/20.htm"20:17. Μή μου ἅπτου, “noli me tangere,” not because it was
indecorous (Luke HYPERLINK "/luke/7-38.htm"7:38); nor because she wished to assure herself
by touch that the appearance was real, a test which He did not prevent His disciples from
applying; nor because her embrace would disturb the process of glorification through which His
body was passing; nor, following Kypke’s note, can we suppose that Jesus forbids Mary to
worship Him [although K. proves that ἅπτεσθαι is used of that clinging to the knees or feet
which was adopted by suppliants], because He accepts Thomas’ worship even before His
ascension; but, as He Himself says, οὔπω γὰρ ἀναβέβηκα πρὸς τὸν πατέρα μου, “for I have not
yet ascended to my Father,” implying that this was not His permanent return to visible fellowship
with His disciples. Mary, by her eagerness to seize and hold Him, showed that she considered
that the μικρόν, the “little time,” of John HYPERLINK "/john/16-16.htm"16:16, was past, and
that now He had returned to be for ever with them. Jesus checks her with the assurance that
much had yet to happen before that. His disciples must at once be disabused of that
misapprehension. Therefore, πορεύου … ὑμῶν, “Go to my brothers [ἀδελφούς μου, here for the
first time; in anticipation of the latter part of the sentence, cf. Mark HYPERLINK "/mark/3-

35.htm"3:35] and tell them, I ascend to my Father and your Father, and my God and your God”.
He thus forms a relationship which bound Him to them more closely than His bodily presence.
His place by right is with God. But His love binds Him as certainly to His people on earth as His
rights carry Him to God. The form of the expression is dictated by His desire to give them
assurance. They had no doubt God was His God and Father. He teaches them that, if so, He is
their God and Father. ἔρχεται … αὐτῇ, Mary carries forthwith the Lord’s message to the
disciples, cf. Mark HYPERLINK "/mark/16-10.htm"16:10; Matthew HYPERLINK
"/matthew/28-10.htm"28:10; Luke HYPERLINK "/luke/24-10.htm"24:10.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges17. Touch me not, for, &c.] This is a passage of well-
known difficulty. At first sight the reason given for refraining from touching would seem to be
more suitable to a permission to touch. It is perhaps needless to enquire whether the ‘for’ refers
to the whole of what follows or only to the first sentence, ‘I am not yet ascended to the Father?’
In either case the meaning would be, that the Ascension has not yet taken place, although it soon
will do so, whereas Mary’s action assumes that it has taken place. If ‘for’ refers to the first clause
only, then the emphasis is thrown on Mary’s mistake; if ‘for’ refers to the whole of what is said,
then the emphasis is thrown on the promise that what Mary craves shall be granted in a higher
way to both her and others very soon. The translation ‘touch Me not’ is inadequate and gives a
false impression. The verb (haptesthai) does not mean to ‘touch’ and ‘handle’ with a view to
seeing whether His body was real; this Christ not only allowed but enjoined (John HYPERLINK
"/john/20-27.htm"20:27; Luke HYPERLINK "/luke/24-39.htm"24:39; comp. 1 HYPERLINK
"/1_john/1-1.htm"John HYPERLINK "/1_john/1-1.htm"1:1): rather it means to ‘hold on to’ and
‘cling to.’ Moreover it is the present (not aorist) imperative; and the full meaning will therefore
be, ‘Do not continue holding Me,’ or simply, hold Me not. The old and often interrupted earthly
intercourse is over; the new and continuous intercourse with the Ascended Lord has not yet
begun: but that Presence will be granted soon, and there will be no need of straining eyes and
clinging ands to realize it. (For a large collection of various interpretations see Meyer.)
to my Father] The better reading gives, to the Father; with this ‘My brethren’ immediately
following agrees better. The general relationship applying both to Him and them, is stated first,
and then pointedly distinguished in its application to Him and to them.
