John 20:17,18

“ Jesus says to her: 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, to my God and your God. 18. Mary Magdalene comes to the disciples and tells them that she has seen the Lord and that he has said these words to her. ”

As Mary extends her arms towards Him, Jesus seems to put Himself on His guard; what is His thought? Could He fear this touch, which might have something painful in it for Him, either because of His wounds, which were scarcely cicatrized (Paulus), or by reason of the delicate nature of His body, in a sense freshly born (Schleiermacher, Olshausen)? As Reuss says, one cites such explanations only as a remembrance. Or might this touching seem contrary to the dignity of His body henceforth made divine (Chrysostom, Erasmus)? This explanation is incompatible with the invitation which He gives to Thomas to touch Him; comp. also Luke 24:39.

Lucke thought of the use of the verb ἅπτεσθαι in the phrase to touch the knees, for to worship, to supplicate, in Homer. The attempt has even been made to unite these words, in this sense, to what follows: “I am not yet glorified; it is not yet, therefore, the time to worship me.” But ἅπτεσθαι alone never has this meaning, and Jesus accepts a few days afterwards the adoration of Thomas.

It has been supposed (Meyer, Baumlein) that Jesus wishes to remove a feeling of anxiety from the heart of Mary, who is trying to assure herself of the reality of what she sees. But in that case ψηλαφᾶν would rather be the proper word than ἅπτεσθαι.

Or the meaning to hold back has been given to the word to touch. “Do not stop to hold me as if I were ready to escape thee, but go to my brethren” (Neander). But with this meaning, it would have been κρατεῖν (to lay hold of). This reason excludes also the explanation of Baur: “Do not hold me: for it is necessary that I ascend to my Father, to whom I have not yet returned.”

The ἅπτεσθαι, the touching, which Jesus forbids is not that of anxiety, but that of joy (2 Corinthians 6:17, Col 2:21): “Clasp not my feet; I have not come to renew the old earthly relations. The true seeing again which I have promised you is not this. To return in a real and permanent way, it must be that I shall have first ascended. That time has not yet come.” Or, as Steinmeyer says, “it is, indeed, rather for leave-taking that I have come.” The disciples imagined that the death of Jesus was the return to the Father of which He had spoken to them, and His reappearance (John 13:1) seemed to them the beginning of His permanent abiding vith them. They confounded His death with the ascension, and the promised return with the Parousia. But Jesus declares to them by this message of Mary that He is not yet ascended, and that it is only now that He is going to ascend. Instead of enjoying this moment of possession, therefore, as if Jesus were really restored to her, Mary must rise and go to tell the disciples what is taking place. Jesus does not say ἀνέβην (the aorist), but ἀναβέβηκα (the perfect); He denies that He is already in the state of one who has done the act of ascending and who can contract with His own the higher relation in which they will possess Him again.

“ But go ” is opposed to the act of staying to enjoy. The message with which Jesus charges her for His disciples consequently signifies: “I am not yet in my state of glory; but as soon as I shall be in it, I will give you a share in it, and then nothing shall any longer interpose between you and me.” Hence the expressions: “ my brethren ” and “ my Father and your Father. ” There is here a foretaste, as it were, of the future communion. These terms set forth the indissoluble solidarity which will unite them to Him in the glorious state into which He now enters. He had not until now called them His brethren; the same expression is found again in Matthew 28:10. It contains more than Weiss thinks, when he sees in it only the idea that His exaltation will not alter His fraternal relation to them. No more do I think that Jesus wishes to bring out thereby the community of action which will unite them (Steinmeyer, Keil). He calls them His brethren as sharing in the divine adoption which He has acquired for them; they will enjoy with Him filial communion with God Himself. The words: “ my Father and your Father,” are the explanation of it. On this expression: my brethren, comp. Romans 8:29.

In the name of Father there is filial intimacy; in that of God, complete dependence, and this for the disciples as for Jesus Himself.

But within this equality so glorious for the believers, there remains an ineffaceable difference. Jesus does not and cannot say our Father, our God, because God is not their Father, their God, in the same sense in which He is His Father and His God.

The present ἀναβαίνω, I ascend, has been variously explained: either as designating the certain and near fact, like the presents: I go to the Father (ὑπάγω, πορεύομαι) in the previous discourses, or as going so far as even to identify the day of the resurrection with that of the ascension (Baur, Keim); whence a contradiction between John and the Synoptics. The first sense is impossible; for the opposition: “I am not yet ascended,...but I ascend,” forces us to give to the present its strict meaning. The second is not any more admissible, since this appearance has no characteristic which distinguishes it from the following ones, which would necessarily be the case if the ascension, the complete glorification, separated them. The: I ascend, must designate thus a present elevation of position which is not yet the ascension. We cannot, whatever Weiss may say, escape the idea of a progressive exaltation during the days which separated the resurrection from the ascension an exaltation to which the gradual transformation of the body of Jesus, which appears clearly from everything that follows, corresponds. On the one hand, He is no longer with the disciples, living with them the earthly existence (Luke 24:44); on the other, He is also not yet in the state of glorification with the Father. It is a state of bodily and spiritual transition exactly denoted by the word I ascend.

By this message Jesus desires to raise the eyes of Mary and of His disciples from the imperfect joy of this momentary seeing Him again, which is only a means, to the expectation of the permanent spiritual communion, which is the end, but which must be preceded by His return to the Father (John 14:12; John 14:19; John 16:7; John 16:16). This warning applies to all the visits which shall follow, and is designed to comfort His followers for the sudden disappearances which shall put an end to them.

The present, she comes (John 20:18), expresses in all its vividness the surprise produced in the disciples by this arrival and this message.

We have said that the appearance to the women related by Matthew (Matthew 28:9-10) seems to us to be identical with that which John has just described with more detail. And indeed it is enough to convince us of this, if we compare the words: “Touch me not,” and, “Go, and say to my brethren,” with these:

“ They held him by the feet,” and: “ Go, and say to my brethren. ” Some modern critics, also identifying the two scenes, have supposed that John's narrative is rather a poetic amplification of the short story of Matthew, formed by means of those of Mark and Luke. But how is it not seen that the story of Matthew is a vague traditional summary, while John's description reproduces the real scene in all its primitive freshness and distinctness?