11But Mary was standing outside at the tomb weeping. So as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb,12and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head, and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.13They asked her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have laid him.”
14When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing, and didn’t know that it was Jesus.
Were the men or angels sitting or standing?Mark 16:5 has the women enter the tomb and find 'a young man sitting on the right side.' John 20:12 has Mary Magdalene see 'two angels in white sitting' — one…
Who did the women see at the tomb?Matthew 28:2 has an angel of the Lord descend from heaven, roll back the stone, and sit on it — a single angelic figure.
Luke 24:16(v14)But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
Luke 24:3-7(v12)They entered in, and didn’t find the Lord Jesus’ body. While they were greatly perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in…
Song of Solomon 3:3-4(v14)The watchmen who go about the city found me; “Have you seen him whom my soul loves?” I had scarcely passed from them, when I found him whom…
Matthew 28:9(v14)As they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, “Rejoice!” They came and took hold of his feet, and worshiped him.
Mark 16:9(v14)Now when he had risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons.
Show all 33 cross-references
John 20:5(v11)Stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloths lying, yet he didn’t enter in.
John 20:15(v13)Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Who are you looking for?” She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, “Sir, if you…
John 21:4(v14)But when day had already come, Jesus stood on the beach, yet the disciples didn’t know that it was Jesus.
John 16:20-22(v13)Most certainly I tell you that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned…
Revelation 3:4(v12)Nevertheless you have a few names in Sardis that didn’t defile their garments. They will walk with me in white, for they are worthy.
1 Samuel 1:8(v13)Elkanah her husband said to her, “Hannah, why do you weep? Why don’t you eat? Why is your heart grieved? Am I not better to you than ten…
Psalms 43:3-5(v13)Oh, send out your light and your truth. Let them lead me. Let them bring me to your holy hill, to your tents. Then I will go to the altar…
Daniel 7:9(v12)“I watched until thrones were placed, and one who was ancient of days sat. His clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like…
Mark 16:5-6(v12)Entering into the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, dressed in a white robe, and they were amazed. He said to them,…
Luke 24:31(v14)Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, then he vanished out of their sight.
John 2:4(v13)Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does that have to do with you and me? My hour has not yet come.”
John 8:59(v14)Therefore they took up stones to throw at him, but Jesus was hidden, and went out of the temple, having gone through the middle of them,…
John 14:27-28(v13)Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you; not as the world gives, I give to you. Don’t let your heart be troubled, neither let it be…
Revelation 7:14(v12)I told him, “My lord, you know.” He said to me, “These are those who came out of the great suffering.They washed their robes, and made them…
2 Chronicles 5:12(v12)also the Levites who were the singers, all of them, even Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun, and their sons and their brothers, arrayed in fine linen,…
Ecclesiastes 3:4(v13)a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
Matthew 17:2(v12)He was changed before them. His face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as the light.
Matthew 28:2-5(v12)Behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from the sky, and came and rolled away the stone from the door,…
Mark 16:12(v14)After these things he was revealed in another form to two of them, as they walked, on their way into the country.
Luke 24:17(v13)He said to them, “What are you talking about as you walk, and are sad?”
Luke 24:22-23(v12)Also, certain women of our company amazed us, having arrived early at the tomb; and when they didn’t find his body, they came saying that…
John 16:6-7(v13)But because I have told you these things, sorrow has filled your heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth: It is to your advantage that I…
John 19:26(v13)Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!”
John 20:2(v13)Therefore she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken away the Lord out…
Acts 1:10(v12)While they were looking steadfastly into the sky as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white clothing,
Acts 21:13(v13)Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem…
Jeremiah 31:16(v13)Yahweh says: “Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears; for your work will be rewarded,” says Yahweh. “They will come…
Luke 4:30(v14)But he, passing through the middle of them, went his way.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (25 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
John Calvin1540 · Public DomainOn vv11–1411. But Mary stood at the sepulcher without. The…
11. But Mary stood at the sepulcher without. The Evangelist now begins to describe the manner in which Christ appeared both to the women and to the disciples, to testify his resurrection. Though he mentions but one woman, Mary, yet I think it is probable that the other women were also along with her; for it is not reasonable to suppose, as some have done, that the women fainted through fear. Those writers wish to avoid a contradiction, but I have already shown that no such contradiction exists.
As to the women remaining at the sepulchre, while the disciples return to the city, they are not entitled to great accommodation on this account; for the disciples carry with them consolation and joy, but the women torment themselves by idle and useless weeping. In short, it is superstition alone, accompanied by carnal feelings, that keeps them near the sepulchre
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators1599 · Public DomainOn vv11–14That is, without the cave, which the sepulchre was…
That is, without the cave, which the sepulchre was cut out of.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp1656 · Public DomainOn vv11–1411 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping:…
11 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,
Ver. 11. Mary stood at the sepulchre, weeping] Some think it was because she conceived that the Jews had gotten away our Saviour’s dead body to dishonour it; as the Popish persecutors digged up Bucer’s and many other good men’s bones to burn them. She wept where she had no such cause; so do too many, women especially, who should do well to keep their tears for better uses, and not wash foul rooms with sweet waters. Needless tears must be unwept again.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole1685 · Public DomainOn vv11, 12, 14That the Mary here mentioned was Mary Magdalene appeareth…
That the Mary here mentioned was Mary Magdalene appeareth from Joh 20:14, compared with Mar 16:9, which saith, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt1703 · Public DomainOn v13Observe here, 1. That the best company in the…
Observe here, 1. That the best company in the world will not satisfy or content such as are seeking for Jesus Christ, when they find not him whom their souls seek: Mary now enjoyed the presence and company of two angels, but this did not satisfy her in the absence of Christ himself.
Observe, 2. How passionately did Mary mourn for the loss and want of Christ’s bodily presence, thereby giving testimony of her great affection towards him; but truly our love to Christ is best shown, not by our passionate desires for his bodily presence, but by our holy longings after his spiritual presence in his word and ordinances here on earth, and his blessed and immediate presence in heaven.
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Observe, 3. How Christ may be present with, and very near unto, his people, and yet not be presently discerned by them: Jesus stood by Mary, and she knew not that it was Jesus. Her not expecting a living Christ, was one cause why she did not discern him.
Observe, 4. How exceedingly Mary’s thoughts were taken up with Christ. She saith to the gardener, If thou have borne him hence.
What him? She doth not say whom, but her heart was so taken up with Christ, and her mind so full of him, that she concluded every body would understand whom she meant, though she did not say whom she meant.
Hence note, that the soul of a sincere believer is full of earnest and longing desires after Jesus Christ.
2. That such a soul is yet sometimes at a loss for Christ, and cannot tell where to find him.
3. That whilst the soul is at a loss for Christ, its desires are often quicker and more stirring after Christ. This was the case of Mary here; with the spouse by night on her bed, and early in the morning, she sought him whom her soul loved.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry1710 · Public DomainOn v11St. Mark tells us that Christ appeared first to…
St. Mark tells us that Christ appeared first to Mary Magdalene (Mar 16:9); that appearance is here largely related; and we may observe,
I. The constancy and fervency of Mary Magdalene's affection to the Lord Jesus, Joh 20:11.
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1. She staid at the sepulchre, when Peter and John were gone, because there her Master had lain, and there she was likeliest to hear some tidings of him. Note, (1.) Where there is a true love to Christ there will be a constant adherence to him, and a resolution with purpose of heart to cleave to him. This good woman, though she has lost him, yet, rather than seem to desert him, will abide by his grave for his sake, and continue in his love even when she wants the comfort of it. (2.) Where there is a true desire of acquaintance with Christ there will be a constant attendance on the means of knowledge. See Hos 6:2, Hos 6:3, The third day he will raise us up; and then shall we know the meaning of that resurrection, if we follow on to know, as Mary here.
2. She staid there weeping, and these tears loudly bespoke her affection to her Master. Those that have lost Christ have cause to weep; she wept at the remembrance of his bitter sufferings; wept for his death, and the loss which she and her friends and the country sustained by it; wept to think of returning home without him; wept because she did not now find his body. Those that seek Christ must seek him sorrowing (Luk 2:48), must weep, not for him, but for themselves.
3. As she wept, she looked into the sepulchre, that her eye might affect her heart. When we are in search of something that we have lost we look again and again in the place where we last left it, and expected to have found it. She will look yet seven times, not knowing but that at length she may see some encouragement. Note, (1.) Weeping must not hinder seeking. Though she wept, she stooped down and looked in. (2.) Those are likely to seek and find that seek with affection, that seek in tears.
II. The vision she had of two angels in the sepulchre, Joh 20:12. Observe here,
1. The description of the persons she saw. They were two angels in white, sitting (probably on some benches or ledges hewn out in the rock) one at the head, and the other at the feet, of the grave. Here we have,
(1.) Their nature. They were angels, messengers from heaven, sent on purpose, on this great occasion, [1.] To honour the Son and to grace the solemnity of his resurrection. Now that the Son of God was again to be brought into the world, the angels have a charge to attend him, as they did at his birth, Heb 1:6. [2.] To comfort the saints; to speak good words to those that were in sorrow, and, by giving them notice that the Lord was risen, to prepare them for the sight of him.
(2.) Their number: two, not a multitude of the heavenly host, to sing praise, only two, to bear witness; for out of the mouth of two witnesses this word would be established.
(3.) Their array: They were in white, denoting, [1.] Their purity and holiness. The best of men standing before the angels, and compared with them, are clothed in filthy garments (Zac 3:3), but angels are spotless; and glorified saints, when they come to be as the angels, shall walk with Christ in white. [2.] Their glory, and glorying, upon this occasion. The white in which they appeared represented the brightness of that state into which Christ was now risen.
(4.) Their posture and place: They sat, as it were, reposing themselves in Christ's grave; for angels, though they needed not a restoration, were obliged to Christ for their establishment. These angels went into the grave, to teach us not to be afraid of it, nor to think that our resting in it awhile will be any prejudice to our immortality; no, matters are so ordered that the grave is not much out of our way to heaven. It intimates likewise that angels are to be employed about the saints, not only at their death, to carry their souls into Abraham's bosom, but at the great day, to raise their bodies, Mat 24:31. These angelic guards (and angels are called watchers Dan 4:23), keeping possession of the sepulchre, when they had frightened away the guards which the enemies had set, represents Christ's victory over the powers of darkness, routing and defeating them. Thus Michael and his angels are more than conquerors. Their sitting to face one another, one at his bed's head, the other at his bed's feet, denotes their care of the entire body of Christ, his mystical as well as his natural body, from head to foot; it may also remind us of the two cherubim, placed one at either end of the mercy-seat, looking one at another, Exo 25:18. Christ crucified was the great propitiatory, at the head and feet of which were these two cherubim, not with flaming swords, to keep us fRom. but welcome messengers, to direct us to, the way of life.
2. Their compassionate enquiry into the cause of Mary Magdalene's grief (Joh 20:13): Woman, why weepest thou? This question was, (1.) A rebuke to her weeping: "Why weepest thou, when thou has cause to rejoice?" Many of the floods of our tears would dry away before such a search as this into the fountain of them. Why are thou cast down? (2.) It was designed to show how much angels are concerned at the griefs of the saints, having a charge to minister to them for their comfort. Christians should thus sympathize with one another. (3.) It was only to make an occasion of informing her of that which would turn her mourning into rejoicing, would put off her sackcloth, and gird her with gladness.
3. The melancholy account she gives them of her present distress: Because they have taken away the blessed body I came to embalm, and I know not where they have laid it. The same story she had told, Joh 20:2. In it we may see, (1.) The weakness of her faith. If she had had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, this mountain would have been removed; but we often perplex ourselves needlessly with imaginary difficulties, which faith would discover to us as real advantages. Many good people complain of the clouds and darkness they are under, which are the necessary methods of grace for the humbling of their souls, the mortifying of their sins, and the endearing of Christ to them. (2.) The strength of her love. Those that have a true affection for Christ cannot but be in great affliction when they have lost either the comfortable tokens of his love in their souls or the comfortable opportunities of conversing with him, and doing him honour, in his ordinances. Mary Magdalene is not diverted from her enquiries by the surprise of the vision, nor satisfied with the honour of it; but still she harps upon the same string: They have taken away my Lord. A sight of angels and their smiles will not suffice without a sight of Christ and God's smiles in him. Nay, the sight of angels is but an opportunity of pursuing her enquiries after Christ. All creatures, the most excellent, the most dear, should be used as means, and but as means, to bring us into acquaintance with God in Christ. The angels asked her, Why weepest thou? I have cause enough to weep, says she, for they have taken away my Lord, and, like Micah, What have I more? Do you ask, Why I weep? My beloved has withdrawn himself, and is gone. Note, None know, but those who have experienced it, the sorrow of a deserted soul, that has had comfortable evidences of the love of God in Christ, and hopes of heaven, but has now lost them, and walks in darkness; such a wounded spirit who can bear?
III. Christ's appearing to her while she was talking with the angels, and telling them her case. Before they had given her any answer, Christ himself steps in, to satisfy her enquiries, for God now speaketh to us by his Son; none but he himself can direct us to himself. Mary would fain know where her Lord is, and behold he is at her right hand. Note, 1. Those that will be content with nothing short of a sight of Christ shall be put off with nothing less. He never said to the soul that sought him, Seek in vain. "Is it Christ that thou wouldest have? Christ thou shalt have." 2. Christ, in manifesting himself to those that seek him, often outdoes their expectations. Mary longs to see the dead body of Christ, and complains of the loss of that, and behold she sees him alive. Thus he does for his praying people more than they are able to ask or think. In this appearance of Christ to Mary observe,
(1.) How he did at first conceal himself from her.
[1.] He stood as a common person, and she looked upon him accordingly, Joh 20:14. She stood expecting an answer to her complaint from the angels; and either seeing the shadow, or hearing the tread, of some person behind her, she turned herself back from talking with the angels, and sees Jesus himself standing, the very person she was looking for, and yet she knew not that it was Jesus. Note, First, The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart (Psa 34:18), nearer than they are aware. Those that seek Christ, though they do not see him, may yet be sure he is not far from them. Secondly, Those that diligently seek the Lord will turn every way in their enquiry after him. Mary turned herself back, in hopes of some discoveries. Several of the ancients suggest that Mary was directed to look behind her by the angels' rising up, and doing their obeisance to the Lord Jesus, whom they saw before Mary did; and that she looked back to see to whom it was they paid such a profound reverence. But, if so, it is not likely that she would have taken him for the gardener; rather, therefore, it was her earnest desire in seeking that made her turn every way. Thirdly, Christ is often near his people, and they are not aware of him. She knew not that it was Jesus; not that he appeared in any other likeness, but either it was a careless transient look she cast upon him, and, her eyes being full of care, she could not so well distinguish, or they were holden, that she should not know him, as those of the two disciples, Luk 24:16.
[2.] He asked her a common question, and she answered him accordingly, Joh 20:15.
First, The question he asked her was natural enough, and what any one would have asked her: "Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? What business hast thou here in the garden so early? And what is all this noise and ado for?" Perhaps it was spoken with some roughness, as Joseph spoke to his brethren when he made himself strange, before he made himself known to them. It should seem, this was the first word Christ spoke after his resurrection: "Why weepest thou? I am risen." The resurrection of Christ has enough in it to ally all our sorrows, to check the streams, and dry up the fountains, of our tears. Observe here, Christ takes cognizance, 1. Of his people's griefs, and enquires, Why weep you? He bottles their tears, and records them in his book. 2. Of his people's cares and enquires, Whom seek you, and what would you have? When he knows they are seeking him, yet he will know it from them; they must tell him whom they seek.
Secondly, The reply she made him is natural enough; she does not give him a direct answer, but, as if she should say, "Why do you banter me, and upbraid me with my tears? You know why I weep, and whom I seek;" and therefore, supposing him to be the gardener, the person employed by Joseph to dress and keep his garden, who, she thought, was come thither thus early to his work, she said, Sir, if thou hast carried him hence, pray tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. See here, 1. The error of her understanding. She supposed our Lord Jesus to be the gardener, perhaps because he asked what authority she had to be there. Note, Troubled spirits, in a cloudy and dark day, are apt to misrepresent Christ to themselves, and to put wrong constructions upon the methods of his providence and grace. 2. The truth of her affection. See how her heart was set upon finding Christ. She puts the question to every one she meets, like the careful spouse, Saw you him whom my soul loveth? She speaks respectfully to a gardener, and calls him Sir, in hopes to gain some intelligence from him concerning her beloved. When she speaks of Christ, she does not name him; but, If thou have borne him hence, taking it for granted that this gardener was full of thoughts concerning this Jesus as well as she, and therefore could not but know whom she meant. Another evidence of the strength of her affection was that, wherever he was laid, she would undertake to remove him. Such a body, with such a weight of spices about it, was much more than she could pretend to carry; but true love thinks it can do more than it can, and makes nothing of difficulties. She supposed this gardener grudged that the body of one that was ignominiously crucified should have the honour to be laid in his master's new tomb, and that therefore he had removed it to some sorry place, which he thought fitter for it. Yet Mary does not threaten to tell his master, and get him turned out of his place for it; but undertakes to find out some other sepulchre, to which he might be welcome. Christ needs not to stay where he is thought a burden.
(2.) How Christ at length made himself known to her, and, by a pleasing surprise, gave her infallible assurances of his resurrection. Joseph at length said to his brethren, I am Joseph. So Christ here to Mary Magdalene, now that he is entered upon his exalted state. Observe,
[1.] How Christ discovered himself to this good woman that was seeking him in tears (Joh 20:16): Jesus saith unto her, Mary. It was said with an emphasis, and the air of kindness and freedom with which he was wont to speak to her. Now he changed his voice, and spoke like himself, not like the gardener. Christ's way of making himself known to his people is by his word, his word applied to their souls, speaking to them in particular. When those whom God knew by name in the counsels of his love (Exo 33:12) are called by name in the efficacy of his grace, then he reveals his Son in them as in Paul (Gal 1:16), when Christ called to him by name, Saul, Saul. Christ's sheep know his voice, Joh 10:4. This one word, Mary, was like that to the disciples in the storm, It is I. Then the word of Christ does us good when we put our names into the precepts and promises. "In this Christ calls to me, and speaks to me."
[2.] How readily she received this discovery. When Christ said, "Mary, dost thou not know me? are you and I grown such strangers?" she was presently aware who it was, as the spouse (Sol 2:8), It is the voice of my beloved. She turned herself, and said, Rabboni, My Master. It might properly be read with an interrogation, "Rabboni? Is it my master? Nay, but is it indeed?" Observe, First, The title of respect she gives Him: My Master; didaskale - a teaching master. The Jews called their doctors Rabbies, great men. Their critics tell us that Rabbon was with them a more honourable title than Rabbi; and therefore Mary chooses that, and adds a note of appropriation, My great Master. Note, Notwithstanding the freedom of communion which Christ is pleased to admit us to with himself, we must remember that he is our Master, and to be approached with a godly fear. Secondly, With what liveliness of affection she gives this title to Christ. She turned from the angels, whom she had in her eye, to look unto Jesus. We must take off our regards from all creatures, even the brightest and best, to fix them upon Christ, from whom nothing must divert us, and with whom nothing must interfere. When she thought it had been the gardener, she looked another way while speaking to him; but now that she knew the voice of Christ she turned herself. The soul that hears Christ's voice, and is turned to him, calls him, with joy and triumph, My Master. See with what pleasure those who love Christ speak of his authority over them. My Master, my great Master.
[3.] The further instructions that Christ gave her (Joh 10:17): "Touch me not, but go and carry the news to the disciples."
First, He diverts her from the expectation of familiar society and conversation with him at this time: Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended. Mary was so transported with the sight of her dear Master that she forgot herself, and that state of glory into which he was now entering, and was ready to express her joy by affectionate embraces of him, which Christ here forbids at this time. 1. Touch me not thus at all, for I am to ascend to heaven. He bade the disciples touch him, for the confirmation of their faith; he allowed the women to take hold of his feet, and worship him (Mat 28:9); but Mary, supposing that he was risen, as Lazarus was, to live among them constantly, and converse with them freely as he had done, upon that presumption was about to take hold of his hand with her usual freedom. This mistake Christ rectified; she must believe him, and adore him, as exalted, but must not expect to be familiar with him as formerly. See Co2 5:16. He forbids her to dote upon his bodily presence, to set her heart on this, or expect its continuance, and leads her to the spiritual converse and communion which she should have with him after he was ascended to his Father; for the greatest joy of his resurrection was that it was a step towards his ascension. Mary thought, now that her Master was risen, he would presently set up a temporal kingdom, such as they had long promised themselves. "No," says Christ, "touch me not, with any such thought; think not to lay hold on me, so as to detain me here; for, though I am not yet ascended, go to my brethren, and tell them, I am to ascend." As before his death, so now after his resurrection, he still harps upon this, that he was going away, was no more in the world; and therefore they must look higher than his bodily presence, and look further than the present state of things. 2. "Touch me not, do not stay to touch me now, stay not now to make any further enquiries, or give any further expressions of joy, for I am not yet ascended, I shall not depart immediately, it may as well be done another time; the best service thou canst do now is to carry the tidings to the disciples; lose no time therefore, but go away with all speed." Note, Public service ought to be preferred before private satisfaction. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Jacob must let an angel go, when the day breaks, and it is time for him to look after his family. Mary must not stay to talk with her Master, but must carry his message; for it is a day of good tidings, which she must not engross the comfort of, but hand it to others. See that story, Kg2 7:9.
Secondly, He directs her what message to carry to his disciples: But go to my brethren, and tell them, not only that I am risen (she could have told them that of herself, for she had seen him), but that I ascend. Observe,
a. To whom this message is sent: Go to my brethren with it; for he is not ashamed to call them so. (1.) He was now entering upon his glory, and was declared to be the Son of God with greater power than ever, yet he owns his disciples as his brethren, and expresses himself with more tender affection to them than before; he had called them friends, but never brethren till now. Though Christ be high, yet he is not haughty. Notwithstanding his elevation, he disdains not to own his poor relations. (b.) His disciples had lately carried themselves very disingenuously towards him; he had never seen them together since they all forsook him and fled, when he was apprehended; justly might he now have sent them an angry message: "Go to yonder treacherous deserters, and tell them, I will never trust them any more, or have any thing more to do with them." No, he forgives, he forgets, and does not upbraid.
b. By whom it is sent: by Mary Magdalene, out of whom had been cast seven devils, yet now thus favoured. This was her reward for her constancy in adhering to Christ, and enquiring after him; and a tacit rebuke to the apostles, who had not been so close as she was in attending on the dying Jesus, nor so early as she was in meeting the rising Jesus; she becomes an apostle to the apostles.
c. What the message itself is: I ascend to my Father. Two full breasts of consolation are here in these words: -
(a.) Our joint-relation to God, resulting from our union with Christ, is an unspeakable comfort. Speaking of that inexhaustible spring of light, life, and bliss, he says, He is my Father, and our Father; my God, and your God. This is very expressive of the near relation that subsists between Christ and believers: he that sanctifieth, and those that are sanctified, are both one; for they agree in one, Heb 2:11. Here we have such an advancement of Christians, and such a condescension of Christ, as bring them very near together, so admirably well is the matter contrived, in order to their union. [a.] It is the great dignity of believers that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is, in him, their Father. A vast difference indeed there is between the respective foundations of the relation; he is Christ's Father by eternal generation, ours by a gracious adoption; yet even this warrants us to call him, as Christ did, Abba, Father. This gives a reason why Christ called them brethren, because his Father was their Father. Christ was now ascending to appear as an advocate with the Father - with his Father, and therefore we may hope he will prevail for any thing - with our Father, and therefore we may hope he will prevail for us. [b.] It is the great condescension of Christ that he is pleased to own the believer's God for his God: My God, and your God; mine, that he may be yours; the God of the Redeemer, to support him (Psa 89:26), that he might be the God of the redeemed, to save them. The summary of the new covenant is that God will be to us a God; and therefore Christ being the surety and head of the covenant, who is primarily dealt with, and believers only through him as his spiritual seed, this covenant-relation fastens first upon him, God becomes his God, and so ours; we partaking of a divine nature, Christ's Father is our Father; and, he partaking of the human nature, our God is his God.
(b.) Christ's ascension into heaven, in further prosecution of his undertaking for us, is likewise an unspeakable comfort: "Tell them I must shortly ascend; that is the next step I am to take." Now this was intended to be, [a.] A word of caution to these disciples, not to expect the continuance of his bodily presence on earth, nor the setting up of his temporal kingdom among men, which they dreamed of. "No, tell them, I am risen, not to stay with them, but to go on their errand to heaven." Thus those who are raised to a spiritual life, in conformity to Christ's resurrection, must reckon that they rise to ascend; they are quickened with Christ that they may sit with him in heavenly places, Eph 2:5, Eph 2:6. Let them not think that this earth is to be their home and rest; no, being born from heaven, they are bound for heaven; their eye and aim must be upon another world, and this must be ever upon their hearts, I ascend, therefore must I seek things above. [b.] A word of comfort to them, and to all that shall believe in him through their word; he was then ascending, he is now ascended to his Father, and our Father. This was his advancement; he ascended to receive those honours and powers which were to be the recompence of his humiliation; he says it with triumph, that those who love him may rejoice. This is our advantage; for he ascended as a conqueror, leading captivity captive for us (Psa 68:18), he ascended as our forerunner, to prepare a place for us, and to be ready to receive us. This message was like that which Joseph's brethren brought to Jacob concerning him (Gen 45:26), Joseph is yet alive, and not only so, vivit imo, et in senatum venit - he lives, and comes into the senate too; he is governor over all the land of Egypt; all power is his.
Some make those words, I ascend to my God and your God, to include a promise of our resurrection, in the virtue of Christ's resurrection; for Christ had proved the resurrection of the dead from these words, I am the God of Abraham, Mat 22:32. So that Christ here insinuates, "As he is my God, and hath therefore raised me, so he is your God, and will therefore raise you, and be your God, Rev 21:3. Because I live, you shall live also. I now ascend, to honour my God, and you shall ascend to him as your God.
IV. Here is Mary Magdalene's faithful report of what she had seen and heard to the disciples (Joh 20:18): She came and told the disciples, whom she found together, that she had seen the Lord. Peter and John had left her seeking him carefully with tears, and would not stay to seek him with her; and now she comes to tell them that she had found him, and to rectify the mistake she had led them into by enquiring after the dead body, for now she found it was a living body and a glorified one; so that she found what she sought, and, what was infinitely better, she had joy in her sight of the Master herself, and was willing to communicate of her joy, for she knew it would be good news to them. When God comforts us, it is with this design, that we may comfort others. And as she told them what she had seen, so also what she had heard; she had seen the Lord alive, of which this was a token (and a good token it was) that he had spoken these things unto her as a message to be delivered to them, and she delivered it faithfully. Those that are acquainted with the word of Christ themselves should communicate their knowledge for the good of others, and not grudge that others should know as much as they do.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill1763 · Public DomainOn vv11–14But Mary stood without at the sepulchre,.... She returned…
But Mary stood without at the sepulchre,.... She returned from the city to the sepulchre again, following Peter and John thither, who continued here when they departed, being willing to get some tidings of her Lord, if possible. The word "without", is omitted by the Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions, but is in the Greek copies; and is properly put by the evangelist, when rightly understood; for the meaning is not, that she stood without the sepulchre, taken in its full extent; for she stood, "in the court", where the bearers set down the corpse, in order to carry it into the cave, or vault; she stood without the innermost part of the sepulchre, but not without side the sepulchre itself; as appears from her stooping and looking into it:
weeping; that the body of her dear Lord was taken away, and she was prevented of showing that respect unto it she designed; and not knowing in whose hands it was, but fearing it would be insulted and abused by wicked men, her heart was ready to break with sorrow:
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and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre; to see if she could see him, if she and the disciples were not mistaken, being loath to go without finding him: so it is in a spiritual sense, the absence of Christ is cause of great distress and sorrow to gracious souls; because of the excellency of his person, the near and dear relations he stands in to them and on account of the nature of his presence and company, which is preferable to everything in this world; nor can such souls, when they have lost sight of Christ, sit down contented; but will seek after him in the Scriptures, under the ministry of the word, and at the ordinances of the Gospel, where a crucified, buried, risen Jesus is exhibited.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley1765 · Public DomainOn v11But Mary stood - With more constancy. Mark xvi,…
But Mary stood - With more constancy. Mark xvi, 9.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke1810 · Public DomainOn vv11–14Verse 11. But Mary stood without] She remained some…
Verse 11. But Mary stood without] She remained some time after Peter and John had returned to their own homes.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson1811 · Public DomainOn v14Joh 20:14-15. And when she had thus said, she…
Joh 20:14-15. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back — Probably hearing a sudden noise behind her, and being affrighted; and saw Jesus standing — Near her; but knew not that it was Jesus — His habit being changed, her eyes also overflowing with tears, and her mind being so far from any expectation of his appearance, and so much distressed, that she probably did not so much as look up to the face of the person who appeared; Jesus saith — With his usual tone of voice and accent; Woman, why weepest thou? — These were probably the first words Christ spoke after his resurrection. Why weepest thou? — I am risen. The resurrection of Christ has enough in it to allay all our sorrows, to check the streams, and dry up the fountains of our tears. Here we may observe, Christ takes cognizance, 1st, Of his people’s griefs, and inquires why they weep? 2d, Of his people’s cares, and inquires whom or what they seek, or what they would have; when he knows they are seeking him, yet he will know it from them; they must tell him whom they seek. She, supposing him to be the gardener — The person employed by Joseph to dress and keep his garden, who she thought was come hither thus early to his work; saith, Sir, if thou have borne him hence — If, for any unknown reason, thou hast taken him away from this place, where the master of the sepulchre saw fit so honourably to lay him but a few hours ago; tell me where thou hast laid him — Where I may find his corpse; and I will take him away — Will take effectual care that his corpse shall be removed and decently interred elsewhere. Here we may observe, 1st, That her taking Jesus for the gardener intimates, that there was nothing very splendid in his dress: accordingly when he appeared to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus they seem to have taken him for a person of a rank not superior to their own. 2d, That she accosts this stranger in respectful language, even when she took him for a servant, prudently reflecting, that an error on that hand would be more excusable than one on the other, supposing he should prove a person of superior rank in a plain dress. 3d, That she does not name Jesus, but speaks in indefinite terms; If thou have borne him hence — Intimating that he was the one person of whom her own thoughts and heart were so full, that she took it for granted every one must know whom she meant. 4th, She seems to have supposed, that this gardener disdained that the body of a person who was ignominiously crucified should have the honour of being laid in his master’s new tomb, and that therefore he had removed it to some sorry place which he thought fitter for it.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes1834 · Public DomainOn vv13–14They have taken away - That is the disciples…
They have taken away - That is the disciples or friends of Jesus who had laid him there. Perhaps it was understood that the body was deposited there only to remain over the Sabbath, with an intention then of removing it to some other place of burial. Hence, they hastened early in the morning to make preparation, and Mary supposed they had arrived before her and had taken him away.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary1859 · Public DomainOn v14It may be asked, why Magdalene, after putting the…
It may be asked, why Magdalene, after putting the question to the angels, turns around, without waiting for the answer. No doubt, as soon as she had spoken, the heavenly messengers perceived their Lord behind Mary, and by their looks and actions, gave her to understand that they beheld their Lord. This caused her immediately to look behind her. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. lxxxv. in Joan.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures1864 · Public DomainOn v11
II
HOW THE RISEN ONE CHANGES MARY MAGDALENE’S DESOLATION INTO BLESSED PEACE AND MAKES HER HIS EASTER-MESSENGER
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Joh_20:11-18
(Mat_28:1-15; Mar_16:1-11; Luk_24:1-12)
11 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping [But Mary was standing (εἱστήκει) without by the tomb weeping]6 : and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre [she stooped down into the tomb, παρέκυψεν εἰς τὸ μνημεῖον], 12And seeth [beholdeth, θεωρεῖ, not βλέπει, see Joh_20:5-6] two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid14 him. And7 when she had thus said [Having said this, ταῦτα εἰποῦσα], she turned herself back, and saw [beholdeth, θεωρεῖ] Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. 15Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener [that it was the gardener, ὅτι ὁ κηπουρός ἐστισ], saith unto him, Sir, if thou have [hast] borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. 16Jesus saith unto her, Mary. [!] She turned herself, and saith unto him [in Hebrew] 8 Rabboni; which is to say, Master [Rabboni! (which is to say, Teacher!)] 17Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not ;9 for I am [have] not yet ascended to my10 [the] Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, [omit (,)] and your Father; [,] and to [omit to] my God, [omit (,)] and your God. 18Mary [the] Magdalene came [cometh, ἔρχεται] and told the disciples [bringing tidings, ὰγγέλουσα, to the disciples] that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken [said] these things unto her.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Continuation of the history of the Magdalene. First manifestation of the Risen One.
