Contending for the faith | Making Disciples | Equipping the Saints for Ministry

Q: “Can you explain John 20:17, where Jesus told Mary not touch Him after His resurrection?”

A: There are a couple of possible explanations for this interaction. We need to remember that Jesus was in a glorified body, giving us a glimpse as to the new bodies we will be given at our resurrection.

One explanation is that Mary would have clung to Him, when other business of the upmost importance was at hand and needed to be carried out quickly. There would be no time for pausing, reliving, or looking back. Such urgent business requires His people to exercise genuine faith that would be manifested in obedience. One of the responsibilities rests with Mary herself. She was the one who would go to the disciples and tell them the good news of Jesus’ resurrection.

The second explanation is that in His resurrected state everything would change as to how people were to interact with Him. Although His new body had some semblance of His humanity so He could interact with His followers, it was not flesh and blood like our bodies. It was clear that in His new body He was not subject to the earth or the world. Therefore, man could not be common in his approach; rather, he needed to approach Him with more sobriety, recognizing His deity which calls for worship in Spirit and truth, and service in faith and obedience.

There are some that believe that Jesus did return to the Father in order to present His blood on the Mercy Seat, a sign of atonement which was necessary before any person approached God. This would have been symbolic of the High Priest who would enter the Most Holy Place once a year to make an atonement for the people of Israel by sprinkling the blood on the Mercy Seat to ensure that God’s people would be able to approach Him without judgment (Leviticus 16).

As you can see, these possible explanations may be nothing more than good guesses but when we see Him face to face in eternity, all of our questions will be answered and everything that has been a matter of discussion and debate will cease to exist.

About Us

The Goal of Gentle Shepherd Ministries is to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and to make disciples in compliance with the Great Commission (Matt. 28:19).

Recent Posts

Follow Us