Mark 16:9; John 20:11-17
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.
But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master. 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.
J. C. RYLE (1816-1900): This saying of our Lord is undeniably a very “deep thing,” and the real meaning of it is a point which has greatly perplexed commentators.
MATTHEW POOLE (1624-1679): There are two no mean difficulties: one about the sense of the prohibition, when our Saviour forbade this woman to touch Him—when after His resurrection, He suffered the women to hold Him by the feet, Matthew 28:29.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): Not that His body was an aerial one, or a mere “phantom,” which could not be touched; the prohibition itself shows the contrary.
RICHARD SIBBES (1577-1635): Mary was too much addicted to Christ’s bodily presence.
JOHN TRAPP (1601-1699): She had caught him by the feet—as the Shunammite did Elisha—and there she would have held him longer, out of inconsiderate zeal. He takes her off this corporal conceit, that she may learn to live by faith, and not by sense; to be drawn after Him to heaven, whither He was now ascending, and to go tell His brethren what she had seen and heard.
ALEXANDER WHYTE (1836-1921): “Touch Me not.” Had He not said that, she would have been holding His feet there to this day.
THE EDITOR: But the text doesn’t say that Mary “had caught Him by the feet,” though that was probably her intent.
MATTHEW POOLE: The other difficulty is: What force of a reason there could be for her not touching Him because “He had not yet ascended?”
THE EDITOR: Jesus stated it as the specific reason He prevented her from touching Him.
ALEXANDER MacLAREN (1826-1910): His prohibition encloses a permission. ‘Touch Me not! for I am not yet ascended,’ implies ‘When I am, you may.’
THE EDITOR: Yes. So why was it permissible for the other women to touch Him only minutes later, but not now?
J. C. RYLE: The message which our Lord desires Mary to carry to His disciples is remarkable. He does not bid her say “I have risen,” but “I ascend.”
THE EDITOR: But why send a message to His disciples about an ascension into heaven forty days later? Jesus knew He would talk with them face to face later that same evening. Surely that present tense phrasing, “I ascend,” has an important immediate significance. A third difficult point here is also never considered—When Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, what was He wearing? Peter and John had seen the linen grave clothes which had wrapped Christ’s naked body for burial, lying in the tomb, John 20:4-7. Now Jesus wasn’t standing there naked when Mary mistook Him for the gardener! So what was He wearing?
ROBERT HAWKER (1753-1827): By comparing Scripture with Scripture, perhaps a light is thrown on the subject.
CHARLES SIMEON (1759-1836): The office of the High Priest was but half performed when he had slain the sacrifice: he must carry the blood within the veil, to sprinkle it upon the Mercy-seat; and he must burn incense also before the Mercy-seat, Leviticus 16:13,14. Now our blessed Lord was to execute every part of the priestly office; and therefore He must carry His own blood within the veil, and present also before the Mercy-seat the incense of His continual intercession. Agreeably to this we are told, “that by his own blood he is entered into the Holy Place, having obtained eternal redemption for us,” Hebrews 9:12—So, our Lord was under a necessity of rising again, that He might enter into heaven with His own blood, that He might there present it before the mercy-seat.
HENRY AINSWORTH (1571–1622): The burning of incense preceded the sprinkling of the blood, Leviticus 16:13,14.
CHARLES SIMEON: It was not till after the high priest had covered the mercy-seat with the clouds of incense, that he had any authority to bless the people. Thus was our Lord, not only to offer Himself as a sacrifice for sin, and to enter into heaven with His own blood, but He was to make intercession for us at the right hand of God. This was stipulated between the Father and Him as one part of the condition, on which the conversion of sinners was to depend; “Ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession,” Psalm 2:8.
THE EDITOR: Leviticus 16 shows the procedure required of the high priest to go in and out of the Holy of Holies, although Christ needed no atonement for Himself, as did the Old Testament high priest: “He shall put on the holy linen coat, and he shall have the linen breeches upon his flesh, and shall be girded with a linen girdle, and with the linen mitre shall he be attired: these are holy garments; therefore he shall wash his flesh in water, and so put them on,” Leviticus 16:4. After burning incense and sprinkling the blood inside the Holy of Holies, then the high priest returned into the tabernacle.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): The high priest must then put off his linen garments in the tabernacle, and leave them there—the Jews say never to be worn again by himself or any other, for they made new ones every year.
THE EDITOR: That signified Christ’s finished work, and His once for all atonement for our sins. Next, the priest changed his clothes again to “come forth” outside the tabernacle to perform the burnt offerings, Leviticus 16:23,24.
G. CAMPBELL MORGAN (1863-1945): It is significant that when the priest entered the Holiest of all he did not wear his gorgeous apparel, but was clothed in a garment of simple and pure white linen.
THE EDITOR: Yes. And it explains what Jesus was wearing when He appeared unto Mary Magdalene. He was wearing the pure white linen garment of His own perfect holy righteousness. Why? Because He must be perfectly “undefiled” to fulfill the Scriptures in entering the Holy of Holies, Hebrews 7:26,27. But Christ’s body had been truly dead, and though His body saw not corruption, any contact with a dead body causes a ceremonial defilement, Haggai 2:11-13. Also, according to that Levitical law, a washing with water to cleanse his body was required before the high priest put on the holy garments. Spiritually, that washing was fulfilled by Christ’s resurrection itself, as it is also in our own regeneration, 1 Corinthians 15:42-44; Titus 3:5.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): This is a most striking detail not obvious at first sight, but which is clearly established by a comparison of Scripture with Scripture…How this illustrates the need of diligently comparing Scripture with Scripture if we would obtain the full teaching of the Word on any subject!
THE EDITOR: That same reference in Haggai also proves that contact with anything not perfectly pure is defiling. Therefore, if Mary had touched Him, being of sinful human flesh, she would have defiled Him and made Him unclean according to the law. I believe this explains the specific reason for Christ’s prohibition; and that His entry into the heavenly Holy of Holies was the immediate ascension which Jesus said had “not yet” happened—because in marvellously tender grace, He had tarried briefly to comfort a weeping Mary Magdalene. Thus these Old Testament Scriptures were fulfilled between His appearance to her, and His meeting with the other women shortly afterwards, who then were allowed to touch Him.
