John 20:11-18

Do Not Hold On to Me!

Can you imagine:

Someone you love…

Someone who saw you trapped by your demons…

Maybe the first person to truly look at you with compassion…

The only person who could truly set you free…

The person who actually chose to do these things…

tragically murdered right in front of you in one of the cruelest ways humanly invented?

The trauma; the horror; the despair that filled Mary Magdalene on what we now call Good Friday must have been overwhelming. Yet, as we hear our Gospel reading, today we see that what was so overwhelming gets completely overwhelmed by the joy of the resurrection of Jesus; the one who had done so much for Mary. Therefore, we are not surprised by her reaction. Her cry of “Rabbouni!” and her attempt to hold on to or cling to Jesus in surprise and love is something we would expect from anyone who loved and owed him this much.

But it is Jesus who does something surprising. He commands her (imperative mood in Greek) (Institute for New Testament Textual Research 2001) “Do not hold on to me.” This feels like a shock to the system – a slap to the face – in the middle of this powerful moment of wonder. What is happening here in this moment? What is Jesus saying, not only to Mary but also to those of us who would seek to follow Him?

The word for “hold on to” or “cling” is the Greek word Haptou. This seems straight forward enough, but why would Jesus command one of his most faithful followers to cease and desist? I mean, isn’t that what we are supposed to do? Don’t we want to encourage people to cling to Jesus? Why would Jesus tell her not to cling?

The key to understanding this seemingly harsh statement of Jesus is found by looking at how Mary addresses Jesus in her excitement. Rabbouni is an intensification of the title Rabbi. It is a title that is meant to show deep and solemn respect for the one to whom it is given (Lohse 1968). It goes beyond the less formal Rabbito be as formal and reverent as possible. Again, this sounds like the kind of thing we would hope followers of Jesus would develop in their own lives.

But something is different on this day. Something that Mary has not yet fully realized. Jesus was not resuscitated, he was resurrected! Resuscitation would mean he had come back to his old life; that he was alive and would die again someday. Resurrection, on the other hand, means that Jesus went all the way through death, all the way through the grave and hell and, by the power of God’s love was now bringing forth something entirely new to our world. He was not brought back to his old life and its patterns, titles and strivings. He was brought all the way through death and into resurrection life that is now available to any who will receive him.

Evidently, Mary assumed that he had been brought back to the old way of life. Therefore she was clinging to Jesus in the old ways, the old titles of respect, and the old hopes. So Jesus’ seemingly harsh words to her should not be heard as a slap of rebuke, but as an invitation to join Him in the new reality that God was giving birth to through him. In fact, he invites her to become the first resurrection preacher in the New Testament as she is to go and proclaim this wonderful news to the disciples (which again shows the old patterns are transformed in this new resurrection life that Jesus is offering).

We still struggle with this today. We tend to cling to Jesus in particular places, people and experiences. Human beings are prone to nostalgia and, like Mary in the garden, we want to see the best parts of life in the past instead of in a pregnant present or hopeful future. It is just easier to cling to what we already know instead of trusting the unknown in the “right now” or the frightful “what is to come.”

Before we look at how we cling to Jesus in these places, people and experiences, it is important that you know that it is still okay to have an immense gratitude for those places, people and moments. God used those moments and people to help you. They were instrumental in helping you take your next steps in maturing toward the full image of Christ. Yet we, like Mary, can cling to them as a substitute instead of the beautiful, helpful and fleeting moments that they were. We still need to hear these incisive words as Christ’s invitation to reverently let go of the past experiences and fully trust that Jesus is always with us in the present, inviting us into the new life that only He can lead us to.

With that said, clinging to Jesus in a place is when we remember or reminisce about the old sanctuaries (pulpits, choir lofts, instruments, styles of preaching, technology, songs, etc.) and think “if only we were still doing those things then we would experience Jesus the way we used to.” To those who cling to a place or style, Jesus stands before us inviting us to reverently let go of the old and move into the new temple/sanctuary that he “raised up in three days.”

Clinging to Jesus in a person is wrapping our attention around particular people (pastors, theologians, or teachers) who helped us in our spiritual walk. Once those pastors move on or we graduate or finish our studies, we often cling to these people in ways that can hinder the new experiences. We say things like, “If only the current preacher were more like so and so.” Or, “if only they would read this theologian, then we would experience Jesus again.” In this, we never seem to realize that we are clinging to the people who taught us about Jesus instead of following the actual Jesus who stands before us with his invitation to lead us into God’s present and future Kingdom if we will only “stop clinging.”

We cling to Jesus in positive experiences when have great encounters or “mountain top experiences.” These experiences can happen in church services, revivals, retreats or in the splendor of God’s creation. The problem begins when we cling to that particular experience instead of moving with the One we encountered in the experience to see what new place He might be leading us to.

So today, as we celebrate the empty tomb and Christ’s victory over sin and death, we are also met with an invitation from our risen Lord. We are invited to lay aside all our past encounters and moments with full and grateful hearts. We are invited to open our clutching and grasping hands and arms in order to receive a new embrace from him. And we are invited to receive, in Him, the resurrection life that allows us to call Jesus’ Father, Our Father and to call God; Our God.

May we all follow Mary’s example; who obviously let go in order to go and proclaim: “I have seen the Lord!”

He is Risen…