About this sermon
Mary Magdalene, a woman forgiven much, lingers at the tomb and is the first to see the risen Lord. When he says, “Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father,” Jesus points her to a new and better relationship. His glory and his presence by the Spirit after the ascension surpass his earthly company. He calls the disciples “my brothers” and speaks of “my Father and your Father, my God and your God,” so believers belong to the family and household of God.
Sermon transcript
I remind you that this is the Word of God, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, reading from John chapter 20, beginning with verse 1, reading through verse 18. Give your attention. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb while it was still dark and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb, so she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved. and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.
So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together, and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. So Simon Peter also came following him and entered the tomb. and he saw the linen wrappings lying there and the face cloth which had been on his head not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. So the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered and he saw and believed.
As yet they did not understand the scripture that he must rise again from the dead so the disciples went away again to their own homes. But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping And so, as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying.
And they said to her, woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. She had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, woman, why are you weeping?
Whom are you seeking? Posing him to be the gardener, she said to him, sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Hebrew, Rabboni, which means teacher.
Jesus said to her, stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the father, but go to my brother and say to them, I ascend to my father and your father and my God and your God. Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that he had said these things to her.
May God bless to our hearing this portion of his holy word. Let’s pray together. Our Father, believing that faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God and the Word of God being preached by those who have been sent. We pray, O Father, that your Word that comes into our midst this night will have its good effect, producing that grace of faith in us. May the Holy Spirit be in the preaching and in the hearing of the preaching tonight, that we, O God, would be built up in the knowledge of Christ, and that we might have life in his name We would confess him before men that we might glorify our father, which is in heaven. Father, hear us as we pray this now in Jesus name. Amen.
The narrative that began with Mary Magdalene in verse one, but was interrupted in verses three through 10, the story of the arrival of Peter and the disciple whom Jesus loved. The narrative is now from verse 11 on, focused on Mary’s experiences at the tomb.
The transition is somewhat abrupt in that her return to the tomb with or at least some distance from the two disciples is not mentioned, but simply assumed. The opening words of verse 11, but Mary was weeping, was standing outside the tomb, excuse me, but Mary was standing outside the tomb do however clearly tie in with what proceeds.
She did not go home as the two disciples did. In her grief, twice expressed here by her continued weeping, I ask you to notice the double mention in verse 11 of her weeping. She could not take leave, however purposely she might seem to be walking around. Everything here points to the special ties that bound her to Jesus. In that state of distress and weeping then, this close connection to Christ, she bent forward to look into the tomb and saw there two angels clothed in white, we’re told.
One sitting at the head and the other sitting at the foot of the place where Jesus’ body had been. Again, as in verse seven, the notation of the emptiness of that space. The body is not there. The other Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, also mention Mary encountering angels at the tomb. But there, as messengers of salvation, they play a central role. Here, the role they play is totally subordinate to the appearance of Jesus himself.
They do ask Mary, Woman, why are you weeping? This is the question, as it were, that is posed from above. That is, from the perspective of the resurrection to those who, in their grief and uncertainty, still judge everything from the perspective of death. But Mary’s grief is so intense that even the presence of angels in the tomb can spark no other answer than the complaint with which she earlier turned to the two disciples, this time with Mary speaking to figures who were unfamiliar to her, and speaking, you’ll note, entirely in the first person singular, because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Could they These two perhaps tell her more about this, what they have done with my Lord, whom I might take.
I do not know where they have laid him. But all at once, Jesus himself is there on the scene. He is, as it were, in a position of taking over the angel’s side in the conversation. How he came to be there is not described. Suddenly Mary is conscious of the presence of someone behind her. Without waiting for the angels to speak as to her question of where have they laid him, she turned around and beheld Jesus standing there, the gospel tells us, without however recognizing him.
Her failure to recognize him has been explained in a number of ways. It was still somewhat dark, perhaps. Couldn’t really tell his facial features. Or perhaps it was given her state of mind. She could not have expected him there. It was too much of a shock and a surprise. Perhaps she was dealing with someone else. As the text says, she thought he was the gardener. Perhaps he could answer her question. Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. Verse 15.
All this is designed to bring out something more than Mary’s state of mind, however, as one still roping in the dark. We should rather think of the supernatural character of Jesus coming as the risen one, as a result of which contact with him was unlike a natural encounter with the senses. You’ll remember in Luke 24 it was that way with the disciples going to Emmaus who also failed to recognize Jesus in the traveler who joined them on the road.
And again in the story of the miraculous catch of fish in which the disciples standing on the shore, John 21.4, did not know that it was Jesus. This is not just a case of darkness. This is not just a case of state of mind. This is a case of There’s something about the man. In fact the words in John 21 4 are identical to the words in John 20 verse 14.
