Bible Reading: John where Magdalene sees Jesus

John 20:16-17

Jesus said to her, "Mary!" Turning, she said to him, Rabboni! (that is to say, Master). Jesus said to her, "Do not touch me, for I have 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."

Popular crass culture likes to read a lot into this sentence, about Mary Magdalene's joy at seeing the resurrected Jesus, her attempt to touch him (which in that context would have been to throw herself at his feet) and his telling her not to do so. People in those times, both male and female, were touchy feely in the sense of both embracing and in showing devotion by throwing oneself down in prostration. No one read anything unseemly into this passage until the 1960's when people started looking for sex and impropriety everywhere. This was also the time when people wanted to "humanize" Jesus (as if he wasn't already as human as possible in becoming the Son of Man.) In their case though "humanize" means to project onto Jesus behavior that one hopes to engage in oneself. So people, rather than understanding God's commission to humankind to be fruitful and multiply, look for sexual permission by pulling Jesus down to their level. Sigh. Here is the actual explanation for this passage.

Jesus only allowed himself to be touched after resurrection by Thomas, who needed to do so in order to believe that it was really Christ and not a ghostly spirit. Jesus didn't avoid contact, because he did join the Apostles on the bank of the sea in order to cook and eat fish with them, so it's not like he would be paranoid about his wrist maybe brushing against their arms as they passed along the food. But Jesus had to put an end to human to human affectionate embrace after he resurrected. This is because he was making plain to them that he had gone from "friend" to "judge" upon his death and resurrection. This is why he said to Mary Magdalene that "he had not yet ascended to my Father." He was indicating that he was now in a different role, he was no longer the friend who taught them, but he was now the judge who would return at the Second Coming, although he had not yet physically risen to God's presence. He was drawing a line to let the Apostles and disciples know that now he was the judging Jesus, who would return in the Second Coming and cast the chaff into the fire and harvest the wheat for heaven. This is why he carefully phrased that he is going to ascend "to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." Jesus had "changed jobs" in the course of dying and resurrecting. He went from touchable friend and teacher (Rabboni) to the judge of the Second Coming. We know this because Jesus had already performed his first activity in this role, which was to descend into hell and free those who upon Jesus' death merited to be freed. He judged those who had been in the limbo like state awaiting the Messiah.

So as usual, Jesus spells out exactly what he is doing and why, but it's too easy for some to read something crass into his actions if they wish to do so. When St John saw Jesus in his vision of Revelations, St John didn't run over to clap his hand on Jesus' back and give him a big kiss on the face. St John was busy throwing himself onto the ground not only at the sight of God and of Jesus, but at the elders and angels too. This moment where Mary Magdalene recognizes him as being Jesus is also the first sighting of the Jesus who administers judgement at the Second Coming. The resurrected Jesus was keeping in check both reactions - those who wanted to touch him in friendship, and those who wanted to prostrate in adoration, because both of those would only happen in truth once he returned in the Second Coming.

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Doesn't understanding this make the popular pick up line by some red headed males and females that they are either the resurrected Magdalene or her physical descendant especially cheesy and vulgar now? Ugh.