Joh_20:11. But Mary was standing by the tomb. [Μαριὰμ δὲ εἱστήκει (al. ἱστήκει)πρὸς τῷ μνημείῳ ἔξω κλαίουσα]—Εἱστήκει: she was standing as if rooted to the spot. The Evangelist has omitted to mention that she immediately followed the two disciples. Whether she met them at the grave, the narrative says not. She comes, and again finds the empty tomb. She now stations herself in front of it, as though, all too late, she would become its guardian. It is the plastic expression of her thought, her grief.
Now as she wept [ὡς οὖν ἔκλαιεν].—Her weeping is in reference to her idea that the body of Jesus has been stolen; hence she glances ever and anon down toward the empty place where He has lain.
Joh_20:12. And she beholdeth two angels. [καὶ θεωρεῖ δύο ἀλλέλους].—The angelic appearances in the resurrection history, a sign of the thoroughly new, wonderful epoch of this event. The truth and objectivity of her vision are supported by the slender impression which these appearances seem to make upon her in her present mood; the internal, subjective conditions, by the circumstance that the two apostles saw no angel, and the other women only one.
[Alford adopts the rather fanciful remark of Luthardt: The angels were in white because from the world of light; they sit, as not defending, but peacefully watching the Body; at the head and the feet, for the Body of the Lord was from head to foot in the charge of His Father and of His servants—P. S.]
Joh_20:14. She turned back. [ἐστράφη εἰς τἀ ὀπίσω], i. e., to look towards the garden, and to see if some one would not appear and give her information.
And knew not that it was Jesus. [οὐκ ἤδει ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστίν.—There is foundation on both sides for her non-recognition. On the one hand, Jesus has altered: He is the Risen, the Transformed One. The external feature which, in addition to the one already mentioned, some assume, is less certain. “She thinks the gardener (Joh_19:41) of Joseph of Arimathea is before her, and that he has assigned the body another place. The circumstance that the Risen One was clothed with the subligaculum, or loin-strip, which crucified persons wore, and the same also that field and garden laborers were in, the habit of wearing, might incline her the more to this opinion.” Tholuck (following Hug). Kuinoel, Paulus, and others have even clothed Him in the dress of the gardener. On the other hand, Magdalene’s faculties were concentrated within; she was in a visionary mood rather than in one favorable to acute observation; irrespective of the fact that her mind was not in the slightest degree predisposed to expect the appearance of the Lord. In a similar manner, the eyes of the disciples journeying to Emmaus were holden. Meyer denies the holdenness of the eyes in the present case (Grotius); perhaps because he imagines it to be the fruit of some magical working. [Dräseke assigns as a reason because her tears wove a veil, and because the seeking after the dead prevents us from seeing the living. She was wholly absorbed in the thought of the absent Lord.—P. S.]
Joh_20:15. If thou hast borne Him hence [εἰ σὺ ἐβάστασας αὐτόν].—She does no name Him. She takes it for granted that every one is thinking of Him only. Of course if the supposed gardener had carried away the Lord, he would understand her saying (Meyer); otherwise it were necessarily unintelligible to him She will go, she will bring the body. Her as suming a posture with a view to hurrying away in a certain direction, is evident from the following: “she turned herself.” We cannot infer from these words that she turned directly to the grave again. She gives herself credit for sufficient strength to enable her to carry the corpse and deposit it in the tomb again. For at this very time it should be receiving anointment at the hands of the women.
Joh_20:16. Mary [Μαριάμ].—His voice had the same unique sound as before (see Luk_24:35; comp. 30, 31); especially the call by name (Isa_43:1). Since the voice of every human being in a healthy condition is the expression of the man within him, we can infer the impressiveness of Jesus’ voice without having a more definite conception of it. Recollections of things that address themselves to the ear are the most enduring, observes Strauss11 in his Glockentöne. The manifestation of God begins with the hearing-wonder, and dies away in it. The expression of the voice is concentrated in the naming of a beloved name.
Rabboni [Ῥαββουνεί].—With the infinite expression of the salutation—Mary—with which Christ makes Himself known to her, the word of recognition corresponds—Rabboni, my Teacher. The Evangelist cannot help reproducing the original Hebrew word in its sonorousness; therefore the interpretation. The solemnity of the passage is not contained in the explanatory supplement, but in the Rabboni. We can infer from that which follows that she meantime has fallen at His feet and embraced them, “like those women in Mat_28:9, and the woman that was a sinner, Luk_7:39.” I. e., her own self at the time.
Joh_20:17. Hold (Touch) Me not [Μή μου ἅπτου.12 Noli me tangere.—In explaining this, reference should be had to Joh_20:22, where Thomas is directed by the Lord: φέρε τὴν χεῖρά σου καὶ βάλε εἰς τὴν πλευράν μου, and Luk_24:39, where He calls upon the disciples: ψηλαφήσατέ με. It is therefore not the act of touching, as such, which the Lord reproves, but the animus or motive of Mary. The scene has often been represented in pictures called Noli me tangere.—P. S.] Interpretations of the enigmatical μή μου ἅπτου:
1. “Handle (Touch) Me not” [in the literal sense]:
a. Strictly supernaturalistic: Jesus demands a greater reverence for His body now that it has become divine (Chrysostom, Erasmus and many others). Unseasonable devoutness and insufficient explanation of γάρ (“for I have not yet ascended”).
b. Decidedly natural, in various apprehensions. Ammon: Jesus desired to spare her the touching of One levitically unclean; Paulus: His wounds still pained Him, therefore touching Him would have hurt Him!
c. Spiritualistic: Weisse: He was still bodiless, a mere spiritual apparition (a ghost).
d. Gnostic: Hilgenfeld: He as yet appeared only as a mere Man, being not yet reunited to the Logos, and therefore adoration was unseasonable. [Yet immediately afterwards He allows Himself to be called by Thomas: “My Lord and My God;” comp. also Mat_28:9.—P. S.]
e. Physiological. Because the new, glorified corporeality of Jesus was still so tender as to shun every vigorous grasp (Schleiermacher [and Olshausen, edd. 1 and 3]).
f. Psychological: Handle Me not for the purpose of examining whether it be really Myself in the body, or My glorified spirit. Meyer (following J. Fred. von Meyer13), Lücke. [In this case the following words οὔπω γὰρ ἀναβέβηκα, κ. τ. λ., express the assurance of the Lord that He is still corporeally present with her, having not yet been translated to the Father in heaven.—P. S.]
2. “Hold Me not fast.”
a. Supernaturalistic: Seek not thy comfort in My present appearance by terrestrial contact, but by spiritual communion (Aret., Grot., Neand. and others).
[Also Augustine (Tract, cxxi. c. 3). “ ‘Noli Me tangere:’ id est, Noli in Me sic credere, quemadmodum adhuc sapis; noli tuum sensum huc usque pertendere quod pro te factus sum, nec transire ad illud per quod facta es. Quomodo enim non carnaliter adhuc in eum credebat, quem sicut hominem flebat?” Leo the Great, Serm. 74 (al. 72), c. John 4 : “Nolo ut ad Me corporaliter venias, net ut me sensu carnis agnoscas: ad sublimiora te differo, majora tibi præparo: cum ad Patrem ascendero, tunc Me perfectius veriusgue palpabis, apprehensura quod non tangis, et creditura quod non cernis.” Calvin, Melancthon, De Wette, Tholuck, Luthardt, Hengstenberg, Godet hold substantially this same view. Alford: “She believed she had now gotten Him again, never to be parted from Him. This gesture He reproves as unsuited to the time, and the nature of His present appearance. ‘Do not thus—for I am not yet restored fully to you in body—I have yet to ascend to the Father.’ This implies in the background another and truer touching when He should have ascended to the Father.” Wordsworth (who has a long note here): “Cleave not to Me in My bodily appearance; do not touch Me carnally, but learn to touch Me spiritually. When the power of the bodily touch ends, then the spiritual touch begins, and that touch most honors Christ and profits us.” Wordsworth then applies the passage to Christ’s presence in the eucharist which is spiritual, not carnal.—Hengstenberg (III. p. 303) conjectures that Mary, in the mistaken notion that the partition wall between Christ and her had now fallen, desired to embrace Him; this the Lord withstood, because the process of glorification was not yet completed, and the separation still continued in part. Godet: “ἅπτεσθαι is to touch in order to enjoy, to attach one’s self to some one: This is not the moment to attach yourself to Me as I am before you in My human individuality.” Comp. below sub d.—P. S.]
b. Historical: Tarry not with Me, but make haste and discharge the message; time enough later for handling, greeting, holding (Beza, Calovius, Bengel).
c. Spiritualistic-mythical: Jesus was on the point of ascending, and did not desire to be detained by Mary (Baur, Kinkel: One of the numerous ascensions occurring in the period of the forty days was about to be performed).
d. Christologico-psychological: Hold Me not as though we were in the perfection of the existence of that world beyond us, for I am not yet ascended, etc., to say nothing of thyself. (Leben Jesu II., 1661; III., 74414 Hofmann, Luthardt, Tholuck. As regards the sense, similarly Luther and others at an earlier period.)15 [Similar to explanation 2 a, above.—P. S.].
On the fact that the term ἅπτεσθαι does not barely mean to touch, to handle, but that it also particularly denotes a hanging upon, a holding fast, see Tholuck, p. 434 [Krauth’s transl. p. 411]. Tholuck divides the interpretations into two classes, one of which discovers the reason for the repulse in the not yet glorified condition of Christ; while the other maintains that it lies in the glorified state of the Lord. According to the distribution into ἄπτεσθαι to lay hold of, and to hold fast, the former is by preference interpreted as signifying the catching hold of the knees, worshipping. Yet not exclusively. The design of Jesus’ speech was undoubtedly to limit the exuberance of Magdalene’s rapture, to deprive her of the new illusion which is persuading her that every difficulty and danger of her life is laid behind her, that external intercourse with Jesus is now to continue and that it is the supreme thing,—and so to guide her feeling into a practical channel. Hence the commission.
To my brethren [πορεύου δὲ πρὸς τοὺς ἀδελφούς μου.]—So He calls the disciples by a new name of familiar co-ordination. Meyer: He means her to gather from this that His appearance is not as yet a super-terrestrial and glorified one. Glorification, however, does not put an end to the brotherly feeling. Bengel: The word is designed to speak peace to the disciples concerning their flight. Right, but too narrow. Christ breathes in the paradisaic peace of the new reconciliation. God is become the Father of the disciples; He greets them in the dignity of their new life—in which He will soon make them glad through the Spirit of adoption, as co-brothers in the new kingdom that is now founded, and as co-heirs. The relation of humanity to God is changed, the new Paradise is opened, together with the new Man there are born into the world His brethren in spe, He nevertheless remaining the Lord and King of them. Tholuck. It is the intimation of the relationship of reconciliation (Apollinaris, Luther, Bucer).
I ascend [Ἀναβαίνω].—The imminent ascension spoken of as already present, since He even now finds Himself in the new heavenly state, or transition state, which is the condition of ascension. To My Father and your Father [πρὸς τὸν πατέρα μου καὶ πατέρα ὐμῶν].—He does not say to our (as also elsewhere your Father, My Father, Mat_6:9 : after this manner pray ye: Our Father), for the relation in which He stands to the Father is, in its character of an eternal, immediate, principial relation, specifically different from their mediate relation to the Father. Still this positive assurance is herein contained: My Father is also your Father now; ye shall be glorified along with Me.—To my God [θεόν μου καὶ θεὸν ὑμῶν].—There; is the same contrast again on both sides in His generalizations. His consciousness of God is specifically unique and the source of theirs (Eph_1:3). But as in the resurrection, the Father has demonstrated Himself to be His almighty God, so in future, in their course of life and victory, He will prove Himself to be their God also.—Thus is Magdalene made the first Evangelist of the resurrection to the apostolic circle itself, the Lord having also first appeared to her.
Joh_20:18. Magdalene cometh [Ἔρχεται Μαριὰμ ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ ἀγγέλουσα τοῖς μαθηταῖς ὔτι ἑώρακα τὸν κύριον καὶ ταῦτα εἶπεν αὐτῇ].—She is obedient to the commission. She first announces her joy that she has seen Him, then discharges His commission. According to Meyer, there is a difference between this commission and the passage Mat_28:10. Progress, however, from the most general disclosure to a more special one never constitutes a difference. Otherwise, the announcement of His imminent ascension would also present a difference from the directly following revelations of Jesus in the circle of disciples, as recorded by John himself.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Mary Magdalene, the first guardian of the Holy Sepulchre. The later and present guardians of it.
2. The angelic apparitions at the Birth, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of the Lord mark these moments as the great epochs in the life of Jesus. For the angelic world does, in general, emerge into view in the grand epochs of the Kingdom of God. Therefore particularly in the life of Abraham and in that of Moses; at the founding of the covenant-religion, and at the establishment of the Old Testament theocracy. For this reason, after the establishment of the New Covenant in the life of Jesus, there is a withdrawal of angelic apparitions in all the period through which the Church’s history extends; their return, however, is promised for the end of the world. The psychological reason is contained in the fact that in all those moments the human world is brought into closest proximity to the spirit-world; that the whole form of the visible world vanishes, to a greater or less degree, from the deeply moved elect on this side the gulf, and in the deep twilight of this world there uncloses within them a ghostly vision for the spirit-world See the author’s Positive Dogmatik, p. 578 ff.
3. That the perception of the angels in their objective manifestation was still conditioned by the liberation of a visionary faculty on the part of those who beheld them, results from the history of the resurrection. Peter and John see no angel here, the other-women see but one angel, Magdalene sees two angels. Similar relative degrees of visionary perception are announced Joh_12:28-29; likewise Act_9:7; Act_22:9. Comp. Dan_10:7.
4. Christ’s superiority to the angels a doctrine taught by Scripture, Matthew 4; Mat_26:63; Eph_1:21; Php_2:10; Heb_2:5 ff., Mary Magdalene, who was scarcely dogmatically instructed therein, here scenically sets forth, in accordance with the instinct of Christian vital feeling.
5. The fact of Mary’s recognizing the Lord by her ear rather than by her eye is entirely in agreement with the laws of manifestation; according to these laws, wonders which address themselves to the hearing are of earlier and more frequent occurrence and of later with drawal than such as appeal to the sight. Here, however, it is at the same time a testimony to the spiritual and divine character of Magdalene’s attachment to the Lord. She knows Him by the tone in which Christ calls her name. Through the human call she becomes aware of the divine call, the perception of which constitutes the most blissful experience of the elect. See Isa_43:1.
6. A dialogue most brief and yet most pregnant: Mary; Rabboni.
7. Hold me not. In no moment of blissful ecstasy may we forget that we are still on earth and still have a mission here. Even Mary must attain to a consciousness of the situation. The fact that Mary had not yet arrived at the goal was gently expressed by the Lord in the saying that He Himself had not yet reached it. At the same time there is here intimated the truth that spiritual communion with the Lord constitutes the essential part of a beatifying communion with Him, and is the condition of the bliss of beholding Him [face to face].
8. The message entrusted to Mary. It is addressed to the brethren. It is a message concerning the imminent perfecting of Christ. He does not speak of His resurrection; He speaks of His imminent ascension. His eye glances forward to the supreme goal. He designates His glorification as an ascension to His Father, in His character as the Son of God; to His God, in His character as the glorified Son of Man. This His ascension is, however, to redound to the advantage of His brethren as well as His own good. Hence the saying runs: “and to your Father,” etc. It is to be observed that Christ connects His relation to God with that of His brethren, and also makes a distinction between the two.
9. The first Easter-message addressed by Christ to the apostolic circle itself, was discharged by a woman, a female disciple, who, without doubt, was formerly the great sinner. The first manifestation of Christ was apportioned to Magdalene, as was the first manifestation of the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament to the Egyptian maid Hagar—doubtless for the reason that both, being in a condition most sorely needing consolation, first had need of the manifestation, and were moreover mentally disposed to receive it. [Hagar the bondmaid of Sarah, Magdalene once the bondmaid of sin.] “Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein.”16 (“When in the hour of utmost need.”) At such a time is evolved the ability of perceiving the most wonderful help.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
See the Doct. Notes.
Mary Magdalene at the sepulchre of the Lord: 1. How disconsolate: a. she standeth chained to the spot, as the guardian of the sepulchre; b. she weepeth; c. she stoopeth down. 2. How comforted: a. she seeth the angels; b. she seeth the Lord; c. she is made a messenger of joy to the flock of disciples.—The spiritual unity in the great change experienced by Mary: 1. In all her desolation, love for the Lord remained the light of her life (her faith and her hope). 2. In all her bliss there remained the painful pressure of her longing after the consummation.—How the Lord crowneth love for Him: 1. She sought the Body of the Lord to anoint it and received the anointing of the Spirit from the Living One. 2. In her grief for the Body, she hoped in the Living One, and became a messenger of life to the whole Church of Christ in all ages.—The blessing of true mourning at the grave.—The saying, “Blessed are they that mourn”—most conspicuously fulfilled.—The angels at the feet and head of the dead and risen Lord.—While pious men weep, there is already prepared for them supreme consolation.—The threefold conversation of Mary indicative of three degrees of her Easter-joy: 1. With the angels, 2. with the Lord, 3. with the disciples.—The great school of the Spirit of Christ: 1. At first she thought it impossible to part from the body of Christ; 2. and soon she learns to let the Risen One Himself externally go home.—The mood of Mary when desirous of detaining the Lord, compared with the mood of Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration.—The message of the Risen One to His disciples: 1. Addressed to His brethren, 2. a message concerning His ascension on their behalf also, 3. the preparation for His appearing in the midst of them.—The first sermon about the Risen One: 1. Delivered by a soul that was nigh unto despair; 2. by a woman; 3. by a pardoned sinner.—How she discharges the message: 1. She speaks of her blessedness (I have seen the Lord). Then 2. she faithfully delivers the saying. Application: Thus in the true preaching of Christ, the testimony of experience and the commanded word must accompany each other.—The Christian life, until the consummation, an eternal alternation of beholding and renouncing (or of receiving and sacrificing; making holiday and working).—The mission to the brethren ever the precious heavenly fruit of the beholding of Christ’s glory.
Starke: Even pious souls do often err when they yield too much to those emotions which are good in themselves, Luk_24:17 f.—O how many peek and pine without cause!—Hall: Holy desires always prosper, Pro_8:17.—To speak comfortably to the afflicted is praiseworthy, and in accordance with the custom of the angels, yea, of the great God Himself, Luk_7:13; 1Th_5:14.—I bid.: Many a tender and humbled soul mourns over the loss of its Saviour and yet He, the while, is beside it, Son_3:1-4.—Hedinger: The greater and more intense the misery of a distressed soul, the nearer Christ is; but He is not immediately recognized in the darkness.—Canstein: It stands to reason that believers, Jesus being risen, should not weep nor be sorrowful, but put in practice the words of St. Paul: “Rejoice in the Lord away,” etc., Php_4:4.—Hall: Jesus knoweth His sheep by name, Joh_10:3. Whoso is a true sheep of Jesus, knoweth also the voice of his Shepherd, Joh_10:4.—Canstein: Christ’s voice still presses upon our ears and pierces into our hearts when He calls us by name.—Hedinger: Unto faithful hearts there suddenly ariseth a light of joy, Psa_97:11; yet must they moderate their longing and be satisfied with the brief glimpse granted them. The Lord will not have them hang upon His gifts and friendliness, but upon Himself and His love.—Zeisius: Eve, the first woman, brought transgression into the world; Mary, on the other hand, was the first preacher of restored, eternal righteousness.—Bibl. Wirt.: Through Christ’s resurrection we are become His brethren and God’s children. Now if we be children of God, we are also His heirs and joint-heirs with Christ, our Brother, to eternal blessedness, Rom_8:17.—Cramer: As woman was the first to serve the devil, so she must be the first to serve Christ, 1Ti_2:14.—Hall: Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness, from the Gracious, Compassionate and Righteous One, Psa_112:4. 17—Gerlach: The inquiry of the angels concerning a thing which they know, is to be understood similarly with Christ’s question to the blind men: what will ye that I should do unto you? Grief when uttered makes a man susceptible of consolation.—Before this speech of Jesus one manuscript inserts the words: “And she ran toward Him to lay hold of Him,” which, even if John did not write it, we of course are to supply mentally.—Father has particular reference to His divinity, God to His humanity. Here, for the first time, He significantly calls them brethren (comp. Mat_28:10).
Gossner: Angels ministered unto the Lord after His temptation: they likewise ministered unto Him in His death and at His resurrection, as well as at His birth and His ascension. They were present everywhere—upon every occasion—And behold, as Mary turneth away from every creature, even from the angels, she findeth and seeth Jesus standing!—We might at times become disconcerted at the greatness of the Lord and at our own amazing littleness and distance from Him, the while He is desiring to draw so near unto us and behaveth Himself so brotherly toward us. For the prevention of such feeling on our part there was no better means than His own positive declaration: I am your Brother, I am one of you, and I go, as such, unto our Father; for, I have one God and Father with you; My Father is your Father; My God is your God; I indeed claim the pre-eminence, yet do pretend, not with standing, to be one of you.—Our Brother is the Supreme Good; the Supreme Good is our Brother!
Heubner: How brief is the season of tears; even whilst we weep, the Author of joy is at our side, ready to wipe away our tears.—Love hides itself in order that it may, on discovering itself, occasion us the more surprise and joy. What is this whole life of trial and misery—exile?—A hiding of the heavenly Father’s love.—The measure of affliction the measure of joy.—He who tendeth the heavenly plants of His Father, was in a certain sense the Gardener.—Strive that Jesus may one day call thy name too, that thou mayest not belong to those spoken of in Psa_16:4.—Mary and Rabboni,—just two words constitute the entire heart-conversation, but they are words full of power.—(Justinus:) Moderate now thy craving for Me, for in heaven only shall our intimate, perfect connection begin,—earth is not the place of perfect union. Yonder alone shall the soul’s longing for Jesus be satisfied. Do not now accompany Me, do not now follow Me as if the old intercourse still lasted.—“St. Peter and St. John have no more than Mary Magdalene and I and thou! Take them all in a lump,—they are all brethren together.” (Luther.)—As yet we ascend not, but we shall one day ascend. Comp. Reinhard’s Himmelfahrtspred., 1809 and Theremin, Pred., 1819, III., 110–18—Hüter, Zeugnisse christlicher Wahrheit, Bielefeld, 1858; Mary Magdalene’s Easter-celebration: 1. The Easter-sorrow of Mary Magdalene; 2. her Easter-joy.—Ibid.: That none can rob us of the true Easter-joy: 1. The character or nature of Easter-joy; 2. the subject of Easter-joy, or the good whereat we rejoice on the Easter-feast.
[Craven: From Augustine: Joh_20:13. And I know not where they have placed Him; it was a still greater grief, that she did not know where to go to console her grief.—From Gregory: Joh_20:11. To have looked once is not enough for love.
Joh_20:12. She sought the body and found it not; she persevered in seeking; and so it came to pass that she found. For holy longings ever gain strength by delay; did they not, they would not be longings.
Joh_20:13. The very declarations of Scripture which excite our tears of love, wipe away those very tears, by promising us the sight of our Redeemer again.
Joh_20:15. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? He asks the cause of her grief, to set her longing still more. For the mere mentioning His name Whom she sought would inflame her love for Him.—Perhaps, however, the woman was right in believing Jesus to be the gardener; was not He the spiritual Gardener, who by the power of His love had sown strong seeds of virtue in her heart?—But how is it that, as soon as she sees the gardener, as she supposes Him to be, she says without having told Him who it was she was seeking, Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence? It arises from her love; when one loves a person, one never thinks that any one else can be ignorant of him.
Joh_20:18. So the sin of mankind is buried in the very place whence it came forth. For whereas in Paradise the woman gave the man the deadly fruit, a woman from the sepulchre announced life to men; a woman delivers the message of Him who raises us from the dead, as a woman had delivered the words of the serpent who slew us.—From Bede: Joh_20:18. In that Mary Magdalene announced Christ’s resurrection to the disciples, all, especially those to whom the office of preaching is committed, are admonished to be zealous in setting forth to others whatever is revealed from above.
[From Burkitt: Joh_20:11. Note Mary’s carriage and behaviour towards her Saviour; this is discovered by her patient attendance; She stood without at the sepulcher; by her passionate mourning, weeping; by her unwearied diligence, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher.—Learn 1. True love to Christ suffers not itself to be stinted or limited, no, not by the greatest examples; the weakest woman that truly loves Christ, may piously strive with the greatest apostle in this point; 2. Strong love is valiant and undaunted, it will grapple and encounter with the strongest opposition; Mary fears nothing in seeking of her Lord, neither the darkness of the night, nor the terror of the soldiers, nor the malice of the Jews: Love is strong as death, and the flames thereof are vehement.
Joh_20:12. Such as sincerely seek the Lord, shall certainly find, if not the very thing which they seek, yet that which is much better for them; Mary did not find Christ’s dead body, but she finds two angels to testify that He was risen.—It is matter of comfort to the members of Christ, that angels do not wait upon the head only, but upon the feet also; and it ought to be matter of imitation also.
Joh_20:13. The best company in the world will not satisfy or content such as are seeking for Jesus Christ, when they find not Him whom their souls seek; Mary now enjoyed the presence and company of two angels, but this did not satisfy her in the absence of Christ Himself,
Joh_20:14. Christ may be present with, and very near unto, His people, and yet not be presently discerned by them; Jesus stood by Mary, but she knew not that it was Jesus; her not expecting a living Christ, was one cause why she did not discern Him.
Joh_20:15. The soul of a sincere believer, 1. Is full of earnest and longing desires after Jesus Christ; 2. Is yet sometimes at a loss for Christ, and cannot tell where to find Him; 3. Whilst it is at a loss for Christ, its desires are often quicker and more stirring after Him.
Joh_20:17. Our love to Jesus Christ is best shown, not by our human passionate affection to His bodily presence, but by our spiritual communion with Him by faith here on earth, in order to an immediate communion with Him face to face in heaven.—Christ calls His disciples brethren, after His exaltation and resurrection; thereby showing that the change of His condition had wrought no change in His affection.—God for Christ’s sake has dignified believers with that near and dear relation of His being a Father to them in and through His Son.
[From M. Henry: Joh_20:11. Where there is a true love to Christ, there will be a constant adherence to Him, and a resolution with purpose of heart to cleave to Him.—Where there is a true desire of acquaintance with Christ, there will be a constant attendance on the means of knowledge.—They that seek Christ must seek Him sorrowing (Luk_2:48), must weep, not for Him, but for themselves.—Weeping must not hinder seeking; though she wept, she stooped down, and looked in.—Those are likely to seek and find, that seek with affection and in tears.
Joh_20:14. The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart (Psa_34:18), nearer than they are aware. They that seek Christ, though they do not see Him, may yet be sure He is not far from them.—Those that diligently seek the Lord, will turn every way in their inquiry after Him; Mary turned herself back, in hopes of some discoveries.
Joh_20:15. Whom seekest Thou? When Christ knows that His people are seeking Him, yet He will know it from themselves; they must tell Him whom they seek.—She, supposing Him to be the gardener, saith, etc.; Troubled spirits, in a cloudy and dark day, are apt to misrepresent Christ to themselves, and to put wrong constructions upon the methods of His providence and grace.
Joh_20:16. Mary; When those whom God knew by name in the counsels of His love (Exo_33:12), are called by name in the efficacy of His grace, then He reveals His Son in them, as in Paul (Gal_1:16).—Rabboni; Notwithstanding the freedom of communion which Christ is pleased to admit us to with Himself, we must remember that He is our Master, and to be approached with a godly fear.—Mary turned herself from the angels whom she had in her eye, to look unto Jesus; we must take off our regards from all creatures, even the brightest and best, to fix them upon Christ.—The soul that hears Christ’s voice, and is turned to Him, calls Him, with joy and triumph, My Master.
Joh_20:17. Mary must not stay to talk with her Master, but must carry His message; for it was a day of good tidings, which she must not engross the comfort of, but hand it to others.—My brethren; Though Christ be high, yet He is not haughty; notwithstanding His elevation, He disdains not to own His poor relations.—My Father, and your Father; My God, and your God; There are such an advancement of Christians and such a condescension of Christ, as bring them very near together.
Joh_20:18. When God comforts us, it is with this design, that we may comfort others.
