"Touch Me Not"

Dear Pastor John,

I am still reading your sermons weekly and look forward to what you have to share. One question keeps coming to me every time I see this verse. Jesus telling Mary "do not touch me for I have not ascended to my Father". I know later he lets Thomas touch his wound to see it is real. But I don't understand why he won't let Mary touch him when she must be so excited to see him. Do you know why that is?

Great question! I have often wondered about that as well.

"Touch Me Not"

Matt 28:9 - And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. And they came and HELD HIM by the feet, and worshipped him.

Luke 24:39 - Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: HANDLE ME, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.

John 20:17 - Jesus saith unto her, TOUCH ME NOT; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God (all quotes from the KJV).

The Greek used here actually uses the world TOUCH ME NOT in the Present Imperative in a prohibition. The present tense is properly used for expressing continued action. A prohibition in the present imperative demands that action then in progress be stopped.

Now, to apply the above to the beginning of John 20:17. The verse also includes a prohibitive, present imperative: me mou haptou. It would be better rendered as, "Stop touching Me." The point? A prohibition in the present imperative demands that action then in progress be stopped.

So Mary is already touching Jesus. But Jesus is commanding her to stop.

But why? Help in answering this question can be found by looking at the word rendered "touch."

The Greek word rendered "touch" in the KJV is haptou - "touch, take hold of, hold, to hold on to an object - ‘to hold on to, to retain in the hand, to seize, to touch, with the implication of relatively firm contact - ‘to touch.”

In his commentary on the Gospel of John, Merril C. Tenny summarizes the lexical connotations of this verb as: "The verb hapto does not mean to touch with the tip of a finger to test whether an object is real or not but to ‘clutch’ or ‘grip.’"

So Mary was not just touching Jesus, she was holding Him, grasping Him, clinging to Him. Jesus is simply telling her to let go, enough is enough already.

Putting all the above together, if I was translating the first part of this verse, I would probably render it as, "Stop holding Me…" or possibly, "Stop clinging to me…."

So Jesus is being "held" in Matthew; He is being "handled" in Luke; and He is being "held" or "clung to" in John. So there is no contradiction between the Gospels. In fact, the only reason there is even an "apparent contradiction" between these passages is because of the rather poor rendering of the KJV.

Compare, however, the translation of the NKJV, "Do not cling to Me…." Even without using "Stop" this rendering still has the sense that Jesus is commanding that Mary cease what she is already doing. I doubt very much I would say "Do not cling to me" to someone who was not even touching me!

Jesus was OK with being touched to verify that He was real, but his comment that he had not yet ascended meant that a real intimacy with Him could only be achieved after He left and sent the Holy Spirit to live within our spirit. If he remained here in bodily form then the Spirit could not come. When He left in bodily form he then was able to enter into every person who believed on Him and received His forgiveness from sin.

This was always God’s plan because to limit Christ to one body rather than the Holy Spirit empowering and indwelling in Billions would hinder the spread of the Gospel and the salvation of many.

Pastor John