I ascend] Or, I am ascending. The change has already begun.
my God] The risen and glorified Redeemer is still perfect man. Comp. Revelation HYPERLINK
"/revelation/3-12.htm"3:12. Thus also S. Paul and S. Peter speak of ‘the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ.’ Comp. Ephesians HYPERLINK "/ephesians/1-3.htm"1:3; 2 HYPERLINK
"/2_corinthians/11-31.htm"Corinthians HYPERLINK "/2_corinthians/11-31.htm"11:31; 1
HYPERLINK "/1_peter/1-3.htm"Peter HYPERLINK "/1_peter/1-3.htm"1:3; and see on Romans
HYPERLINK "/romans/15-6.htm"15:6; 2 HYPERLINK "/2_corinthians/1-3.htm"Corinthians
HYPERLINK "/2_corinthians/1-3.htm"1:3, where the expression is blurred in the A. V.
Bengel's Gnomen HYPERLINK "/commentaries/bengel/john/20.htm"HYPERLINK "/john/20-
17.htm" HYPERLINK "/commentaries/bengel/john/20.htm"John HYPERLINK
"/commentaries/bengel/john/20.htm"20:17. Μὴ μου ἅπτου, touch Me not) She was wishing to do
so in the way of adoration; but Jesus forbids it: For, 1) there was no need to touch Him, since she
already believed: 2) there was close at hand, simultaneously with His ascension, the approaching
state of a more elevated kind of faith, which required no touching to assure it: 3) the tidings were

to be given without delay to the disciples; comp. Luke HYPERLINK "/luke/10-4.htm"10:4,
“Salute no man by the way” [the charge to the Seventy to avoid delay, as their business was
urgent and Oriental salutations tedious].—οὔπω, not yet) By this particle the Lord indicates, that
the Ascension was immediately at hand, and that the disciples ought to make haste: for that it is
for their sake that He delays, when He might immediately ascend.—γὰρ, for) The Ætiology
[Assigning of a reason.—See Append.]: do not touch Me: for thou oughtest to go away quickly
to announce the tidings: afterwards thou, and those to whom thou shalt have announced them,
shall be able both to see and to touch Me.—δὲ, but) The antithesis is between, I have not yet
ascended, and, I ascend.—ἀδελφούς μου, My brethren) See on Matthew HYPERLINK
"/matthew/25-40.htm"25:40. [At first He called them disciples; then friends, John HYPERLINK
"/john/15-15.htm"15:15; and once, speaking of the cross, little sons (τεκνία): after the
resurrection, παιδία, little children, ch. John HYPERLINK "/john/21-5.htm"21:5, and brethren.]
[The words in Matthew HYPERLINK "/matthew/12-50.htm"12:50 rest on another and different
principle, “Whosoever shall do the will of My Father in heaven, the same is My brother.”—V.
