Untitled Sermon (19)
Prohibition
20:17
NASB
“stop clinging to Me”
NKJV
“Do not cling to Me”
NRSV
“Do not hold on to Me”
TEV
“Do not hold on to Me”
NJB
“Do not cling to Me”
The KJV has “touch me not.” This is a PRESENT MIDDLE IMPERATIVE with the NEGATIVE PARTICLE which means to stop an act which is already in process. Mary had grabbed Him and was holding on! This has no theological implications about touching Jesus’ body before the ascension. In John 20:26 Jesus allows Thomas to touch Him and in Matt. 28:9 He allows the women to hold His feet.
© “I have not yet ascended” This is PERFECT ACTIVE INDICATIVE. Jesus will not ascend into heaven until 40 days after His resurrection (cf. Acts 1:9).
© “go to My brethren” The resurrected, glorified Lord calls these cowards “brothers” (cf. Matt. 12:50).
© “I am going up” This is PRESENT TENSE. This did not actually happen until forty days later while He was in their presence (cf. Luke 24:50–52; Acts 1:2–3). John consistently uses the vertical dualism of “above” and “below.” Jesus is from the Father (pre-existence) and He returns to the Father (glorification).
© “to My Father and your Father” What a marvelous statement! However, it must also be stated that this does not imply that believers’ sonship is equal to Jesus’ sonship. He is the unique Son of the Father, fully God and fully man. Believers become family members only through Him. He is both Lord, Savior, and brother!
THIS was the first appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ after his resurrection. In sundry places and at divers times, during the ensuing forty days, he appeared to different disciples, showing himself openly to them when they were assembled for worship, and at other seasons; but this was the first occasion of his being seen by any of his followers after he had risen from the dead.
I. First, IT IS PECULIARLY ENCOURAGING TO REMEMBER THAT THE FIRST PERSON TO WHOM OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST APPEARED AFTER HIS RESURRECTION WAS MARY MAGDALENE.
Mark expressly says, “Now when Jesus was risen early the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had cast seven devils.” Romanists will have it that Jesus Christ first of all appeared to the Virgin Mary, his mother, and they have invented some curious stories in order to give her this peculiar honour. This shows that, in their opinion, there was a special favour conferred upon the person who first beheld the risen Saviour; and I need not say that their assertion that it was the Virgin Mary is only just another instance of their common practice of perverting the truth. Undoubtedly, Mary Magdalene was the first person who saw the Saviour after his resurrection; at least, if the Roman guards saw him when they shook, and became as dead men through fear of the angel who rolled away the stone from the sepulchre, they were not Christ’s disciples; so I mean that Mary Magdalene was the first of his faithful followers who had the honour of seeing him after he rose from the dead.
It was a woman, then, who first beheld the risen Saviour. It was a woman who was first in the transgression; it had, therefore, to be a woman who should first behold Jesus Christ when he rose from the grave. If there be—and there certainly is—some degree of opprobrium connected with womanhood, because Eve first of all touched the forbidden fruit, there is a far greater degree of glory now connected with it, because Mary Magdalene first of all beheld the Saviour 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 cast seven devils. 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, so many sins.” She had been first a sinner, then she became a demoniac, and afterwards Christ changed her into a saint. How strange it was that Jesus should appear first to her! What, give the highest honour to her who had the most of sin!
In thinking over this subject, I have come to the conclusion that Mary Magdalene was selected to see Christ first because she loved him most. John loved Jesus much, but Mary loved him more. John looked into the empty sepulchre, and then went away home; but Mary stood there, and wept, until her risen Lord appeared to her. Love, you know, is a keen-eyed grace. People usually say that love is blind. In one sense, the saying is true; but, in another sense, there never were such good eyes anywhere else as those which love carries in her head. Love will look for Jesus, and discover him where none else can.
17 This verse presents us with some problems. The first is in the words NIV translates “Do not hold on to me” and which have traditionally been understood as in KJV, “Touch me not.” There seems to be no reason why Mary should not touch him, and indeed Matthew tells us that when the women first saw the risen Lord they “came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him” (Matt. 28:9).42 Probably we should understand the Greek tense here in the strict sense. The present imperative with a negative means “Stop doing something” rather than “Do not start something.”43 Here it will mean “Stop clinging to me” and not, “Do not begin to touch me.” Evidently Mary in her joy at seeing the Lord had laid hold on him, possibly in the same way and for the same purpose as the ladies of whom Matthew writes.44
17. This verse must be compared with Mt. 28:9, 10 where, again, the Risen Lord is seen by Mary Magdalene and speaks to her and her companion. In that passage the women, returning from the tomb to tell the disciples of the angel’s message, are at once in fear and joy. Jesus greets them by saying Χαίρετε. They clasp His feet in worship. He then tells them not to fear, Μή φοβεῖσθε, and adds ὐπάγετε ἀπαγγείλατε τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς μου ἵνα ἀπέλθωσιν εἰς τὴν Γαλιλαίαν, κἀκεῖ με ὄψονται. This almost reproduces the words of the angel in v. 7, with the significant change of μαθηταῖς into ἀδελφοῖς. Only here in the Gospels (Jn. 20:17, Mt. 28:10) is Jesus represented as speaking of His disciples as “my brethren”. Cf. Heb. 2:11, 12 (quoting Ps. 22:22).
17. Touch 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 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 (7:3, 5, 10), but not the phrase my brethren, which follows from my Father and your Father. Compare Matt, 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.
John 20:17
Touch me not (μη μου ἁπτου [mē mou haptou]). Present middle imperative in prohibition with genitive case, meaning “cease clinging to me” rather than “Do not touch me.” Jesus allowed the women to take hold of his feet (ἐκρατησαν [ekratēsan]) and worship (προσεκυνησαν [prosekunēsan]) as we read in Matt. 28:9. The prohibition here reminds Mary that the previous personal fellowship by sight, sound, and touch no longer exists and that the final state of glory was not yet begun. Jesus checks Mary’s impulsive eagerness. For I am not yet ascended (οὐπω γαρ ἀναβεβηκα [oupō gar anabebēka]). Perfect active indicative. Jesus is here at all only because he has not yet gone home. He had said (16:7) that it was good for them that he should go to the Father when the Holy Spirit will come through whom they will have fellowship with the Father and Christ. My God (θεου μου [theou mou]). Jesus had said “My God” on the Cross (Mark 15:34). Note it also in Rev. 3:2. So Paul in Rom. 15:6, etc., has “the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
17 μή w. pres. impv forbidding continuation of an action. ἅπτου impv ἅπτομαί τινος grasp; touch sth; durative, hold on to, μή μου ἅπτου stop clinging to me! §246f. οὔ-πω not yet. ἀνα-βέ-βηκα pf -βαίνω ascend. πορεύου impv -εύομαι.