[From A Plain Commentary (Oxford): Joh_20:12. Christ’s resting-place is therefore between two Angels, like the mercy-seat, of old. Even in His death, He is found to have dwelt, as in ancient days, “between the Cherubim.”
Joh_20:13. Woman, why weepest thou? “This case of Mary Magdalene is our case oftentimes: in the error of our conceit, to weep where we have no cause; to joy, where we have as little. Where we have cause to joy, we weep; and whereto weep, we joy. False joys and false sorrows, false hopes and false fears, this life of ours is full of.” (Bishop Andrewes.)
Joh_20:15. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? “Now, seeing Christ asks it again a second time, we will think there is something in it, and stay a little at it. The rather, for that it is the very opening of His mouth; the very first words that ever came from Him, and that He spoke first of all, after His rising again from death.…Thus say the Fathers; that Mary Magdalene standing by the grave’s side, and there weeping, is thus brought in to represent unto us the slate of all mankind before this Day, the Day of Christ’s rising again; weeping over the dead as do the heathens, who have no hope. But Christ comes and asks ‘Why weepest thou?’ as much as to say, ‘Weep not! There is no cause of weeping now.’ Henceforth, none shall need to stand by the grave to weep there any more.… So that this, ‘Why weepest thou?’ of Christ’s, (a question very proper for the day of the Resurrection,) wipes away tears from all eyes; puts off our mourning weeds, girds us with gladness, and robes us all in ‘white,’ with the Angels.” (Bishop Andrewes.)
Joh_20:17. Take notice that our Lord makes mention of ascending, twice; of rising, not at all. And it is to teach us that Resurrection is nothing, nor is any account to be made of it, if Ascension go not with it.…“Never take cave for Resurrection! That will come of itself, without any thought-taking of thine. Take thought for Ascension! set your minds there! Better lie still in our graves, better never rise, than rise, and, rising, not ascend.” (Bishop Andrewes.)
[From Barnes: Joh_20:17. Nothing was better fitted to afford them consolation than this assurance, that His God was theirs.—From Jacobus: Joh_20:13; Joh_20:15. Why weepest thou? How different are these words as spoken by Jesus from the same words spoken even by His Angels. Friends often ask the same thing, in our moments of anguish; but they can give no relief, and no arguments of theirs can cure the inward wound. But our blessed Lord reveals Himself in words of grace that go to the heart’s wound, and wonderfully heal.
Joh_20:15. Whom seekest thou? Thus the adorable Saviour would draw her out to tell what she wants and whom she seeks for. So pleased is He to hear any poor sinner say, I seek Jesus.—Your Beloved is near you, though you have thought Him afar off. Who ever sought and did not find? But oh! instead of finding Him a corpse, you shall find Him a risen, living, glorious Redeemer.
Joh_20:17. Go to My brethren; “This was a far greater honor than that which was denied her.” The gracious Saviour denies us nothing but for our greater advantage.
[From Owen: Joh_20:15. I will take him away; She takes all the responsibility upon herself. If no one else will share her pious duty, she is ready to discharge it independent and alone. Noble woman! The Church to the end of time shall embalm thy memory, and point to thee as the most loving and faithful of that devoted band, who
“—While Apostles shrunk, could dangers brave,
Last at His cross, and earliest at His grave.”—
Joh_20:17. “Do not stay here to embrace Me now, either to pay thy homage to Me, or to confirm thy faith, both which thou wilt have other opportunities of doing; for I am not yet withdrawn from your world, and ascended to the heavenly court of My Father, as you imagine I shall presently do, but I shall yet continue for a little while on earth, and give you further opportunities of seeing Me again; let nothing therefore detain thee any longer, but go immediately to My dear brethren and say unto them,” etc.—“Thou shalt possess Me again, but not as before, it shall be from this time and forever in the Spirit. The time of exalted and divine relationship is come.” (Stier.)]
Footnotes:
[6]Joh_20:11.—The position of the words ἔξω κλαίουσα is in accordance with B. D. O. X., etc., Tischendorf [The rec. reads κλαίουσα before ἔξω. εἱστήκει with B.* D. etc. Tisch. Treg. Alf. ἱστήκει: א. A. B.,3 etc., Westcott. πρὸς τῷ μνη. μείῳ: A. B. D. Tisch. Alf. Westc. πρὸς τὸ μνημεῖον: text rec. ἐν τῷ μνημείῳ: א (See Tischendorf, Alford).—P. S.]
[7]Joh_20:14.—Καί before ταῦτα [E. text, rec] should be omitted in accordance with א. A. B. D., etc. and the critical editions].
[8]Joh_20:16.—The addition Ἑβραϊστί, in accordance with B. D. L. O. X. Δ. Sin., is received by Tischendorf [Tregelles, Alford, Westcott. Most MSS. read Ῥαββουνί (so Tischend. Alf. Treg.); some Ῥαββουνεί (so Westcott), some Ῥαββωνεί, some Ῥαβουνί.—P. S.]
[9]Joh_20:17.—[Μή μου ἅπτου is the usual reading of the MSS. and Iren., Orig., etc., but Cod. B. and Tert. put μου after ἅπτου, and Westcott inserts this on the margin.—P. S.]
[10]Joh_20:17.—The first μου is wanting in B. D. X., Itala, Tischendorf. It was probably supplemented in imitation of the subsequent μου. [Treg. Alf. Westcott likewise read πρὸς τὸν πατέρα. without μου.—P. S.]
[11][Late Professor of Practical Theology in the University of Berlin and Court-Chaplain and friend of Frederick IV, of Prussia. The Glockentöne were his first, the Abend Glockentöne his last work.—P. S.]
[12][ἅπτομαι occurs thirty-five times in the New Testament, and is uniformly translated to touch in the E. V. It is used of touching the hand, the garment, the body, food, etc.—P. S,]
[13][Not the better known commentator, but also an eminent Biblical scholar (though a layman. Senator of Frankfort on the Maine) and reviser of Luther’s German Bible.—P. S.]
[14]Tholuck’s classification of J. P. Lange, p. 436, rests upon a mistake.
[15]The conjunctures, in despair of the text, σύ μου ά́πτου (Gersdorf) and μἠ συ πτόου, need merely be mentioned.
[16][Beginning of a German hymn by Paul Eber (1547), see Schaff’s German Hymn Book, No, 336. English translation by Miss C. Winkworth.—P. S.]
[17][The above is a literal rendering of the passage as it stands in Luther’s Version.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown1871 · Public DomainOn vv11–13But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping, &c.--Brief…
But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping, &c.--Brief was the stay of those two men. But Mary, arriving perhaps by another direction after they left, lingers at the spot, weeping for her missing Lord. As she gazes through her tears on the open tomb, she also ventures to stoop down and look into it, when lo! "two angels in white" (as from the world of light, and see on Mat 28:3) appear to her in a "sitting" posture, "as having finished some business, and awaiting some one to impart tidings to" [BENGEL].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon1874 · Public DomainOn vv11–14§ 148.—JESUS APPEARS FIRST TO MARY MAGDALENE, Joh_20:11-18.
§ 148.—JESUS APPEARS FIRST TO MARY MAGDALENE, Joh_20:11-18.
11. Mary stood without—While Mary has gone to the two chief disciples, the other women have come to the sepulchre, seen the angels, and gone on their message to the other apostles. Mary follows the two runners to the sepulchre, and while they go in she stands without weeping.
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As she wept— Half uncovering her face and momentarily looking in.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges1878 · Public DomainOn vv11–1411–18. The Manifestation to Mary Magdalene
11–18. The Manifestation to Mary Magdalene
11. But Mary] She had returned to the sepulchre after the hurrying Apostles. Mar_16:9 states definitely, what we gather from this section, that the risen Lord’s first appearance was to Mary Magdalene: the details of the meeting are given by S. John alone.
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stood] Or, continued standing, after the other two had gone.
stooped down, and looked] See on Joh_20:5.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers1878 · Public DomainOn vv11–14(11) But Mary stood (better, was standing) without at…
(11) But Mary stood (better, was standing) without at the sepulchre weeping.—She had before gone back as soon as she saw that the stone was taken away (Joh_20:1-2), and had told the two disciples of what she found. She was left behind by them in their haste to reach the sepulchre, but has followed them, and now that they have returned with the joy of a new and fuller faith, she remains without the sepulchre, not venturing to enter, and giving vent in tears to the sorrow that weighs upon her heart.
She stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre.—Comp. Note on Joh_20:5.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary1880 · Public DomainOn vv11, 13, 14Vers. 11-18. (2) The revelation made to adoring love,…
Vers. 11-18. (2) The revelation made to adoring love, answering to the first portion of the high-priestly prayer.
Vers. 11, 12. But Mary, who had followed Peter and John to the grave, and witnessed their amazement, and the gleam of hope in the face of John, was standing at the sepulcher without not within itweeping . She had not overcome her fears. She had not grasped the idea of resurrection or life. One crushing overmastering grief was still weighing heavily upon her, obscuring her vision, and breaking her heart. While she was continuously weeping , she, as Peter and John had done before her, stooped down (see ver. 5, note) to look into the sepulcher, and beholdeth two angels in white (leukoiv) or glittering garments the adjective so often used for the precious heavenly things, for the garments of the glorified (Rev_3:4, Rev_3:5, 18 Act_1:10 Rev_7:9, Rev_7:13, etc.) sitting, the one at the head, and the (other) one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Here rationalism has come with various explanations. Some have said two white-robed Essenes like those who are also supposed to have appeared to our Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration, his secret friends, who had really spirited the body of Jesus away, lingered yet in the tomb, and duped Mary by a lying story. Scorning this hypothesis, legendarists have said Here we see the subjective creation of the terrified and weeping women, who took white clothes for men or angels, and whose fancies were readily believed; while mythical hypotheses have suggested that a glamour of love, many years after the event, created a pathetic and beautiful fiction of what may have happened on that memorable dawn. Every one of these interpretations vanishes before the authenticity of John"s Gospel. The disciple whom Jesus loved, the author of the Apocalypse, was personally acquainted with Mary of Magdala, and had much communion with her, and could heartily believe her story. If there be no spiritual world, no kind nor modes of existence beyond what we call the seen and temporal, and no thought higher than man"s thought; if every testimony to this spiritual world right through the ages is a delusion, and can be explained away; if it be an irrational or impossible supposition; why, then this vision must pass away with the rest. But the entire teaching of the Bible from end to end reveals and bears witness to a world ordinarily unseen by human eyes, but none the less real. To some the door thus opened into heaven is closed and sealed by the seven seals of materialism, agnosticism, dogmatism, scientism, worldliness, indifference, and unspirituality. How much do men forget that all human life is but a very temporary, ever-vanishing robe around a permanent and abiding spirit! that it is entirely conceivable that even pure spirit can come for our advantage into still more evanescent forms than those we now possess, which yet make appeal to what we call our senses of sight and hearing! Objective as such manifestations are, they are no more visible to all eyes or ears than the mysteries of art are open to all human sensibility. The harmonies of heaven are not heard by those who are muffled up with vesture of decay, and there is nothing lying beyond or behind the veil of sense to the unspiritual. The whole critical school might have rambled about the garden, with hammer and spectacles, and would never have seen an angel or the risen Christ; but, thank God, all eyes were not so dim.
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Some were there who saw and believed; and they have revolutionized the world"s thought. Their vision is the key of time; their voice, the word that wakes the dead. This manifestation of the unseen world does not contradict the statement of Matthew that an angel of the Lord had been seen sitting on the displaced stone, and terrified the Roman guard; nor Mark"s assurance that the women had seen a young man clothed in a white robe, who gave the Divine assurance which perplexed the eleven; nor Luke"s description of two men clothed in glittering apparel, who told them that the Lord was living. Surely it is impossible to represent Mary of Magdala"s present vision as identical with that which had occurred at an earlier hour; but it is clear that, if she shared in the earlier vision at all, she had not been convinced by it, for still she wept in utter despair. The fact that these angelic appearances should take different forms to different witnesses belongs to their very nature. Such visions, translated into words, would naturally differ. If there had been rigid uniformity in the statements of the three evangelists, and of the fourth with them, grave suspicion would have been attached to the entire recital. The experiences of several different women would be repeated a thousand times. They would be questioned separately and together in every possible way; and it appears from all four narratives that three forms of the ultimate traditions alike declare that hope and fear arising from the empty grave were quickened and stimulated by angelic ambassadors, who variously prepared their mind to receive the grand objective fact.
Vers. 11-18. Mary Magdalene the first herald of the risen Lord.
The two apostles withdrew, but Mary remained at the tomb. "A stronger affection riveted to the spot one of a weaker nature" (Augustine).
I MARY"S LOVE TO HER LORD. It was manifested:
1. By her persistent watching of the tomb.
2. By her passionate weeping.
3. By her anxiety to discover some trace of her Lord. "She stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher." Her love is as strong as death.
II THE SUCCESSFUL RESULT OF HER LOVE.
1. She first comes into communication with the two angels in the sepulcher. They may have suggested by the direction of their looks that Jesus was near at hand.
2. She next sees Jesus, but does not know him.
(1) Death had wrought a change upon him: he appeared en etera morfh , "in a different shape". (Mar_16:12) Yet the voice was altogether unchanged, as we infer from her instant recognition of her Lord after he had addressed her by name. "Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?
(2) Her persistent love through all her uncertainties. She asks "the gardener" to say where he has laid him, that she may take him away.
3. Her glad recognition of her loving Lord. "She turned herself, and saith to him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master." The sound of her name repeated by those loving lips ended all doubt better than the words of a more common interest, "Woman.
III OUR LORD"S CHECK TO HER PASSIONATE ARDOUR. "Touch me not; for I ant not yet ascended to my Father.
1. Perhaps she had thrown herself down at his feet, and had attempted to clasp them in her enthusiastic devotion.
2. His words imply that the old forms of familiar intercourse were past.
He had entered upon a new mode of existence.
1. They imply that he could not renew the tie that death had severed till he had ascended on high. His ascension would be the condition of a new union fraught with all blessing and consolation.
2. It is better to know Jesus in his glorified humanity than to "know him after the flesh. The Roman theology sees him as a babe in his mother"s arms or as the Crucified One; but true theology must behold him in the light of his resurrection as well as his death.
IV OUR LORD"S MESSAGE TO THE APOSTLES. "GO to my brethren, and say to them, I ascend to my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your God.
1. A woman is honored as making the first communication between Jesus and his apostles.
2. The name by which our Lord describes them. "My brethren" marks the new relationship into which they are introduced by his resurrection.
(1) They were his servants, his friends, his children, before his death; they are now his brethren, according to ancient prophecy: "I will declare thy Name unto my brethren.
(2) His exaltation has wrought no change in his affection to them. They are still the objects of his unchangeable love.
3. His ascension to heaven, was just at hand.
(1) The apostles were to understand that his resurrection was the beginning of his ascension.
(2) The Ascension was to place the apostles before God exactly in the same position as he was himself.
(a) Jesus marks the distinction that existed between himself and his apostles in their relation to God. God is Father of Christ by nature, of men by grace. His Sonship is not their sonship.
(b) Jesus, in calling God "his God," does not disclaim Deity, for it is in his perfect humanity that he sees the Father as his God.
V MARY FULFILS HER GLAD ERRAND. "Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her." Her story would cause
(1) surprise,
(2) gladness, and
(3) hope in the minds of the disciples.
Vers. 11-18. Sorrow and despondency exchanged for joy and service.
Among the wonderful events of the first Lord"s day morning, the incident here recorded is remarkable for pathos and beauty, and also for spiritual instruction and encouragement.
I IT WAS A DEAD AND LOST CHRIST THAT CAUSED MARY"S GRIEF AND DISMAY. The woman"s attachment and devotion to the Savior were unquestionable. She and her companions seem to have been more faithful to Jesus even than the twelve. "Who, while apostles shrank, could dangers brave; Last at his cross, and earliest at his grave.
To Mary Jesus was as a dead Friend. She shared the common grief of the disciples, and their common anxiety during the interval between the Crucifixion and the Lord"s first appearance to his own. Love induced her to linger near the tomb, and thus occasioned her interview with the angels and with the Master himself. No wonder that she loved much; she was indebted, she may well have thought, more than others to the compassion of Christ, for she had been delivered from the power of demons, and received into the favor and friendship of her Deliverer. And now to lose the Lord she loved and on whom she leaned was a trial to her faith, a grief to her heart; and she would fain care for the lifeless body of the slain One. Emblem of those who have not found Christ; of those who, having found, have then lost him; of those to whom Christ, alas! is as if dead, to whom he is no living reality, no near presence, no Divine power. Yet it is better that sensitive and yearning souls should grieve over the distance between the holy Savior and themselves than that they should acquiesce contented and indifferent in their privation.
II IT WAS A LIVING CHRIST THAT TURNED MARY"S SORROW INTO JOY. Observe that Jesus knew Mary before she recognized him. The language he used was intended to draw out her best feelings. Very beautiful and touching was the way in which Christ revealed himself to her heart, uttering simply the familiar name, dear from the hallowed intercourse of friendship. It was, perhaps, the name he had used in dispossessing the demons, and its utterance must have awakened many a tender memory in her heart. The living Christ thus, in a way truly human, revealed himself to his friend in one moment to banish her forebodings and assuage her grief. Her cry, "My Master!" was enough to reveal her gratitude and joy her joy again to see him, her gratitude that the appearance and revelation were to her. Emblem of those souls to whom is their darkness and sadness, their skepticism and despondency Christ appears in his own Divine dignity and human sympathy, addressing them in language of compassion, and gladdening them by the vision of his risen form and his glorified and gracious countenance. T.
HOMILIES BY B. THOMAS Vers. 11-18. The powers of holy love. The women rose early on the third day, but there was One who rose earlier. They were last at the cross, and first at the grave. Mary Magdalene was the first of the group. She ran back to Peter and John with the tidings. There was a race between the two to the tomb. John outran Peter. Love is swifter of foot than faith, but faith is more courageous and was in the sepulcher first. Love followed. Mary is for a moment lost in the narrative, but appears again as the chief figure. We have an illustration of passionate love to Jesus. Notice
I THE DEVOTION OF LOVE. This is seen:
1. In her persistent and patient lingering on the spot. "Mary stood without," etc. She did not enter with the two disciples; she was too weak for that. But weaker in nature, she was stronger in affection. If she did not enter, she stood longer at the grave. They were gone, but she was tied to the spot by the words of love, watching for some clue to the mysterious disappearance. Love lingers with patience and devotion at the sacred graves which hold the dust of dear ones.
2. In her increased courage. She does now what she could not do before stoops down and looks into the sepulcher, as did John before her. His example encouraged her. It was more for her to look than for them to enter. She looked, not that she expected to find him more than the others, but to see for herself, and see even where he had lain. Love acts often from instinct rather than from reason. We look to the grave.
3. In her intense feelings. She stood without, weeping. As she stood she wept, and she stooped. She wept and looked through her tears. And as she wept she stooped down. Intense feelings brought her to her knees. These were not the wailings of ostentation and selfishness: there was no one to see her tears or to pay heed to them; but they were the tears of genuine affection, the sighs of devoted love, and the moans of intense sorrow. She stood and stooped and looked, weeping. This is the only thing which even devoted love could do under the circumstances.
II THE VISIONS OF LOVE.
1. The vision of angels. Notice:
(1) Their number. Two. Angels are social; seldom if ever one appeared in this world alone. They were sent two and two. At the birth a host sang over the fields of Bethlehem. Two appeared at the Resurrection. More may be there; only two were seen, and only one was seen by the others two by love.
(2) Their appearance. In white, the color of heaven, the fashion of the better land. Everything is white there. It is the color of peace, purity, happiness, and glory. It is a treat to see the color in this dark world of sin and sorrow, and especially see it in a grave.
(3) Their posture. "Sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where," etc. They loved even the place where he land lain. They had finished their work, rolled away the stone, shook the earth, sent away the guard in terror, and waited upon their Master, and helped him to strip and be clothed; and now they sit at ease, as if taking rest.
(4) Their sympathy. "Woman, why weepest thou?" This is a question of kind sympathy. One would think that the weeping of a poor woman would not affect an angel at all. They never shed tears, and experimentally know no sorrow; but they are sympathetic and friendly; perhaps they had attended so much upon the Lord, that they would naturally learn sympathy.
(5) Their inspiring confidence. It is not to every one she would disclose the cause of her grief. She would instinctively be suspicious; but the appearance and language of these inspired her at once with confidence, that they were honorable and friendly, and probably closely related to her Master; hence she trusted them at once with the secret of her sorrow.
(6) This vision of angels was very natural. The naturalness of the incident is to us much more important than the literal harmony of the narrative. The appearance of angels is natural at the Resurrection, and a befitting introduction to what followed; and as the Master had left the house, it was natural that he should leave the servants there to answer certain calls which would be made, and entertain visitors.
2. The vision of Jesus. (Ver. 13)
(1) Her conversation with the angels finished abruptly. Her conduct might appear almost rude, except in the light of what followed. She turned back, beckoned, perhaps, by the angel to do so, or she instinctively felt some presence behind her. The servants will ever point to the Master when present, and will observe becoming silence.
(2) She knew not Jesus, and why? She did not expect to meet him alive. She suspected that the body had been stolen, but little suspected that Life was the thief. She was too much enrapt in anxiety about her dead Lord to recognize him living. Intensity of feeling is often unfavorable to immediate recognition, and Jesus did not assume the old appearance.
(3) She made a good guess, but still a mistake. She thought that he was the gardener, from his garb and the time of his appearance. This was a natural thought, and true in a sense of Jesus. He was a gardener, and the best that ever was in this world. She was glad to meet Joseph"s gardener. "Sir, if thou hast borne him," etc. She at once told her story, sought information, and her love made her feel strong enough to take the body away herself.
(4) The Master addressed her in much the same way as the servant only added, "Whom seekest thou?" The angel"s question was only an echo of his. It is worthy of notice that this is the first question of Jesus after the Resurrection. "Why weepest thou?" etc. He asks the question still: he rose to wipe away tears, and to remove the cause of human sorrow.
(5) These visions were granted to love. Where were the angels and the risen Lord when Peter and John were at the grave? They were there, but love alone could see them. Angels and Jesus appear to intense and devoted love; if we had more of it we should have more spiritual visions.
III THE RECOGNITION OF LOVE.
1. Her recognition was in consequence of a direct revelations.
(1) By the voice. The other disciples recognized him by sight. Thomas said once that he would not recognize him except by touch, but Mary by his voice.
(2) His voice, uttering a single word her name, "Mary." She had not heard her name pronounced in the same way since he had last called it. She recognized the old voice which spoke to her first and often afterwards.
(3) Jesus knew how to reveal himself best. He knew how to touch a chord in her heart which would bring her back to herself and to him.
2. Her recognition was warm and reverential. "Rabboni!" "O my Master!" and she fell at his feet, and was about to embrace them. If her recognition was not so high and advanced as that of Thomas, it was warm and enthusiastic.
3. Her recognition in one of its modes was gently checked. "Touch me not or, "do not cling to me.
(1) This was incompatible with the laws of the new life and relationship. He was not to be known henceforth after the flesh, nor to be reverenced after the old fashion of physical existence.
(2) This would be an impediment to his upward progress. "For I have not," etc. He had not finished his glorious course nor reached his high goal. He was on the way, and such clinging to him would interfere with his ascension. Besides it being incompatible with the new life, there was no time. He was ascending, and her service was required in another way.
(3) The new mode of homage to him was revealed to Magdalene first. She was the only one who attempted the old; this was checked, and the new method was hinted. She had in heart devotional feelings advantageous to revelation. Devotion to him henceforth was to take a higher aim and assume a higher form. After his ascension to the Father, the new life would be complete, then in heart and spirit she could cling to him for ever.
IV THE MISSION OF LOVE. "But go," etc.
1. This mission contains as its substance his ascension. "I ascend." It is not "I have risen," but "I ascend." It includes his resurrection, and more. He could not ascend unless he had risen. The first movement of the new life in Jesus was a movement upwards; from the grave he began to ascend, and the first intelligence obtained of him was that he was already ascending.
2. The mission includes his destination. "I ascend unto my Father." It was ascending somewhere, but unto a special spot and special Personage unto his Father; he was going home whence he came. The intelligence of his final destination was important. The time would soon arrive when he would be due at the right hand of power on high. There was the attraction now. It was more natural for the risen Lord to ascend to the Father than to remain here.
3. This mission was to the disciples. "But go unto my brethren, and say," etc. They are the first to hear; they are the most concerned in the matter; they are the nearest to Jesus" heart. The world is to hear the news, but through them. The risen Savior is the same as of old.
4. This mission is to them in a new relationship. "My brethren." The terms of the mission explain the new relationship. "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father," etc. And having one Father and one God, they were brethren and fellow-subjects of the same kingdom; brethren in spirit, in faith, in love, in circumstances, and in common relationship. The risen Lord was more nearly related to the disciples than ever. Death and resurrection made the union nearer: he was their firstborn Brother from the dead. And the Ascension would make it nearer still: then they would be one in a common Father.
V THE OBEDIENCE OF LOVE.
1. The obedience is most prompt. There is no delay. In spite of a strong temptation to cling to him, she goes at once. There is no mention of her leaving Jesus; only of her coming to the disciples. No sooner had she left the former than she was with the latter. The obedience of love is swift and prompt.
2. Her obedience is full. She told the whole story and delivered the whole message. "I have seen the Lord," etc. And she did not stop there, but related all he had told her.
3. Her obedience was joyous. Her weeping was turned into laughter, her sorrow into ecstatic joy; and the dew of her grief was kissed away by the rays of the risen Sun. The news was good and joyous; it thrilled her own heart, it thrilled the heart of the disciples, and it has thrilled the heart of the world ever since.
LESSONS.
1. The risen Lord first appeared to a woman. Her heart and eyes of love were the first to behold the welcome vision, because she had the greatest love.
2. A woman was the first missionary of Jesus. She was the first to publish the tidings of his resurrection, because she was the first to get those tidings. She was the first at the grave, and her love would not permit her to leave till she could find Jesus. She waited at the king"s gate till he appeared, and she was employed in his service. The feminine heart can do much in the mission of life and love.
3. Love is rewarded with visions, revelations, and employment. In the degree we love, we shall see, know, and understand the spiritual, and be employed in its glorious missions.
4. We must not cling to Jesus when we are wanted to do something for him. We must not even revel at his feet when others require the news of his love.
5. Love is surprised with more than it expects. Mary only expected to find the dead body, but she found her living Lord. The highest expectations of love will be more than realized and rewarded. B.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator1887 · Public DomainOn vv11, 12, 14But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping
Joh_20:11-18
But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping
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Lessons
1.
Christians are often sorrowful, when, if they had clearer knowledge and stronger faith, they would rejoice.
2. Angels sympathize with Christians in their sorrow. If they shed no tears they are not indifferent to ours.
3. The thought of losing Jesus is enough to make His friends weep. When He is absent from the Church, and outward shows divert the eye from the Lord; when, instead of a living Christ, there is only a sepulchre, no whitening of which can compensate for the absence of the Prince of Life; and when He is absent from the pulpit, and where criticism, or philosophy, or Jewish ethics, or Christian polemics are discussed, and the living, loving Christ is absent; and when by worldliness we have no longer that fellowship with Him we once enjoyed--if we are indeed His friends we shall weep, saying of our follies and our sins (Joh_20:13).
4. Jesus is often very close to His disciples when they do not perceive Him (Joh_20:14). We are so absorbed in sorrow that we do not see Him who comes to soothe it. We often think He is farthest when He is nearest. Is He not a very present help in trouble? Like Mary, also, we sometimes mistake Him for the gardener. We think only of the servant when we should acknowledge the Master. We rest in the means of grace when we should rise to the Giver of grace.
5. Christs first resurrection-word was one of consoling sympathy--not of power, victory, or vengeance. He is tender, loving still. He spake to Mary, and to womanhood through her. He knew how often woman weeps unseen, what a martyrdom of grief she often undergoes by sensibilities wounded, yearnings unsatisfied, love unrequited, closest ties torn asunder, anxieties and toils which only love like hers could enable her to endure, and wounds hidden from all eyes, which only love like hers could bear and yet conceal; and so Christs first word after His resurrection was one of sympathy with womans grief. Seeking Jesus is the best antidote to weeping.
6. True love may be combined with deficient knowledge. Sir, if Thou have borne Him hence, &c. No name had been mentioned, but Mary speaks as if because He was uppermost in her feelings all the world besides must think of Him too. So let the thought of Jesus be in our hearts. Will He be pleased? What would He have me do? In this enterprise, in that company, shall I have His presence and enjoy His blessing?
7. Christ knows His disciples individually. He addresses her by the old familiar name (Joh_20:16). The friend of former days was still individually dear. Are we in sorrow, inconsolable, forgetting Him who sends it for our good? He reminds us of His presence, saying, Mary! Are we fearing some danger as though we had no Almighty Friend to protect us? He places Himself between us and it, and says, Mary! Are we becoming worldly, restraining prayer, toying with temptation, looking at some forbidden fruit till it becomes pleasant in our eyes? Jesus, in a tone of faithful remonstrance, says, Mary!
8. Every true disciple recognizes the Saviours voice (Joh_20:16). Do we thus confess Him to be Master, saying, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? In sorrow, do we submit with patience, and say, Rabboni? In danger, do we trust with holy confidence and repeat, Rabboni? When tempted, do we turn at His reproof and penitently, resolutely exclaim, Rabboni? At death, Jesus will say, Mary! It will be the voice not of an enemy, but of our best, our heavenly Friend. It will be Jesus coming to take us to Himself. Shall we be ready at once to welcome Him as Rabboni? When He sits on the throne of judgment He will invite to His kingdom every one of His faithful followers, with an individual recognition, calling each by name--Mary! Shall we be among them and joyfully respond, Rabboni? (Newman Hall, LL. B.)
Mary Magdalene at the selpulchre
I. MARYS SORROW.
1. She sought for a lost Christ, and looked for Him where He was not to be found. So
(1) Some lose Christ when any great calamity comes upon them, and their faith is shaken in the Divine goodness.
(2) Others fall into temptations, become prosperous, and worldly, lose sight of all spiritual aims, become content with this world, and their faith and hope in Christ are gone.
(3) Others get entangled in intellectual difficulties about the Gospels, or inspiration, or miracles, and because they cannot see their way out. Christ meanwhile is almost, if not entirely, lost to their vision. We can lose Christ in a thousand ways, and look for Him in a thousand places where He is not to be found. We try to find Him in books of controversy, in going from one Church to another, in praying for faith in Him, in reiterating the creeds, forgetting that the restoration of all belief must begin on the high road of duty, and that spiritual work is the road to spiritual knowledge, and the recovery of our hold of Christ.
