Theme: Touch me not, Touch me.
Text: John 20:16-30
Greetings: The Lord is good and his love endures forever.
Introduction:
I would like to share on this Easter with you three insights from this three epiphanies. There are three separate epiphanies recorded in John 20:16-30. Appearance to Mary Magdalene, appearance to 10 disciples in the evening and appearance to Thomas after a week. Jesus prevents Mary Magdalene to touch him, Jesus presents his wounds to 10 disciples to touch him and handle, and finally Jesus praises or appreciates the believers who believe him without seeing him.
First of all, It would be enriching to know the Events between death and Resurrection of Jesus: The resurrection of Jesus was the beginning of a new dispensation. A glorious spiritual kingdom has come upon the earth.
First, let me explain the sequences of death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus was in Paradise right after his death (Luke 23:43), then Jesus descended into Hell to preach good news to the disobedient spirit who lived during the days of Noah (Genesis 6:4, 1 Peter 3:18-20). The gospel was preached to all disobedient dead (1 Peter 4:6). Now no one can preach to the dead as per Luke 16. However, the fallen angels are bounded till judgment (2 Peter 2:4). Now he has been resurrected. Then the sequence of epiphanies narrated.
Jesus prevents Mary Magdalene - Touch me not (JOHN 1:17)
One of the more difficult lines in the Gospel of John is Jesus’s command to Mary “Do not touch me”. The translators put it as "Touch me not" (AV), "Stop clinging to me" (NASB), and "Do not hold on to me" (NIV, NRSV). Jesus told Mary not to touch Him as if her contact would somehow defile Him. His body could not be touched on the early hours of Easter. William Barclay along with many theologians explains that Jesus spoke in Aramaic: "Do not spend so long in worshipping me in the joy of your new discovery. Go and tell the good news to the rest of the disciples." The ascension also mentioned here.
Mary Magdalene was found in Luke 8:2 as a woman healed from seven demons. Mary Magdalene was faithful friend and disciple of Jesus Christ. Mary means wise woman/lady. Hebrew name was Miriam or Mariam. She came from a town called Magdala on the western side of the sea of Galilee. She ministered Jesus with her wealth (Lk.8:1-4). Now Mary is a model believer of the early Christians. Mary Magdalene as the first person to meet the Resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. The first evangelist of the Kingdom of God was Mary Magdalene. Though Mary Magdalene had great enthusiasm for Lord Jesus Christ. She loved the Lord more than all others of her age and culture.
Coffmann says that There was no inherent refusal of Jesus to be touched by mortals after the resurrection, because he specifically invited Thomas to touch him (John 20:27), and he invited all the apostles to "handle" him too (Luke 24:39). So, the secret ascension was well established.
John Calvin comments that Mary fixed her attention on his bodily presence, so she was forbidden to touch him. Albert Barnes comments: Mary was filled with joy and gratitude and she was about to prostrate herself at Jesus’ feet and wants to remain with him. So, Jesus told her not to approach him for this purpose. He told her not to delay there rather do the work of an evangelist.
Jesus told Mary Magdalene go and ‘Tell my brethren’ that I am alive. Mary had the profound privilege of being the first to see the Lord and to be sent by him to witness to the resurrection. The message of Jesus is for all. Especially the disciples who denied, ran away and the doubtful disciples. Jesus was extraordinarily progressive in this way and in his treatment of women, giving them an unparalleled dignity in their culture. Women can and should spread the Word of God to whoever will listen. This is unfortunately confused with the issue of the calling to elder and possibly deacon roles in the church. She told them “I have seen the Lord”.
Jesus presents - Touch Me and handle me (John 20:19-23, Luke 24:36-43).
According to Matthew 28:9 Jesus permitted women (Mary the mother of James and Joses, and Salome the mother of the apostles James and John, Joanna and some friends) to touch him and worship him but only Mary was denied according to John 20:17.
But later in the evening he told them to touch and see his wounds (Luke 24:38-40). But afterwards when he presented to Thomas, he told him to touch and handle. Unless we assume that there was an ascension sometime during that day of the resurrection, this cannot be what Jesus meant here. This leads to the doctrine of secret ascension. The secret rapture.
There is no biblical reference that Jesus ascended to the Father and returned from Him between these two appearances but it had happened. Though it is unclear why ascending to the Father should make any difference in the disciples’ physical contact with Jesus’ body. Yet, that is the doctrine of epiphany. The resurrection had introduced a new relationship between Jesus and His disciples in which physical contact was inappropriate but needed he allows.
The resurrected Jesus was not an aerial one, or a mere "phantom". Now Jesus has the resurrected body, it’s a heavenly body, imperishable body, spiritual body, immortal body (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 15:52-54). This body entered through the closed doors (John 20:19). The body of Jesus had hands, feet, have flesh and bones (1 Corinthians 15:50), through death he had overcome the powers of the flesh and blood which was controlled by devil (Hebrews 2:14).
Resurrected Jesus ate boiled fish. John tells that Jesus invited them for breakfast and he took bread and fish and gave those to them but he didn’t eat (John 21:12-13). Even at Emmaus, Jesus didn’t eat (Luke 24:30-31). But Luke tells that Jesus ate during his visit to Jerusalem (Luke 24:42-43).
The presentation of Jesus Christ at the locked house brought peace, brought the anointing of the Holy Spirit, brought confidence to move forward, brought courage to preach, brought authority to forgive. They were relieved from their fear of death. A New enthusiasm has come into their hearts. They were ready to go for the new mission and willing to be humbled, persecuted and even to die.
John records that Jesus revealed to him that he has the keys of death and hades (Revelation 1:17-18). Already he has the keys of the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 16:19). He has all authority in heaven and earth.
Jesus Praises the believers. (John 20:27-31).
At once Thomas exclaims, ? ?????? µ?? ?a? ? ?e?? µ??.’ My Lord, to whom I wholly yield and give up my self; and my God, in whom I believe.(Matthew Poole).
The higher blessedness is for those who have seen through spiritual eyes and not of the body, the conviction is of the faith-faculty and not phenomena of the senses.(Ellicott). Thomas was ashamed of his unbelief and confessed’My Lord and my God’. (Matthew Henry). Blessed are all those who believe in my resurrection, without the evidence thou hast had asked for (Adam Clark).
Most people will never have the experience of what the disciples had. As per the records almost maximums of 500 people had seen the resurrected Lord. The hearers of the gospel will never inferior to these disciples who had personal encounter with the resurrected Lord Jesus. The spiritual status is not based on vision of God but the doers of the gospel and believing the Word of God (Acts 17:11, noble are the examiners of the scriptures. 1 John 4:1 believing the word of God is important. John 5:39-40 search the scriptures). However, Jesus never undermined the believers who look for his appearance.
For this reason faith is called a demonstration of things invisible or not seen (Hebrews 11:1). We walk by faith not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). No special blessing is pronounced on those who have seen God over those who have not seen God. In fact, blessed are they that have not seen God but believe in him. The faith comes by hearing the word of God and by seeing Christ as a person. Therefore, John ends his narration here with the great emphasis on the word of God. He says that read these word of the scripture and believe in him and you will have eternal life.
Conclusions: God bless you. Happy Easter.
