Why Couldn’t Mary Hold Him?

Q. Blessings to you.  The Gospel according to John teaches that after Jesus was resurrected He appeared to Mary Magdalene and instructed her not to “hold” Him because He had not yet ascended to His Father.  Yet after that and before the ascension, He told Thomas to place his hand in His side.  What happened between the events to allow Thomas to touch Him when Mary could not?

A. Mary had “lost” the Lord once and wasn’t going to risk losing Him again, so she was holding on for dear life. What He actually said to her was, “Don’t hold on to Me for I have not yet returned to the Father.” (John 20:17)    He couldn’t have been talking about His ascension because they all saw Him that evening in the Upper Room. And He was with them for a total of 40 more days.

From a study of Hebrews 9:11-14 and other places it appears that immediately following His Resurrection, Jesus carried His own blood into the Temple in Heaven and sprinkled it on the Ark there.  He had already fulfilled His role as our Sacrifice.  Now He was acting as our High Priest in the final act of atonement for our sins, similar to the way the Levitical High Priest entered the Holy of Holies on Earth with the blood of the sacrifice on Yom Kippur.

So it wasn’t a matter of not touching Him.  It was about letting go of Him so He could perform this final task.