2. Mary failed to recognize Him though so near to her. So we often fail to recognize Christ though He manifests Himself to us in all the manifold forms of our life. We, too, often think that we can meet and recognize Him only in Church; but there is no charm in a Church for disclosing Christ; the charm must be in ourselves, perceiving and answering to the charm that there is in Christ. Then we can see Him everywhere.
(1) The wickedest persons ought to reveal Christ, for you may be sure that He is there yearning to recover them.
(2) Wherever an afflicted man or woman lies in sorrow, there you hear His voice, saying, Come unto Me, &c.
(3) Whenever you see a man reviled or misrepresented, there you have an image of that Christ who was crucified for His goodness.
(4) Christ looks at us through the eyes of every innocent child; for there is in them the light of the kingdom of heaven.
(5) Every just and noble deed is a revelation of Christ; for He came not to be ministered unto, &c.
3. She mistook the Divine work for mans. They have taken away my Lord; not knowing that He had reclaimed His own life by the power of the eternal Spirit. There is a human and a Divine side to every event, and things become significant in proportion as we can see their Divine aspect. There are men who can see in Christ nothing but what is simply human. There are men who have no eye for the Divine. They are mostly cold, self-contented natures; having no moral enthusiasm, nor intellectual grasp, but play upon the surface of a great many things with cold moonlight gleams. Let us guard as beyond all price the faculty which can see God in all things.
II. THE STRENGTH OF MARYS LOVE (Joh_20:15). Her overflowing love in the midst of her grief does not wait to measure her strength. She was equal to anything that her love prompted her to undertake. Love is the real worker of miracles in this world. And I am speaking now of human love; the Divine love, which is the parent of ours, is to ours as the ocean is to the rivulet, and as the sun is to the glow-worm. Human love still undertakes tasks that are beyond its strength, and dies in hopeless endeavours. How many lives are there who have not been able, through years of ill-treatment, to uproot the love of their youth, and who still wait and pray for a change in the husband who has long ago forfeited all title even to respect. And I think there are some men of the same nature. There is a love that descends upon those lower than itself, as when the mother loves the unworthy son or daughter, and there is the love that bends, entranced before a goodness and a beauty far surpassing itself. This was the love that kindled in the soul of Mary, and the highest proof that we have it is that we do not waste our time in visions and rapture, but imitate the love of Christ in doing His work. Inasmuch as ye did it, &c.
III. THE IMPERFECTION OF MARYS FAITH. She desired and dwelt too much on the outward Christ. Therefore she must not touch Him. The most difficult thing is to pass away from the outward things of religion into the region where faith grasps its objects, and sees its truths, and feels their reality. Does eternity open to you when you sing, or pray, or meditate? When you gather round the Lords table, does it proclaim the unseen fact of Christs sacrificial love?
IV. OUR LORDS MESSAGE SENT BY MARY (Joh_20:17).
1. This was a message of forgiveness. There are two things difficult about forgiveness--the power to forgive and the manner in which it is done. There are some natures that cannot forgive, even when they profess to do it, but when we can turn our resentment into pity and mercy we have learned the lesson which Christ taught us from the cross.
2. The message was one of continued, unbroken affection. Go and tell My brethren--not My poor weak followers and disciples, not even My friends. He was not ashamed of them, notwithstanding all their spiritual poverty and their want of sympathy with Him. What a lesson it reads to us! (C. Short, M. A.)
Mary at the empty tomb:
How does the risen Saviour reveal Himself?
I. TO WHAT LONGING?
1. Even then the seeing the risen One was not a thing of physical sight. It was dependent On the condition of the inner life. Not to the world, who did not want to be convinced, but to those who were longing to be fully convinced that He was the Saviour.
2. Mary, foremost among these, could not tear herself away from the grave. She had passed through the scene at Calvary in mute amazement; now she realized that her heart had lost its last stay, and the whole world seemed like an empty tomb. What would become of her now His Divine life was no longer there for her poor life to cling to, as ivy to oak, and train itself heavenwards.
3. Is not this a page in our history? The Saviour once took you by the hand and your life began to twine itself around His. Then this childlike confidence was lost, but the longing remains. This is the deepest sorrow--to know what can help and to have lost it--to seek the Lord among the evidences of His life, and have only an empty grave to go to. When we have to stand before our own life as before an empty tomb, which reminds us only of what we have lost, and in which we cannot find our childhoods Saviour there is no comfort for us. A risen and living Saviour is what we want. It would not have helped Mary had she found the buried One. If our longing souls rest in the fact that He has lived, what can He be to us? He is not here; He is risen, is the Divine message to us.
II. IN WHAT EXPERIENCE? While Mary is still hopeless He is beside her. Though invisible and unknown He is near all who seek Him. Why not disclose Himself then? Woman, Mine hour is not yet come. The experience God gives depends for its value on our susceptibility, and this comes to maturity only by persistent seeking. She turns again to seek Him when Jesus says, Mary! It was through her name that the Lord revealed Himself. A name may awaken emotion, as when you hear the voice of one long absent. She knew her Lord in that He knew her. Her name is written in His heart for ever. It is the heart that recognizes the living Saviour.
III. WITH WHAT DIRECTIONS The complaint of the heart is not of the reality of precious moments, but that they are only moments. Mary had no advantage in this over us. The moment she recognized Him He says, Touch Me not. Stern but needful words. Mary needed to be taught that the fellowship of the future would be very different from that of the past. Few had enjoyed His intimacy, henceforth all might and in a higher form. Their dependence on Him as a man must be changed into a holier relation--brethren. All this Mary had to learn amid her joy, that her joy might not be taken from her when the Lord should ascend. And as this joy would naturally seek to retain the beloved object she is bid serve Christ by going to His brethren and bearing witness to others. Moments such as this are short and fleeting; must be; should be. It is not good to live on mountain peaks. Mary now knew that what is needed for the service of Christ is power from on high. (Dr. Beyschlag.)
The interview between Jesus and Mary:
We see
I. THAT THOSE WHO LOVE CHRIST MOST DILIGENTLY AND PERSEVERINGLY ARE THOSE WHO RECEIVE MOST PRIVILEGES FROM CHRISTS HAND.
1. Mary would not leave the sepulchre when Peter and John went away to their own home. Love to her Master made her honour the last place where His precious body had been seen by mortal eyes. And she reaped a rich reward. She saw the angels whom Peter and John had never observed; had soothing words addressed to her; and was the first to see our Lord, and to hear His voice.
2. As it was in the morning of the first Easter Day, so will it be as long as the Church stands. All believers have not the same degree of faith, or hope, or knowledge, or courage, or wisdom; and it is vain to expect it. But it is certain that those who love Christ most will always enjoy most communion with Him. To know Christ is good; but to know that we know Him is far better (1Jn_2:3).
II. THAT THE FEARS AND SORROWS OF BELIEVERS ARE OFTEN QUITE NEEDLESS.
1. Mary stood at the sepulchre weeping. She wept when the angels spoke to her, and when our Lord spoke to her. And the burden of her complaint was always the same--They have taken away my Lord. Yet all this time her risen Master was close to her. Like Hagar in the wilderness, she had a well of water by her side, but she had not eyes to see it.
2. How often we are anxious when there is no just cause for anxiety! How often we mourn over the absence of things which in reality are within our grasp! Let us pray for more faith and patience, and allow more time for the full development of Gods purposes. Jacob said All these things are against me; yet he lived to thank God for all that had happened. If Mary had found the seal of the tomb unbroken she might well have wept. The very absence of the body which made her weep was a cause of joy for herself and all mankind.
III. WHAT LOW AND EARTHLY THOUGHTS OF CHRIST MAY CREEP INTO THE MIND OF A TRUE BELIEVER.
1. The first surprise, and the reaction from great sorrow to great joy, was more than the mind of Mary could bear. It is highly probable that she threw herself at our Lords feet, and made greater demonstrations of feeling than were seemly or becoming; too much like one who thought all must be right if she had her Lords bodily presence, and all must be wrong in His bodily absence; like one who forgot that her Master was God as well as Man. And hence she called forth our Lords gentle rebuke, I am not yet ascending to My Father for forty days: your present duty is not to linger at My feet, but to go and tell My brethren that I have risen. Think of the feelings of others as well as of your own.
2. The fault of this holy woman was one into which Christians have always been too ready to fall. In every age there has been a tendency to make too much of Christs bodily presence, and to forget that He is God over all, blessed for ever as well as Man (Rom_9:5). The pertinacity with which Romanists cling to the doctrine of Christs real corporal presence is only another exhibition of Marys feeling. Let us be content to have Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, and when two or three are met in His name. What we really need is not His literal flesh, but His Spirit (Joh_6:63; 2Co_5:16).
IV. HOW KINDLY AND GRACIOUSLY OUR LORD SPEAKS OF HIS DISCIPLES.
1. He bids Mary Magdalene carry a message to them, as His brethren. All was forgiven and forgotten (Psa_103:13-14).
2. As He dealt with His erring disciples, so will He deal with all who believe and love Him, until He comes again. When we wander out of the way He will bring us back (chap. 6:37; Psa_103:10). (Bp. Ryle.)
Mary at the sepulchre
1. We little realize how much light goes out of the world with some lives. There was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, write Matthew and Mark in their record of the Crucifixion. This symbolized a great fact. We know how the vanishing of one life may be to us like the setting of the sun: many of us have passed through such an experience. After the Evangelists have recorded the burial, they pause and halt in the narrative. The record only moves again when the light begins to return. As it began to dawn towards the first day are the words with which Mark starts anew; so, too, in different phrase, the other Evangelists emphasize this new starting-point.
2. Again, observe the revealing power of a great trial. It takes great or trying events to reveal all the strength and beauty which otherwise lie dormant in some characters. The breeze of summer brings music out of the AEolian harp, but only the storms of winter can awake the mighty deep into harmonious symphony and make the trees of the wood clap their hands in grand accompaniment. So it required great tests to reveal the devotion of these grand heroic women toward their Lord.
3. This expression of devotion was very human, and supremely womanly. How significant--how full of strange amotion--the first visit to the grave where our dearest lie!
4. This was a very beautiful and expressive protest against mortality. Beneath all this anointing was the conviction that man was too noble to pass away into decay. In the proposed anointing of the Christ by the women, we find the mightiest protest against the corruption of the grave; but God would yet accomplish the same end in His own way. John, however, centres his narrative in one person: Marys love was the most intense and the most persistent. But Mary stood (or Revised Version, was standing)--stationed herself--words expressive of resoluteness. Up to this point there was a measure of companionship in sorrowful watching among the mourners,--now we reach the point of isolation. Others had accepted the theory that Jesus had been taken away, and had left with sorrow, but Mary was more persistent, since to her more had been forgiven. The sorrow of this little community now became Marys, as if it were exclusively her own. As she wept. According to the three Synoptic Gospels, the other women were afraid, or affrighted. Mary wept. There is nothing new in weeping at the grave. It is the old place of weeping. More tears have been shed there than anywhere else. But the circumstances are exceptional in this case. Others have wept because the grave is tenanted; Mary wept because it was empty, and because the ministry of love in anointing the dead body seemed no longer possible. At length, by steady gazing, she found that the grave was not so empty as it had appeared. There was no dead body in it, but there were two of Gods angels. Mary saw them. Peter and John did not. They were in two great a hurry. Men do not see angels in such a mood--they only see linen clothes, and the like. They say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Tears are a profound mystery to angels. But it was a misuse of the mysterious capacity to weep that perplexed them now. Weeping in this case they knew was out of place. Why weepest thou? are words of challenge. Because they have taken away my Lord, was Marys reply. These words reveal, among other things, the souls power of appropriation--My Lord. This is the greatest paradox of being, that finite man or woman can claim the Infinite God as his or her possession. Thou art my God, said the Psalmist. But here, too, we have weeping inadequately explained. Marys data are wrong. They have taken away my Lord. How much more the angels knew about it than Mary! How inadequate our explanation of our grief when we are challenge! There is an impatience in the answer. She has silenced the angels with a false theory, and hastily withdraws, or turns round, and waits not for the reply. It is a terrible thing when sorrow becomes reflective, and turns in upon itself. But as Mary turns there is another Presence near. Now it is asked by One who has Himself wept by the grave side. There is a tear in this tone of inquiry. Remember in passing, as a significant fact, that these are the first recorded words of Christ after the Resurrection--Woman, why weepest thou? &c. What a reflection for sorrowing ones! There is hero also the additional question which completes the first. Why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? Sorrow is stupefying. There was a danger for Mary to forget her search in the steady gaze, becoming more vacant as it was continued. The question of the angels threw her in upon her sorrow; the further question of Christ awakened within her the recollection of her quest. It aroused the spirit of search and of expectation anew in Mary. It is a sad thing when, in our sorrow, we forget the aim of life, and lose the inspiration of hope. This takes all the buoyancy out of life. Our Lord would ever save us against this. Observe Marys answer as contrasted with her answer to the angels. To the angels she replied, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him. This is sorrow in its reflective, despairing form. On the contrary, her answer to Jesus is--Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away. This is sorrow in its resolute and hopeful aspect. I will take Him away. She could not have carried Him; yet she saw no difficulty. There is a frenzy of love which is well-nigh omnipotent. There is yet hope of Mary. It is a grand thing when sorrow has not taken all the courage out of us. The Christ can hide Himself no longer from her. He reveals Himself now through speech. Of all things about us, the voice is that which, amid the processes of change, retains its identity most. Mary. How much Jesus compresses of tenderness and revelation into that one word! Her reply is equally brief--Rabboni. Here we have a dialogue in two words. When feeling is intense, utterance becomes laconic. Rabboni is the word in which Marys soul expresses alike its love and its wonder. We find here a passionate concentration of feeling. The spirit of loving discipleship is crystallized and perpetuated in that one word. There are times when the whole soul flashes forth and reveals its personality in an exclamation. The first impulse of the soul in the presence of the risen Christ is to worship. It is a moment of infinite surprise. It is the reaction from blank despair to boundless ecstasy. The gospel of the open grave is the story of the Resurrection and the prediction of the Ascension combined. I ascend! She had stooped and looked into the grave for the Christ; henceforth she will look up and wait for her Lord from heaven. Thus is the story grandly progressive, and the past and present are made predictive of the yet more glorious future. (David Davies.)
Love in tears; or, Mary at the sepulchre
I. MARYS MOURNING, or loves grief expressed (Joh_20:11).
1. Standing beside the vacant tomb--a hopeful circumstance. How much worse for her had it been tenanted!
2. Lamenting in mistaken sorrow. Most sorrow perhaps of this sort. Christians grieve when they ought to rejoice, e.g., at the graves of those who are for ever with the Lord. Continuing dejected without. Had Mary gone in she would have found it a habitation of angels. No more a charnel house to fence, the relics of lost innocence, &c. (Keble).
II. MARYS VISION, or loves attention arrested (Joh_20:12-14).
1. The advanced guards of the King.
(1) Their nature--angels.
(2) Their number--two, to correspond with the two robbers.
(3) Their appearance--in white, or shining garments (Dan_10:6; Rev_10:1).
(4) Their situation--at the head and feet, guarding the place from profanation.
(5) Their question--to arrest attention and convey sympathy.
2. The person of the Risen Lord.
(1) Near her, as always to His people (Mat_18:20), especially in times of sadness (Luk_24:15).
(2) Speaking to her. Christ still notes the tears of His people (Lu Heb_4:15).
(3) Yet unrecognized by her, as He often is by His sorrowing disciples Luk_24:16).
III. MARYS MISTAKE, or loves blindness discovered (verse 15).
1. Great. Already she had committed several blunders--seeking the living among the dead, sorrowing when she ought to have rejoiced, &c., but none so great as mistaking Christ for Josephs gardener.
2. Natural. The likeliest person at that hour was the gardener, and as to other disciples He may have had another form.
3. Persistent.
4. Beautiful--love knows no impossibilities; and no passion is so omnipotent as that of a renewed heart for Christ. At this hour millions would die for him (Napoleon).
IV. MARYS AWAKENING, or loves darkness dispelled (verse 16).
1. The familiar voice. What a wealth of pitying love would be infused into the Mary (cf. Joh_21:15; Luk_22:48; Act_9:4; Act_9:10)
.
2. The spell broken. No voice but One could say Mary like that.
3. The heart relieved--Rabboni.
V. MARYS PROHIBITION, or loves ardour restrained (verse 17).
1. The restriction--Touch Me not.
2. The reason--I am not yet ascended.
3. The consolation. The restriction would only be temporary.
VI. MARYS COMMISSION, or loves service claimed (verse 17).
1. To whom sent-Christs brethren.
(1) The condescension in it--Gods Son calls them brethren.
(2) The honour in it.
(3) The love in it--they had deserted Him.
2. With what charged--a message concerning
(1) Himself.
(2) His ascension.
(3) The Father.
VII. MARYS OBEDIENCE, or loves willingness expressed (verse 18).
1. With cheerful resignation.
2. With prompt execution.
3. With faithful repetition. Learn
1. Blessed are they that mourn, &c.
2. The eyes of Christs people are sometimes holden (Luk_24:16).
3. My sheep hear My voice, &c.
4. Truly our fellowship is with the Father, &c.
5. The ascended Christ is not ashamed to call His people brethren Heb_2:11). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
Three aspects of piety
I. Piety in SADNESS. Notice here
1. The intensity of her affection.
2. The greatness of her courage. Few of the bravest men care to walk through a churchyard after dark; and rough soldiers were guarding Josephs tomb.
3. The imperfection of her faith (Joh_20:15). We often only see a gardener in the sublimest messenger of God.
II. PIETY IN RAPTURE (Joh_20:16). Note
1. The rapidity of our mental changes. Mary passed as in a moment from anguish to ecstasy.
2. The power of Christs voice. Neither Gethsemane, the Cross, or the grave had changed it. Thus by a word Christ can lift the soul into the highest bliss.
III. PIETY IN ACTION. Note
1. Christs merciful identification with His disciples. My Father and your Father.
2. The heavenward direction which their sympathies should take. Look upward--I ascend, Seek those things which are above.
3. The right direction of religious feeling. Action at once expresses and realizes emotion. Go and work. (D, Thomas, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey1900 · Public DomainOn v11Joh 20:11-18. “And Mary stood at the sepulcher without,…
MARY MAGDALENE AGAIN AT THE SEPULCHER
Joh 20:11-18. “And Mary stood at the sepulcher without, weeping, and while she continued to weep, she looked into the sepulcher, and saw two angels in white sitting down, the one at the head, and the one at the feet, where the body of Jesus lay. And they say to her, Woman, why do you weep? She says to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have placed Him. And saying these words, she turned back, and saw Jesus standing, and did not know that it is Jesus. And Jesus said to her, Woman, why do you weep? Whom do you seek? She, thinking that He is the gardener, says to Him, Sir, if Thou hast taken Him away, tell me where Thou hast placed Him, and I will take Him. Jesus says to her, Mary! Turning, she says to Him, Rabboni, which is called, Teacher. And Jesus says to her, Touch Me not: for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren, and say to them, I go up to My Father, and your Father; My God, and your God. Mary Magdalene comes, reporting to the disciples that she hath seen the Lord, and He hath spoken these things to her.” As John mentions no woman going to the sepulcher at any time except Mary Magdalene, and the other three mention Mary, the mother of James the Less, and Salome, the mother of James the Greater and John, we conclude that John simply mentions Mary Magdalene as the most prominent of the sisterly band.
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Why did Jesus not want her to touch Him — “because He had not ascended to His Father?” Haptou, “touch,” also means “tarry with,” “cling to,” etc. The solution of the matter is about this: She thought that He had been up in heaven, and dropping down, like an angel, in a moment would suddenly be gone again. Consequently, anxious to enjoy the privilege of worshipping Him while present, she is in the act of falling at His feet, or, as Matthew says, when they first met Him in the garden, they actually embraced His feet. Hence He says: “Tarry not with Me; but go, tell My disciples that I am risen.”
Where had Jesus been since He died on the cross, Friday, at 3 P.M.? You see He had not been up to heaven. This corroborates quite a group of Scriptures in both Testaments, revealing His descension into Hades, and proclamation of His victory and triumph over hell; His entrance into the intermediate paradise and its abolishment; and the escort of the Old Testament saints with Him up to this world, when He received His body on the third morn.
We observe here some notable facts:
(a) The women were last at the cross and first at the sepulcher, and first to go and preach the risen Savior even to the apostles.
(b) The angels unscrupulously appeared to the women twice at the sepulcher, as we see they made two visits in quick succession — the one at the dawn, hastening back to tell the disciples; and the other so quickly after delivering their message that some think they actually arrived at the sepulcher the second time before Peter and John got there.
John describes two visits by Mary Magdalene, the angels being seen in both. Hence you see that while the angels appeared twice to the women, they always retreated away before the arrival of the men; thus illustrating, at least, the hypothetical conclusion of the ethical superiority of womanhood, which is certainly corroborated by the Word of God. God made man out of the earth and woman out of man, the second blessing in creation, man symbolizing justification and woman sanctification. Her ethical superiority is abundantly vindicated in all the transactions of life, where we find her, in every age and nation, pleading for truth, righteousness, mercy, and philanthropy amid the atrocities, brutality, and diabolism of the rougher sex.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant1903 · Public DomainOn v11Section 2. (Joh 20:11-18.)
Section 2. (Joh 20:11-18.)
Relationship in the new life.
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They go home, cheered though perplexed, to await what needs must follow. But there is one who cannot leave the place where she had last seen (though in what circumstances of distress) her Lord and Saviour. She has followed back to the sepulchre the quicker steps of the two men: coming too late, as it would seem, to learn from them the confidence they had gathered. Her own sight is too much dimmed with irrepressible tears, to gather it where they have done. Of resurrection, save at the far-off end-time, she has no expectation. But her heart clings, with a tenacity that nothing can divert or weaken, even to the Dead, by whose death she is desolate, but who survives in those indestructible memories which support and sadly light her through the gloom. Now she stands weeping outside the sepulchre, and, stooping down, looks into it. Was it a sight to prepare her for what would else have been too overwhelming a joy? Two angels in white are sitting, one at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. They sit in peaceful contemplation of the place now vacant, and ask why she should be weeping, and whom she was seeking there. Absorbed with her one object, however, she seems scarcely to recognize the strangeness of the vision, but answers with the same story she had brought to the disciples, that men had taken away her Lord! Then she turns away again on a quest from which the presence of angels cannot distract her, to find, though she knows it not, Jesus Himself before her.
Spite of her ignorance, -spite of the unbelief which was in that ignorance, -Mary it was who was to be the first witness of His resurrection, the first evangelist of the new order of things which is established by it. A woman’s heart had anointed Him for His burial; and this He would proclaim wherever the gospel should go out. Now again a woman’s heart, more devoted than His foremost disciples, is to carry, in the energy of its new-born gladness, the message that has gladdened it to these, and to become, as it were, the apostle to apostles! How it tells us of the way in which the heart becomes the leader of the mind into the truth of God, and of the displacement of mere officialism in the Christian order.
Yet, after all, how little had Mary appreciated the One she loved with such heart-felt devotion! and her unbelief it is that, as with those upon the road to Emmaus afterward, holds her eyes when at first she sees the so eagerly desired object. He has to repeat to her the angels’ question, why she is weeping, and whom she is seeking there among the dead. Can she indeed be so dull? Can we alas, who have so much less excuse than Mary? How much of our sorrow which seems most to spring from our love of Him, is yet due in fact to our little appreciation of Him? Do we not also seek the Living One as if He were dead, and dishonor Him in our very worship of Him? Thus Mary repeats her wail to her unknown Lord Himself, and can take Him for the gardener, whose Voice had freed her once from the sevenfold power of the enemy which held her. Yet withal what a right she doubts not she has in Him, whom she seems to think the whole world must know at once: "Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away!" But the Good Shepherd calls His sheep by name, and they know His Voice. He recalls her to herself, and so to Himself: "Mary!" and her heart is at rest. "Rabboni," she says; that is, "Teacher!" How blessed to learn, at His feet, like this!
She learns, not only that He is risen, but of a relationship that His resurrection has brought His people into. He is not ashamed to call them "brethren," and in the recognition of that which His work has done for them, and which is theirs in the life they have in Him, He ascends to His Father and their Father, to His God and to theirs. Mary must not, therefore, think to hold Him, as her love would desire; while the purpose of God is revealing itself in fuller and higher blessing than ever known before.
He had never yet called His disciples "brethren;" although this was the fulfilment of what had been prophetically announced long since. The sin-offering psalm (Psa 22:1-31), which so fully depicts the sufferings through which Messiah was to pass, gives us from the lips of the same Sufferer, when delivered, the assurance "I will declare Thy name unto My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise Thee." We have heard, accordingly, already that declaration of the Father’s name, on which, in His final prayer before His betrayal, He so dwells. The relationship to Himself, and so to the Father, which is implied on their part, is only now for the first time explicitly made known. Himself as man the "First-born among many brethren," yet, except the Corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. Thus He is straitened till it be accomplished, and only now can the full reality be told out. As has been often noticed, He cannot, however, put them upon the same level with Himself. He does not say, "Our Father," but "My Father and yours;" He maintains the place which of necessity belongs to Him, while giving them their own upon the basis of this.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey1914 · Public DomainOn v11J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXXXV. First and…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXXXV. First and Second Appearances].
CXXXV. FIRST AND SECOND APPEARANCES OF THE RISEN CHRIST. THE RESURRECTION REPORTED TO THE APOSTLES. (Jerusalem. Sunday morning.) aMATT. XXVIII. 9, 10; bMARK XVI. 9-11; cLUKE XXIV. 9-11; dJOHN XX. 11-18.
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[The women, having received the message of the angels, and remembering that the message accorded with the words [742] of Jesus himself, made haste.] c9 and returned from the tomb, b9 Now when he was risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. [Mark here agrees with John that Mary separated from the other women. As to Mary Magdalene, see Luk_24:16), lest the shock of his sudden appearance might be too much for her, as it was for even his male disciples [743] ( Luk_24:37). Conversation with him assured her that he was not a disembodied spirit.] 15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. [Christ's first question expressed kindly sympathy; the second suggested that he knew the cause of her grief, and might be able to help her find what she sought. Thus encouraged, Mary at once assumes that the gardener himself had removed the body, probably under instructions from Joseph, and hope lightens her heart. In her effort to remove the body, she doubtless counts upon the help of her fellow-disciples.] 16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. [Her eyes and ears were no longer held; she knew him. It was the same way he used to speak, the same name by which he used to call her. The grave had glorified and exalted him, but had not changed his love.] She turneth herself, and saith unto him in Hebrew, Rabboni; which is to say, Teacher. [Seasons of greatest joy are marked by little speech. Jesus and Mary each expressed themselves in a single word.] 17 Jesus saith to her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father: but go unto my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God. [This passage is one of well-known difficulty, and Meyer or Ryle may be consulted by those wishing to see how various commentators have interpreted it. We would explain it by the following paraphrase: "Do not lay hold on me and detain yourself and me; I have not yet ascended; this is no brief, passing vision; I am yet in the world, and will be for some time, and there will be other opportunities to see me; the duty of the moment is to go and tell my sorrowing disciples that I have risen, and shall ascend to my Father." Jesus does not say "our Father." Our relation to God is not the same as his. While, however, our Lord's language recognizes the difference between his divine and our human relationship to the Father, his words are intended to [744] show us our exaltation. We have reason to believe that next to our Lord's title as Son our title as sons of God by adoption is as high in honor as any in the universe.] 18 Mary Magdalene cometh and telleth { bwent and told dthe disciples, bthem that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. [The poignancy of the disciples' grief, even after the intervention of the Sabbath day, explains why the Lord and his angels were so eager to bring them word of the resurrection.] dI have seen the Lord; and that he had said these things unto her. b11 And they, when they heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, disbelieved. [It is likely that Mary brought the first word, for we shall see below that Luke places her first in the catalogue of witnesses. The narrative now turns back to take up the account of the other women.] a9 And behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. [This was a customary salutation. But the old formula took on new significance, for it means "rejoice."] And they came and took hold of his feet, and worshipped him. [This delay, permitted to them, and denied to Mary, probably explains why she became the first messenger, though the other women were first to leave the tomb.] 10 Then saith Jesus unto them, Fear not: go tell my brethren that they depart into Galilee, and there shall they see me. [The repetition may be due to the reticence of the women remarked by Mark in the last section by the key words "and they said nothing to any one." The women may have been hesitating whether they should tell the disciples. Thus Jesus reiterates the instruction already given by the angel. This is the first time the word "brethren" is applied by our Lord to his disciples.] cand [they] told all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest. 10 Now they were Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the i mother of James: and the other women with them told these things unto the apostles. 11 And these words appeared in their sight as idle talk; and they disbelieved them. [Lamar well says that this very incredulity on the part of the apostles "enhances the value of their [745] testimony to the fact of the resurrection. They were not expecting it; they were no visionary enthusiasts, prepared to welcome and credit any story that might be told them; nor would they be satisfied with any proof short of palpable and ocular demonstrations."]
[FFG 742-746]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann1924 · Public DomainOn vv11, 14Mary Magdalene and the two angels:
Mary Magdalene and the two angels:
v. 11. But Mary stood without at the sepulcher, weeping; and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher,
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v. 12. and seeth two angels in white, sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
v. 13. they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.