g.] He calls them brethren: for His Father is also at the same time their Father; and by the
appellation of Brethren, He intimates His favourable (propitious) feeling towards them, though
by their flight and denial of Him they had become unworthy of all their former position and
grade, and He offers to them all the fruit of His resurrection: being presently after about also to
renew their commission (the sending of them forth), nay, more, about to enlarge it: John
HYPERLINK "/john/20-21.htm"20:21.—ἀναβαίνω, I ascend) This goes still further. He does not
say, I have risen again; nor, I will ascend; but, I ascend. This time of the ascension is already
regarded as present. Luke HYPERLINK "/luke/9-51.htm"9:51, note “The time that He should be
received up.” [Jesus all along from the first looked on to the goal, His assumption into heaven,
and regarded the forty days after His resurrection, nay, even the events preceding, as only a kind
of παρασκευή or Preparation for the one great day of His Ascension]. So the mention of His
glorious coming is immediately connected with His ascension. See Acts HYPERLINK "/acts/1-
11.htm"1:11, “This same Jesus, winch is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like
manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” Wherein once it is said, He shall come; afterwards
it is always, He cometh, in the present. Hence the disciples of themselves were about to infer,
that they must make haste, in order that they might see Jesus. He had often spoken of this
ascension as close at hand, by employing the word ὑπάγω, I go away.—πρὸς τὸν πατέρα μου καὶ
πατέρα ὑμῶν, καὶ Θεόν μου καὶ Θεὸν ὑμῶν, to My Father and your Father, and My God and
your God) Christ called God His God thrice; on the cross, Matthew HYPERLINK
"/matthew/27-46.htm"27:46, “My God, My God” etc.; after His resurrection, in this passage, and
in the Apocalypse, ch. Revelation HYPERLINK "/revelation/2-7.htm"2:7, note.[398] Ordinarily
and elsewhere, He is wont to call God by the title of His Father. He joins together both
appellations, for the first time, in this place: He calls Him Father, since He derives His
Origination from Him; He calls Him God (never, His Lord), since He has Him for His End; and
thus shows that He has every kind of tie binding Him to the God. Moreover, He freely bestows
on His brethren a similar tie of relationship with the Father and God. He does not, however, say
Our, but “My Father and your Father,” etc. We have our relationship to God through Him: He
has His in a manner altogether peculiar to Himself and primarily. Here, too, the saying holds
good: God is the God (and Father), not of the dead, but of the living; comp. ch. John
HYPERLINK "/john/14-19.htm"14:19, “Because I live, ye shall live also.”
[398] There seems some mistake here. The passage in which Jesus calls the Father My God, is

ch. Revelation HYPERLINK "/revelation/3-12.htm"3:12; not ch. Revelation HYPERLINK
"/revelation/2-7.htm"2:7, “I will write upon Him the name of My God, and the name of the city
of My God, new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from My God.—E. and T.
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 17. - Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for, etc.
(1) Some, Bengal and others, make the γάρ govern the whole clause that follows, and so give the
meaning," Stay not to touch me, but haste to my disciples, and say," etc.; but this would render
the first clause very obscure, unless the further supposition be made, as by Baur, Bush, Sears,
and many others, that our Lord was just on the point of ascending to heaven, i.e. of one (nay, the
first) of his many ascensions to the Father, after which the touching, in the sense either of
worship or of verification, would be possible and rightful, and also the supposition that an
"ascension" intervened between the appearance to the Magdalene and the other women, or at all
events before the revelation to the disciples at Emmaus, to Simon Peter, or to the eleven, at all of
which both verification of his personality, if net worship at his feet, was permitted or
encouraged. This hypothesis is perilously near to an assumption of a succession of illusive
visions of that which had nothing but subjective reality.
(2) Olshausen and Schleiermacher give the utterly naturalistic view, that the Lord's spiritual body
was so tender that he could not bear a vigorous grasp or physical touch. Still worse,
(3) Paulus supposed that he was still suffering from his cruel wounds, which, of course, would
only imply an apparent death on the cross, and is a denial of the Resurrection altogether.
(4) Meyer's view seems to imply that Mary wondered whether he had only a glorified spirit
without bodily form, and she wished to verify the latter by handling his Person, and "Jesus gives
her by his verbal assurance the certainty she seeks, adding, For I am not yet ascended to the (my)
Father; therefore as yet I am not a glorified spirit who has again come down from heaven,
whither he had ascended." This is very subtle, and is equivalent to our Lord's saying, "Do not
you, Mary, seek that kind of bodily tangible proof;" "I am not yet a glorified spirit, and have not
yet the glorified body which you imagined." The difficulty of this interpretation is not what
Godet says, "Jesus glorified does not become pure spirit," but that Mary is credited with a
breadth and depth of apprehension so far in advance of her apparent despondency and her small
amount of faith in the dignity of her Lord.
