Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended, &c.— The objectors to the resurrection of Jesus, have inferred fromthis circumstance, that Christ's body was not a real tangible body: but this could never be inferred from the words Touch me not; for thousands make use of that expression every day, without giving the least suspicion that their bodies are not tangible, or capable of being touched: nor could this conclusion be built upon the words, I am not yet ascended to my Father; for though there is a difficulty in those words, there is no difficulty in seeing that they have no relation to Christ's body; for as to his body nothing is said. The natural sense of the place, as collected from comparing it with Matthew 28:9 is this, "Mary Magdalene, upon seeing Jesus, fell at his feet, and laid hold on them, and held them as if she meant never to let them go. See 2 Kings 4:27. Luke 7:38. Christ said to her, Touch me not, or embrace me not now, you will have other opportunities of seeing me, for I go not yet to my Father; lose no time then, but go quickly with my message to my brethren." In the Jewish language, to touch, often signifies to embrace, with affection and regard. Thus Mark 10:13. They brought young children, that he should touch them; that is, express his affection to them by the imposition of hands, accompanied with blessings; accordingly it is added, He took them up in his arms, laid his hands upon them, and blessed them. So also, Luke 7:39. Simon the Pharisee observing a woman, who was a sinner, washing the feet of Christ with her tears, and kissing them, expressed her action by the word απτεσθαι. This man, if he were a prophet, would, &c. who touched him. In this sense the word απτου, touch, was used by our Lord on the present occasion.—In the words of this verse is contained a most clear proof that it wasChrist himself who uttered them. To understand this, it must be remembered, that they allude to the long discourse which our Saviour held with his disciples, the very night in which he was betrayed, Ch. 14: John 15:16 : wherein he told them, that he should leave them for a short time. A little while, and ye shall not see me; and that he should come to them again, though but for a short time, And again a little while, and ye shall see me, because, added he, I go to my Father. By the phrase, I go to my Father, Christ meant his final quitting this world; as he himself explained it to his disciples, who did not then understand either of the above expressions, I came forth, &c. Ch. John 16:28. But, lest they should fall into despair at being thus forsaken by him, for whom they had forsaken all the world, he at the same time promised to send them a comforter, even the Holy Spirit, who should teach them all things, and enable them to work miracles; and that finally, though they should for a season be sorrowful, yet their sorrow should soon be turned into joy, &c. Ch. John 14:16; John 14:26; John 16:13; John 16:20-21. These were magnificent promises, which, as the disciples could not but remember Christ had made to them, so they might be assured, that no one but Christ was able to make them good; and therefore, when they came to reflect seriously on the import of these words, Touch me not, &c. it was impossible for them to conclude otherwise than that it was Christ himself who appeared to Mary Magdalene. For as the latter expression, I ascend to my Father, &c. implied a remembrance, and consequently a renewal of those promises which were to take place after the ascension to the Father, so did the former, I am not ascended to my Father, give them encouragement to expect the performance of that other promise of his coming to themagain before his ascension, by his giving them to understand that he had not yet quitted this world. And Christ's forbidding Mary Magdalene to touch or embrace him, might have been meant as a signification of his intending to see her and his disciples again, just as in ordinary life, when one friend says to another, "Don't take leave, for I am not going yet," he means to let him know, that he purposes to see him again before he sets out upon his journey. That this is the true import of the words, Touch me not, is evident, not only from the reason subjoined in the words immediately following, For I am not yet ascended, &c. (by which expression, as we have shewn above, Christ meant he had not finally quitted the world) but from these farther considerations:
Christ, by shewing himself first to Mary Magdalene, intended, doubtless, to give her a distinguishing mark of his favour, and therefore cannot be supposed to have designed at the same time to have put a slight upon her, by refusing her an honour which he granted not long after to the other Mary and Salome: and yet this must be supposed, if touch me not be understood to imply a prohibition to Mary Magdalene to embrace him, for any reason consistent with the regard shewn to the other women, and different from that now contended for, namely, that he intended to see her again and his disciples. On the contrary, if these words be taken to signify only that this honour was denied to Mary till some fitter opportunity, they will be so far from importing any unkindness or reprehension to her, that they may be rather looked upon as a gracious assurance, a kind of friendly engagement to come to her again. In this sense they correspond exactly with Christ's purpose in sending this message by her to his disciples; which, as we observed before, was to let them know that he remembered his promise of coming to them again, and was determined to perform it, not having finally quitted this world: and of his intention to perform it, this, his refusing to admit the affectionate or reverential embraces of Mary Magdalene, was an earnest; as his coming to them would be a pledge of his resolution to acquit himself in due time of those promises, which were not to take effect till after his final departure out of the world. And thus this whole discourse of our Saviour with Mary Magdalene will be, in all its parts, intelligible, rational, andcoherent; whereas, if it be supposed that Mary Magdalene was forbidden to touch Christ for some mystical reason, contained in the words, I am not yet ascended, &c. it will be very difficult to understand the meaning or intent of that message, which she was commanded to carry to the disciples; and still more difficult to account for his suffering, not long after, the embraces of the other Mary and Salome.