When Peter and John had run to the tomb in such great haste, Mary had followed more slowly, arriving in the garden only after Peter and John had again left. Her mind was still filled with her first conclusion, namely, that the removal of her Lord’s body was due to grave robbery. And she had given way to a fit of unrestrained weeping. She still remained outside the tomb in helpless and hopeless despair. Incidentally, however, she is prompted to look whether the body of the Lord is really gone from the sepulcher, or whether the whole matter is only a kind of bad dream. So she stoops forward to look at the place where the men had laid the Lord in her own presence, with her tears still flowing freely. The love which Mary Magdalene had for the Master is a fitting example for the believers of all times. "This Mary is a fine, beautiful type and an excellent example of all those that cling to Christ, that their hearts should burn in pure and true love toward Christ. For she forgets everything, both her feminine modesty and person, is not bothered by the fact that she sees the two angels before her, does not remember that Hannas and Caiaphas are filled with hostile wrath. In brief, she sees nothing, she hears nothing but Christ only. If she could only find the dead Christ; then she would be perfectly satisfied. And the evangelist for that reason has described it so diligently in order that we, who preach and hear it, may also, according to this example, gain desire, love, and eagerness toward Christ the Lord. " When Mary stooped forward to look into the grave, she saw two angels in white garments sitting there, the one at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of the Lord had been lying. They were sitting there with a purpose; they were ready to give information concerning the truth of the resurrection to all that sought it. They may have been the same angels that had been present at the earlier hour, or they may have been new messengers of the Lord, become visible for the occasion. It seems that there must have been almost a friendly rivalry in heaven for the privilege of being the guardians of the grave of the Lord, just as at the birth of Christ the multitude of the heavenly host came down to the fields of Bethlehem to sing their anthem of praise. Sympathetically the angels asked Mary: Woman, why weepest thou? Their purpose was to open her eyes that she might see and hear the truth. But Mary’s grief is too deep to notice the presence of glorious comfort. She was surrounded with evidences of her Lord’s resurrection which should have caused her to leap and shout with joy, and here she gives the angels the hopeless answer: Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have placed Him. The case of Mary is repeated in the experience of Christians the world over. If they are visited with any real or supposed trouble, they are immediately so engrossed with their grief that they fail to see the multitude of evidences all about them that Jesus lives, and that therefore nothing can really matter. To trust unfailingly in the resurrected Savior, that must be the aim and the steady endeavor of the believers in the Lord.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv11, 14She saw two angels in white
She saw two angels in white
The angels were wearing white clothing. AT: "She saw two angels dressed in white clothing" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
Tyndale Open Study Notes2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0On vv11, 1420:11-13 Although two . . . angels appeared inside…
20:11-13 Although two . . . angels appeared inside the tomb, the riddle of Jesus’ disappearance remained unsolved (see Luke 24:4). • why are you crying? Sorrow was not the appropriate response in this moment.
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv11–14 11. But Mary stood at the sepulcher without. The…
11. But Mary stood at the sepulcher without. The Evangelist now begins to describe the manner in which Christ appeared both to the women and to the disciples, to testify his resurrection. Though he mentions but one woman, Mary, yet I think it is probable that the other women were also along with her; for it is not reasonable to suppose, as some have done, that the women fainted through fear. Those writers wish to avoid a contradiction, but I have already shown that no such contradiction exists.
As to the women remaining at the sepulchre, while the disciples return to the city, they are not entitled to great accommodation on this account; for the disciples carry with them consolation and joy, but the women torment themselves by idle and useless weeping. In short, it is superstition alone, accompanied by carnal feelings, that keeps them near the sepulchre
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv11–14 That is, without the cave, which the sepulchre was…
That is, without the cave, which the sepulchre was cut out of.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv11–14 11 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping:…
11 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping: and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre,
Ver. 11. Mary stood at the sepulchre, weeping] Some think it was because she conceived that the Jews had gotten away our Saviour’s dead body to dishonour it; as the Popish persecutors digged up Bucer’s and many other good men’s bones to burn them. She wept where she had no such cause; so do too many, women especially, who should do well to keep their tears for better uses, and not wash foul rooms with sweet waters. Needless tears must be unwept again.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 14 That the Mary here mentioned was Mary Magdalene appeareth…
That the Mary here mentioned was Mary Magdalene appeareth from Joh 20:14, compared with Mar 16:9, which saith, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On v13 Observe here, 1. That the best company in the…
Observe here, 1. That the best company in the world will not satisfy or content such as are seeking for Jesus Christ, when they find not him whom their souls seek: Mary now enjoyed the presence and company of two angels, but this did not satisfy her in the absence of Christ himself.
Observe, 2. How passionately did Mary mourn for the loss and want of Christ’s bodily presence, thereby giving testimony of her great affection towards him; but truly our love to Christ is best shown, not by our passionate desires for his bodily presence, but by our holy longings after his spiritual presence in his word and ordinances here on earth, and his blessed and immediate presence in heaven.
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Observe, 3. How Christ may be present with, and very near unto, his people, and yet not be presently discerned by them: Jesus stood by Mary, and she knew not that it was Jesus. Her not expecting a living Christ, was one cause why she did not discern him.
Observe, 4. How exceedingly Mary’s thoughts were taken up with Christ. She saith to the gardener, If thou have borne him hence.
What him? She doth not say whom, but her heart was so taken up with Christ, and her mind so full of him, that she concluded every body would understand whom she meant, though she did not say whom she meant.
Hence note, that the soul of a sincere believer is full of earnest and longing desires after Jesus Christ.
2. That such a soul is yet sometimes at a loss for Christ, and cannot tell where to find him.
3. That whilst the soul is at a loss for Christ, its desires are often quicker and more stirring after Christ. This was the case of Mary here; with the spouse by night on her bed, and early in the morning, she sought him whom her soul loved.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v11 St. Mark tells us that Christ appeared first to…
St. Mark tells us that Christ appeared first to Mary Magdalene (Mar 16:9); that appearance is here largely related; and we may observe,
I. The constancy and fervency of Mary Magdalene's affection to the Lord Jesus, Joh 20:11.
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1. She staid at the sepulchre, when Peter and John were gone, because there her Master had lain, and there she was likeliest to hear some tidings of him. Note, (1.) Where there is a true love to Christ there will be a constant adherence to him, and a resolution with purpose of heart to cleave to him. This good woman, though she has lost him, yet, rather than seem to desert him, will abide by his grave for his sake, and continue in his love even when she wants the comfort of it. (2.) Where there is a true desire of acquaintance with Christ there will be a constant attendance on the means of knowledge. See Hos 6:2, Hos 6:3, The third day he will raise us up; and then shall we know the meaning of that resurrection, if we follow on to know, as Mary here.
2. She staid there weeping, and these tears loudly bespoke her affection to her Master. Those that have lost Christ have cause to weep; she wept at the remembrance of his bitter sufferings; wept for his death, and the loss which she and her friends and the country sustained by it; wept to think of returning home without him; wept because she did not now find his body. Those that seek Christ must seek him sorrowing (Luk 2:48), must weep, not for him, but for themselves.
3. As she wept, she looked into the sepulchre, that her eye might affect her heart. When we are in search of something that we have lost we look again and again in the place where we last left it, and expected to have found it. She will look yet seven times, not knowing but that at length she may see some encouragement. Note, (1.) Weeping must not hinder seeking. Though she wept, she stooped down and looked in. (2.) Those are likely to seek and find that seek with affection, that seek in tears.
II. The vision she had of two angels in the sepulchre, Joh 20:12. Observe here,
1. The description of the persons she saw. They were two angels in white, sitting (probably on some benches or ledges hewn out in the rock) one at the head, and the other at the feet, of the grave. Here we have,
(1.) Their nature. They were angels, messengers from heaven, sent on purpose, on this great occasion, [1.] To honour the Son and to grace the solemnity of his resurrection. Now that the Son of God was again to be brought into the world, the angels have a charge to attend him, as they did at his birth, Heb 1:6. [2.] To comfort the saints; to speak good words to those that were in sorrow, and, by giving them notice that the Lord was risen, to prepare them for the sight of him.
(2.) Their number: two, not a multitude of the heavenly host, to sing praise, only two, to bear witness; for out of the mouth of two witnesses this word would be established.
(3.) Their array: They were in white, denoting, [1.] Their purity and holiness. The best of men standing before the angels, and compared with them, are clothed in filthy garments (Zac 3:3), but angels are spotless; and glorified saints, when they come to be as the angels, shall walk with Christ in white. [2.] Their glory, and glorying, upon this occasion. The white in which they appeared represented the brightness of that state into which Christ was now risen.
(4.) Their posture and place: They sat, as it were, reposing themselves in Christ's grave; for angels, though they needed not a restoration, were obliged to Christ for their establishment. These angels went into the grave, to teach us not to be afraid of it, nor to think that our resting in it awhile will be any prejudice to our immortality; no, matters are so ordered that the grave is not much out of our way to heaven. It intimates likewise that angels are to be employed about the saints, not only at their death, to carry their souls into Abraham's bosom, but at the great day, to raise their bodies, Mat 24:31. These angelic guards (and angels are called watchers Dan 4:23), keeping possession of the sepulchre, when they had frightened away the guards which the enemies had set, represents Christ's victory over the powers of darkness, routing and defeating them. Thus Michael and his angels are more than conquerors. Their sitting to face one another, one at his bed's head, the other at his bed's feet, denotes their care of the entire body of Christ, his mystical as well as his natural body, from head to foot; it may also remind us of the two cherubim, placed one at either end of the mercy-seat, looking one at another, Exo 25:18. Christ crucified was the great propitiatory, at the head and feet of which were these two cherubim, not with flaming swords, to keep us fRom. but welcome messengers, to direct us to, the way of life.
2. Their compassionate enquiry into the cause of Mary Magdalene's grief (Joh 20:13): Woman, why weepest thou? This question was, (1.) A rebuke to her weeping: "Why weepest thou, when thou has cause to rejoice?" Many of the floods of our tears would dry away before such a search as this into the fountain of them. Why are thou cast down? (2.) It was designed to show how much angels are concerned at the griefs of the saints, having a charge to minister to them for their comfort. Christians should thus sympathize with one another. (3.) It was only to make an occasion of informing her of that which would turn her mourning into rejoicing, would put off her sackcloth, and gird her with gladness.
3. The melancholy account she gives them of her present distress: Because they have taken away the blessed body I came to embalm, and I know not where they have laid it. The same story she had told, Joh 20:2. In it we may see, (1.) The weakness of her faith. If she had had faith as a grain of mustard-seed, this mountain would have been removed; but we often perplex ourselves needlessly with imaginary difficulties, which faith would discover to us as real advantages. Many good people complain of the clouds and darkness they are under, which are the necessary methods of grace for the humbling of their souls, the mortifying of their sins, and the endearing of Christ to them. (2.) The strength of her love. Those that have a true affection for Christ cannot but be in great affliction when they have lost either the comfortable tokens of his love in their souls or the comfortable opportunities of conversing with him, and doing him honour, in his ordinances. Mary Magdalene is not diverted from her enquiries by the surprise of the vision, nor satisfied with the honour of it; but still she harps upon the same string: They have taken away my Lord. A sight of angels and their smiles will not suffice without a sight of Christ and God's smiles in him. Nay, the sight of angels is but an opportunity of pursuing her enquiries after Christ. All creatures, the most excellent, the most dear, should be used as means, and but as means, to bring us into acquaintance with God in Christ. The angels asked her, Why weepest thou? I have cause enough to weep, says she, for they have taken away my Lord, and, like Micah, What have I more? Do you ask, Why I weep? My beloved has withdrawn himself, and is gone. Note, None know, but those who have experienced it, the sorrow of a deserted soul, that has had comfortable evidences of the love of God in Christ, and hopes of heaven, but has now lost them, and walks in darkness; such a wounded spirit who can bear?
III. Christ's appearing to her while she was talking with the angels, and telling them her case. Before they had given her any answer, Christ himself steps in, to satisfy her enquiries, for God now speaketh to us by his Son; none but he himself can direct us to himself. Mary would fain know where her Lord is, and behold he is at her right hand. Note, 1. Those that will be content with nothing short of a sight of Christ shall be put off with nothing less. He never said to the soul that sought him, Seek in vain. "Is it Christ that thou wouldest have? Christ thou shalt have." 2. Christ, in manifesting himself to those that seek him, often outdoes their expectations. Mary longs to see the dead body of Christ, and complains of the loss of that, and behold she sees him alive. Thus he does for his praying people more than they are able to ask or think. In this appearance of Christ to Mary observe,
(1.) How he did at first conceal himself from her.
[1.] He stood as a common person, and she looked upon him accordingly, Joh 20:14. She stood expecting an answer to her complaint from the angels; and either seeing the shadow, or hearing the tread, of some person behind her, she turned herself back from talking with the angels, and sees Jesus himself standing, the very person she was looking for, and yet she knew not that it was Jesus. Note, First, The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart (Psa 34:18), nearer than they are aware. Those that seek Christ, though they do not see him, may yet be sure he is not far from them. Secondly, Those that diligently seek the Lord will turn every way in their enquiry after him. Mary turned herself back, in hopes of some discoveries. Several of the ancients suggest that Mary was directed to look behind her by the angels' rising up, and doing their obeisance to the Lord Jesus, whom they saw before Mary did; and that she looked back to see to whom it was they paid such a profound reverence. But, if so, it is not likely that she would have taken him for the gardener; rather, therefore, it was her earnest desire in seeking that made her turn every way. Thirdly, Christ is often near his people, and they are not aware of him. She knew not that it was Jesus; not that he appeared in any other likeness, but either it was a careless transient look she cast upon him, and, her eyes being full of care, she could not so well distinguish, or they were holden, that she should not know him, as those of the two disciples, Luk 24:16.
[2.] He asked her a common question, and she answered him accordingly, Joh 20:15.
First, The question he asked her was natural enough, and what any one would have asked her: "Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? What business hast thou here in the garden so early? And what is all this noise and ado for?" Perhaps it was spoken with some roughness, as Joseph spoke to his brethren when he made himself strange, before he made himself known to them. It should seem, this was the first word Christ spoke after his resurrection: "Why weepest thou? I am risen." The resurrection of Christ has enough in it to ally all our sorrows, to check the streams, and dry up the fountains, of our tears. Observe here, Christ takes cognizance, 1. Of his people's griefs, and enquires, Why weep you? He bottles their tears, and records them in his book. 2. Of his people's cares and enquires, Whom seek you, and what would you have? When he knows they are seeking him, yet he will know it from them; they must tell him whom they seek.
Secondly, The reply she made him is natural enough; she does not give him a direct answer, but, as if she should say, "Why do you banter me, and upbraid me with my tears? You know why I weep, and whom I seek;" and therefore, supposing him to be the gardener, the person employed by Joseph to dress and keep his garden, who, she thought, was come thither thus early to his work, she said, Sir, if thou hast carried him hence, pray tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. See here, 1. The error of her understanding. She supposed our Lord Jesus to be the gardener, perhaps because he asked what authority she had to be there. Note, Troubled spirits, in a cloudy and dark day, are apt to misrepresent Christ to themselves, and to put wrong constructions upon the methods of his providence and grace. 2. The truth of her affection. See how her heart was set upon finding Christ. She puts the question to every one she meets, like the careful spouse, Saw you him whom my soul loveth? She speaks respectfully to a gardener, and calls him Sir, in hopes to gain some intelligence from him concerning her beloved. When she speaks of Christ, she does not name him; but, If thou have borne him hence, taking it for granted that this gardener was full of thoughts concerning this Jesus as well as she, and therefore could not but know whom she meant. Another evidence of the strength of her affection was that, wherever he was laid, she would undertake to remove him. Such a body, with such a weight of spices about it, was much more than she could pretend to carry; but true love thinks it can do more than it can, and makes nothing of difficulties. She supposed this gardener grudged that the body of one that was ignominiously crucified should have the honour to be laid in his master's new tomb, and that therefore he had removed it to some sorry place, which he thought fitter for it. Yet Mary does not threaten to tell his master, and get him turned out of his place for it; but undertakes to find out some other sepulchre, to which he might be welcome. Christ needs not to stay where he is thought a burden.
(2.) How Christ at length made himself known to her, and, by a pleasing surprise, gave her infallible assurances of his resurrection. Joseph at length said to his brethren, I am Joseph. So Christ here to Mary Magdalene, now that he is entered upon his exalted state. Observe,
[1.] How Christ discovered himself to this good woman that was seeking him in tears (Joh 20:16): Jesus saith unto her, Mary. It was said with an emphasis, and the air of kindness and freedom with which he was wont to speak to her. Now he changed his voice, and spoke like himself, not like the gardener. Christ's way of making himself known to his people is by his word, his word applied to their souls, speaking to them in particular. When those whom God knew by name in the counsels of his love (Exo 33:12) are called by name in the efficacy of his grace, then he reveals his Son in them as in Paul (Gal 1:16), when Christ called to him by name, Saul, Saul. Christ's sheep know his voice, Joh 10:4. This one word, Mary, was like that to the disciples in the storm, It is I. Then the word of Christ does us good when we put our names into the precepts and promises. "In this Christ calls to me, and speaks to me."
[2.] How readily she received this discovery. When Christ said, "Mary, dost thou not know me? are you and I grown such strangers?" she was presently aware who it was, as the spouse (Sol 2:8), It is the voice of my beloved. She turned herself, and said, Rabboni, My Master. It might properly be read with an interrogation, "Rabboni? Is it my master? Nay, but is it indeed?" Observe, First, The title of respect she gives Him: My Master; didaskale - a teaching master. The Jews called their doctors Rabbies, great men. Their critics tell us that Rabbon was with them a more honourable title than Rabbi; and therefore Mary chooses that, and adds a note of appropriation, My great Master. Note, Notwithstanding the freedom of communion which Christ is pleased to admit us to with himself, we must remember that he is our Master, and to be approached with a godly fear. Secondly, With what liveliness of affection she gives this title to Christ. She turned from the angels, whom she had in her eye, to look unto Jesus. We must take off our regards from all creatures, even the brightest and best, to fix them upon Christ, from whom nothing must divert us, and with whom nothing must interfere. When she thought it had been the gardener, she looked another way while speaking to him; but now that she knew the voice of Christ she turned herself. The soul that hears Christ's voice, and is turned to him, calls him, with joy and triumph, My Master. See with what pleasure those who love Christ speak of his authority over them. My Master, my great Master.
[3.] The further instructions that Christ gave her (Joh 10:17): "Touch me not, but go and carry the news to the disciples."
First, He diverts her from the expectation of familiar society and conversation with him at this time: Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended. Mary was so transported with the sight of her dear Master that she forgot herself, and that state of glory into which he was now entering, and was ready to express her joy by affectionate embraces of him, which Christ here forbids at this time. 1. Touch me not thus at all, for I am to ascend to heaven. He bade the disciples touch him, for the confirmation of their faith; he allowed the women to take hold of his feet, and worship him (Mat 28:9); but Mary, supposing that he was risen, as Lazarus was, to live among them constantly, and converse with them freely as he had done, upon that presumption was about to take hold of his hand with her usual freedom. This mistake Christ rectified; she must believe him, and adore him, as exalted, but must not expect to be familiar with him as formerly. See Co2 5:16. He forbids her to dote upon his bodily presence, to set her heart on this, or expect its continuance, and leads her to the spiritual converse and communion which she should have with him after he was ascended to his Father; for the greatest joy of his resurrection was that it was a step towards his ascension. Mary thought, now that her Master was risen, he would presently set up a temporal kingdom, such as they had long promised themselves. "No," says Christ, "touch me not, with any such thought; think not to lay hold on me, so as to detain me here; for, though I am not yet ascended, go to my brethren, and tell them, I am to ascend." As before his death, so now after his resurrection, he still harps upon this, that he was going away, was no more in the world; and therefore they must look higher than his bodily presence, and look further than the present state of things. 2. "Touch me not, do not stay to touch me now, stay not now to make any further enquiries, or give any further expressions of joy, for I am not yet ascended, I shall not depart immediately, it may as well be done another time; the best service thou canst do now is to carry the tidings to the disciples; lose no time therefore, but go away with all speed." Note, Public service ought to be preferred before private satisfaction. It is more blessed to give than to receive. Jacob must let an angel go, when the day breaks, and it is time for him to look after his family. Mary must not stay to talk with her Master, but must carry his message; for it is a day of good tidings, which she must not engross the comfort of, but hand it to others. See that story, Kg2 7:9.
Secondly, He directs her what message to carry to his disciples: But go to my brethren, and tell them, not only that I am risen (she could have told them that of herself, for she had seen him), but that I ascend. Observe,
a. To whom this message is sent: Go to my brethren with it; for he is not ashamed to call them so. (1.) He was now entering upon his glory, and was declared to be the Son of God with greater power than ever, yet he owns his disciples as his brethren, and expresses himself with more tender affection to them than before; he had called them friends, but never brethren till now. Though Christ be high, yet he is not haughty. Notwithstanding his elevation, he disdains not to own his poor relations. (b.) His disciples had lately carried themselves very disingenuously towards him; he had never seen them together since they all forsook him and fled, when he was apprehended; justly might he now have sent them an angry message: "Go to yonder treacherous deserters, and tell them, I will never trust them any more, or have any thing more to do with them." No, he forgives, he forgets, and does not upbraid.
b. By whom it is sent: by Mary Magdalene, out of whom had been cast seven devils, yet now thus favoured. This was her reward for her constancy in adhering to Christ, and enquiring after him; and a tacit rebuke to the apostles, who had not been so close as she was in attending on the dying Jesus, nor so early as she was in meeting the rising Jesus; she becomes an apostle to the apostles.
c. What the message itself is: I ascend to my Father. Two full breasts of consolation are here in these words: -
(a.) Our joint-relation to God, resulting from our union with Christ, is an unspeakable comfort. Speaking of that inexhaustible spring of light, life, and bliss, he says, He is my Father, and our Father; my God, and your God. This is very expressive of the near relation that subsists between Christ and believers: he that sanctifieth, and those that are sanctified, are both one; for they agree in one, Heb 2:11. Here we have such an advancement of Christians, and such a condescension of Christ, as bring them very near together, so admirably well is the matter contrived, in order to their union. [a.] It is the great dignity of believers that the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is, in him, their Father. A vast difference indeed there is between the respective foundations of the relation; he is Christ's Father by eternal generation, ours by a gracious adoption; yet even this warrants us to call him, as Christ did, Abba, Father. This gives a reason why Christ called them brethren, because his Father was their Father. Christ was now ascending to appear as an advocate with the Father - with his Father, and therefore we may hope he will prevail for any thing - with our Father, and therefore we may hope he will prevail for us. [b.] It is the great condescension of Christ that he is pleased to own the believer's God for his God: My God, and your God; mine, that he may be yours; the God of the Redeemer, to support him (Psa 89:26), that he might be the God of the redeemed, to save them. The summary of the new covenant is that God will be to us a God; and therefore Christ being the surety and head of the covenant, who is primarily dealt with, and believers only through him as his spiritual seed, this covenant-relation fastens first upon him, God becomes his God, and so ours; we partaking of a divine nature, Christ's Father is our Father; and, he partaking of the human nature, our God is his God.
(b.) Christ's ascension into heaven, in further prosecution of his undertaking for us, is likewise an unspeakable comfort: "Tell them I must shortly ascend; that is the next step I am to take." Now this was intended to be, [a.] A word of caution to these disciples, not to expect the continuance of his bodily presence on earth, nor the setting up of his temporal kingdom among men, which they dreamed of. "No, tell them, I am risen, not to stay with them, but to go on their errand to heaven." Thus those who are raised to a spiritual life, in conformity to Christ's resurrection, must reckon that they rise to ascend; they are quickened with Christ that they may sit with him in heavenly places, Eph 2:5, Eph 2:6. Let them not think that this earth is to be their home and rest; no, being born from heaven, they are bound for heaven; their eye and aim must be upon another world, and this must be ever upon their hearts, I ascend, therefore must I seek things above. [b.] A word of comfort to them, and to all that shall believe in him through their word; he was then ascending, he is now ascended to his Father, and our Father. This was his advancement; he ascended to receive those honours and powers which were to be the recompence of his humiliation; he says it with triumph, that those who love him may rejoice. This is our advantage; for he ascended as a conqueror, leading captivity captive for us (Psa 68:18), he ascended as our forerunner, to prepare a place for us, and to be ready to receive us. This message was like that which Joseph's brethren brought to Jacob concerning him (Gen 45:26), Joseph is yet alive, and not only so, vivit imo, et in senatum venit - he lives, and comes into the senate too; he is governor over all the land of Egypt; all power is his.
Some make those words, I ascend to my God and your God, to include a promise of our resurrection, in the virtue of Christ's resurrection; for Christ had proved the resurrection of the dead from these words, I am the God of Abraham, Mat 22:32. So that Christ here insinuates, "As he is my God, and hath therefore raised me, so he is your God, and will therefore raise you, and be your God, Rev 21:3. Because I live, you shall live also. I now ascend, to honour my God, and you shall ascend to him as your God.
IV. Here is Mary Magdalene's faithful report of what she had seen and heard to the disciples (Joh 20:18): She came and told the disciples, whom she found together, that she had seen the Lord. Peter and John had left her seeking him carefully with tears, and would not stay to seek him with her; and now she comes to tell them that she had found him, and to rectify the mistake she had led them into by enquiring after the dead body, for now she found it was a living body and a glorified one; so that she found what she sought, and, what was infinitely better, she had joy in her sight of the Master herself, and was willing to communicate of her joy, for she knew it would be good news to them. When God comforts us, it is with this design, that we may comfort others. And as she told them what she had seen, so also what she had heard; she had seen the Lord alive, of which this was a token (and a good token it was) that he had spoken these things unto her as a message to be delivered to them, and she delivered it faithfully. Those that are acquainted with the word of Christ themselves should communicate their knowledge for the good of others, and not grudge that others should know as much as they do.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv11–14 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre,.... She returned…
But Mary stood without at the sepulchre,.... She returned from the city to the sepulchre again, following Peter and John thither, who continued here when they departed, being willing to get some tidings of her Lord, if possible. The word "without", is omitted by the Syriac, Arabic, and Persic versions, but is in the Greek copies; and is properly put by the evangelist, when rightly understood; for the meaning is not, that she stood without the sepulchre, taken in its full extent; for she stood, "in the court", where the bearers set down the corpse, in order to carry it into the cave, or vault; she stood without the innermost part of the sepulchre, but not without side the sepulchre itself; as appears from her stooping and looking into it:
weeping; that the body of her dear Lord was taken away, and she was prevented of showing that respect unto it she designed; and not knowing in whose hands it was, but fearing it would be insulted and abused by wicked men, her heart was ready to break with sorrow:
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and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre; to see if she could see him, if she and the disciples were not mistaken, being loath to go without finding him: so it is in a spiritual sense, the absence of Christ is cause of great distress and sorrow to gracious souls; because of the excellency of his person, the near and dear relations he stands in to them and on account of the nature of his presence and company, which is preferable to everything in this world; nor can such souls, when they have lost sight of Christ, sit down contented; but will seek after him in the Scriptures, under the ministry of the word, and at the ordinances of the Gospel, where a crucified, buried, risen Jesus is exhibited.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v11 But Mary stood - With more constancy. Mark xvi,…
But Mary stood - With more constancy. Mark xvi, 9.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv11–14 Verse 11. But Mary stood without] She remained some…
Verse 11. But Mary stood without] She remained some time after Peter and John had returned to their own homes.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On v14 Joh 20:14-15. And when she had thus said, she…
Joh 20:14-15. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back — Probably hearing a sudden noise behind her, and being affrighted; and saw Jesus standing — Near her; but knew not that it was Jesus — His habit being changed, her eyes also overflowing with tears, and her mind being so far from any expectation of his appearance, and so much distressed, that she probably did not so much as look up to the face of the person who appeared; Jesus saith — With his usual tone of voice and accent; Woman, why weepest thou? — These were probably the first words Christ spoke after his resurrection. Why weepest thou? — I am risen. The resurrection of Christ has enough in it to allay all our sorrows, to check the streams, and dry up the fountains of our tears. Here we may observe, Christ takes cognizance, 1st, Of his people’s griefs, and inquires why they weep? 2d, Of his people’s cares, and inquires whom or what they seek, or what they would have; when he knows they are seeking him, yet he will know it from them; they must tell him whom they seek. She, supposing him to be the gardener — The person employed by Joseph to dress and keep his garden, who she thought was come hither thus early to his work; saith, Sir, if thou have borne him hence — If, for any unknown reason, thou hast taken him away from this place, where the master of the sepulchre saw fit so honourably to lay him but a few hours ago; tell me where thou hast laid him — Where I may find his corpse; and I will take him away — Will take effectual care that his corpse shall be removed and decently interred elsewhere. Here we may observe, 1st, That her taking Jesus for the gardener intimates, that there was nothing very splendid in his dress: accordingly when he appeared to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus they seem to have taken him for a person of a rank not superior to their own. 2d, That she accosts this stranger in respectful language, even when she took him for a servant, prudently reflecting, that an error on that hand would be more excusable than one on the other, supposing he should prove a person of superior rank in a plain dress. 3d, That she does not name Jesus, but speaks in indefinite terms; If thou have borne him hence — Intimating that he was the one person of whom her own thoughts and heart were so full, that she took it for granted every one must know whom she meant. 4th, She seems to have supposed, that this gardener disdained that the body of a person who was ignominiously crucified should have the honour of being laid in his master’s new tomb, and that therefore he had removed it to some sorry place which he thought fitter for it.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv13–14 They have taken away - That is the disciples…
They have taken away - That is the disciples or friends of Jesus who had laid him there. Perhaps it was understood that the body was deposited there only to remain over the Sabbath, with an intention then of removing it to some other place of burial. Hence, they hastened early in the morning to make preparation, and Mary supposed they had arrived before her and had taken him away.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v14 It may be asked, why Magdalene, after putting the…
It may be asked, why Magdalene, after putting the question to the angels, turns around, without waiting for the answer. No doubt, as soon as she had spoken, the heavenly messengers perceived their Lord behind Mary, and by their looks and actions, gave her to understand that they beheld their Lord. This caused her immediately to look behind her. (St. John Chrysostom, hom. lxxxv. in Joan.)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v11
II
HOW THE RISEN ONE CHANGES MARY MAGDALENE’S DESOLATION INTO BLESSED PEACE AND MAKES HER HIS EASTER-MESSENGER
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Joh_20:11-18
(Mat_28:1-15; Mar_16:1-11; Luk_24:1-12)
11 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping [But Mary was standing (εἱστήκει) without by the tomb weeping]6 : and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre [she stooped down into the tomb, παρέκυψεν εἰς τὸ μνημεῖον], 12And seeth [beholdeth, θεωρεῖ, not βλέπει, see Joh_20:5-6] two angels in white sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. 13And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid14 him. And7 when she had thus said [Having said this, ταῦτα εἰποῦσα], she turned herself back, and saw [beholdeth, θεωρεῖ] Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus. 15Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener [that it was the gardener, ὅτι ὁ κηπουρός ἐστισ], saith unto him, Sir, if thou have [hast] borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. 16Jesus saith unto her, Mary. [!] She turned herself, and saith unto him [in Hebrew] 8 Rabboni; which is to say, Master [Rabboni! (which is to say, Teacher!)] 17Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not ;9 for I am [have] not yet ascended to my10 [the] Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, [omit (,)] and your Father; [,] and to [omit to] my God, [omit (,)] and your God. 18Mary [the] Magdalene came [cometh, ἔρχεται] and told the disciples [bringing tidings, ὰγγέλουσα, to the disciples] that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken [said] these things unto her.
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
Continuation of the history of the Magdalene. First manifestation of the Risen One.