They did not know that it was Jesus. Mary does not recognize Jesus until he calls her out of the spell of her confused cares over his dead body by simply but emphatically addressing her by name. Mary. He approaches her as one who knows her and wants her to recognize him also. I believe it is intentional that we are to think of John chapter 10, verses three and four. Chapter of Jesus, the good shepherd, who knows his own by name and his own know him and know his voice. and follow Him. This risen one is none other than the very Jesus who has known her and whom she has known in that good shepherd-sheep relationship. At the sound of His voice then calling her name, Mary, she recognizes Him.
Now turning to Him, with the name in which her belonging to him finds expression, Rabboni, which means teacher. The evangelist, John, the gospel writer, puts that word Rabboni in Hebrew, actually Aramaic, and places it on her lips as the name of her past connection with Jesus. explaining it for his Greek readers as he does here in the gospel, as teacher, as we’ve said. Rabboni literally means my teacher or my master, but it is used elsewhere simply as an equivalent to the more common word rabbi. But nevertheless, in this description of Jesus’ appearance to Mary, there is undeniably something very personal going on here. Unlike his other resurrection appearances, here Jesus simply calls her by name and she recognizes him and she hears him as she hears him. So the way in which she turns to him and answers him with the word Rabboni does express a strong personal and affective component.
This is the one whom she knows, whom she loves, the one who has spoken life to a great sinner. such as she was. And her words akin to that verse 13 where she spoke of, they have taken my Lord away and I do not know where they have laid him. All this is easy then to link with her prehistory. As a woman saved by Jesus from great distress, as one who loves much because she has been loved much in the forgiveness of her sins. But even though John does not mention that connection, I believe we know the story. And the gospel writer knows that we know that story well enough to make the connection.
Jesus then reveals himself to her. But then notice in verse seven that he distances himself somewhat in what he says to her in verse 17. From which we may perhaps infer that even in this encounter with Mary, we are shown that with Jesus’ resurrection, a new era and another kind of relationship between Jesus and his own is being inaugurated. In this respect then, this reunion with Mary Magdalene, the woman who felt so much personal affection for Jesus, is strongly reminiscent of Jesus’ farewell to his mother in John 19, 26. For what was true when Jesus addressed his last word to his mother from the cross is also true for Mary Magdalene when he appears to her first. From now on, nothing will be the same. Everything will be different, including the way he relates to her in this present context. That everything has changed is also conveyed by what Jesus says to Mary next.
In our version, the New American Standard, stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Both parts of this statement have given interpreters considerable trouble, as is evident from the multiplicity of explanations this verse has received. The two clauses must be understood in close connection with each other. For that reason, the common translation, do not touch me, is not satisfactory. There has to be an understanding of the words of Jesus.
Stop clinging to me for I have not yet ascended to the father. There is a close connection between these two clauses. It’s not don’t touch me. My body hasn’t set yet or I’m not ready to be touched in some way. No, it is from the standpoint of something new. I have not yet ascended to my father.
Certainly the meaning cannot be that Jesus, not yet having ascended, stands in the way of touching him, or that one could touch him only after he had ascended. What is referred to as not touching, but clutching at, holding on to, in the former way. After all, remember, The same Jesus who says to her, don’t cling to me, is the Jesus who says to the disciples, put your hand in my palms and touch my side. What is referred to as not touching, but the clutching at them with the intent or the result of the idea of holding on to or holding back.
As you see the connection in verse 17 of those two clauses, there is a for, F-O-R. Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. The for linking the second clause to the first leads to a natural explanation why Jesus rejects holding on by Mary. He has not yet arrived at His goal. His ascent to the Father has not yet been completed. While he is on that journey, Mary must not hold him back or want to keep him with herself in the old way.
And the next statement then is entirely congruent with this understanding. For he commands her, instructs her to go to my brethren and say to them, I ascend to my father and your father and my God and your God. These statements refer twice to Jesus’ ascent to the Father. One is inclined to think here, of course, of the ascension 40 days after the resurrection described in Acts chapter one. But as is evident in the second part of verse 17, John uses the word in a broader sense, not just the physical ascension on the 40th day. But the present tense is used here in this verse. For he says, I ascend, or I am ascending to my Father.
Indicates that Jesus’ ascent to the Father, His departure from this world, has begun. It’s already underway. There’s an alreadyness to it. And it is still being accomplished. as an ongoing and yet uncompleted event. This manner of speaking that I ascend to my father or I am ascending to my father.
This manner of speaking implies a close link with Jesus statements about being on the way and going to the father as he has been sent by the father. He is predicted even before the crucifixion that I’m going to the father. As he spoke to his disciples in his farewell discourse, And there too, he says, I’m on the way, or I’m going to the Father, are spoken in the present tense, accomplished in the cross and post-crucifixion, in the resurrection, and in the fullness of the ascension to the Father. And we have in mind here, not just a single verse, but several verses that could be pointed to in John chapter 14, verse four, chapter 14, verse 12, chapter 14, verse 28, chapter 16, verse five, chapter 16, verse 28. I go to the father, I’m on my way to the father.
