Hi everyone. Thanks again for tuning into the
logical Bible study podcast, and for following on with what we're
doing here, which is digging into the literal sense of the
text to work out. What's the author trying to
convey to his original audience and that's called an analysis or
an exegesis. Of the literal sense of the
text, which is where we always want to start as Catholics.
So continuing today, for Easter Tuesday, we're looking at John
chapter 20 verses 11 to 18 which is the passage you would hear if
you go to mass today, Mary stayed outside near the tomb
weeping. Then still weeping shoe stupid.
She stooped to look inside and saw two angels in white sitting,
where the body of Jesus had been one at the head, the other at
the feet, They said woman, why are you weeping?
They have taken my Lord away. She replied.
And I don't know where they have put him.
As she said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing
there though. She did not recognize him.
Jesus said woman, why are you weeping?
Who are you looking for? Supposing him to be the
gardener. She said, sir, if you have taken
him away, tell me where you have put him and I will go and remove
him. Jesus said, Mary. she knew him
then and said to him in Hebrew rabboni which means master Jesus
said to her, do not cling to me because I have not yet ascended
to the father but go and find the brothers and tell them, I am
ascending to my father and your father to my God and your God So
Mary of magdala went and told the disciples that she had seen
the Lord and that he had said these things to her.
So that's your passage for today.
And the aisle key character here is Mary Magdalene, who, of
course, is one of Jesus closest followers.
And she's been in the Gospel of John in the last couple of
chapters surrounding his death and his burial.
So what's just happened in John chapter 20 Sarah Mary Magdalene
earlier in this chapter, she saw the empty tomb and she runs back
and tells Peter and John and then you're probably remember
Peter and John run back to the tomb and they see the clothes
roll. Tup so, Mary Magdalene has come
back with Peter and John and now she is sort of waiting at the
tomb. Now, what we're going to see
here in this text is the second appearance of Jesus after his
death. So the first appearance
chronologically, it appears is to the women who are on their
way to tell the other disciples about the empty tomb.
So that's already happened perhaps an hour or two hours
before this and now we have Jesus appearing again.
To Mary Magdalene at the tomb. So, verse 11 Mary stayed outside
near the tomb weeping. So again, we need to try and
break free of this. The videos, we sometimes see of
this scene at this stage mirror is not in the Tomb.
In fact, she doesn't appear to go into the Tomb at all.
Here, she's outside the tomb near by Peter and John have left
by now. So apparently she's alone.
And she's weeping, and she's weeping, because, as we find
out, she does not know where the robbers have put the body.
She's thinks that his body has been stolen.
Even though she's probably seen the angel descend from heaven.
She just doesn't understand. Where is the body?
She thinks a robber has stolen it.
Now, this weeping Might Recall. Something that was said earlier
by Jesus in John chapter 16, John says to his disciples, you
will weep and mourn while the world rejoices you will grieve,
but your grief will become Joy. So there's an interesting link
there. So now she Stoops to look
inside. So, she looks inside the tomb
verse 12, she saw two angels in white sitting, where the body of
Jesus had been one at the head and the other ER, of the feet.
Now, these angels weren't there before when Peter and John
looked in the tomb, which was shortly before this.
So apparently these angels have appeared just for Mary.
They're they're on a mission to help Mary in this situation.
They know that she doesn't believe Jesus has risen and
they're there to help her believe that he has.
So they say to her, why are you weeping?
So they want Mary to realize that there is no reason to weep
Interestingly Mary doesn't appear to be afraid of the
Angels, although usually in the Bible, people are afraid of
Angels, or maybe she doesn't realize who they are.
She was so distraught. So she says to them, they have
taken my Lord away and I do not know where they have put him.
So, notice the language of my Lord shows, the intimate
personal relationship with she has with Jesus before this, she
talks about, we don't know where they have put him now.
It's where have you put my Lord? I don't know where he is gone,
so she considers Jesus, to be not just a friend, but her
personal Lord and Master. She's deeply distraught here.
Verse 14, as she turned around, so, get the picture.
She now, turns, and looks back outside the tomb.
She saw Jesus standing there though.
She did not recognize him. So, apparently Jesus has
teleported here from his first appearance in Jerusalem.
Apparently he hasn't walked because otherwise he would have
run into people. So he's somehow in visibly moved
from Jerusalem to the tomb, and that's because Jesus only wants
to appear to particular people for the next 40 days.
He doesn't want to appear to others, only the certain ones
that he picks. Now, interestingly, why doesn't
she recognized Jesus? There's a lot of discussion
about this. I think there's three main
theories about, why Mary doesn't initially recognize?
Jesus one, is that her vision is blurred by the tears and she's
just distraught and not thinking properly or something like that.
Second option is that Jesus himself is taking on a different
appearance than what he had before and that would fit in
with some of the other appearances later in the
gospels. Such as on the road to Emmaus,
the two people are walking with him the entire way to Emmaus,
but they don't recognize him. And it's also the explanation
that the catechism prefers, it tends to lean in this direction.