Joh_20:11. But Mary was standing by the tomb. [Μαριὰμ δὲ εἱστήκει (al. ἱστήκει)πρὸς τῷ μνημείῳ ἔξω κλαίουσα]—Εἱστήκει: she was standing as if rooted to the spot. The Evangelist has omitted to mention that she immediately followed the two disciples. Whether she met them at the grave, the narrative says not. She comes, and again finds the empty tomb. She now stations herself in front of it, as though, all too late, she would become its guardian. It is the plastic expression of her thought, her grief.
Now as she wept [ὡς οὖν ἔκλαιεν].—Her weeping is in reference to her idea that the body of Jesus has been stolen; hence she glances ever and anon down toward the empty place where He has lain.
Joh_20:12. And she beholdeth two angels. [καὶ θεωρεῖ δύο ἀλλέλους].—The angelic appearances in the resurrection history, a sign of the thoroughly new, wonderful epoch of this event. The truth and objectivity of her vision are supported by the slender impression which these appearances seem to make upon her in her present mood; the internal, subjective conditions, by the circumstance that the two apostles saw no angel, and the other women only one.
[Alford adopts the rather fanciful remark of Luthardt: The angels were in white because from the world of light; they sit, as not defending, but peacefully watching the Body; at the head and the feet, for the Body of the Lord was from head to foot in the charge of His Father and of His servants—P. S.]
Joh_20:14. She turned back. [ἐστράφη εἰς τἀ ὀπίσω], i. e., to look towards the garden, and to see if some one would not appear and give her information.
And knew not that it was Jesus. [οὐκ ἤδει ὅτι Ἰησοῦς ἐστίν.—There is foundation on both sides for her non-recognition. On the one hand, Jesus has altered: He is the Risen, the Transformed One. The external feature which, in addition to the one already mentioned, some assume, is less certain. “She thinks the gardener (Joh_19:41) of Joseph of Arimathea is before her, and that he has assigned the body another place. The circumstance that the Risen One was clothed with the subligaculum, or loin-strip, which crucified persons wore, and the same also that field and garden laborers were in, the habit of wearing, might incline her the more to this opinion.” Tholuck (following Hug). Kuinoel, Paulus, and others have even clothed Him in the dress of the gardener. On the other hand, Magdalene’s faculties were concentrated within; she was in a visionary mood rather than in one favorable to acute observation; irrespective of the fact that her mind was not in the slightest degree predisposed to expect the appearance of the Lord. In a similar manner, the eyes of the disciples journeying to Emmaus were holden. Meyer denies the holdenness of the eyes in the present case (Grotius); perhaps because he imagines it to be the fruit of some magical working. [Dräseke assigns as a reason because her tears wove a veil, and because the seeking after the dead prevents us from seeing the living. She was wholly absorbed in the thought of the absent Lord.—P. S.]
Joh_20:15. If thou hast borne Him hence [εἰ σὺ ἐβάστασας αὐτόν].—She does no name Him. She takes it for granted that every one is thinking of Him only. Of course if the supposed gardener had carried away the Lord, he would understand her saying (Meyer); otherwise it were necessarily unintelligible to him She will go, she will bring the body. Her as suming a posture with a view to hurrying away in a certain direction, is evident from the following: “she turned herself.” We cannot infer from these words that she turned directly to the grave again. She gives herself credit for sufficient strength to enable her to carry the corpse and deposit it in the tomb again. For at this very time it should be receiving anointment at the hands of the women.
Joh_20:16. Mary [Μαριάμ].—His voice had the same unique sound as before (see Luk_24:35; comp. 30, 31); especially the call by name (Isa_43:1). Since the voice of every human being in a healthy condition is the expression of the man within him, we can infer the impressiveness of Jesus’ voice without having a more definite conception of it. Recollections of things that address themselves to the ear are the most enduring, observes Strauss11 in his Glockentöne. The manifestation of God begins with the hearing-wonder, and dies away in it. The expression of the voice is concentrated in the naming of a beloved name.
Rabboni [Ῥαββουνεί].—With the infinite expression of the salutation—Mary—with which Christ makes Himself known to her, the word of recognition corresponds—Rabboni, my Teacher. The Evangelist cannot help reproducing the original Hebrew word in its sonorousness; therefore the interpretation. The solemnity of the passage is not contained in the explanatory supplement, but in the Rabboni. We can infer from that which follows that she meantime has fallen at His feet and embraced them, “like those women in Mat_28:9, and the woman that was a sinner, Luk_7:39.” I. e., her own self at the time.
Joh_20:17. Hold (Touch) Me not [Μή μου ἅπτου.12 Noli me tangere.—In explaining this, reference should be had to Joh_20:22, where Thomas is directed by the Lord: φέρε τὴν χεῖρά σου καὶ βάλε εἰς τὴν πλευράν μου, and Luk_24:39, where He calls upon the disciples: ψηλαφήσατέ με. It is therefore not the act of touching, as such, which the Lord reproves, but the animus or motive of Mary. The scene has often been represented in pictures called Noli me tangere.—P. S.] Interpretations of the enigmatical μή μου ἅπτου:
1. “Handle (Touch) Me not” [in the literal sense]:
a. Strictly supernaturalistic: Jesus demands a greater reverence for His body now that it has become divine (Chrysostom, Erasmus and many others). Unseasonable devoutness and insufficient explanation of γάρ (“for I have not yet ascended”).
b. Decidedly natural, in various apprehensions. Ammon: Jesus desired to spare her the touching of One levitically unclean; Paulus: His wounds still pained Him, therefore touching Him would have hurt Him!
c. Spiritualistic: Weisse: He was still bodiless, a mere spiritual apparition (a ghost).
d. Gnostic: Hilgenfeld: He as yet appeared only as a mere Man, being not yet reunited to the Logos, and therefore adoration was unseasonable. [Yet immediately afterwards He allows Himself to be called by Thomas: “My Lord and My God;” comp. also Mat_28:9.—P. S.]
e. Physiological. Because the new, glorified corporeality of Jesus was still so tender as to shun every vigorous grasp (Schleiermacher [and Olshausen, edd. 1 and 3]).
f. Psychological: Handle Me not for the purpose of examining whether it be really Myself in the body, or My glorified spirit. Meyer (following J. Fred. von Meyer13), Lücke. [In this case the following words οὔπω γὰρ ἀναβέβηκα, κ. τ. λ., express the assurance of the Lord that He is still corporeally present with her, having not yet been translated to the Father in heaven.—P. S.]
2. “Hold Me not fast.”
a. Supernaturalistic: Seek not thy comfort in My present appearance by terrestrial contact, but by spiritual communion (Aret., Grot., Neand. and others).
[Also Augustine (Tract, cxxi. c. 3). “ ‘Noli Me tangere:’ id est, Noli in Me sic credere, quemadmodum adhuc sapis; noli tuum sensum huc usque pertendere quod pro te factus sum, nec transire ad illud per quod facta es. Quomodo enim non carnaliter adhuc in eum credebat, quem sicut hominem flebat?” Leo the Great, Serm. 74 (al. 72), c. John 4 : “Nolo ut ad Me corporaliter venias, net ut me sensu carnis agnoscas: ad sublimiora te differo, majora tibi præparo: cum ad Patrem ascendero, tunc Me perfectius veriusgue palpabis, apprehensura quod non tangis, et creditura quod non cernis.” Calvin, Melancthon, De Wette, Tholuck, Luthardt, Hengstenberg, Godet hold substantially this same view. Alford: “She believed she had now gotten Him again, never to be parted from Him. This gesture He reproves as unsuited to the time, and the nature of His present appearance. ‘Do not thus—for I am not yet restored fully to you in body—I have yet to ascend to the Father.’ This implies in the background another and truer touching when He should have ascended to the Father.” Wordsworth (who has a long note here): “Cleave not to Me in My bodily appearance; do not touch Me carnally, but learn to touch Me spiritually. When the power of the bodily touch ends, then the spiritual touch begins, and that touch most honors Christ and profits us.” Wordsworth then applies the passage to Christ’s presence in the eucharist which is spiritual, not carnal.—Hengstenberg (III. p. 303) conjectures that Mary, in the mistaken notion that the partition wall between Christ and her had now fallen, desired to embrace Him; this the Lord withstood, because the process of glorification was not yet completed, and the separation still continued in part. Godet: “ἅπτεσθαι is to touch in order to enjoy, to attach one’s self to some one: This is not the moment to attach yourself to Me as I am before you in My human individuality.” Comp. below sub d.—P. S.]
b. Historical: Tarry not with Me, but make haste and discharge the message; time enough later for handling, greeting, holding (Beza, Calovius, Bengel).
c. Spiritualistic-mythical: Jesus was on the point of ascending, and did not desire to be detained by Mary (Baur, Kinkel: One of the numerous ascensions occurring in the period of the forty days was about to be performed).
d. Christologico-psychological: Hold Me not as though we were in the perfection of the existence of that world beyond us, for I am not yet ascended, etc., to say nothing of thyself. (Leben Jesu II., 1661; III., 74414 Hofmann, Luthardt, Tholuck. As regards the sense, similarly Luther and others at an earlier period.)15 [Similar to explanation 2 a, above.—P. S.].
On the fact that the term ἅπτεσθαι does not barely mean to touch, to handle, but that it also particularly denotes a hanging upon, a holding fast, see Tholuck, p. 434 [Krauth’s transl. p. 411]. Tholuck divides the interpretations into two classes, one of which discovers the reason for the repulse in the not yet glorified condition of Christ; while the other maintains that it lies in the glorified state of the Lord. According to the distribution into ἄπτεσθαι to lay hold of, and to hold fast, the former is by preference interpreted as signifying the catching hold of the knees, worshipping. Yet not exclusively. The design of Jesus’ speech was undoubtedly to limit the exuberance of Magdalene’s rapture, to deprive her of the new illusion which is persuading her that every difficulty and danger of her life is laid behind her, that external intercourse with Jesus is now to continue and that it is the supreme thing,—and so to guide her feeling into a practical channel. Hence the commission.
To my brethren [πορεύου δὲ πρὸς τοὺς ἀδελφούς μου.]—So He calls the disciples by a new name of familiar co-ordination. Meyer: He means her to gather from this that His appearance is not as yet a super-terrestrial and glorified one. Glorification, however, does not put an end to the brotherly feeling. Bengel: The word is designed to speak peace to the disciples concerning their flight. Right, but too narrow. Christ breathes in the paradisaic peace of the new reconciliation. God is become the Father of the disciples; He greets them in the dignity of their new life—in which He will soon make them glad through the Spirit of adoption, as co-brothers in the new kingdom that is now founded, and as co-heirs. The relation of humanity to God is changed, the new Paradise is opened, together with the new Man there are born into the world His brethren in spe, He nevertheless remaining the Lord and King of them. Tholuck. It is the intimation of the relationship of reconciliation (Apollinaris, Luther, Bucer).
I ascend [Ἀναβαίνω].—The imminent ascension spoken of as already present, since He even now finds Himself in the new heavenly state, or transition state, which is the condition of ascension. To My Father and your Father [πρὸς τὸν πατέρα μου καὶ πατέρα ὐμῶν].—He does not say to our (as also elsewhere your Father, My Father, Mat_6:9 : after this manner pray ye: Our Father), for the relation in which He stands to the Father is, in its character of an eternal, immediate, principial relation, specifically different from their mediate relation to the Father. Still this positive assurance is herein contained: My Father is also your Father now; ye shall be glorified along with Me.—To my God [θεόν μου καὶ θεὸν ὑμῶν].—There; is the same contrast again on both sides in His generalizations. His consciousness of God is specifically unique and the source of theirs (Eph_1:3). But as in the resurrection, the Father has demonstrated Himself to be His almighty God, so in future, in their course of life and victory, He will prove Himself to be their God also.—Thus is Magdalene made the first Evangelist of the resurrection to the apostolic circle itself, the Lord having also first appeared to her.
Joh_20:18. Magdalene cometh [Ἔρχεται Μαριὰμ ἡ Μαγδαληνὴ ἀγγέλουσα τοῖς μαθηταῖς ὔτι ἑώρακα τὸν κύριον καὶ ταῦτα εἶπεν αὐτῇ].—She is obedient to the commission. She first announces her joy that she has seen Him, then discharges His commission. According to Meyer, there is a difference between this commission and the passage Mat_28:10. Progress, however, from the most general disclosure to a more special one never constitutes a difference. Otherwise, the announcement of His imminent ascension would also present a difference from the directly following revelations of Jesus in the circle of disciples, as recorded by John himself.
DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL
1. Mary Magdalene, the first guardian of the Holy Sepulchre. The later and present guardians of it.
2. The angelic apparitions at the Birth, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of the Lord mark these moments as the great epochs in the life of Jesus. For the angelic world does, in general, emerge into view in the grand epochs of the Kingdom of God. Therefore particularly in the life of Abraham and in that of Moses; at the founding of the covenant-religion, and at the establishment of the Old Testament theocracy. For this reason, after the establishment of the New Covenant in the life of Jesus, there is a withdrawal of angelic apparitions in all the period through which the Church’s history extends; their return, however, is promised for the end of the world. The psychological reason is contained in the fact that in all those moments the human world is brought into closest proximity to the spirit-world; that the whole form of the visible world vanishes, to a greater or less degree, from the deeply moved elect on this side the gulf, and in the deep twilight of this world there uncloses within them a ghostly vision for the spirit-world See the author’s Positive Dogmatik, p. 578 ff.
3. That the perception of the angels in their objective manifestation was still conditioned by the liberation of a visionary faculty on the part of those who beheld them, results from the history of the resurrection. Peter and John see no angel here, the other-women see but one angel, Magdalene sees two angels. Similar relative degrees of visionary perception are announced Joh_12:28-29; likewise Act_9:7; Act_22:9. Comp. Dan_10:7.
4. Christ’s superiority to the angels a doctrine taught by Scripture, Matthew 4; Mat_26:63; Eph_1:21; Php_2:10; Heb_2:5 ff., Mary Magdalene, who was scarcely dogmatically instructed therein, here scenically sets forth, in accordance with the instinct of Christian vital feeling.
5. The fact of Mary’s recognizing the Lord by her ear rather than by her eye is entirely in agreement with the laws of manifestation; according to these laws, wonders which address themselves to the hearing are of earlier and more frequent occurrence and of later with drawal than such as appeal to the sight. Here, however, it is at the same time a testimony to the spiritual and divine character of Magdalene’s attachment to the Lord. She knows Him by the tone in which Christ calls her name. Through the human call she becomes aware of the divine call, the perception of which constitutes the most blissful experience of the elect. See Isa_43:1.
6. A dialogue most brief and yet most pregnant: Mary; Rabboni.
7. Hold me not. In no moment of blissful ecstasy may we forget that we are still on earth and still have a mission here. Even Mary must attain to a consciousness of the situation. The fact that Mary had not yet arrived at the goal was gently expressed by the Lord in the saying that He Himself had not yet reached it. At the same time there is here intimated the truth that spiritual communion with the Lord constitutes the essential part of a beatifying communion with Him, and is the condition of the bliss of beholding Him [face to face].
8. The message entrusted to Mary. It is addressed to the brethren. It is a message concerning the imminent perfecting of Christ. He does not speak of His resurrection; He speaks of His imminent ascension. His eye glances forward to the supreme goal. He designates His glorification as an ascension to His Father, in His character as the Son of God; to His God, in His character as the glorified Son of Man. This His ascension is, however, to redound to the advantage of His brethren as well as His own good. Hence the saying runs: “and to your Father,” etc. It is to be observed that Christ connects His relation to God with that of His brethren, and also makes a distinction between the two.
9. The first Easter-message addressed by Christ to the apostolic circle itself, was discharged by a woman, a female disciple, who, without doubt, was formerly the great sinner. The first manifestation of Christ was apportioned to Magdalene, as was the first manifestation of the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament to the Egyptian maid Hagar—doubtless for the reason that both, being in a condition most sorely needing consolation, first had need of the manifestation, and were moreover mentally disposed to receive it. [Hagar the bondmaid of Sarah, Magdalene once the bondmaid of sin.] “Wenn wir in höchsten Nöthen sein.”16 (“When in the hour of utmost need.”) At such a time is evolved the ability of perceiving the most wonderful help.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL
See the Doct. Notes.
Mary Magdalene at the sepulchre of the Lord: 1. How disconsolate: a. she standeth chained to the spot, as the guardian of the sepulchre; b. she weepeth; c. she stoopeth down. 2. How comforted: a. she seeth the angels; b. she seeth the Lord; c. she is made a messenger of joy to the flock of disciples.—The spiritual unity in the great change experienced by Mary: 1. In all her desolation, love for the Lord remained the light of her life (her faith and her hope). 2. In all her bliss there remained the painful pressure of her longing after the consummation.—How the Lord crowneth love for Him: 1. She sought the Body of the Lord to anoint it and received the anointing of the Spirit from the Living One. 2. In her grief for the Body, she hoped in the Living One, and became a messenger of life to the whole Church of Christ in all ages.—The blessing of true mourning at the grave.—The saying, “Blessed are they that mourn”—most conspicuously fulfilled.—The angels at the feet and head of the dead and risen Lord.—While pious men weep, there is already prepared for them supreme consolation.—The threefold conversation of Mary indicative of three degrees of her Easter-joy: 1. With the angels, 2. with the Lord, 3. with the disciples.—The great school of the Spirit of Christ: 1. At first she thought it impossible to part from the body of Christ; 2. and soon she learns to let the Risen One Himself externally go home.—The mood of Mary when desirous of detaining the Lord, compared with the mood of Peter on the Mount of Transfiguration.—The message of the Risen One to His disciples: 1. Addressed to His brethren, 2. a message concerning His ascension on their behalf also, 3. the preparation for His appearing in the midst of them.—The first sermon about the Risen One: 1. Delivered by a soul that was nigh unto despair; 2. by a woman; 3. by a pardoned sinner.—How she discharges the message: 1. She speaks of her blessedness (I have seen the Lord). Then 2. she faithfully delivers the saying. Application: Thus in the true preaching of Christ, the testimony of experience and the commanded word must accompany each other.—The Christian life, until the consummation, an eternal alternation of beholding and renouncing (or of receiving and sacrificing; making holiday and working).—The mission to the brethren ever the precious heavenly fruit of the beholding of Christ’s glory.
Starke: Even pious souls do often err when they yield too much to those emotions which are good in themselves, Luk_24:17 f.—O how many peek and pine without cause!—Hall: Holy desires always prosper, Pro_8:17.—To speak comfortably to the afflicted is praiseworthy, and in accordance with the custom of the angels, yea, of the great God Himself, Luk_7:13; 1Th_5:14.—I bid.: Many a tender and humbled soul mourns over the loss of its Saviour and yet He, the while, is beside it, Son_3:1-4.—Hedinger: The greater and more intense the misery of a distressed soul, the nearer Christ is; but He is not immediately recognized in the darkness.—Canstein: It stands to reason that believers, Jesus being risen, should not weep nor be sorrowful, but put in practice the words of St. Paul: “Rejoice in the Lord away,” etc., Php_4:4.—Hall: Jesus knoweth His sheep by name, Joh_10:3. Whoso is a true sheep of Jesus, knoweth also the voice of his Shepherd, Joh_10:4.—Canstein: Christ’s voice still presses upon our ears and pierces into our hearts when He calls us by name.—Hedinger: Unto faithful hearts there suddenly ariseth a light of joy, Psa_97:11; yet must they moderate their longing and be satisfied with the brief glimpse granted them. The Lord will not have them hang upon His gifts and friendliness, but upon Himself and His love.—Zeisius: Eve, the first woman, brought transgression into the world; Mary, on the other hand, was the first preacher of restored, eternal righteousness.—Bibl. Wirt.: Through Christ’s resurrection we are become His brethren and God’s children. Now if we be children of God, we are also His heirs and joint-heirs with Christ, our Brother, to eternal blessedness, Rom_8:17.—Cramer: As woman was the first to serve the devil, so she must be the first to serve Christ, 1Ti_2:14.—Hall: Unto the upright there ariseth light in the darkness, from the Gracious, Compassionate and Righteous One, Psa_112:4. 17—Gerlach: The inquiry of the angels concerning a thing which they know, is to be understood similarly with Christ’s question to the blind men: what will ye that I should do unto you? Grief when uttered makes a man susceptible of consolation.—Before this speech of Jesus one manuscript inserts the words: “And she ran toward Him to lay hold of Him,” which, even if John did not write it, we of course are to supply mentally.—Father has particular reference to His divinity, God to His humanity. Here, for the first time, He significantly calls them brethren (comp. Mat_28:10).
Gossner: Angels ministered unto the Lord after His temptation: they likewise ministered unto Him in His death and at His resurrection, as well as at His birth and His ascension. They were present everywhere—upon every occasion—And behold, as Mary turneth away from every creature, even from the angels, she findeth and seeth Jesus standing!—We might at times become disconcerted at the greatness of the Lord and at our own amazing littleness and distance from Him, the while He is desiring to draw so near unto us and behaveth Himself so brotherly toward us. For the prevention of such feeling on our part there was no better means than His own positive declaration: I am your Brother, I am one of you, and I go, as such, unto our Father; for, I have one God and Father with you; My Father is your Father; My God is your God; I indeed claim the pre-eminence, yet do pretend, not with standing, to be one of you.—Our Brother is the Supreme Good; the Supreme Good is our Brother!
Heubner: How brief is the season of tears; even whilst we weep, the Author of joy is at our side, ready to wipe away our tears.—Love hides itself in order that it may, on discovering itself, occasion us the more surprise and joy. What is this whole life of trial and misery—exile?—A hiding of the heavenly Father’s love.—The measure of affliction the measure of joy.—He who tendeth the heavenly plants of His Father, was in a certain sense the Gardener.—Strive that Jesus may one day call thy name too, that thou mayest not belong to those spoken of in Psa_16:4.—Mary and Rabboni,—just two words constitute the entire heart-conversation, but they are words full of power.—(Justinus:) Moderate now thy craving for Me, for in heaven only shall our intimate, perfect connection begin,—earth is not the place of perfect union. Yonder alone shall the soul’s longing for Jesus be satisfied. Do not now accompany Me, do not now follow Me as if the old intercourse still lasted.—“St. Peter and St. John have no more than Mary Magdalene and I and thou! Take them all in a lump,—they are all brethren together.” (Luther.)—As yet we ascend not, but we shall one day ascend. Comp. Reinhard’s Himmelfahrtspred., 1809 and Theremin, Pred., 1819, III., 110–18—Hüter, Zeugnisse christlicher Wahrheit, Bielefeld, 1858; Mary Magdalene’s Easter-celebration: 1. The Easter-sorrow of Mary Magdalene; 2. her Easter-joy.—Ibid.: That none can rob us of the true Easter-joy: 1. The character or nature of Easter-joy; 2. the subject of Easter-joy, or the good whereat we rejoice on the Easter-feast.
[Craven: From Augustine: Joh_20:13. And I know not where they have placed Him; it was a still greater grief, that she did not know where to go to console her grief.—From Gregory: Joh_20:11. To have looked once is not enough for love.
Joh_20:12. She sought the body and found it not; she persevered in seeking; and so it came to pass that she found. For holy longings ever gain strength by delay; did they not, they would not be longings.
Joh_20:13. The very declarations of Scripture which excite our tears of love, wipe away those very tears, by promising us the sight of our Redeemer again.
Joh_20:15. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? He asks the cause of her grief, to set her longing still more. For the mere mentioning His name Whom she sought would inflame her love for Him.—Perhaps, however, the woman was right in believing Jesus to be the gardener; was not He the spiritual Gardener, who by the power of His love had sown strong seeds of virtue in her heart?—But how is it that, as soon as she sees the gardener, as she supposes Him to be, she says without having told Him who it was she was seeking, Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence? It arises from her love; when one loves a person, one never thinks that any one else can be ignorant of him.
Joh_20:18. So the sin of mankind is buried in the very place whence it came forth. For whereas in Paradise the woman gave the man the deadly fruit, a woman from the sepulchre announced life to men; a woman delivers the message of Him who raises us from the dead, as a woman had delivered the words of the serpent who slew us.—From Bede: Joh_20:18. In that Mary Magdalene announced Christ’s resurrection to the disciples, all, especially those to whom the office of preaching is committed, are admonished to be zealous in setting forth to others whatever is revealed from above.
[From Burkitt: Joh_20:11. Note Mary’s carriage and behaviour towards her Saviour; this is discovered by her patient attendance; She stood without at the sepulcher; by her passionate mourning, weeping; by her unwearied diligence, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher.—Learn 1. True love to Christ suffers not itself to be stinted or limited, no, not by the greatest examples; the weakest woman that truly loves Christ, may piously strive with the greatest apostle in this point; 2. Strong love is valiant and undaunted, it will grapple and encounter with the strongest opposition; Mary fears nothing in seeking of her Lord, neither the darkness of the night, nor the terror of the soldiers, nor the malice of the Jews: Love is strong as death, and the flames thereof are vehement.
Joh_20:12. Such as sincerely seek the Lord, shall certainly find, if not the very thing which they seek, yet that which is much better for them; Mary did not find Christ’s dead body, but she finds two angels to testify that He was risen.—It is matter of comfort to the members of Christ, that angels do not wait upon the head only, but upon the feet also; and it ought to be matter of imitation also.
Joh_20:13. The best company in the world will not satisfy or content such as are seeking for Jesus Christ, when they find not Him whom their souls seek; Mary now enjoyed the presence and company of two angels, but this did not satisfy her in the absence of Christ Himself,
Joh_20:14. Christ may be present with, and very near unto, His people, and yet not be presently discerned by them; Jesus stood by Mary, but she knew not that it was Jesus; her not expecting a living Christ, was one cause why she did not discern Him.
Joh_20:15. The soul of a sincere believer, 1. Is full of earnest and longing desires after Jesus Christ; 2. Is yet sometimes at a loss for Christ, and cannot tell where to find Him; 3. Whilst it is at a loss for Christ, its desires are often quicker and more stirring after Him.
Joh_20:17. Our love to Jesus Christ is best shown, not by our human passionate affection to His bodily presence, but by our spiritual communion with Him by faith here on earth, in order to an immediate communion with Him face to face in heaven.—Christ calls His disciples brethren, after His exaltation and resurrection; thereby showing that the change of His condition had wrought no change in His affection.—God for Christ’s sake has dignified believers with that near and dear relation of His being a Father to them in and through His Son.
[From M. Henry: Joh_20:11. Where there is a true love to Christ, there will be a constant adherence to Him, and a resolution with purpose of heart to cleave to Him.—Where there is a true desire of acquaintance with Christ, there will be a constant attendance on the means of knowledge.—They that seek Christ must seek Him sorrowing (Luk_2:48), must weep, not for Him, but for themselves.—Weeping must not hinder seeking; though she wept, she stooped down, and looked in.—Those are likely to seek and find, that seek with affection and in tears.
Joh_20:14. The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart (Psa_34:18), nearer than they are aware. They that seek Christ, though they do not see Him, may yet be sure He is not far from them.—Those that diligently seek the Lord, will turn every way in their inquiry after Him; Mary turned herself back, in hopes of some discoveries.
Joh_20:15. Whom seekest Thou? When Christ knows that His people are seeking Him, yet He will know it from themselves; they must tell Him whom they seek.—She, supposing Him to be the gardener, saith, etc.; Troubled spirits, in a cloudy and dark day, are apt to misrepresent Christ to themselves, and to put wrong constructions upon the methods of His providence and grace.
Joh_20:16. Mary; When those whom God knew by name in the counsels of His love (Exo_33:12), are called by name in the efficacy of His grace, then He reveals His Son in them, as in Paul (Gal_1:16).—Rabboni; Notwithstanding the freedom of communion which Christ is pleased to admit us to with Himself, we must remember that He is our Master, and to be approached with a godly fear.—Mary turned herself from the angels whom she had in her eye, to look unto Jesus; we must take off our regards from all creatures, even the brightest and best, to fix them upon Christ.—The soul that hears Christ’s voice, and is turned to Him, calls Him, with joy and triumph, My Master.
Joh_20:17. Mary must not stay to talk with her Master, but must carry His message; for it was a day of good tidings, which she must not engross the comfort of, but hand it to others.—My brethren; Though Christ be high, yet He is not haughty; notwithstanding His elevation, He disdains not to own His poor relations.—My Father, and your Father; My God, and your God; There are such an advancement of Christians and such a condescension of Christ, as bring them very near together.
Joh_20:18. When God comforts us, it is with this design, that we may comfort others.
[From A Plain Commentary (Oxford): Joh_20:12. Christ’s resting-place is therefore between two Angels, like the mercy-seat, of old. Even in His death, He is found to have dwelt, as in ancient days, “between the Cherubim.”
Joh_20:13. Woman, why weepest thou? “This case of Mary Magdalene is our case oftentimes: in the error of our conceit, to weep where we have no cause; to joy, where we have as little. Where we have cause to joy, we weep; and whereto weep, we joy. False joys and false sorrows, false hopes and false fears, this life of ours is full of.” (Bishop Andrewes.)
Joh_20:15. Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? “Now, seeing Christ asks it again a second time, we will think there is something in it, and stay a little at it. The rather, for that it is the very opening of His mouth; the very first words that ever came from Him, and that He spoke first of all, after His rising again from death.…Thus say the Fathers; that Mary Magdalene standing by the grave’s side, and there weeping, is thus brought in to represent unto us the slate of all mankind before this Day, the Day of Christ’s rising again; weeping over the dead as do the heathens, who have no hope. But Christ comes and asks ‘Why weepest thou?’ as much as to say, ‘Weep not! There is no cause of weeping now.’ Henceforth, none shall need to stand by the grave to weep there any more.… So that this, ‘Why weepest thou?’ of Christ’s, (a question very proper for the day of the Resurrection,) wipes away tears from all eyes; puts off our mourning weeds, girds us with gladness, and robes us all in ‘white,’ with the Angels.” (Bishop Andrewes.)
Joh_20:17. Take notice that our Lord makes mention of ascending, twice; of rising, not at all. And it is to teach us that Resurrection is nothing, nor is any account to be made of it, if Ascension go not with it.…“Never take cave for Resurrection! That will come of itself, without any thought-taking of thine. Take thought for Ascension! set your minds there! Better lie still in our graves, better never rise, than rise, and, rising, not ascend.” (Bishop Andrewes.)
[From Barnes: Joh_20:17. Nothing was better fitted to afford them consolation than this assurance, that His God was theirs.—From Jacobus: Joh_20:13; Joh_20:15. Why weepest thou? How different are these words as spoken by Jesus from the same words spoken even by His Angels. Friends often ask the same thing, in our moments of anguish; but they can give no relief, and no arguments of theirs can cure the inward wound. But our blessed Lord reveals Himself in words of grace that go to the heart’s wound, and wonderfully heal.
