John 20:11-18

MARY MAGDALENE AGAIN AT THE SEPULCHER

John 20:11-18. “ And Mary stood at the sepulcher without, weeping, and while she continued to weep, she looked into the sepulcher, and saw two angels in white sitting down, the one at the head, and the one at the feet, where the body of Jesus lay. And they say to her, Woman, why do you weep? She says to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have placed Him. And saying these words, she turned back, and saw Jesus standing, and did not know that it is Jesus. And Jesus said to her, Woman, why do you weep? Whom do you seek? She, thinking that He is the gardener, says to Him, Sir, if Thou hast taken Him away, tell me where Thou hast placed Him, and I will take Him. Jesus says to her, Mary! Turning, she says to Him, Rabboni, which is called, Teacher. And Jesus says to her, Touch Me not: for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren, and say to them, I go up to My Father, and your Father; My God, and your God. Mary Magdalene comes, reporting to the disciples that she hath seen the Lord, and He hath spoken these things to her.” As John mentions no woman going to the sepulcher at any time except Mary Magdalene, and the other three mention Mary, the mother of James the Less, and Salome, the mother of James the Greater and John, we conclude that John simply mentions Mary Magdalene as the most prominent of the sisterly band.

Why did Jesus not want her to touch Him “because He had not ascended to His Father?” Haptou, “touch,” also means “tarry with,” “cling to,” etc. The solution of the matter is about this: She thought that He had been up in heaven, and dropping down, like an angel, in a moment would suddenly be gone again. Consequently, anxious to enjoy the privilege of worshipping Him while present, she is in the act of falling at His feet, or, as Matthew says, when they first met Him in the garden, they actually embraced His feet. Hence He says: “Tarry not with Me; but go, tell My disciples that I am risen.”

Where had Jesus been since He died on the cross, Friday, at 3 P.M.? You see He had not been up to heaven. This corroborates quite a group of Scriptures in both Testaments, revealing His descension into Hades, and proclamation of His victory and triumph over hell; His entrance into the intermediate paradise and its abolishment; and the escort of the Old Testament saints with Him up to this world, when He received His body on the third morn.

We observe here some notable facts:

(a) The women were last at the cross and first at the sepulcher, and first to go and preach the risen Savior even to the apostles.

(b) The angels unscrupulously appeared to the women twice at the sepulcher, as we see they made two visits in quick succession the one at the dawn, hastening back to tell the disciples; and the other so quickly after delivering their message that some think they actually arrived at the sepulcher the second time before Peter and John got there.

John describes two visits by Mary Magdalene, the angels being seen in both. Hence you see that while the angels appeared twice to the women, they always retreated away before the arrival of the men; thus illustrating, at least, the hypothetical conclusion of the ethical superiority of womanhood, which is certainly corroborated by the Word of God. God made man out of the earth and woman out of man, the second blessing in creation, man symbolizing justification and woman sanctification. Her ethical superiority is abundantly vindicated in all the transactions of life, where we find her, in every age and nation, pleading for truth, righteousness, mercy, and philanthropy amid the atrocities, brutality, and diabolism of the rougher sex.