But now, however, this going away has reached the stage of ascending. Jesus’ departure from this earth. Everything is thus rooted in the fundamental statement in chapter three, verse 13, where Jesus’ entire coming and work is summed up and described as the double movement of the son of man’s descent from heaven and his ascent to heaven. No man ascends unto heaven, but he who descended from heaven. He’s on his way.
And of course, at the heart of this is the crucifixion and the resurrection. And of course, the actual event of the ascent is part of it, but he’s on his way to the father. This is not to say, however, that in the fourth gospel, Easter and Ascension and Pentecost all coincide. One can say all one can say is that in the one word ascending, I’m ascending or I ascend.
Everything is summed up that belongs to Jesus’ passage from this world to the Father. His resurrection from the dead and His enthronement as the Son of Man. And you think of the Daniel 7 text about His coming into the glory to receive a kingdom. He is ascending to the Father in that glorious final sense of what the Son of Man will accomplish.
But from chapter 20, verse 17, it is clear that this entire salvific process, the process of being saved, is realized in phases, each with its own meaning. Jesus is ascending, but for a long time has not yet ascended. And each phase in the movement of the gospel and the revelation that we have before us has its own part in Jesus’ self-revelation to us. From now on, speaking as he does to Mary, speaking at this turning point, this post-resurrection point, from now on as the risen one, raised from the dead, victorious over sin and death, Jesus is no longer with his own on earth as before. A new hour, a new day has dawned. But at this point, the stage of the Spirit’s indwelling in Jesus’ own, His own disciples, His own church, after His ascension is completed, the outpouring of the Spirit, the permanent indwelling of the Spirit, has not yet begun in that final sense. But in the same way, the glory that Jesus exhibited to His own during His earthly life differs from the glory they will behold when they are with Him, where He is in His ascension, in the final consummation.
As we look at these words in verse 17, then, and wrestle with what Jesus is saying to Mary, stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. I ascend, or I am ascending to the Father, to my God, my Father and your Father, my God and your God. At first sight, those words in verse 17 may seem to contrast what we had said about Jesus identifying Mary as he did in the words immediately preceding. We had said that his identification with her as one who knows her, one who loves her, one who is affectionate toward her as Savior and Lord.
And yet these words seem to set a distance between himself. But rather than believing that that be the case, there’s no contrast here. And there could be no mistake greater than to suppose that the Lord’s sole or chief purpose was to remind her of restrictions now imposed. Don’t cling to me. Don’t touch me as some have suggested.
It’s not that we’re moving into a place of restriction at all, restrictions that were henceforth to govern the relationship. but rather a movement into a new phase, a new development in the process of redemption, affecting the relationship, the spiritual union between himself and this woman, Mary, and others like her. It’s not that he is holding her a distance, but rather his intention was much rather to show that the desire for a real communion of life with the Lord Jesus would soon be met in a new and far higher way, a far better way of which Jesus has spoken often. It’s better than I go to the father, for if I go, I will send another to you. And when I go, you will pray such as you’ve never prayed in my name and so on. that the real communion of life would be met in a new and far higher way than was possible under the conditions of local earthly nearness as it has been up till now.
Stop clinging to me then does not mean don’t touch me. The touch is too close a contact to be henceforth permissible. It means instead the provision for the highest, the best, the ideal kind of touch that has not yet been completed but is about to be completed in that I am ascending to the Father.
His words are a denial. of the privilege she craved only as to the form and the moment in which she craved it. In other words, she wanted something other than the best. She was wanting to hold on to Jesus in the old way and he wants her to understand what it means to be commune with him in the new way, the better way, the resurrected way, the ascended way in which he is now moving. He’s not denying her. but denying her what she mistakenly craved and desired. In their larger sense, Jesus’ words then are a pledge, a giving, not a withholding of himself from her.
The great event of which the resurrection is the first step has not yet fulfilled itself in terms of coming to its completion, the ascent to the Father. That’s coming. And so in this moment of his exchange with Mary, he is preparing her for that better moment. But when once this is accomplished, the ascent to the Father, then all restrictions will fall away. And the desire to touch or cling to that made Mary on that occasion stretch forth her hand shall be gratified in its fuller and better capacity. The thought is not different from that expressed in the earlier saying to the disciples, you shall see me because I go to the Father. I go to the Father and the world won’t see me. But because I go to the Father, you will see me. John 16 verse 17.