Joh_20:15. Whom seekest thou? Thus the adorable Saviour would draw her out to tell what she wants and whom she seeks for. So pleased is He to hear any poor sinner say, I seek Jesus.—Your Beloved is near you, though you have thought Him afar off. Who ever sought and did not find? But oh! instead of finding Him a corpse, you shall find Him a risen, living, glorious Redeemer.
Joh_20:17. Go to My brethren; “This was a far greater honor than that which was denied her.” The gracious Saviour denies us nothing but for our greater advantage.
[From Owen: Joh_20:15. I will take him away; She takes all the responsibility upon herself. If no one else will share her pious duty, she is ready to discharge it independent and alone. Noble woman! The Church to the end of time shall embalm thy memory, and point to thee as the most loving and faithful of that devoted band, who
“—While Apostles shrunk, could dangers brave,
Last at His cross, and earliest at His grave.”—
Joh_20:17. “Do not stay here to embrace Me now, either to pay thy homage to Me, or to confirm thy faith, both which thou wilt have other opportunities of doing; for I am not yet withdrawn from your world, and ascended to the heavenly court of My Father, as you imagine I shall presently do, but I shall yet continue for a little while on earth, and give you further opportunities of seeing Me again; let nothing therefore detain thee any longer, but go immediately to My dear brethren and say unto them,” etc.—“Thou shalt possess Me again, but not as before, it shall be from this time and forever in the Spirit. The time of exalted and divine relationship is come.” (Stier.)]
Footnotes:
[6]Joh_20:11.—The position of the words ἔξω κλαίουσα is in accordance with B. D. O. X., etc., Tischendorf [The rec. reads κλαίουσα before ἔξω. εἱστήκει with B.* D. etc. Tisch. Treg. Alf. ἱστήκει: א. A. B.,3 etc., Westcott. πρὸς τῷ μνη. μείῳ: A. B. D. Tisch. Alf. Westc. πρὸς τὸ μνημεῖον: text rec. ἐν τῷ μνημείῳ: א (See Tischendorf, Alford).—P. S.]
[7]Joh_20:14.—Καί before ταῦτα [E. text, rec] should be omitted in accordance with א. A. B. D., etc. and the critical editions].
[8]Joh_20:16.—The addition Ἑβραϊστί, in accordance with B. D. L. O. X. Δ. Sin., is received by Tischendorf [Tregelles, Alford, Westcott. Most MSS. read Ῥαββουνί (so Tischend. Alf. Treg.); some Ῥαββουνεί (so Westcott), some Ῥαββωνεί, some Ῥαβουνί.—P. S.]
[9]Joh_20:17.—[Μή μου ἅπτου is the usual reading of the MSS. and Iren., Orig., etc., but Cod. B. and Tert. put μου after ἅπτου, and Westcott inserts this on the margin.—P. S.]
[10]Joh_20:17.—The first μου is wanting in B. D. X., Itala, Tischendorf. It was probably supplemented in imitation of the subsequent μου. [Treg. Alf. Westcott likewise read πρὸς τὸν πατέρα. without μου.—P. S.]
[11][Late Professor of Practical Theology in the University of Berlin and Court-Chaplain and friend of Frederick IV, of Prussia. The Glockentöne were his first, the Abend Glockentöne his last work.—P. S.]
[12][ἅπτομαι occurs thirty-five times in the New Testament, and is uniformly translated to touch in the E. V. It is used of touching the hand, the garment, the body, food, etc.—P. S,]
[13][Not the better known commentator, but also an eminent Biblical scholar (though a layman. Senator of Frankfort on the Maine) and reviser of Luther’s German Bible.—P. S.]
[14]Tholuck’s classification of J. P. Lange, p. 436, rests upon a mistake.
[15]The conjunctures, in despair of the text, σύ μου ά́πτου (Gersdorf) and μἠ συ πτόου, need merely be mentioned.
[16][Beginning of a German hymn by Paul Eber (1547), see Schaff’s German Hymn Book, No, 336. English translation by Miss C. Winkworth.—P. S.]
[17][The above is a literal rendering of the passage as it stands in Luther’s Version.]
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv11–13 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping, &c.--Brief…
But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping, &c.--Brief was the stay of those two men. But Mary, arriving perhaps by another direction after they left, lingers at the spot, weeping for her missing Lord. As she gazes through her tears on the open tomb, she also ventures to stoop down and look into it, when lo! "two angels in white" (as from the world of light, and see on Mat 28:3) appear to her in a "sitting" posture, "as having finished some business, and awaiting some one to impart tidings to" [BENGEL].
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv11–14 § 148.—JESUS APPEARS FIRST TO MARY MAGDALENE, Joh_20:11-18.
§ 148.—JESUS APPEARS FIRST TO MARY MAGDALENE, Joh_20:11-18.
11. Mary stood without—While Mary has gone to the two chief disciples, the other women have come to the sepulchre, seen the angels, and gone on their message to the other apostles. Mary follows the two runners to the sepulchre, and while they go in she stands without weeping.
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As she wept— Half uncovering her face and momentarily looking in.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–14 11–18. The Manifestation to Mary Magdalene
11–18. The Manifestation to Mary Magdalene
11. But Mary] She had returned to the sepulchre after the hurrying Apostles. Mar_16:9 states definitely, what we gather from this section, that the risen Lord’s first appearance was to Mary Magdalene: the details of the meeting are given by S. John alone.
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stood] Or, continued standing, after the other two had gone.
stooped down, and looked] See on Joh_20:5.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv11–14 (11) But Mary stood (better, was standing) without at…
(11) But Mary stood (better, was standing) without at the sepulchre weeping.—She had before gone back as soon as she saw that the stone was taken away (Joh_20:1-2), and had told the two disciples of what she found. She was left behind by them in their haste to reach the sepulchre, but has followed them, and now that they have returned with the joy of a new and fuller faith, she remains without the sepulchre, not venturing to enter, and giving vent in tears to the sorrow that weighs upon her heart.
She stooped down, and looked into the sepulchre.—Comp. Note on Joh_20:5.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv11, 13, 14 Vers. 11-18. (2) The revelation made to adoring love,…
Vers. 11-18. (2) The revelation made to adoring love, answering to the first portion of the high-priestly prayer.
Vers. 11, 12. But Mary, who had followed Peter and John to the grave, and witnessed their amazement, and the gleam of hope in the face of John, was standing at the sepulcher without not within itweeping . She had not overcome her fears. She had not grasped the idea of resurrection or life. One crushing overmastering grief was still weighing heavily upon her, obscuring her vision, and breaking her heart. While she was continuously weeping , she, as Peter and John had done before her, stooped down (see ver. 5, note) to look into the sepulcher, and beholdeth two angels in white (leukoiv) or glittering garments the adjective so often used for the precious heavenly things, for the garments of the glorified (Rev_3:4, Rev_3:5, 18 Act_1:10 Rev_7:9, Rev_7:13, etc.) sitting, the one at the head, and the (other) one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Here rationalism has come with various explanations. Some have said two white-robed Essenes like those who are also supposed to have appeared to our Lord on the Mount of Transfiguration, his secret friends, who had really spirited the body of Jesus away, lingered yet in the tomb, and duped Mary by a lying story. Scorning this hypothesis, legendarists have said Here we see the subjective creation of the terrified and weeping women, who took white clothes for men or angels, and whose fancies were readily believed; while mythical hypotheses have suggested that a glamour of love, many years after the event, created a pathetic and beautiful fiction of what may have happened on that memorable dawn. Every one of these interpretations vanishes before the authenticity of John"s Gospel. The disciple whom Jesus loved, the author of the Apocalypse, was personally acquainted with Mary of Magdala, and had much communion with her, and could heartily believe her story. If there be no spiritual world, no kind nor modes of existence beyond what we call the seen and temporal, and no thought higher than man"s thought; if every testimony to this spiritual world right through the ages is a delusion, and can be explained away; if it be an irrational or impossible supposition; why, then this vision must pass away with the rest. But the entire teaching of the Bible from end to end reveals and bears witness to a world ordinarily unseen by human eyes, but none the less real. To some the door thus opened into heaven is closed and sealed by the seven seals of materialism, agnosticism, dogmatism, scientism, worldliness, indifference, and unspirituality. How much do men forget that all human life is but a very temporary, ever-vanishing robe around a permanent and abiding spirit! that it is entirely conceivable that even pure spirit can come for our advantage into still more evanescent forms than those we now possess, which yet make appeal to what we call our senses of sight and hearing! Objective as such manifestations are, they are no more visible to all eyes or ears than the mysteries of art are open to all human sensibility. The harmonies of heaven are not heard by those who are muffled up with vesture of decay, and there is nothing lying beyond or behind the veil of sense to the unspiritual. The whole critical school might have rambled about the garden, with hammer and spectacles, and would never have seen an angel or the risen Christ; but, thank God, all eyes were not so dim.
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Some were there who saw and believed; and they have revolutionized the world"s thought. Their vision is the key of time; their voice, the word that wakes the dead. This manifestation of the unseen world does not contradict the statement of Matthew that an angel of the Lord had been seen sitting on the displaced stone, and terrified the Roman guard; nor Mark"s assurance that the women had seen a young man clothed in a white robe, who gave the Divine assurance which perplexed the eleven; nor Luke"s description of two men clothed in glittering apparel, who told them that the Lord was living. Surely it is impossible to represent Mary of Magdala"s present vision as identical with that which had occurred at an earlier hour; but it is clear that, if she shared in the earlier vision at all, she had not been convinced by it, for still she wept in utter despair. The fact that these angelic appearances should take different forms to different witnesses belongs to their very nature. Such visions, translated into words, would naturally differ. If there had been rigid uniformity in the statements of the three evangelists, and of the fourth with them, grave suspicion would have been attached to the entire recital. The experiences of several different women would be repeated a thousand times. They would be questioned separately and together in every possible way; and it appears from all four narratives that three forms of the ultimate traditions alike declare that hope and fear arising from the empty grave were quickened and stimulated by angelic ambassadors, who variously prepared their mind to receive the grand objective fact.
Vers. 11-18. Mary Magdalene the first herald of the risen Lord.
The two apostles withdrew, but Mary remained at the tomb. "A stronger affection riveted to the spot one of a weaker nature" (Augustine).
I MARY"S LOVE TO HER LORD. It was manifested:
1. By her persistent watching of the tomb.
2. By her passionate weeping.
3. By her anxiety to discover some trace of her Lord. "She stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher." Her love is as strong as death.
II THE SUCCESSFUL RESULT OF HER LOVE.
1. She first comes into communication with the two angels in the sepulcher. They may have suggested by the direction of their looks that Jesus was near at hand.
2. She next sees Jesus, but does not know him.
(1) Death had wrought a change upon him: he appeared en etera morfh , "in a different shape". (Mar_16:12) Yet the voice was altogether unchanged, as we infer from her instant recognition of her Lord after he had addressed her by name. "Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?
(2) Her persistent love through all her uncertainties. She asks "the gardener" to say where he has laid him, that she may take him away.
3. Her glad recognition of her loving Lord. "She turned herself, and saith to him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master." The sound of her name repeated by those loving lips ended all doubt better than the words of a more common interest, "Woman.
III OUR LORD"S CHECK TO HER PASSIONATE ARDOUR. "Touch me not; for I ant not yet ascended to my Father.
1. Perhaps she had thrown herself down at his feet, and had attempted to clasp them in her enthusiastic devotion.
2. His words imply that the old forms of familiar intercourse were past.
He had entered upon a new mode of existence.
1. They imply that he could not renew the tie that death had severed till he had ascended on high. His ascension would be the condition of a new union fraught with all blessing and consolation.
2. It is better to know Jesus in his glorified humanity than to "know him after the flesh. The Roman theology sees him as a babe in his mother"s arms or as the Crucified One; but true theology must behold him in the light of his resurrection as well as his death.
IV OUR LORD"S MESSAGE TO THE APOSTLES. "GO to my brethren, and say to them, I ascend to my Father, and your Father; to my God, and your God.
1. A woman is honored as making the first communication between Jesus and his apostles.
2. The name by which our Lord describes them. "My brethren" marks the new relationship into which they are introduced by his resurrection.
(1) They were his servants, his friends, his children, before his death; they are now his brethren, according to ancient prophecy: "I will declare thy Name unto my brethren.
(2) His exaltation has wrought no change in his affection to them. They are still the objects of his unchangeable love.
3. His ascension to heaven, was just at hand.
(1) The apostles were to understand that his resurrection was the beginning of his ascension.
(2) The Ascension was to place the apostles before God exactly in the same position as he was himself.
(a) Jesus marks the distinction that existed between himself and his apostles in their relation to God. God is Father of Christ by nature, of men by grace. His Sonship is not their sonship.
(b) Jesus, in calling God "his God," does not disclaim Deity, for it is in his perfect humanity that he sees the Father as his God.
V MARY FULFILS HER GLAD ERRAND. "Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her." Her story would cause
(1) surprise,
(2) gladness, and
(3) hope in the minds of the disciples.
Vers. 11-18. Sorrow and despondency exchanged for joy and service.
Among the wonderful events of the first Lord"s day morning, the incident here recorded is remarkable for pathos and beauty, and also for spiritual instruction and encouragement.
I IT WAS A DEAD AND LOST CHRIST THAT CAUSED MARY"S GRIEF AND DISMAY. The woman"s attachment and devotion to the Savior were unquestionable. She and her companions seem to have been more faithful to Jesus even than the twelve. "Who, while apostles shrank, could dangers brave; Last at his cross, and earliest at his grave.
To Mary Jesus was as a dead Friend. She shared the common grief of the disciples, and their common anxiety during the interval between the Crucifixion and the Lord"s first appearance to his own. Love induced her to linger near the tomb, and thus occasioned her interview with the angels and with the Master himself. No wonder that she loved much; she was indebted, she may well have thought, more than others to the compassion of Christ, for she had been delivered from the power of demons, and received into the favor and friendship of her Deliverer. And now to lose the Lord she loved and on whom she leaned was a trial to her faith, a grief to her heart; and she would fain care for the lifeless body of the slain One. Emblem of those who have not found Christ; of those who, having found, have then lost him; of those to whom Christ, alas! is as if dead, to whom he is no living reality, no near presence, no Divine power. Yet it is better that sensitive and yearning souls should grieve over the distance between the holy Savior and themselves than that they should acquiesce contented and indifferent in their privation.
II IT WAS A LIVING CHRIST THAT TURNED MARY"S SORROW INTO JOY. Observe that Jesus knew Mary before she recognized him. The language he used was intended to draw out her best feelings. Very beautiful and touching was the way in which Christ revealed himself to her heart, uttering simply the familiar name, dear from the hallowed intercourse of friendship. It was, perhaps, the name he had used in dispossessing the demons, and its utterance must have awakened many a tender memory in her heart. The living Christ thus, in a way truly human, revealed himself to his friend in one moment to banish her forebodings and assuage her grief. Her cry, "My Master!" was enough to reveal her gratitude and joy her joy again to see him, her gratitude that the appearance and revelation were to her. Emblem of those souls to whom is their darkness and sadness, their skepticism and despondency Christ appears in his own Divine dignity and human sympathy, addressing them in language of compassion, and gladdening them by the vision of his risen form and his glorified and gracious countenance. T.
HOMILIES BY B. THOMAS Vers. 11-18. The powers of holy love. The women rose early on the third day, but there was One who rose earlier. They were last at the cross, and first at the grave. Mary Magdalene was the first of the group. She ran back to Peter and John with the tidings. There was a race between the two to the tomb. John outran Peter. Love is swifter of foot than faith, but faith is more courageous and was in the sepulcher first. Love followed. Mary is for a moment lost in the narrative, but appears again as the chief figure. We have an illustration of passionate love to Jesus. Notice
I THE DEVOTION OF LOVE. This is seen:
1. In her persistent and patient lingering on the spot. "Mary stood without," etc. She did not enter with the two disciples; she was too weak for that. But weaker in nature, she was stronger in affection. If she did not enter, she stood longer at the grave. They were gone, but she was tied to the spot by the words of love, watching for some clue to the mysterious disappearance. Love lingers with patience and devotion at the sacred graves which hold the dust of dear ones.
2. In her increased courage. She does now what she could not do before stoops down and looks into the sepulcher, as did John before her. His example encouraged her. It was more for her to look than for them to enter. She looked, not that she expected to find him more than the others, but to see for herself, and see even where he had lain. Love acts often from instinct rather than from reason. We look to the grave.
3. In her intense feelings. She stood without, weeping. As she stood she wept, and she stooped. She wept and looked through her tears. And as she wept she stooped down. Intense feelings brought her to her knees. These were not the wailings of ostentation and selfishness: there was no one to see her tears or to pay heed to them; but they were the tears of genuine affection, the sighs of devoted love, and the moans of intense sorrow. She stood and stooped and looked, weeping. This is the only thing which even devoted love could do under the circumstances.
II THE VISIONS OF LOVE.
1. The vision of angels. Notice:
(1) Their number. Two. Angels are social; seldom if ever one appeared in this world alone. They were sent two and two. At the birth a host sang over the fields of Bethlehem. Two appeared at the Resurrection. More may be there; only two were seen, and only one was seen by the others two by love.
(2) Their appearance. In white, the color of heaven, the fashion of the better land. Everything is white there. It is the color of peace, purity, happiness, and glory. It is a treat to see the color in this dark world of sin and sorrow, and especially see it in a grave.
(3) Their posture. "Sitting, the one at the head, and the other at the feet, where," etc. They loved even the place where he land lain. They had finished their work, rolled away the stone, shook the earth, sent away the guard in terror, and waited upon their Master, and helped him to strip and be clothed; and now they sit at ease, as if taking rest.
(4) Their sympathy. "Woman, why weepest thou?" This is a question of kind sympathy. One would think that the weeping of a poor woman would not affect an angel at all. They never shed tears, and experimentally know no sorrow; but they are sympathetic and friendly; perhaps they had attended so much upon the Lord, that they would naturally learn sympathy.
(5) Their inspiring confidence. It is not to every one she would disclose the cause of her grief. She would instinctively be suspicious; but the appearance and language of these inspired her at once with confidence, that they were honorable and friendly, and probably closely related to her Master; hence she trusted them at once with the secret of her sorrow.
(6) This vision of angels was very natural. The naturalness of the incident is to us much more important than the literal harmony of the narrative. The appearance of angels is natural at the Resurrection, and a befitting introduction to what followed; and as the Master had left the house, it was natural that he should leave the servants there to answer certain calls which would be made, and entertain visitors.
2. The vision of Jesus. (Ver. 13)
(1) Her conversation with the angels finished abruptly. Her conduct might appear almost rude, except in the light of what followed. She turned back, beckoned, perhaps, by the angel to do so, or she instinctively felt some presence behind her. The servants will ever point to the Master when present, and will observe becoming silence.
(2) She knew not Jesus, and why? She did not expect to meet him alive. She suspected that the body had been stolen, but little suspected that Life was the thief. She was too much enrapt in anxiety about her dead Lord to recognize him living. Intensity of feeling is often unfavorable to immediate recognition, and Jesus did not assume the old appearance.
(3) She made a good guess, but still a mistake. She thought that he was the gardener, from his garb and the time of his appearance. This was a natural thought, and true in a sense of Jesus. He was a gardener, and the best that ever was in this world. She was glad to meet Joseph"s gardener. "Sir, if thou hast borne him," etc. She at once told her story, sought information, and her love made her feel strong enough to take the body away herself.
(4) The Master addressed her in much the same way as the servant only added, "Whom seekest thou?" The angel"s question was only an echo of his. It is worthy of notice that this is the first question of Jesus after the Resurrection. "Why weepest thou?" etc. He asks the question still: he rose to wipe away tears, and to remove the cause of human sorrow.
(5) These visions were granted to love. Where were the angels and the risen Lord when Peter and John were at the grave? They were there, but love alone could see them. Angels and Jesus appear to intense and devoted love; if we had more of it we should have more spiritual visions.
III THE RECOGNITION OF LOVE.
1. Her recognition was in consequence of a direct revelations.
(1) By the voice. The other disciples recognized him by sight. Thomas said once that he would not recognize him except by touch, but Mary by his voice.
(2) His voice, uttering a single word her name, "Mary." She had not heard her name pronounced in the same way since he had last called it. She recognized the old voice which spoke to her first and often afterwards.
(3) Jesus knew how to reveal himself best. He knew how to touch a chord in her heart which would bring her back to herself and to him.
2. Her recognition was warm and reverential. "Rabboni!" "O my Master!" and she fell at his feet, and was about to embrace them. If her recognition was not so high and advanced as that of Thomas, it was warm and enthusiastic.
3. Her recognition in one of its modes was gently checked. "Touch me not or, "do not cling to me.
(1) This was incompatible with the laws of the new life and relationship. He was not to be known henceforth after the flesh, nor to be reverenced after the old fashion of physical existence.
(2) This would be an impediment to his upward progress. "For I have not," etc. He had not finished his glorious course nor reached his high goal. He was on the way, and such clinging to him would interfere with his ascension. Besides it being incompatible with the new life, there was no time. He was ascending, and her service was required in another way.
(3) The new mode of homage to him was revealed to Magdalene first. She was the only one who attempted the old; this was checked, and the new method was hinted. She had in heart devotional feelings advantageous to revelation. Devotion to him henceforth was to take a higher aim and assume a higher form. After his ascension to the Father, the new life would be complete, then in heart and spirit she could cling to him for ever.
IV THE MISSION OF LOVE. "But go," etc.
1. This mission contains as its substance his ascension. "I ascend." It is not "I have risen," but "I ascend." It includes his resurrection, and more. He could not ascend unless he had risen. The first movement of the new life in Jesus was a movement upwards; from the grave he began to ascend, and the first intelligence obtained of him was that he was already ascending.
2. The mission includes his destination. "I ascend unto my Father." It was ascending somewhere, but unto a special spot and special Personage unto his Father; he was going home whence he came. The intelligence of his final destination was important. The time would soon arrive when he would be due at the right hand of power on high. There was the attraction now. It was more natural for the risen Lord to ascend to the Father than to remain here.
3. This mission was to the disciples. "But go unto my brethren, and say," etc. They are the first to hear; they are the most concerned in the matter; they are the nearest to Jesus" heart. The world is to hear the news, but through them. The risen Savior is the same as of old.
4. This mission is to them in a new relationship. "My brethren." The terms of the mission explain the new relationship. "I ascend unto my Father, and your Father," etc. And having one Father and one God, they were brethren and fellow-subjects of the same kingdom; brethren in spirit, in faith, in love, in circumstances, and in common relationship. The risen Lord was more nearly related to the disciples than ever. Death and resurrection made the union nearer: he was their firstborn Brother from the dead. And the Ascension would make it nearer still: then they would be one in a common Father.
V THE OBEDIENCE OF LOVE.
1. The obedience is most prompt. There is no delay. In spite of a strong temptation to cling to him, she goes at once. There is no mention of her leaving Jesus; only of her coming to the disciples. No sooner had she left the former than she was with the latter. The obedience of love is swift and prompt.
2. Her obedience is full. She told the whole story and delivered the whole message. "I have seen the Lord," etc. And she did not stop there, but related all he had told her.
3. Her obedience was joyous. Her weeping was turned into laughter, her sorrow into ecstatic joy; and the dew of her grief was kissed away by the rays of the risen Sun. The news was good and joyous; it thrilled her own heart, it thrilled the heart of the disciples, and it has thrilled the heart of the world ever since.
LESSONS.
1. The risen Lord first appeared to a woman. Her heart and eyes of love were the first to behold the welcome vision, because she had the greatest love.
2. A woman was the first missionary of Jesus. She was the first to publish the tidings of his resurrection, because she was the first to get those tidings. She was the first at the grave, and her love would not permit her to leave till she could find Jesus. She waited at the king"s gate till he appeared, and she was employed in his service. The feminine heart can do much in the mission of life and love.
3. Love is rewarded with visions, revelations, and employment. In the degree we love, we shall see, know, and understand the spiritual, and be employed in its glorious missions.
4. We must not cling to Jesus when we are wanted to do something for him. We must not even revel at his feet when others require the news of his love.
5. Love is surprised with more than it expects. Mary only expected to find the dead body, but she found her living Lord. The highest expectations of love will be more than realized and rewarded. B.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv11, 12, 14 But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping
Joh_20:11-18
But Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping
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Lessons
1.
Christians are often sorrowful, when, if they had clearer knowledge and stronger faith, they would rejoice.
2. Angels sympathize with Christians in their sorrow. If they shed no tears they are not indifferent to ours.
3. The thought of losing Jesus is enough to make His friends weep. When He is absent from the Church, and outward shows divert the eye from the Lord; when, instead of a living Christ, there is only a sepulchre, no whitening of which can compensate for the absence of the Prince of Life; and when He is absent from the pulpit, and where criticism, or philosophy, or Jewish ethics, or Christian polemics are discussed, and the living, loving Christ is absent; and when by worldliness we have no longer that fellowship with Him we once enjoyed--if we are indeed His friends we shall weep, saying of our follies and our sins (Joh_20:13).
4. Jesus is often very close to His disciples when they do not perceive Him (Joh_20:14). We are so absorbed in sorrow that we do not see Him who comes to soothe it. We often think He is farthest when He is nearest. Is He not a very present help in trouble? Like Mary, also, we sometimes mistake Him for the gardener. We think only of the servant when we should acknowledge the Master. We rest in the means of grace when we should rise to the Giver of grace.
5. Christs first resurrection-word was one of consoling sympathy--not of power, victory, or vengeance. He is tender, loving still. He spake to Mary, and to womanhood through her. He knew how often woman weeps unseen, what a martyrdom of grief she often undergoes by sensibilities wounded, yearnings unsatisfied, love unrequited, closest ties torn asunder, anxieties and toils which only love like hers could enable her to endure, and wounds hidden from all eyes, which only love like hers could bear and yet conceal; and so Christs first word after His resurrection was one of sympathy with womans grief. Seeking Jesus is the best antidote to weeping.
6. True love may be combined with deficient knowledge. Sir, if Thou have borne Him hence, &c. No name had been mentioned, but Mary speaks as if because He was uppermost in her feelings all the world besides must think of Him too. So let the thought of Jesus be in our hearts. Will He be pleased? What would He have me do? In this enterprise, in that company, shall I have His presence and enjoy His blessing?
7. Christ knows His disciples individually. He addresses her by the old familiar name (Joh_20:16). The friend of former days was still individually dear. Are we in sorrow, inconsolable, forgetting Him who sends it for our good? He reminds us of His presence, saying, Mary! Are we fearing some danger as though we had no Almighty Friend to protect us? He places Himself between us and it, and says, Mary! Are we becoming worldly, restraining prayer, toying with temptation, looking at some forbidden fruit till it becomes pleasant in our eyes? Jesus, in a tone of faithful remonstrance, says, Mary!
8. Every true disciple recognizes the Saviours voice (Joh_20:16). Do we thus confess Him to be Master, saying, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? In sorrow, do we submit with patience, and say, Rabboni? In danger, do we trust with holy confidence and repeat, Rabboni? When tempted, do we turn at His reproof and penitently, resolutely exclaim, Rabboni? At death, Jesus will say, Mary! It will be the voice not of an enemy, but of our best, our heavenly Friend. It will be Jesus coming to take us to Himself. Shall we be ready at once to welcome Him as Rabboni? When He sits on the throne of judgment He will invite to His kingdom every one of His faithful followers, with an individual recognition, calling each by name--Mary! Shall we be among them and joyfully respond, Rabboni? (Newman Hall, LL. B.)
Mary Magdalene at the selpulchre
I. MARYS SORROW.
1. She sought for a lost Christ, and looked for Him where He was not to be found. So
(1) Some lose Christ when any great calamity comes upon them, and their faith is shaken in the Divine goodness.
(2) Others fall into temptations, become prosperous, and worldly, lose sight of all spiritual aims, become content with this world, and their faith and hope in Christ are gone.
(3) Others get entangled in intellectual difficulties about the Gospels, or inspiration, or miracles, and because they cannot see their way out. Christ meanwhile is almost, if not entirely, lost to their vision. We can lose Christ in a thousand ways, and look for Him in a thousand places where He is not to be found. We try to find Him in books of controversy, in going from one Church to another, in praying for faith in Him, in reiterating the creeds, forgetting that the restoration of all belief must begin on the high road of duty, and that spiritual work is the road to spiritual knowledge, and the recovery of our hold of Christ.
2. Mary failed to recognize Him though so near to her. So we often fail to recognize Christ though He manifests Himself to us in all the manifold forms of our life. We, too, often think that we can meet and recognize Him only in Church; but there is no charm in a Church for disclosing Christ; the charm must be in ourselves, perceiving and answering to the charm that there is in Christ. Then we can see Him everywhere.
(1) The wickedest persons ought to reveal Christ, for you may be sure that He is there yearning to recover them.
(2) Wherever an afflicted man or woman lies in sorrow, there you hear His voice, saying, Come unto Me, &c.
(3) Whenever you see a man reviled or misrepresented, there you have an image of that Christ who was crucified for His goodness.
(4) Christ looks at us through the eyes of every innocent child; for there is in them the light of the kingdom of heaven.
(5) Every just and noble deed is a revelation of Christ; for He came not to be ministered unto, &c.
3. She mistook the Divine work for mans. They have taken away my Lord; not knowing that He had reclaimed His own life by the power of the eternal Spirit. There is a human and a Divine side to every event, and things become significant in proportion as we can see their Divine aspect. There are men who can see in Christ nothing but what is simply human. There are men who have no eye for the Divine. They are mostly cold, self-contented natures; having no moral enthusiasm, nor intellectual grasp, but play upon the surface of a great many things with cold moonlight gleams. Let us guard as beyond all price the faculty which can see God in all things.
II. THE STRENGTH OF MARYS LOVE (Joh_20:15). Her overflowing love in the midst of her grief does not wait to measure her strength. She was equal to anything that her love prompted her to undertake. Love is the real worker of miracles in this world. And I am speaking now of human love; the Divine love, which is the parent of ours, is to ours as the ocean is to the rivulet, and as the sun is to the glow-worm. Human love still undertakes tasks that are beyond its strength, and dies in hopeless endeavours. How many lives are there who have not been able, through years of ill-treatment, to uproot the love of their youth, and who still wait and pray for a change in the husband who has long ago forfeited all title even to respect. And I think there are some men of the same nature. There is a love that descends upon those lower than itself, as when the mother loves the unworthy son or daughter, and there is the love that bends, entranced before a goodness and a beauty far surpassing itself. This was the love that kindled in the soul of Mary, and the highest proof that we have it is that we do not waste our time in visions and rapture, but imitate the love of Christ in doing His work. Inasmuch as ye did it, &c.