(5) Many take the μὴ μου ἄπτου, "Hold me not fast," as though ἄπτομαι were equal to κρατεῖν,
"to hold fast," or to hold for purposes of enjoyment, and imply that Mary rushed to "embrace"
our Lord (Hengstenberg and Bruckner), to clasp him by the knees or feet; that Jesus warned and
repulsed the effort, implying that he repressed the exuberance of the joy which she manifested,
pointing to a much higher and holier contact that would be possible when his glorification would
be complete. Augustine ('Tract. in Io.,' 121:3), "' Touch me not,' that is, Believe not thus on me
according to thy present notions. For how could it be otherwise than carnally that she still
believed on him whom she was weeping over as a man? For I am not yet ascended to my Father.'
There shalt thou touch me when thou believest me to be God in no wise unequal to the Father."
Leo the Great ('Sermo,' 74. 100. 4, quoted by P. Schaff): "I am unwilling that you should
approach me (carnaliter) by any mere physical touch, that you should recognize me by the
physical senses (sensu carnis). I am drawing you to sublimer things; I am preparing greater

things for you. When I shall have ascended to the Father, then you will handle me more perfectly
and truly, being ready, as you then will be, to apprehend what you do not touch, and to believe
that which you do not perceive." Many of the most able of modern expositors adopt this view or
some modification of it (Calvin, Melancthon, Lampe, De Wette, and Tholuck); Luthardt now
sees a difficulty in this interpretation, from the twofold sense thus attributed to the word
ἄπτεσθαι, and falls back on the earlier view, "Cling not to me, but go and tell my disciples," etc.
Godet, however, puts it thus: "I have not yet reached the state by means of' which I shall be able
to live with you in the communion which I promised you;" and many of the ecclesiastical divines
discover in the words an allusion to sacramental communion which will be possible in the future,
when the dispensation of the Holy Spirit shall have beau inaugurated. The ascension of which he
speaks is not of one definitive act, but of a continual state (ἀναβέβηκα, not ἀνέβην), and so the
idea of the repeated ascensions is precluded. The difficulty arises from the permission the Lord
gave to the eleven to prove by tangible evidence, by visible signs, the reality of his resurrection,
showing them by way of identification the marks upon his person of the great agony. But there is
no need to suppose that Mary was refused one touch when she seemed wishful to cling to his
feet, and thus redouble the conviction already wrought in her by sight and hearing of his new
mode of being. Ἄπτεσθαι has this double meaning, "to handle" and "to hold fast." The key of the
passage is in the οὔπω, "not yet have I ascended to the Father;" and the reasonable, nay, the
imperative, inference is that when he shall have ascended to the Father, there will be ample
opportunity for that spiritual communion with him which will make him for ever present with his
Church. The goal of all Christ's teaching (as recorded by John) is his return to the Father, and the
consequent fullness of his disciples' joy. Because he will be glorified straightway in God himself,
he will henceforth be as near to them, as competent to teach and guide and protect them, as in the
days of his flesh; nay, more so, for they will do greater works than he wrought before them,
because he goes to the Father, ascending up to where he was before (John HYPERLINK
"/john/14-18.htm"14:18-21 HYPERLINK "/john/14-18.htm", HYPERLINK "/john/14-
18.htm"23 HYPERLINK "/john/14-18.htm", HYPERLINK "/john/14-18.htm"28; John
HYPERLINK "/john/16-14.htm"16:14 HYPERLINK "/john/16-14.htm", HYPERLINK
"/john/16-14.htm"17). He will be "seated at the right hand of the majesty in the heavens," he will
pass "through these heavens, that he may fill all things." Because he is "the Lamb in the midst of
the throne," he will lead them to the living fountains of water. Because he is on the eternal
throne, he can dwell in them and manifest himself to them. But go to my brethren. The new
name, dearer than "slaves," than "servants," than "disciples," than "ministers," than "apostles,"
than "friends;" one that involves in itself an eternal inheritance. Observe that, though our Lord
