The Resurrected Lord Appears

May 20th, 2025
by Lance Waldie

John 20:16-18 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’ ” 18 Mary Magdalene came, announcing to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and that He had said these things to her.

As Mary wept outside the tomb of Jesus, the man she thought was a gardener was Jesus, alive! All Jesus needed to do to reveal Himself to her was to say one word: her name (cf. John 10:3-4). Now although a common gardener may have known Mary by name, it was the way that Jesus spoke her name that identified Him as her “Rabboni” (Aramaic for “my Teacher”). Like the raging sea which Jesus stilled with a word (Mark 4:39), Mary’s troubled soul was calmed by one word from Jesus. Likewise, the disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee in John 21:6-7, after Jesus instructed them to cast their nets on the other side of the boat, and in the story of the two disciples making their way to Emmaus (Luke 24:31), Jesus transforms people’s lives in an instant. All these examples reveal that recognition of Jesus does not follow a single pattern.

Mary’s joyful response to Jesus was to call out to Him in reverential awe as to who He was to her, namely her Teacher, her Lord. But given Jesus’ response to her, she must have also embraced Him physically as the other women had done when Jesus was revealed to them (cf. Matt. 28:9). Therefore, He told her, “Stop clinging to Me…” First, note that His words not meant to keep her from actually touching Him, for that would contradict the invitation He gave the disciples to touch Him in Luke 24:39 along with the challenge to Thomas to touch His hands and His side in John 20:27 (cf. Matt. 28:9). Second, Jesus was not being rude; rather, He was saying something like, “Though I have not yet ascended to My Father, you do not have to cling to me as if I am going to disappear forever in the next few moments. Rejoice with me, but do not cling to me as if you are never going to let go. Indeed, I will ascend to My Father, but you need to go tell my disciples that this is so, Me ascending to My Father and your Father.” Once Jesus ascended to the Father (v. 17), her relationship with Him would be through the presence of the Holy Spirit (cf. 14:16, 26).

It should be noted that Jesus did make many physical appearances after His death, prior to His ascension (cf. Acts 1:3, 9). This was so that writers like John could claim to have been eyewitnesses who had heard, seen, and touched Jesus—the “the Word of life” who grants eternal life (1 John 1:1-3). Even in his Gospel, John asserted that seeing and touching Jesus had ceased to be the means by which people come to faith. From that point, after Mary, Thomas, and the disciples came to faith, God’s blessing came upon those who believed without seeing (20:29).

Though Jesus’ work of redemption is finished (19:30), He still had work to do before the Spirit descended, and He is still working. In telling Mary to go inform His “brethren” in v. 16 and telling her, “I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God” in v. 17, Jesus includes all those who have faithfully followed Him as His family, the One who “is not ashamed to call them brothers” (Heb. 2:11). After all, “Whoever does God’s will is [Jesus’] brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:34). They are co-heirs with Christ (cf. Rom. 8:16-17).

Food for Thought
The disciples would never have invented a story that included women as the first to witness the Lord Jesus’ resurrection. In a society where a woman’s testimony was scoffed at (cf. Luke 24:11, 24-25; Acts 12:15), the biblical record unveils an unbelievably believable account, an account that no human would ever make up. This is God’s story; it is History.