This morning’s devotional reading from Ears from Harvested Sheaves points to a verse that has been a puzzle to me. As I try to find out what it means, I discover that it is a puzzle to others as well.
The verse describes the third day after the death of Christ. Peter and John have come to the tomb and found it empty. Then Mary Magdalene goes there and sees two angels. She is weeping and they ask here why she weeps. She tells them that “they have taken away my Lord. . . .” and then she turns around to see Jesus.
At first she does not recognize Him, but thinks He is the gardener. Then He says her name and she knows this is Jesus. He says to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’ ”
Commentaries differ widely on what was going on here. Those who consider the tenses of the Greek verbs say that when He said this, she was already holding on to Him (perhaps His feet) in a desire to either to assure herself this was really Him or to somehow express her desire that He never leave again.
Jesus could be telling her that He would be temporarily with them and although she desperately wanted Him to stay, He could not. Or He could be saying she didn’t need to continue to touch Him since He had not yet ascended to the Father and was actually there with her. He also could be saying that she must not try to restrict him because He would soon ascend to the Father.
Some think that Jesus was telling her that physical contact would not the way He would relate now to the church, and that a new relationship would begin after His Ascension when the Holy Spirit came.
One thing is clear. Mary was given the responsibility of testifying to the disciples. He told her to tell them that He was already in that process of leaving this earth and ascending to His Father. They needed to understand that His work on earth was finished and His relationship with them was no longer a physical one.
One commentary makes a note that struck me. It says that “public service ought to be preferred before private satisfaction.” Mary wanted to stay and be with Jesus, but He wanted her to go and tell the others.
My first thought about that is not that one activity is preferred over the other, but that public service cannot happen without first spending time with Jesus. However, Jesus may have sensed that Mary never wanted to leave. She wanted to be with Him from this point forward, but He had work for her and she must not stay with Him.
I can relate to this. Spending time with Jesus is sweet. Spending time with other Christians can be great too. However, there are other things that Jesus wants me to do. I’m challenged to “go into all the world” and to “make disciples” and to “visit widows and orphans” and to “be hospitable” and to do a host of other activities that take me away from spending time at His feet.
On another occasion, another woman named Mary was commended for sitting at His feet while her sister Martha anxiously bustled about in service. The implication of what Jesus told this Mary is that sitting at His feet or even clinging to Him is not wrong, but “the most important thing.” It only becomes a problem if that is all I want to do.
Sinful hearts can make selfish indulgence out of something so spiritual as spending time with Jesus. I’ve often said that I can use my to-do list as an excuse not to have devotions, but I can also use devotions as an excuse to not get at my to-do list. If I get nothing else from this verse, I do hear Jesus saying, “Get to work.”
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