(Matthew HYPERLINK "/matthew/12-48.htm"12:48, etc.) had prepared the way for this
unspeakable privilege, it is not until he has put on the life eternal, the life of victory over death,
that he freely confers this lofty designation upon that timid and dispirited band of special
followers who had forsaken him and fled in his great humiliation. Peter especially (Mark
HYPERLINK "/mark/16-7.htm"16:7) receives this significant assurance and (Luke
HYPERLINK "/luke/24-34.htm"24:34) confirms its realization together with Paul (1
HYPERLINK "/1_corinthians/15-5.htm"Corinthians HYPERLINK "/1_corinthians/15-
5.htm"15:5). These eleven men are henceforth his brethren. And say to them, I am ascending; the
process of ascension has begun; I am beginning to assume all the prerogatives of spiritual
corporeity; I am clothing myself with my eternal form; I have laid down my life, that I might
take it again, and use it for the highest blessedness of my brethren. I am ascending to my Father,
and to your Father. Let it be observed that he does not say, "to our Father." "He who is Father of

Christ and Father of men, is so in different ways. He is Father of Christ by nature and of men by
grace" (Westcott). "He saith not 'our Father;' in one sense, therefore, is he mine, in another sense
yours; by nature mine, by grace yours" (Augustine). To my God, and your God. The same
remark may be made here. Christ does speak of "my God" from the throne of glory (Revelation
HYPERLINK "/revelation/3-2.htm"3:2 HYPERLINK "/revelation/3-2.htm", HYPERLINK
"/revelation/3-2.htm"12). His human consciousness of God has throughout been unique; his
eternal consciousness of the Father's love dignified all his human relations with the Father, and
became the true inspiration of all consciousness of God possessed by his disciples. "He appears
in the presence [before the face] of God for us," and so we have access unto one Father and draw
near to God. Nevertheless, he did not say to "our God," any more than to "our Father."
Vincent's Word StudiesTouch me not (μή μοῦ ἅπτου)
The verb, primarily, means to fasten to. Hence it implies here, not a mere momentary touch, but
a clinging to. Mary thought that the old relations between her Lord and herself were to be
renewed; that the old intercourse, by means of sight, sound, and touch, would go on as before.
Christ says, "the time for this kind of intercourse is over. Henceforth your communion with me
will be by faith through the Spirit. This communion will become possible through my ascending
to the Father."
My Father
The best texts omit the pronoun and read the Father. See on John HYPERLINK "/john/12-
26.htm"12:26. This expression, emphasizing the relation of God to humanity rather than to
Christ himself, is explained by what follows - "my Father and your Father."
My brethren
The word brethren, applied to the disciples, occurs before (John HYPERLINK
"//biblehub.com/john/7-3.htm"7:3, John HYPERLINK "//biblehub.com/john/7-5.htm"7:5, John
HYPERLINK "/john/7-10.htm"7:10), but not the phrase my brethren, which follows from my
Father and your Father. Compare Matthew HYPERLINK "/matthew/28-10.htm"28:10.
I ascend (ἀναβαίνω)
The present tense is used, not in the sense of the near future, but implying that He had already
entered upon that new stage of being which the actual ascension formally inaugurated. The
resurrection was really the beginning of the ascension.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
BRIAN BELL
John 20:1-18 2-21-10 “3rdDayis the 1stDay!”

I. INTRO:A. Todayhas been setaside to commemorate FreedomSunday. 1.
Its an international event, churches committed to Ending Modern-Day
Slavery! a) Stats: 27 million slaves in the world (50% are children) Human
Trafficking ($32 billion yr business. 3rd largestafter drugs & weapons)
Children exploited in sextrade every year? (2 million) Children soldiers
(300,000;50 countries recruit children under 18;young as age 7). 100,000
lived enslavedin the U.S. presently (17,500 new victims trafficked acrossour
boarders eachyr) (Another 30,000pass thru on their way to other
International destinations)27 million slaves in the world (50% are children) 2.
Churches are collectivelyringing the Freedombell to declare that “Theyare
Not ForSale; you are Not ForSale;and no one should be For Sale!” 3.