So on this Theory, Jesus looks different in his glorified body.
And in fact, maybe he can choose to appear in different forms.
That's the theory that I think is most likely to be correct.
And there's a third Theory, which is that God has imposed
some sort of Supernatural blindness on Mary of Magdalene
here. It's a supernatural thing and
when she recognized him it's like the scales fall from her
eyes kind of Thing. And to support that we have Luke
24 16 which is on the road to Emmaus.
It says the disciples eyes were prevented from recognizing him.
So it depends how we take that. As I said, I think the best way
to interpret this is that Jesus is actually appearing in a
different form although that's not the only explanation.
Now, there might be some parallels here to what happened
to Peter and John or Peter and the Beloved disciple.
Just before this, remember they arrived at the tomb, they see
the cloths but they do not know exactly what it means.
Similar to Mary Magdalene here, in both cases.
Neither party has the gift of faith in the Risen Jesus.
They see, but they don't understand. and, Verse 15, Jesus
says to Mary Magdalene woman. Now, that's not a demeaning
term. It sounds like that to us is in
the 21st century. But in that culture, it was
pretty common to refer to women just as woman.
Jesus uses it several times in the Gospel of John, when he
wants to redefine relationships with those.
He addresses. So at the wedding of Cana Jesus
calls his mother woman and it's not an insult, it's just kind of
a title and we'll talk more about that when we look at the
wedding of Cana. So Jesus is not insulting Mary
Magdalene by calling her woman. He says, why are you weeping?
Who are you looking for? So Jesus he doesn't immediately
come right out and say I'm Jesus.
He wants Mary to be the one to engage in the conversation
before he says anything like that.
Now, what he says here, what or who are you looking for some
Scholars? Think John includes this
statement deliberately to call back to something.
The Jesus says, right at the start of the Gospel of John.
When Jesus first speaks to the disciples, he says, what are you
looking for? That's in 1:38.
So now Jesus. Yes, Esther Mary Magdalene.
Who are you looking for? So, perhaps, it's signaling a
new era for Jesus disciples where his redefining, his
relationship with them. After the resurrection.
She supposes him to be the gardener, so apparently, Jesus
tomb was in some sort of garden field and we see that in chapter
19 and there would be a gardener that would work in this area,
cleaning up the field and keeping watch over the tomb.
So she says, sir, if you have taken him away, tell me where
you have put him and I will go and remove him so Mary, he
thinks that the gardener might have removed him because maybe
the gardener didn't want anyone to be in this tomb and he's just
cleaning up the area. So Mary offers to remove him
herself. She says, just tell me where he
is, please. And I'll move him.
At this point, Jesus says, Mary. Now it's something about the way
he says it makes me recognize him.
Maybe it's his voice, maybe it's the gentle way he says it and
this recalls Jesus own teaching about the Good Shepherd.
Remember, Jesus says, I am the Good Shepherd and I call my
sheep by their names. So there's an interesting link
there. And then, in fact, this is John
chapter 10 about the Good. Shepherd, verse 4 of John
chapter, 10, says marry. Well, My sheep recognize my
voice and hear me recognizes his voice, she says to him in Hebrew
rabboni which means master. So John clarifies what this
Hebrew word means because his audience is not Jewish and he
wants them to understand the full force of what Mary says
here. It's a term of deep reverence
for one's personal teacher Rubber and I Now, many people
supposed at this point because of what Jesus says next, they
think that maybe Mary Magdalene worships him and clings onto him
but not necessarily. Verse 17, Jesus.
He says. And this is where the confusion
sometimes lies. Do not cling to me, because I
have not yet ascended to the father Now this is a good
passage to do an exegesis on. A lot of people interpret this
to mean that Mary is physically clinging onto his legs.
And Jesus, here is saying something like don't touch me or
don't worship me because my body is unclean or something like
that. I don't think that's the right
interpretation. When he's talking about
clinging, he's not talking about physical clinging.
There's two possibilities of what this could mean, it could
mean something like this. Jesus is meaning, I'm still here
with you. For a little while longer,
there's no need to cling to me. I'm yet to leave you to go to
the father, so it's kind of a reassuring.
I'm going to be here with you for a bit longer.
There's no need to cling to me. Second option, would be, do not
hold on to the old version of me and old version of discipleship.
There's now a new State of Affairs.
I'm not going to associate with you in the same way anymore.
So Jesus is drawing her attention to the fact that
there's now a new era and she needs to think about things
differently, either interpretation could be right
there. Now this is a really important
verse though. Just think about what he says do
not cling to me because I have not yet ascended to the father.
This tells us that Jesus journey is not yet finished.
Even after his death even after his resurrection.
There's still things that he needs to do.
He hasn't yet gone to heaven and returned to the father's side.
Side and that's going to happen later at the Ascension.
