Why did Jesus tell Mary, "Do not cling to me" (John 20:17)?

That this account of the word is correct I have no doubt whatever, as indeed it is one that would not be disputed by any who are competent to judge of such a matter. It is, of course, entirely apart from any views that might be considered by adversaries to be peculiar (though I know not why such sounds should be heard: I cannot on any account admit that a fair interpretation of God's word should be treated as a peculiar view). I hope it will not be regarded as a question of the number of those who really accept it. But however this may be, what I am now saying would be, and has been, admitted by persons of the most diverse views, provided they really search into and examine the matter of which I now treat. If this be so, the expression of our Lord to Mary Magdalene is not exactly given in "Touch me not." It is rather, "Do not handle." He tells her not to yield to her impulse in familiarly laying hold of His person. What confirms it is this, that the particular part of the word (μή μου ἅπτου, and not merely μὴ ἅψῃ) supposes a continuous handling of Him. In Colossians it is not so; there it is a single act, which might be ever so transient. But here it is a continuous act; that is, it would give this force, "Do not persist in clinging to me." Such is the idea conveyed by the word and its form here.

This appears to me to give much more force and distinctness to the passage, because Mary of Magdala here represents one who is still looking to Jesus according to the hopes of her nation, as well as the desires of the heart; one who could not but sorrow over His bodily absence, who would have had a mournful pleasure in thinking of His dead body even still there. Thus we can readily understand the instinct, as it were, with which she laid hold of the Saviour directly that she knew Him. But at once He forbids it; and this is the more striking, because, as has been often remarked, in the gospel of Matthew, when the Galilean women seized His feet, He does not refuse it from them, but, on the contrary, accepted their homage. Nay, more, in this very chapter of John, we see how the Lord invites incredulous Thomas eight days after to reach his finger, and thrust his hand into His side.

Accordingly, then, our Lord in the spirit of this bids Mary Magdalene not to be clinging to Him; for He was not yet ascended to His Father. Thus He was now to be known. Thus the believers were to be put in relationship with Him, — taken out of their old thoughts and expectations, and put in connection with the love and glory into which He was just going, even the Father's house on high.

Representing the feelings of the godly Jewish remnant, she would cling to her risen Lord, with the thought that now that He has come back, no longer in humiliation but in resurrection glory, He will take His place on earth as the rightful Heir of all things. But Mary and the remnant are to learn that before the kingdom glories, God has yet greater glories for Christ, and far deeper blessings for His people. Thus the Lord can say, "Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father: but go to My brethren, and say to them, I ascend to My Father, and your Father; and to My God and your God".

In Mary Magdalene we see one to whom the world had become an empty place; indeed her hopes seemed blighted now that her Lord had died. If there has been with us, as with her, true association with our Lord Jesus Christ in His rejection, He will lead us into the light and joy of the blessed fact that death could not hold Him. Mary had "stood by the cross;" she had also "stood without at the sepulchre," and now she hears His voice in resurrection — the voice that she had thought was forever hushed in death — calling her by name, "Mary." He reaches her affections and she recognizes Him, seeking, apparently, to embrace Him, but he says, "Touch Me not; for I am not yet ascended to My Father." Notice He did not say only "Touch me not," but "Touch Me not for I am not yet ascended". Implicit in this is the truth that she could not have Him back in the conditions which existed before he went to the cross, but she was to know Him in ascension, in entirely new conditions.

We must pass on from what is beyond all thought, but that must linger in the memory of our hearts for ever, where all divine love was expressed to us in His drinking that dreadful cup, to some of the glorious results. He was, oh how infinitely! — alone, but accomplishing in it all that was needed to make good the whole glory of God in holiness and righteousness and majesty against sin, and in love to the sinner. So that there, where we find the only measure of what sin is, we find the work that has put it away for ever, and closed for faith the history and existence morally of the man that sinned. Thus God was glorified, and salvation is ours who believe in Him. But it is the character of that salvation, as satisfying the heart of Christ, and not the mere fact of it, that occupies us now. And this comes out as we see Him raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, and now glorified in God, to be alone no longer in this His, for man, new place. The psalm prepares us for it. First, full, precious announcement of it through Mary of Magdala, as He forbids her attempt to renew her relations with Him as Messiah after the flesh, on the ground of far richer ones that He was about to introduce. "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto my Father." In anticipation of that moment when He was to take His full counselled place as man in the glory of God, He sends her to the disciples with the revelation of it, "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; unto my God, and your God." All the place He was about to take, as man, with God and with the Father, He has won in divine righteousness for us.