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org B. Prayer: Pray for those held captive.
Jesus came to setthe captives free. 1. Apostles Creedsays it so profoundly yet
simply, The 3rd day He rose againfrom the dead And if Christ is not risen,
our faith is futile; we are still in your sins.
C. Intro: In one of his lighter moments, Benjamin Franklin penned his own
epitaph. He didn’t profess to be a born-again Christian, but it seems he must
have been influenced by Paul’s teaching of the resurrection of the body.
Here’s what he wrote: 1. The Body of B. Franklin, Printer - Like the Cover of
an old Book Its contents torn out, - And stript of its Lettering and Guilding,
Lies here, Food for Worms, - But the Work shall not be wholly lost: Forit
will, as he believ’d, - Appear once more In a new & more perfect Edition, -
Correctedand amended by the Author.
D. The crowning joy of the resurrection. The culmination of belief. 1. Why
does eachgospelwriter report on the res? Why does John? (20:31)To elicit
faith! E. Certain features are common to all 4 gospels, including the omission
of any description of the actualresurrection. (ever think of that?) 1. Passionof
the Christ - remember how Mel Gibson depicted it; Res sequel?
F. It was in a garden ages ago thatparadise was lost, & now it is in a garden
now that it would be regained. 1. But at this moment Mary Mag didn’t know
that.
1

2. Her hope was dashed, her Mastermissing, her friend gone!3. Her hope was
Jesus. He changedher life. He had castout 7 demons. He freed her from
untold torment. He had given her life, a reasonto live, a place in His kingdom,
worth, dignity, understanding, compassion, love, & hope 4. Now that hope lies
at the bottom of her heart. (Ken Gire; Intimate Moments w/the Savior) 5. But
as love brought her to the cross, now love draws her to the grave.
II. 3RD DAY IS THE 1ST DAY! A. WHAT MARY SAW & SAID! (1-2) B. (1)
Still dark, at a tomb, all alone, & now the tomb had been violated. 1.
Whenever I’ve seena tomb opened...it’s usually wrong! 2. It’s like getting
something from the store & getting it home & realizing it had been
opened...eeww!3. Story: Russia, rt when communism fell. Passedthrough a
town where there was a white mausoleum, a former communist leader. Door
was torn open. They had drug body out into the street & burnt it. Then
torched the mausoleum a) Haiti graveyard. Some not sealedyet. Some broken
open. b) Here Jesus’tomb had been breeched, violated.
C. (2) Mary, jumping to conclusions, has Peter& John on the run.
D. WHAT PETER & JOHN SAW & DID! (3-10)E. (7) 2 miracles here: [1]
Jesus had risen from the dead [2] A single man folded his clothes. F. (5,7)The
position of the cloths showedthey had not been unwound from Jesus’body. 1.
He had gone out, just as He came in, where the doors were shut, w/o the doors
being opened(19,26).
G. Petermust have been thinking, “Why would a grave robber have left the
clothes in this order? Why take the body of Jesus?”H. But John perceived
that the missing body and the position of the grave clothes was not due to a
robbery. 1. His eyes adjusted & notices the burial wrappings made rigid by
the resin from the spices. The linen cocoonlays intact on the stone slab. Intact,
but hallow. 2. He realized that Jesus had risen from the dead and had gone
through the grave clothes. The butterfly was free! 3. “The tomb was open, not
to let Jesus’body out, but to let the disciples and the world see that He rose.”
2

I. There is 3 main Greek words for “saw”. 1. John saw (Βλεπο-blepo)A mere
glance. 2. Petersaw (θεωρεω - theoreo)To take careful notice. 3. John saw
(εἰδεν A-don)(root=oida) To get a mental picture, see w/understanding.
J. Peterhad more sight, John more insight. 1. John was the first to believe
that Jesus was risenfrom the tomb even before he saw him. John was
evidently proud to be able to record this greatmoment when he believed
without seeing in contrastto Thomas (vs.29)
K. (10) Interesting they could see the evidence of the resurrection, but it did
not change their lives. They needed a meeting with the living Christ. (same
today!)