III. THE IMPERFECTION OF MARYS FAITH. She desired and dwelt too much on the outward Christ. Therefore she must not touch Him. The most difficult thing is to pass away from the outward things of religion into the region where faith grasps its objects, and sees its truths, and feels their reality. Does eternity open to you when you sing, or pray, or meditate? When you gather round the Lords table, does it proclaim the unseen fact of Christs sacrificial love?
IV. OUR LORDS MESSAGE SENT BY MARY (Joh_20:17).
1. This was a message of forgiveness. There are two things difficult about forgiveness--the power to forgive and the manner in which it is done. There are some natures that cannot forgive, even when they profess to do it, but when we can turn our resentment into pity and mercy we have learned the lesson which Christ taught us from the cross.
2. The message was one of continued, unbroken affection. Go and tell My brethren--not My poor weak followers and disciples, not even My friends. He was not ashamed of them, notwithstanding all their spiritual poverty and their want of sympathy with Him. What a lesson it reads to us! (C. Short, M. A.)
Mary at the empty tomb:
How does the risen Saviour reveal Himself?
I. TO WHAT LONGING?
1. Even then the seeing the risen One was not a thing of physical sight. It was dependent On the condition of the inner life. Not to the world, who did not want to be convinced, but to those who were longing to be fully convinced that He was the Saviour.
2. Mary, foremost among these, could not tear herself away from the grave. She had passed through the scene at Calvary in mute amazement; now she realized that her heart had lost its last stay, and the whole world seemed like an empty tomb. What would become of her now His Divine life was no longer there for her poor life to cling to, as ivy to oak, and train itself heavenwards.
3. Is not this a page in our history? The Saviour once took you by the hand and your life began to twine itself around His. Then this childlike confidence was lost, but the longing remains. This is the deepest sorrow--to know what can help and to have lost it--to seek the Lord among the evidences of His life, and have only an empty grave to go to. When we have to stand before our own life as before an empty tomb, which reminds us only of what we have lost, and in which we cannot find our childhoods Saviour there is no comfort for us. A risen and living Saviour is what we want. It would not have helped Mary had she found the buried One. If our longing souls rest in the fact that He has lived, what can He be to us? He is not here; He is risen, is the Divine message to us.
II. IN WHAT EXPERIENCE? While Mary is still hopeless He is beside her. Though invisible and unknown He is near all who seek Him. Why not disclose Himself then? Woman, Mine hour is not yet come. The experience God gives depends for its value on our susceptibility, and this comes to maturity only by persistent seeking. She turns again to seek Him when Jesus says, Mary! It was through her name that the Lord revealed Himself. A name may awaken emotion, as when you hear the voice of one long absent. She knew her Lord in that He knew her. Her name is written in His heart for ever. It is the heart that recognizes the living Saviour.
III. WITH WHAT DIRECTIONS The complaint of the heart is not of the reality of precious moments, but that they are only moments. Mary had no advantage in this over us. The moment she recognized Him He says, Touch Me not. Stern but needful words. Mary needed to be taught that the fellowship of the future would be very different from that of the past. Few had enjoyed His intimacy, henceforth all might and in a higher form. Their dependence on Him as a man must be changed into a holier relation--brethren. All this Mary had to learn amid her joy, that her joy might not be taken from her when the Lord should ascend. And as this joy would naturally seek to retain the beloved object she is bid serve Christ by going to His brethren and bearing witness to others. Moments such as this are short and fleeting; must be; should be. It is not good to live on mountain peaks. Mary now knew that what is needed for the service of Christ is power from on high. (Dr. Beyschlag.)
The interview between Jesus and Mary:
We see
I. THAT THOSE WHO LOVE CHRIST MOST DILIGENTLY AND PERSEVERINGLY ARE THOSE WHO RECEIVE MOST PRIVILEGES FROM CHRISTS HAND.
1. Mary would not leave the sepulchre when Peter and John went away to their own home. Love to her Master made her honour the last place where His precious body had been seen by mortal eyes. And she reaped a rich reward. She saw the angels whom Peter and John had never observed; had soothing words addressed to her; and was the first to see our Lord, and to hear His voice.
2. As it was in the morning of the first Easter Day, so will it be as long as the Church stands. All believers have not the same degree of faith, or hope, or knowledge, or courage, or wisdom; and it is vain to expect it. But it is certain that those who love Christ most will always enjoy most communion with Him. To know Christ is good; but to know that we know Him is far better (1Jn_2:3).
II. THAT THE FEARS AND SORROWS OF BELIEVERS ARE OFTEN QUITE NEEDLESS.
1. Mary stood at the sepulchre weeping. She wept when the angels spoke to her, and when our Lord spoke to her. And the burden of her complaint was always the same--They have taken away my Lord. Yet all this time her risen Master was close to her. Like Hagar in the wilderness, she had a well of water by her side, but she had not eyes to see it.
2. How often we are anxious when there is no just cause for anxiety! How often we mourn over the absence of things which in reality are within our grasp! Let us pray for more faith and patience, and allow more time for the full development of Gods purposes. Jacob said All these things are against me; yet he lived to thank God for all that had happened. If Mary had found the seal of the tomb unbroken she might well have wept. The very absence of the body which made her weep was a cause of joy for herself and all mankind.
III. WHAT LOW AND EARTHLY THOUGHTS OF CHRIST MAY CREEP INTO THE MIND OF A TRUE BELIEVER.
1. The first surprise, and the reaction from great sorrow to great joy, was more than the mind of Mary could bear. It is highly probable that she threw herself at our Lords feet, and made greater demonstrations of feeling than were seemly or becoming; too much like one who thought all must be right if she had her Lords bodily presence, and all must be wrong in His bodily absence; like one who forgot that her Master was God as well as Man. And hence she called forth our Lords gentle rebuke, I am not yet ascending to My Father for forty days: your present duty is not to linger at My feet, but to go and tell My brethren that I have risen. Think of the feelings of others as well as of your own.
2. The fault of this holy woman was one into which Christians have always been too ready to fall. In every age there has been a tendency to make too much of Christs bodily presence, and to forget that He is God over all, blessed for ever as well as Man (Rom_9:5). The pertinacity with which Romanists cling to the doctrine of Christs real corporal presence is only another exhibition of Marys feeling. Let us be content to have Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith, and when two or three are met in His name. What we really need is not His literal flesh, but His Spirit (Joh_6:63; 2Co_5:16).
IV. HOW KINDLY AND GRACIOUSLY OUR LORD SPEAKS OF HIS DISCIPLES.
1. He bids Mary Magdalene carry a message to them, as His brethren. All was forgiven and forgotten (Psa_103:13-14).
2. As He dealt with His erring disciples, so will He deal with all who believe and love Him, until He comes again. When we wander out of the way He will bring us back (chap. 6:37; Psa_103:10). (Bp. Ryle.)
Mary at the sepulchre
1. We little realize how much light goes out of the world with some lives. There was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, write Matthew and Mark in their record of the Crucifixion. This symbolized a great fact. We know how the vanishing of one life may be to us like the setting of the sun: many of us have passed through such an experience. After the Evangelists have recorded the burial, they pause and halt in the narrative. The record only moves again when the light begins to return. As it began to dawn towards the first day are the words with which Mark starts anew; so, too, in different phrase, the other Evangelists emphasize this new starting-point.
2. Again, observe the revealing power of a great trial. It takes great or trying events to reveal all the strength and beauty which otherwise lie dormant in some characters. The breeze of summer brings music out of the AEolian harp, but only the storms of winter can awake the mighty deep into harmonious symphony and make the trees of the wood clap their hands in grand accompaniment. So it required great tests to reveal the devotion of these grand heroic women toward their Lord.
3. This expression of devotion was very human, and supremely womanly. How significant--how full of strange amotion--the first visit to the grave where our dearest lie!
4. This was a very beautiful and expressive protest against mortality. Beneath all this anointing was the conviction that man was too noble to pass away into decay. In the proposed anointing of the Christ by the women, we find the mightiest protest against the corruption of the grave; but God would yet accomplish the same end in His own way. John, however, centres his narrative in one person: Marys love was the most intense and the most persistent. But Mary stood (or Revised Version, was standing)--stationed herself--words expressive of resoluteness. Up to this point there was a measure of companionship in sorrowful watching among the mourners,--now we reach the point of isolation. Others had accepted the theory that Jesus had been taken away, and had left with sorrow, but Mary was more persistent, since to her more had been forgiven. The sorrow of this little community now became Marys, as if it were exclusively her own. As she wept. According to the three Synoptic Gospels, the other women were afraid, or affrighted. Mary wept. There is nothing new in weeping at the grave. It is the old place of weeping. More tears have been shed there than anywhere else. But the circumstances are exceptional in this case. Others have wept because the grave is tenanted; Mary wept because it was empty, and because the ministry of love in anointing the dead body seemed no longer possible. At length, by steady gazing, she found that the grave was not so empty as it had appeared. There was no dead body in it, but there were two of Gods angels. Mary saw them. Peter and John did not. They were in two great a hurry. Men do not see angels in such a mood--they only see linen clothes, and the like. They say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Tears are a profound mystery to angels. But it was a misuse of the mysterious capacity to weep that perplexed them now. Weeping in this case they knew was out of place. Why weepest thou? are words of challenge. Because they have taken away my Lord, was Marys reply. These words reveal, among other things, the souls power of appropriation--My Lord. This is the greatest paradox of being, that finite man or woman can claim the Infinite God as his or her possession. Thou art my God, said the Psalmist. But here, too, we have weeping inadequately explained. Marys data are wrong. They have taken away my Lord. How much more the angels knew about it than Mary! How inadequate our explanation of our grief when we are challenge! There is an impatience in the answer. She has silenced the angels with a false theory, and hastily withdraws, or turns round, and waits not for the reply. It is a terrible thing when sorrow becomes reflective, and turns in upon itself. But as Mary turns there is another Presence near. Now it is asked by One who has Himself wept by the grave side. There is a tear in this tone of inquiry. Remember in passing, as a significant fact, that these are the first recorded words of Christ after the Resurrection--Woman, why weepest thou? &c. What a reflection for sorrowing ones! There is hero also the additional question which completes the first. Why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? Sorrow is stupefying. There was a danger for Mary to forget her search in the steady gaze, becoming more vacant as it was continued. The question of the angels threw her in upon her sorrow; the further question of Christ awakened within her the recollection of her quest. It aroused the spirit of search and of expectation anew in Mary. It is a sad thing when, in our sorrow, we forget the aim of life, and lose the inspiration of hope. This takes all the buoyancy out of life. Our Lord would ever save us against this. Observe Marys answer as contrasted with her answer to the angels. To the angels she replied, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him. This is sorrow in its reflective, despairing form. On the contrary, her answer to Jesus is--Sir, if thou have borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away. This is sorrow in its resolute and hopeful aspect. I will take Him away. She could not have carried Him; yet she saw no difficulty. There is a frenzy of love which is well-nigh omnipotent. There is yet hope of Mary. It is a grand thing when sorrow has not taken all the courage out of us. The Christ can hide Himself no longer from her. He reveals Himself now through speech. Of all things about us, the voice is that which, amid the processes of change, retains its identity most. Mary. How much Jesus compresses of tenderness and revelation into that one word! Her reply is equally brief--Rabboni. Here we have a dialogue in two words. When feeling is intense, utterance becomes laconic. Rabboni is the word in which Marys soul expresses alike its love and its wonder. We find here a passionate concentration of feeling. The spirit of loving discipleship is crystallized and perpetuated in that one word. There are times when the whole soul flashes forth and reveals its personality in an exclamation. The first impulse of the soul in the presence of the risen Christ is to worship. It is a moment of infinite surprise. It is the reaction from blank despair to boundless ecstasy. The gospel of the open grave is the story of the Resurrection and the prediction of the Ascension combined. I ascend! She had stooped and looked into the grave for the Christ; henceforth she will look up and wait for her Lord from heaven. Thus is the story grandly progressive, and the past and present are made predictive of the yet more glorious future. (David Davies.)
Love in tears; or, Mary at the sepulchre
I. MARYS MOURNING, or loves grief expressed (Joh_20:11).
1. Standing beside the vacant tomb--a hopeful circumstance. How much worse for her had it been tenanted!
2. Lamenting in mistaken sorrow. Most sorrow perhaps of this sort. Christians grieve when they ought to rejoice, e.g., at the graves of those who are for ever with the Lord. Continuing dejected without. Had Mary gone in she would have found it a habitation of angels. No more a charnel house to fence, the relics of lost innocence, &c. (Keble).
II. MARYS VISION, or loves attention arrested (Joh_20:12-14).
1. The advanced guards of the King.
(1) Their nature--angels.
(2) Their number--two, to correspond with the two robbers.
(3) Their appearance--in white, or shining garments (Dan_10:6; Rev_10:1).
(4) Their situation--at the head and feet, guarding the place from profanation.
(5) Their question--to arrest attention and convey sympathy.
2. The person of the Risen Lord.
(1) Near her, as always to His people (Mat_18:20), especially in times of sadness (Luk_24:15).
(2) Speaking to her. Christ still notes the tears of His people (Lu Heb_4:15).
(3) Yet unrecognized by her, as He often is by His sorrowing disciples Luk_24:16).
III. MARYS MISTAKE, or loves blindness discovered (verse 15).
1. Great. Already she had committed several blunders--seeking the living among the dead, sorrowing when she ought to have rejoiced, &c., but none so great as mistaking Christ for Josephs gardener.
2. Natural. The likeliest person at that hour was the gardener, and as to other disciples He may have had another form.
3. Persistent.
4. Beautiful--love knows no impossibilities; and no passion is so omnipotent as that of a renewed heart for Christ. At this hour millions would die for him (Napoleon).
IV. MARYS AWAKENING, or loves darkness dispelled (verse 16).
1. The familiar voice. What a wealth of pitying love would be infused into the Mary (cf. Joh_21:15; Luk_22:48; Act_9:4; Act_9:10)
.
2. The spell broken. No voice but One could say Mary like that.
3. The heart relieved--Rabboni.
V. MARYS PROHIBITION, or loves ardour restrained (verse 17).
1. The restriction--Touch Me not.
2. The reason--I am not yet ascended.
3. The consolation. The restriction would only be temporary.
VI. MARYS COMMISSION, or loves service claimed (verse 17).
1. To whom sent-Christs brethren.
(1) The condescension in it--Gods Son calls them brethren.
(2) The honour in it.
(3) The love in it--they had deserted Him.
2. With what charged--a message concerning
(1) Himself.
(2) His ascension.
(3) The Father.
VII. MARYS OBEDIENCE, or loves willingness expressed (verse 18).
1. With cheerful resignation.
2. With prompt execution.
3. With faithful repetition. Learn
1. Blessed are they that mourn, &c.
2. The eyes of Christs people are sometimes holden (Luk_24:16).
3. My sheep hear My voice, &c.
4. Truly our fellowship is with the Father, &c.
5. The ascended Christ is not ashamed to call His people brethren Heb_2:11). (T. Whitelaw, D. D.)
Three aspects of piety
I. Piety in SADNESS. Notice here
1. The intensity of her affection.
2. The greatness of her courage. Few of the bravest men care to walk through a churchyard after dark; and rough soldiers were guarding Josephs tomb.
3. The imperfection of her faith (Joh_20:15). We often only see a gardener in the sublimest messenger of God.
II. PIETY IN RAPTURE (Joh_20:16). Note
1. The rapidity of our mental changes. Mary passed as in a moment from anguish to ecstasy.
2. The power of Christs voice. Neither Gethsemane, the Cross, or the grave had changed it. Thus by a word Christ can lift the soul into the highest bliss.
III. PIETY IN ACTION. Note
1. Christs merciful identification with His disciples. My Father and your Father.
2. The heavenward direction which their sympathies should take. Look upward--I ascend, Seek those things which are above.
3. The right direction of religious feeling. Action at once expresses and realizes emotion. Go and work. (D, Thomas, D. D.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
William B. Godbey 1900 · Public Domain On v11 Joh 20:11-18. “And Mary stood at the sepulcher without,…
MARY MAGDALENE AGAIN AT THE SEPULCHER
Joh 20:11-18. “And Mary stood at the sepulcher without, weeping, and while she continued to weep, she looked into the sepulcher, and saw two angels in white sitting down, the one at the head, and the one at the feet, where the body of Jesus lay. And they say to her, Woman, why do you weep? She says to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have placed Him. And saying these words, she turned back, and saw Jesus standing, and did not know that it is Jesus. And Jesus said to her, Woman, why do you weep? Whom do you seek? She, thinking that He is the gardener, says to Him, Sir, if Thou hast taken Him away, tell me where Thou hast placed Him, and I will take Him. Jesus says to her, Mary! Turning, she says to Him, Rabboni, which is called, Teacher. And Jesus says to her, Touch Me not: for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren, and say to them, I go up to My Father, and your Father; My God, and your God. Mary Magdalene comes, reporting to the disciples that she hath seen the Lord, and He hath spoken these things to her.” As John mentions no woman going to the sepulcher at any time except Mary Magdalene, and the other three mention Mary, the mother of James the Less, and Salome, the mother of James the Greater and John, we conclude that John simply mentions Mary Magdalene as the most prominent of the sisterly band.
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Why did Jesus not want her to touch Him — “because He had not ascended to His Father?” Haptou, “touch,” also means “tarry with,” “cling to,” etc. The solution of the matter is about this: She thought that He had been up in heaven, and dropping down, like an angel, in a moment would suddenly be gone again. Consequently, anxious to enjoy the privilege of worshipping Him while present, she is in the act of falling at His feet, or, as Matthew says, when they first met Him in the garden, they actually embraced His feet. Hence He says: “Tarry not with Me; but go, tell My disciples that I am risen.”
Where had Jesus been since He died on the cross, Friday, at 3 P.M.? You see He had not been up to heaven. This corroborates quite a group of Scriptures in both Testaments, revealing His descension into Hades, and proclamation of His victory and triumph over hell; His entrance into the intermediate paradise and its abolishment; and the escort of the Old Testament saints with Him up to this world, when He received His body on the third morn.
We observe here some notable facts:
(a) The women were last at the cross and first at the sepulcher, and first to go and preach the risen Savior even to the apostles.
(b) The angels unscrupulously appeared to the women twice at the sepulcher, as we see they made two visits in quick succession — the one at the dawn, hastening back to tell the disciples; and the other so quickly after delivering their message that some think they actually arrived at the sepulcher the second time before Peter and John got there.
John describes two visits by Mary Magdalene, the angels being seen in both. Hence you see that while the angels appeared twice to the women, they always retreated away before the arrival of the men; thus illustrating, at least, the hypothetical conclusion of the ethical superiority of womanhood, which is certainly corroborated by the Word of God. God made man out of the earth and woman out of man, the second blessing in creation, man symbolizing justification and woman sanctification. Her ethical superiority is abundantly vindicated in all the transactions of life, where we find her, in every age and nation, pleading for truth, righteousness, mercy, and philanthropy amid the atrocities, brutality, and diabolism of the rougher sex.
William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
F. W. Grant 1903 · Public Domain On v11 Section 2. (Joh 20:11-18.)
Section 2. (Joh 20:11-18.)
Relationship in the new life.
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They go home, cheered though perplexed, to await what needs must follow. But there is one who cannot leave the place where she had last seen (though in what circumstances of distress) her Lord and Saviour. She has followed back to the sepulchre the quicker steps of the two men: coming too late, as it would seem, to learn from them the confidence they had gathered. Her own sight is too much dimmed with irrepressible tears, to gather it where they have done. Of resurrection, save at the far-off end-time, she has no expectation. But her heart clings, with a tenacity that nothing can divert or weaken, even to the Dead, by whose death she is desolate, but who survives in those indestructible memories which support and sadly light her through the gloom. Now she stands weeping outside the sepulchre, and, stooping down, looks into it. Was it a sight to prepare her for what would else have been too overwhelming a joy? Two angels in white are sitting, one at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. They sit in peaceful contemplation of the place now vacant, and ask why she should be weeping, and whom she was seeking there. Absorbed with her one object, however, she seems scarcely to recognize the strangeness of the vision, but answers with the same story she had brought to the disciples, that men had taken away her Lord! Then she turns away again on a quest from which the presence of angels cannot distract her, to find, though she knows it not, Jesus Himself before her.
Spite of her ignorance, -spite of the unbelief which was in that ignorance, -Mary it was who was to be the first witness of His resurrection, the first evangelist of the new order of things which is established by it. A woman’s heart had anointed Him for His burial; and this He would proclaim wherever the gospel should go out. Now again a woman’s heart, more devoted than His foremost disciples, is to carry, in the energy of its new-born gladness, the message that has gladdened it to these, and to become, as it were, the apostle to apostles! How it tells us of the way in which the heart becomes the leader of the mind into the truth of God, and of the displacement of mere officialism in the Christian order.
Yet, after all, how little had Mary appreciated the One she loved with such heart-felt devotion! and her unbelief it is that, as with those upon the road to Emmaus afterward, holds her eyes when at first she sees the so eagerly desired object. He has to repeat to her the angels’ question, why she is weeping, and whom she is seeking there among the dead. Can she indeed be so dull? Can we alas, who have so much less excuse than Mary? How much of our sorrow which seems most to spring from our love of Him, is yet due in fact to our little appreciation of Him? Do we not also seek the Living One as if He were dead, and dishonor Him in our very worship of Him? Thus Mary repeats her wail to her unknown Lord Himself, and can take Him for the gardener, whose Voice had freed her once from the sevenfold power of the enemy which held her. Yet withal what a right she doubts not she has in Him, whom she seems to think the whole world must know at once: "Sir, if thou hast borne Him hence, tell me where thou hast laid Him, and I will take Him away!" But the Good Shepherd calls His sheep by name, and they know His Voice. He recalls her to herself, and so to Himself: "Mary!" and her heart is at rest. "Rabboni," she says; that is, "Teacher!" How blessed to learn, at His feet, like this!
She learns, not only that He is risen, but of a relationship that His resurrection has brought His people into. He is not ashamed to call them "brethren," and in the recognition of that which His work has done for them, and which is theirs in the life they have in Him, He ascends to His Father and their Father, to His God and to theirs. Mary must not, therefore, think to hold Him, as her love would desire; while the purpose of God is revealing itself in fuller and higher blessing than ever known before.
He had never yet called His disciples "brethren;" although this was the fulfilment of what had been prophetically announced long since. The sin-offering psalm (Psa 22:1-31), which so fully depicts the sufferings through which Messiah was to pass, gives us from the lips of the same Sufferer, when delivered, the assurance "I will declare Thy name unto My brethren; in the midst of the assembly I will praise Thee." We have heard, accordingly, already that declaration of the Father’s name, on which, in His final prayer before His betrayal, He so dwells. The relationship to Himself, and so to the Father, which is implied on their part, is only now for the first time explicitly made known. Himself as man the "First-born among many brethren," yet, except the Corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. Thus He is straitened till it be accomplished, and only now can the full reality be told out. As has been often noticed, He cannot, however, put them upon the same level with Himself. He does not say, "Our Father," but "My Father and yours;" He maintains the place which of necessity belongs to Him, while giving them their own upon the basis of this.
F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. W. McGarvey 1914 · Public Domain On v11 J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXXXV. First and…
J. W. McGarvey's The Fourfold Gospel [CXXXV. First and Second Appearances].
CXXXV. FIRST AND SECOND APPEARANCES OF THE RISEN CHRIST. THE RESURRECTION REPORTED TO THE APOSTLES. (Jerusalem. Sunday morning.) aMATT. XXVIII. 9, 10; bMARK XVI. 9-11; cLUKE XXIV. 9-11; dJOHN XX. 11-18.
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[The women, having received the message of the angels, and remembering that the message accorded with the words [742] of Jesus himself, made haste.] c9 and returned from the tomb, b9 Now when he was risen early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons. [Mark here agrees with John that Mary separated from the other women. As to Mary Magdalene, see Luk_24:16), lest the shock of his sudden appearance might be too much for her, as it was for even his male disciples [743] ( Luk_24:37). Conversation with him assured her that he was not a disembodied spirit.] 15 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. [Christ's first question expressed kindly sympathy; the second suggested that he knew the cause of her grief, and might be able to help her find what she sought. Thus encouraged, Mary at once assumes that the gardener himself had removed the body, probably under instructions from Joseph, and hope lightens her heart. In her effort to remove the body, she doubtless counts upon the help of her fellow-disciples.] 16 Jesus saith unto her, Mary. [Her eyes and ears were no longer held; she knew him. It was the same way he used to speak, the same name by which he used to call her. The grave had glorified and exalted him, but had not changed his love.] She turneth herself, and saith unto him in Hebrew, Rabboni; which is to say, Teacher. [Seasons of greatest joy are marked by little speech. Jesus and Mary each expressed themselves in a single word.] 17 Jesus saith to her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended unto the Father: but go unto my brethren, and say to them, I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and my God and your God. [This passage is one of well-known difficulty, and Meyer or Ryle may be consulted by those wishing to see how various commentators have interpreted it. We would explain it by the following paraphrase: "Do not lay hold on me and detain yourself and me; I have not yet ascended; this is no brief, passing vision; I am yet in the world, and will be for some time, and there will be other opportunities to see me; the duty of the moment is to go and tell my sorrowing disciples that I have risen, and shall ascend to my Father." Jesus does not say "our Father." Our relation to God is not the same as his. While, however, our Lord's language recognizes the difference between his divine and our human relationship to the Father, his words are intended to [744] show us our exaltation. We have reason to believe that next to our Lord's title as Son our title as sons of God by adoption is as high in honor as any in the universe.] 18 Mary Magdalene cometh and telleth { bwent and told dthe disciples, bthem that had been with him, as they mourned and wept. [The poignancy of the disciples' grief, even after the intervention of the Sabbath day, explains why the Lord and his angels were so eager to bring them word of the resurrection.] dI have seen the Lord; and that he had said these things unto her. b11 And they, when they heard that he was alive, and had been seen of her, disbelieved. [It is likely that Mary brought the first word, for we shall see below that Luke places her first in the catalogue of witnesses. The narrative now turns back to take up the account of the other women.] a9 And behold, Jesus met them, saying, All hail. [This was a customary salutation. But the old formula took on new significance, for it means "rejoice."] And they came and took hold of his feet, and worshipped him. [This delay, permitted to them, and denied to Mary, probably explains why she became the first messenger, though the other women were first to leave the tomb.] 10 Then saith Jesus unto them, Fear not: go tell my brethren that they depart into Galilee, and there shall they see me. [The repetition may be due to the reticence of the women remarked by Mark in the last section by the key words "and they said nothing to any one." The women may have been hesitating whether they should tell the disciples. Thus Jesus reiterates the instruction already given by the angel. This is the first time the word "brethren" is applied by our Lord to his disciples.] cand [they] told all these things to the eleven, and to all the rest. 10 Now they were Mary Magdalene, and Joanna, and Mary the i mother of James: and the other women with them told these things unto the apostles. 11 And these words appeared in their sight as idle talk; and they disbelieved them. [Lamar well says that this very incredulity on the part of the apostles "enhances the value of their [745] testimony to the fact of the resurrection. They were not expecting it; they were no visionary enthusiasts, prepared to welcome and credit any story that might be told them; nor would they be satisfied with any proof short of palpable and ocular demonstrations."]
[FFG 742-746]
J. W. McGarvey (with Philip Y. Pendleton), Commentaries on the New Testament (The Fourfold Gospel, 1914; Acts; and the epistles) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv11, 14 Mary Magdalene and the two angels:
Mary Magdalene and the two angels:
v. 11. But Mary stood without at the sepulcher, weeping; and as she wept, she stooped down, and looked into the sepulcher,
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v. 12. and seeth two angels in white, sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain.
v. 13. they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid Him.
When Peter and John had run to the tomb in such great haste, Mary had followed more slowly, arriving in the garden only after Peter and John had again left. Her mind was still filled with her first conclusion, namely, that the removal of her Lord’s body was due to grave robbery. And she had given way to a fit of unrestrained weeping. She still remained outside the tomb in helpless and hopeless despair. Incidentally, however, she is prompted to look whether the body of the Lord is really gone from the sepulcher, or whether the whole matter is only a kind of bad dream. So she stoops forward to look at the place where the men had laid the Lord in her own presence, with her tears still flowing freely. The love which Mary Magdalene had for the Master is a fitting example for the believers of all times. "This Mary is a fine, beautiful type and an excellent example of all those that cling to Christ, that their hearts should burn in pure and true love toward Christ. For she forgets everything, both her feminine modesty and person, is not bothered by the fact that she sees the two angels before her, does not remember that Hannas and Caiaphas are filled with hostile wrath. In brief, she sees nothing, she hears nothing but Christ only. If she could only find the dead Christ; then she would be perfectly satisfied. And the evangelist for that reason has described it so diligently in order that we, who preach and hear it, may also, according to this example, gain desire, love, and eagerness toward Christ the Lord. " When Mary stooped forward to look into the grave, she saw two angels in white garments sitting there, the one at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of the Lord had been lying. They were sitting there with a purpose; they were ready to give information concerning the truth of the resurrection to all that sought it. They may have been the same angels that had been present at the earlier hour, or they may have been new messengers of the Lord, become visible for the occasion. It seems that there must have been almost a friendly rivalry in heaven for the privilege of being the guardians of the grave of the Lord, just as at the birth of Christ the multitude of the heavenly host came down to the fields of Bethlehem to sing their anthem of praise. Sympathetically the angels asked Mary: Woman, why weepest thou? Their purpose was to open her eyes that she might see and hear the truth. But Mary’s grief is too deep to notice the presence of glorious comfort. She was surrounded with evidences of her Lord’s resurrection which should have caused her to leap and shout with joy, and here she gives the angels the hopeless answer: Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have placed Him. The case of Mary is repeated in the experience of Christians the world over. If they are visited with any real or supposed trouble, they are immediately so engrossed with their grief that they fail to see the multitude of evidences all about them that Jesus lives, and that therefore nothing can really matter. To trust unfailingly in the resurrected Savior, that must be the aim and the steady endeavor of the believers in the Lord.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11, 14 She saw two angels in white
She saw two angels in white
The angels were wearing white clothing. AT: "She saw two angels dressed in white clothing" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)
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They said to her
"They asked her"
Because they took away my Lord
"Because they took away the body of my Lord"
I do not know where they have put him
"I do not know where they have put it"
translationWords
Mary Magdalene
grave
angel
lord
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv11, 14 20:11-13 Although two . . . angels appeared inside…
20:11-13 Although two . . . angels appeared inside the tomb, the riddle of Jesus’ disappearance remained unsolved (see Luke 24:4). • why are you crying? Sorrow was not the appropriate response in this moment.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.