351 But to return to the text. Our Lord presents Himself here, as above mentioned. In saying therefore, "Touch me not," I conceive He means, You err in addressing Me here as the Object of your allegiance and worship. I have not yet entered on the throne of My kingdom; but go to My brethren (blessed word!) and tell them I do ascend; I am about to fulfil all their hopes; yea, far indeed beyond their hopes. I ascend; yet I ascend not separating Myself from them in the body of love; for in ascending I own them still as brethren; nay, I ascend in this character to their Father and Mine, to their God and Mine. So that in entering in as King of Glory where, and not here, they are to look for Me, I still am in perfect union with them as My brethren.

It is at this moment that the Lord reveals Himself to her by one word. She cannot do without Him, and she shall not for a single second more. "Mary" falls upon her ear. That is all. "Jesus says to her, Mary." He had said before, "And he calls his own sheep by name, and leads them out; and when he puts forth his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him: for they know his voice" (John 10:3-4). Do you and I understand what it is to be thus called of the Lord by name? And do we answer Him just as she did that day? Oh! what a revelation to her soul. "She turned herself, and says to him, Rabboni: which is to say, Master" (ver. 16). Why does the Holy Ghost tell us she turned herself? We saw just now that when she saw angels she turned her back on them. Now she sees a man, and she turns her back on him. It was Christ she was looking for, but she had not at that moment found Him. But all is revealed to her in one word, "Mary." She had heard that blessed voice before, in the day when He delivered her from the sevenfold power of the devil, and in a moment she turns herself The truth is out. He is there. She has found the One whom her heart desired above all things.

I do not doubt, in the impulse of her affection, that Mary was just about to do what her Galilean friends did afterwards — touch the Lord. She is checked by the word, "Touch me not." And why may she not touch Him? He tells her, "For I am not yet ascended to my Father." She was going to take up relationship with Christ on the old ground. That would not do. She was henceforth to know Him in a new place altogether. Where do we know Him? At God's right hand. We know not Christ after the flesh, but as the risen, ascended, and glorified Man. "Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say to them, I ascend to my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God" (John 20:17). Mary here had the most wonderful message given her that ever was committed to human lips down here to carry to others.

You might ask, Why did the Lord refuse Mary's touch, and yet let the Galilean women touch Him? I will take that up and fully answer that question at another time, God willing, only saying now that an earthly people will yet know and have Christ in their midst as the living Messiah. But Mary prefigures the heavenly saints, and illustrates what is the truth for us. She was only to know Christ as we know Him, i.e., as gone on high. I think when He said, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father," a thrill of disappointment would go through her heart, which meant: "Am I to lose Thee again, Lord? I lost Thee, and my heart was broken, and now I have found Thee." His reply seems to say this: "No, Mary, you knew Me here, and you lost Me. Now I am going back to a spot where you can always find Me and never again lose Me."

Touching His feet was merely in a spirit of deference, a kind of worship, whereas the other has a deeper meaning. Mary thought she had got Him back again as Messiah in this world, and the Lord says, No, I am not going to be bodily present here, you must not touch me, but go to my brethren, and say to them, "I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God." And there He associates His disciples with Himself as gone up on high; while Mary was made the vessel of the communication of this heavenly character in so calling them His brethren.

But why may she not touch Him? He let the Galilean woman hold Him, as we are told in Matthew 28:9, where the point is the resumption, in another day, of His relationships, with a remnant of His earthly people, though on the ground of resurrection. Why, then, will He not let Mary touch Him? The truth is simple. Here He is going to heaven. He is in a heavenly condition, and the saint, of this dispensation, is in Him there, in that new place, and on new ground altogether. Not by sight, nor by touch, is He to be known thenceforth, and in order to know that, there must be what comes out presently. There must be life, according to the position, in which Jesus now was, as risen, and about to ascend. This life was to be by the power of the Holy Ghost, who was, however, not yet come.

The faith of the future day of the Lord's presence will be associated with an Object of sight and of touch, as it were. It will be of the sort signified by the action of the Jewish women who, when they saw the Lord after His resurrection, "took hold of his feet and worshipped him (Matt. 28:9). But Mary Magdalene on the same day was instructed by the risen Christ in the exercise of faith of a higher order — faith which requires nothing visible or tangible in its object, but penetrates even unto the Unseen Presence on high. To her the Lord said, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father" (John 20:17). She was surely to learn from this utterance that earthly relationships with the Messiah were suspended, and heavenly ones about to be established between the ascended Saviour and His own.