To the same, or even greater difficulties, will that interpretation of this passage be liable, which supposes that the prohibition to Mary Magdalene was grounded upon the spiritual nature of Christ's body, which, it is presumed, was not sensible to the touch or feeling. And indeed both these reasons for the behaviour of Christ to Mary Magdalene are overturned by his contrary behaviour to the other Mary and Salome. But besides the assurance given by Christ to his disciples, in the words here spoken, of his intention of performing his promises, &c. he might have a farther view, which is equally deducible from those words. That remarkable expression, I ascend to my Father, Christ undoubtedly made use of upon this occasion, to re-cal to their minds the discourse that he held with them three nights before, in which he explained clearly what he meant by going to his Father, Ch. John 16:29. But this was not the only expression that puzzled them; they were as much in the dark as to the meaning of, A little while, and ye shall not, &c. John 20:16-18 which they likewise confessed they did not understand. But Christ left those words to be explained by the events to which they severally related, and which were then drawing on a-pace. For that very night he was betrayed, and seized, and deserted by his disciples, as he himself had foretold: the next day he was crucified, expired upon the cross, and was buried. Upon this melancholy catastrophe, the disciples could be no longer at a loss to understand what Christ meant, when he said to them, A little while, and ye shall not see me: he was gone from them, and, as their fears suggested, gone for ever, notwithstanding he had expressly told them he would come to them again, in the words, Again, a little while, and ye shall see me.This latter expression was fullas intelligible as the former; and as the one now expounded by the event, was plainly a prophesy of his death, so must the other be understood as a prophesy of his resurrection. But if they understood it in that sense, they were very far from having a right notion of the resurrection from the dead; as is evident from their imagining when Christ first shewed himself to them after his passion, that they saw a spirit; even though they had just before declared their belief that he was risen indeed. The resurrection of the body, it should seem, made no part of their notion of the resurrection from the dead: to lead them therefore into a right understanding of this important article of faith, Christ, in speaking to Mary Magdalene, &c. makes use of terms which strongly imply his being really, that is, bodily risen from the dead: I am not yet ascended—but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, &c. The words, I go to my Father, Christ, as has already been observed, explained by the well understood phrase of leaving the world; and to this explanation the words immediately foregoing give so great a light, that it is impossible to mistake their meaning. The whole passage runs thus: I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father, Chap. John 16:28. By the expression, and am come into the world, Christ certainly meant to signify his being and conversing visibly and bodily upon earth; and therefore by the other expression, I leave the world, he must have intended to denote the contrary, viz. his ceasing to converse visibly and bodily upon earth. But as they very well knew that the usual road by which all men quitted this world, lay through the gates of death, and were assured that their Master had trodden the irremediable path, they might naturally conclude, that what he had said to them about leaving the world, &c. was accomplished in his death; and consistently with that notion might imagine, that by his coming again, no more was intended, than his appearing to them in the same manner as many persons have appeared after their decease. To guard against this double error, Christ plainly intimates to his disciples, in the words, I am not yet, &c. that his dying, and his final leaving of the world, were distinct things; the latter of which was still to come, though the former was past: he had indeed died and quitted the world like others; but he was now risen from the dead, returned into the world, and should not leave it finally till he ascended to his Father. Of his being returned into the world, his appearing to Mary Magdalene was intended for a proof; and yet of this it could be no proof at all, if what she saw was no more than what is commonly called a spirit; since the spirits of many people have appeared after their decease, who, notwithstanding, are supposed to have as effectually left this world by their death, as those who have never appeared at all. If therefore Christ was risen from the dead, as the angels affirmed he was; if he had not finally left the world, as the words, I am not yet ascended, &c. plainly import; and if his appearing to Mary Magdalene was intended as a proof of these two points, as undoubtedly it was; it will follow, that he was really, that is bodily, risen from the dead; that he was still in the world, in the same manner as when he came forth from the Father, &c. and that it was he himself, and not a spirit without bodily parts, that appeared to Mary Magdalene.
The term ascend is twice used by our Saviour in the compass of these few words. In the discourse alluded to, he told his disciples he should go to his Father, and he now bids Mary Magdalene tell them that he should ascend to his Father; a variation which had its particular meaning. For as by the former expression he intended to signify in general his final departure, so by the latter is the particular manner of that departure intimated; and, doubtless, with a view of letting his disciples know the precise time, after which they should no longer enjoy his converse, or expect to see him upon earth. When the disciples therefore beheld their Master taken up into heaven, they could not but know assuredly, that this was the event foretold about forty days before to Mary Magdalene; and, knowing that, could no longer doubt whether it was Christ himself who appeared and spoke those prophetic words to her. For if it was not Christ who appeared to her, it must either have been some spirit, good or bad; or some man, who, to impose upon her, counterfeited the person and voice of Christ; or lastly, the whole must have been forged and invented by her. The first of these suppositions is blasphemous, the second absurd, and the third improbable. For, allowing her to have been capable of making a lie for the sake of carrying on an imposture from which she could reap no benefit, and to have been informed of what our Saviour had spoken to his disciples the night in which he was betrayed, which does not appear, it must have been either extreme madness or folly in her, to put the credit of her story upon events, such as the appearing of Christ to his disciples, and his ascending into heaven, which were so far from being in the number of contingencies, that they were not even in the number of natural cau
Thus Jesus, having finished the great work of atonement, contemplated the effects of it with singular pleasure. The blessed relation between God and man, which had been long cancelled by sin was now happily renewed. The disciples had now a fresh assurance given them that God was reconciled to them; that he was become their God and Father; that they were exalted to the honourable relation of Christ's brethren, and God's children; and that their Father loved them with an affection greatly superior to that of the most tender-hearted parent. The kindness of this message will appear above all praise, if we call to mind the late behaviour of the persons to whom it was sent. They had every one of them forsaken Jesus in his greatest extremity; but he graciously forgave them; and, to assure them of their pardon in the strongest manner, without so much as hinting at their fault, he called them by the endearing name of his brethren.