By John H. Niemelä
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her (John 20:17-18, KJV).
Jesus’ words to Mary Magdalene have troubled many. “Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father” seems a harsh response to her overjoyed greeting. By contrast, a week after supposedly warning Mary, “Touch me not,” He urged Thomas to touch Him (John 20:27).
Adele Reinhartz expresses the quandary: “It is not clear whether Jesus is asking Mary to let go of him [Option 1] or warning her not to touch him [Option 2].”i
This article argues for Option 1. Contrary to the way most see John 20:17a, Jesus was treating Mary with tenderness.
Thomas did not believe that Jesus had risen from the dead even after the other disciples reported seeing Him alive. The Lord urged Thomas to touch Him so that he would believe in His resurrection.ii By contrast, when Mary Magdalene saw Him and heard His voice, she eagerly embraced the truth that Jesus had risen. That led her to embrace Him.
Did Jesus seek to dampen her enthusiasm? No. He sought to redirect her enthusiasm in order to impact others. Previously, she had run to inform Peter and John that Jesus’ body was missing (John 20:1-3). Now, He directed her to tell the disciples the real reason the tomb was empty: He has risen! Essentially, He was saying, “Thank you for your embrace, but here is a message to share.”iii Note three imperatives in John 20:17: “Stop holding onto Me…, go…, and tell.” Jesus commissioned a woman to deliver a message of utmost gravity to the Eleven.
Few appreciate the tremendous honor the Lord was bestowing upon Mary Magdalene. This is no wet blanket. Rather, Jesus entrusted her to help His disciples view life and ministry in light of His resurrection. Previously, Mary’s word to Peter and John is what brought them to the empty tomb, where Johniv (and possibly Peterv) then believed that Jesus had risen. Now, her announcement prepared the disciples for three attested post-resurrection appearances of Jesus: John 20:19-23, 24-29; and 21:1-13. John 21:14 highlights this trio of appearances.
After recording one of Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances, John writes, “This is the third time Jesus showed Himself to His disciples after He was raised from the dead” (John 21:14). Those three appearances were: (1) when He appeared to ten of the disciples, but not Thomas (John 20:19-23), (2) to all eleven, Thomas included (John 20:26-29), and (3) to seven disciples who had fished all night (John 21:1-13).
Some might think that John slights Mary Magdalene by not including Jesus’ appearance to her (John 20:11-17) as one of the times that He “showed Himself to His disciples after He was raised from the dead.” John could have written, “This is the fourth time Jesus showed Himself to His disciples…”
No. John did not slight her. By His disciples, John meant the Eleven. John did report her role in Jesus’ resurrection appearances twice in John 20. He reported that Jesus gave her the vital commission to go and tell him and the other disciples that Jesus had risen from the dead (John 20:17). Her faithfulness to that commission was the harbinger of the subsequent three attested appearances. Her role remains significant.
The inclusio formed by the opening and closing sections of the body of John’s Gospel highlights her function.vi Specifically, Mary Magdalene’s role corresponds to that of John the Baptist. The Baptist and the Magdalene form an inclusio:vii
The record of the Baptist’s commissioned attestation (1:15-34) introduces three attestations by disciples (1:35-42, 43-46, and 47-51).
The record of the Magdalene’s commissioned testimony (20:11-18) introduces three attested appearances of the Lord to disciples (20:19-23, 24-29; 21:1-13).
Jesus did not distance Himself from Mary. He did not rebuke her. He did not say that it was wrong for her to touch Him. Rather, He urged Mary to let go of her physical embrace, so she could go out with a vital message.
Might we also channel our love for Him into sharing the message of life clearly with others.
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John is president of Message of Life Ministries. He and Diane recently moved to rural Knox County, TN to be near their son, George. John is working diligently on his forthcoming commentary on John’s Gospel.
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i Annotation on John 20:17 by Adele Reinhartz in The Jewish Annotated New Testament (Oxford, ENG: University Press, 2011), 194.
ii Once again, Thomas was already a believer. John 13:10-11 and 15:3 demonstrate that all the Eleven were believers by that time. John 20:27-28 is not when Thomas received eternal life. Instead, it was when he believed that Jesus rose.
iii Robert N. Wilkin, “John,” in the Grace New Testament Commentary, rev. ed. (Denton, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2019), 232, perceives the true sense of this verse.
iv John 20:8 is John’s self-testimony that he (at that point) believed that Jesus had risen.
v John 20:8 does not say that Peter believed the resurrection at that moment. The verse only reveals John’s thinking, not Peter’s. Asserting that silence reveals what Peter believed (or disbelieved) is unwise, an argument from silence.
vi My forthcoming commentary will argue (as did Zane Hodges) that the body of John begins at John 1:15, not at 1:19. See Zane C. Hodges, Faith in His Name: Listening to the Gospel of John (Corinth, TX: Grace Evangelical Society, 2015), 17. Additionally, the body extends through John 21:14. See the next note.
vii This inclusio shows that the book’s body extends through John 21:14. John 1:15-51 is part of the body, so the inclusio’s conclusion (20:11–21:14) must also be part of the body. John 21:14 welds the three appearances (20:11–21:13) into a unit. A literary unit cannot lie partly in the body and partly in the epilogue. The unit indicates the body’s start and finish (1:15–21:14).