L. HOW JESUS APPEARED!(11-18)M. (12) The womanwho was once
possessedwith demon finds herself in the presence of& conversing with
angels!1. One stands at the head of the stone slab; the other at the foot. 2.
Like the ark of the covenantin the MostHoly Place of the Tabernacle -
cherubim on either end. Forthis, too, is a most holy place!
N. (14) Unbelief blinds our eyes to the Lord’s presence.
O. (15a)The gardner? - Well, maybe not far off. He is the keeperofthe
church. 1. At this moment, He had come into the gardento lift up one
drooping flower. P. (15b) Mary what a stud! - Stone roller, body lifter,
whateverit took.
Q. (16) When He calls her by name, He immediately comes into focus. 1. Like
when I depress my shutter release ½ waydown on my camera in autofocus
mode. Focus is immediate! R. What a tender moment when Jesus said, Mary!
and her recognitionof Him & cry of Rabbi! Is one of the emotionalhighlights
of the entire Gospel. (Shepherds Notes;pg.89)
S. What did Jesus conveywhen He said, “Mary”? 1. And He calls His sheep
by name…(Jn.10:3)2. Think about it: Jesus could have paraded through the
streets of Jerusalem;He could have knockedon Pilate’s door; He could have
confronted the high priest (“I’m back!”); But the 1st personour resurrected
Lord appears to is a woman w/o hope. And His 1st words, “why are you
crying?”

3
a) He doesn’tshout His res from a housetop, instead quietly to a womanwho
grieves. Who desperatelyneeds to hear His voice, see His face, feel His
embrace. b) What a Savior we serve, or rather, who serves us! (Ken Gire) T.
(17) Do not cling to Me - KJV not goodtrans TouchMe not (why not?) [He
askedThomas to] 1. Is it possible for us to miss the best in the Lord while
holding on to the good? 2. What Jesus are you clinging to? Some cling to the
cute lil baby Jesus in the manger; some cling to the passive well groomed
surfer S.S. Jesus;some, fearful of him as Terminator Temple Destroyer;
others, cling to the dead Savior on a cross;& some, cling to the
living/ruling/reigning/victorious/King of Kings & Lord of Lords Jesus. 3.
Mary was not to continue clinging to Him, but was to bear His messageto the
apostles. a)This is suggestive to us...We are not simply to linger about the
shrine of the resurrection, but are to go declaring the fact of it! U. (18) Mary
was changedfrom a mourner to a missionary when she met the living Lord. 1.
Jesus interrupts this precious moment by giving her a pressing errand to run.
And run she does with the 1stEasterSermon, She had seenthe Lord.
V. The Necessityofthe Resurrection? 1. A Testimony to the truths of the OT
(which had foretold it many times). 2. A Testimonyto the truths of Jesus’
words (for He had foretold it many times). 3. A Vindication of Christ’
character(for a perfect life could not close in a cruel & shameful death). 4. A
Vindication of God (for all through His life Christ had appealedto God, and,
as Paul said afterwards, it would have proved God to be false if Christ had not
been raised1 Cor.15:15).
W. The Proofs of the Resurrection? 1. Empty grave - and the disappearance
of the body. 2. Disciples radically transformed - the remarkable
transformation in the disciples from gloomto gladness;despair to hope;
sorrow to joy. a) And this change took place only 3 days from the event. 3. The
Church was built on the Res - the church of Christ came into existence as a
result of accepting the resurrection of the Master. a) Usually a sect/cultdies
after the death of its leader. 4. Our own personalTransformations - the
influence of Christ upon men & communities from the time of Paul onwards.