There is a seeing, a hearing, a touching, first made possible by Jesus ascension and entrance into heaven and by the gift of the Spirit dependent upon the entrance of Jesus into heaven. The Spirit’s about to be poured out in a brand new and better way.
Accordingly then, John 20, 17. mentions the phase of Jesus as yet uncompleted. His ascent to the Father, not in some obscure abstract sense just to boggle our minds, but in direct connection with what this ascent means in all of its facets for his own people. What it means for the process of their coming to understand the great gift of salvation accomplished in the death and resurrection. and ascension of Jesus Christ, of Jesus’ resurrection, and what it means for Mary as she and through her Jesus disciples become aware of their involvement, yes, their participation in Jesus’ ascent to the Father. And as they are prepared for the task that Jesus will give them in that involvement as the church who is going to take the gospel to the nations. A new day has dawned. And at this moment, then, Jesus’ earthly task is about to give way to the permanent fellowship that he will have with his own from his heavenly abode.
And what he said to Mary, he commissioned her, listen, to repeat to his brethren that they might also be taught, go tell my brethren that they might be taught to view the event in its proper perspective also. As we finish this evening, may we not fitly close our study of the text with reminding ourselves that we too are included among the brethren to whom he desired these tidings to be brought. Now here’s an important element in John’s gospel.
Before this, before this statement, He had never called the disciples by this name, my brother. Go tell my brothers that I ascend to my father and your father and to my God and your God. We are moving into this new phase of what it is to understand our position as brothers, sisters of Christ, members of the family and house of God. Things that are spelled out in the apostolic epistles to help us understand what it means, this new day that has dawned, that we are the members of God’s family and house and Jesus dares call us brothers. in this new and better sense of the word. By this name, he had never until now so suggestively identified himself by speaking of your father, my father, your God, my God.
And here then we are once more assured that the new life of glory, instead of taking him away from us, has made us in a profounder sense his brethren, and his father is our father. Though unlike Mary and the disciples, we have not been privileged to behold him in his resurrection body as yet. Yet together with the believers of all ages, we have an equal share in what is far sweeter and more precious. the touch through faith of his heavenly person for which the appearances after the resurrection were but a preparation. What he shows himself to those alive for 40 days is but a preparation for the dearer, nearer, closer communion that we enjoy with the exalted Jesus. our brother who sits at the right hand of the Father for us. Let us then not linger at the tomb weeping, but let us turn our faces heavenward and stretch our hands upward into heaven. Where as Paul puts it, our life is even now hid with him in God. That we have been seated with him in the heavenly places, made partakers of the Holy Spirit that has been poured out upon us. And whence from that heavenly abode he shall also come again to show himself to us in all of the fullness of his and our glorification. when we shall see him face to face as he is, and we in glory will be like him.
Don’t cling to me here, Mary. I’m going above, and it’s far better for you and for me. Let us rejoice. Our Father, we thank You for the great love with which You have loved us. And this great day, this glorious day, when Jesus, raised from the dead, the risen One, speaking to His own, sending Mary to go and tell His brothers that I ascend to my Father and Your Father, to my God and Your God. Don’t cling to me here. but embrace my ascension and the glory that is bound up with it. Our Father, we rejoice in our exalted Christ, and we know that our lives are hidden with his in heaven at God’s right hand. Our prayers we lift up now in the name of Jesus, and we are filled with the spirit that he has poured out from that heavenly place in power upon the nations by which the many are being assembled as his true brothers and sisters in Christ. And our Father, let us rejoice. Let us rejoice that now that Christ is raised and now that he is ascended, that we are made partakers of that heavenly spiritual blessings in the heavenly places, and that we, O Lord, are one with him as he is one with us. Our Lord, our Savior, as we call upon our God, and our Father, which is in heaven. We pray, giving thanks in Jesus’ name. Amen. Let’s sing together hymn number 209, shall we? Hymn number 209. Let’s stand together as we sing.
How calm and beautiful the morn That gilds the sacred tomb Where Christ the Crucified was born And veiled in midnight gloom your slain, the Lord is risen, He lives again. Ye morning saints, dry every tear, for your departed, O Lord. Behold the place The tomb is full and barred. The gates of death were closed in vain.
The Lord is risen, He lives again. Now cheerful to the house of prayer, your early footsteps bend. The Savior will himself be there, your advocate and friend. Once by the law your hopes were swayed, but now in Christ ye live again. How tranquil now the rising day, Tis Jesus still appears, Arisen, Lord, to chase away Your unbelieving fears! O weep no more, The Lord is risen, He lives again. evening fall, when like last hour draws nigh. If Jesus shine upon the soul, how blissful then to die. Since He has risen Look up then and hear the Lord’s blessing.
See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us that we should be called children of God And such we are. For this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved, we are children of God and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him just as he is. And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself just as he is pure. Beloved, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
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