There's a lot of significance to why Jesus has to ascend.
There's a whole lot, you could say about it because this is
when Jesus glorified. Human body gets reunited with
God's Own inner life, which of course, opens the way for all
men to be United to God in that same way.
Remember that Jesus said earlier, at the Last Supper, he
said where I am going. You cannot follow unless I go
there first. And so, that's the same kind of
idea with the Ascension He says, but go and tell the brothers,
which is the disciples. And we've talked about why Jesus
uses the term Brothers in the last few podcasts.
Go and find the brothers and tell them.
I am ascending to my father and your father to my God and your
God. So Jesus wants Mary Magdalene to
go and tell the apostles. The Jesus story is not yet over,
he still has work to do and in particular she wants her to tell
them. I'm going to my father and your
father to my God and your God. Why does he use language like
that? It could be a couple of things,
he could be. That Jesus wants to emphasize
that he's going to be with God, is in the god, that you Jews
believe in, that's where I'm going.
And so he wants them to realize how serious this is.
I am literally going to God. It could be and this is probably
more likely that by Jesus death and Resurrection, he has
radically changed the relationship between God and
man. So whereas previously Jesus,
mostly just refer to God as his own father now because of his
death. And Resurrection, he's saying
that you disciples can call him your father as well.
So that's another way of looking at it.
There are children of God and that's why they're Jesus
brother's because of, what Jesus did through his saving work on
the cross. We finished with Verse 18, sir.
Mary of magdala went and told the disciples that she had seen
the Lord and that he had said these things to her.
So she relays the message. The next thing that occurs on
this day, a lot happens on this Easter Sunday is later in the
day. Jesus appears to the apostles
and we're look at that. In a later, episode of the
podcast. So let's have a look at how the
Catholic Church, what the Catholic Church tells us about
this passage and how it informs our understanding of church
teaching. There's quite a few references
to this particular passage, because of the interesting
things that Jesus says about himself here.
So, firstly, in paragraph, six forty, and six forty one in the
section about the empty tomb. We have a discussion about Mary
magdalene's role in that. We've read that out in the last
couple of episodes. So I'll include that in the show
notes for you to read. Paragraph 645 has a discussion
about the condition of Christ's risen humanity.
And here, the church tells us why it is that Jesus appears to
look different after, or at least why people don't recognize
him after his resurrection. Paragraph 645 says, by means of
touch, in the shearing of a meal.
The Risen Christ establishes, direct contact with his
disciples. He invites them in this way to
recognize that he is not a ghost and above all to verify That the
Risen body in which he appears to them, is the same body that
had been tortured and crucified for it's still Bears.
The traces of his passion, yet at the same time, this
authentic, real body. Possesses the new properties of
a glorious body. Not limited by space and time,
but able to be present how, and when he Wills for Christ's
Humanity can no longer be confined to Earth and belongs
henceforth only to the father's Divine realm for this.
Into the Risen Jesus enjoys, the Sovereign freedom of appearing
as he wishes in the guise of a gardener or in other forms
familiar to his disciples precisely to awaken their faith.
So here, you'll hear in that last bit.
The church understands that Jesus is appearing in a
different form here which Mary sees is the gardener paragraph.
443 is a discussion about the term your father and my father,
my father from this passage. It says he distinguished his
sonship from that of his disciples by never saying our
father except to command them. You then pray like this our
father and he emphasized this distinction by saying my That
and your father. So the church actually takes
that to mean that When Jesus says my father and your father,
there's a distinction between the closeness that Jesus has
with his father and the closeness of the Apostle's.
Have with the father paragraph 6, 54 is a discussion about the
significance of the resurrection and it says Jesus himself called
his disciples after his resurrection, go and tell my
brethren. We are Brethren not by nature
but by the gift of Grace because that adopted affiliation gains
us a real share in the life of the only son which was fully
revealed in his resurrection. And then in paragraph 6 60 we
have a really interesting discussion of why Jesus says
these words about do not cling to me and what it means about
the time period between his resurrection and his Ascension.
So paragraph, 660 says, the veiled character of the glory of
the Risen one during this time is intimated in his mysterious
words to Mary Magdalene. I have not yet ascended to the
father, but go to my brethren and say, to them, I am ascending
to my father and Your father to my God.
And your God. This indicates a difference in
manifestation between the glory of the Risen Christ and that of
the Christ, exalted to the father's right hand, a
transition marked by the historical and Transcendent
event of the Ascension. So we don't often talk about the
Ascension and what it means theologically, but the catechism
takes it quite seriously. As does the whole Catholic
faith. And this particular verse from
John chapter 20 is used as a key verse in understanding the
significance of the Ascension and then in paragraph 2795,
which is in the discussion, about the line Who Art in
Heaven, from the Our Father there's it's a similar similar
point is made about what it means to say that God is in
heaven and that Has ascended there.
So I'll put that paragraph in the show notes as well.
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