4
X. (end) Have you had a post-resurrectionencounterwith Jesus? How would I
know if I did? Well, it would have had a dramatic life changing effect on your
life? 1. Are you clinging to an innocent safe baby Jesus? Are you clinging to a
S.S. Jesus;a coolJesus;a flowery “why can’t all religions just getalong”
Jesus. 2. Remember, 10 out of 11 of the original 12 apostles, wentto their
death because ofseeing the post-res Jesus!Y. Prayer:Lord, how hard it is to
see clearlywhen devastating circumstances fill our eyes w/tears. Everything
gets blurry. Lord, even You getblurry, & Your voice becomes strangely
unfamiliar. Help me to blink away my tears & unbelief.
CHRIST’S MANIFESTATION TO MARY MAGDALENE NO. 2733
A SERMON INTENDEDFOR READING ON LORD’S-DAY, JUNE 30,
1901. DELIVERED BYC. H. SPURGEON, AT NEW PARK STREET
CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK, ON A LORD’S-DAY EVENING, IN THE
SUMMER OF 1859.
“Jesus saidunto her, TouchMe not; for I am not yet ascendedto My Father:
but go to My brethren, and say unto them, I ascendunto My Father, and
your Father; and to My God, and your God.” John 20:17.
THIS was the first appearance ofour Lord Jesus Christ after His
resurrection. In sundry places and at divers times, during the ensuing 40 days,
He appeared to different disciples, showing Himself openly to them when they
were assembledfor worship and at other times. But this was the first occasion
of His being seenby any of His followers afterHe had risen from the dead.
The whole incident is full of consolationand we who are poor wearypilgrims
through this earthly wilderness need some words of comfort every now and
then to cheerus on the road. May the Holy Spirit sweetlyassistus in

meditating now upon the things of Christ—and may our hearts burn within
us as He speaks to us by the way! I. First, IT IS PECULIARLY
ENCOURAGING TO REMEMBER THAT THE FIRST PERSONTO
WHOM OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST APPEARED AFTER HIS
RESURRECTIONWAS MARY MAGDALENE. Mark expresslysays, “Now
when Jesus was risenearly the first day of the week, He appearedfirst to
Mary Magdalene, outof whom He had castsevendevils.” Romanists will have
it that Jesus Christ first of all appearedto the Virgin Mary, His mother, and
they have invented some curious stories in order to give her this peculiar
honor. This shows that, in their opinion, there was a specialfavor conferred
upon the personwho first beheld the risen Savior—and I need not say that
their assertionthat it was the Virgin Mary is just another instance of their
common practice of perverting the truth of God. Undoubtedly, Mary
Magdalene was the first person who saw the Saviorafter His resurrection—at
least, if the Roman guards saw Him when they shook and became as dead men
through fear of the angelwho rolled awaythe stone from the sepulcher, they
were not Christ’s disciples—soI mean that Mary Magdalene was the first of
His faithful followers who had the honor of seeing Him after He rose from the
dead! It was a woman, then, who first beheld the risen Savior. It was a
woman who was first in sin. It had, therefore, to be a woman who should first
behold Jesus Christwhen He rose from the grave. If there is— and there
certainly is some degree of opprobrium connectedwith womanhood, because
Eve first of all touched the forbidden fruit, there is a far greaterdegree of
glory now connectedwith it, because MaryMagdalene first of all beheld the
Savior after His rising from the tomb! Not only was it a woman to whom
Christ first manifested Himself after His resurrection, but it was a woman out
of whom He had castsevendevils. I am inclined to think that there were other
devils in Mary Magdalene beside those that made her a demoniac. Luther
used to say of her, “So many devils, and so many sins.” She had been first a
sinner, then she became a demoniac and afterwards Christ changedher into a
saint. How strange it was that Jesus should appear first to her! What? Give
the highesthonor to her who had the most of sin! Sweetthought! Then, if—
“I, the chief of sinners, am”— if I have an interest in the blood of Christ, there
is no reasonwhy I should not climb to the greatestheights of fellowship and
enjoy the best of the goodthings which the Lord has prepared for them that

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