-
Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not)
Contributed by Maurice Mccarthy on Nov 28, 2017 (message contributor)
Summary: Why did Jesus say, "touch me not?" A harmony of the resurrection appearances of Christ with the women, and a discussion of the need to put the blood on the Mercy Seat.
Mt 28:10 Then Jesus *said to them, "Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they shall see Me."
In our first reading, the stone is gone, there are 3 women present, and there are no angels around. In our second version it appears that the angel spoke to them. If you only had one version of the gospel you would not be getting the full picture. Why 2 women in one version and 3 in the other, is this a contradiction? Remember the writers have their own reasons for writing and include the parts of the story they feel the need to tell. The version with two women doesn't say there were "only" two women, perhaps Matthew was writing and thinking to himself I won't include all the ladies because the only two they would know are the ones he spoke of. He doesn't even identify who the "other Mary," was assuming his readers would know. Believe me there are more than two Mary's in the NT. (Mary the mother of Jesus, who is not the other Mary in this story) In fact if you put all the gospel stories together you get a minimum of 5 women at the tomb and perhaps more. (Matthew lists 2; Mark 3; Luke list 4+ Lk 24:1; and John just Mary Magdalene)
You will also notice in Matthew's sequence of events that the women touch Jesus' feet. In the list of women in this passage Mary Magdalene seems to be recorded as present with them. But we know from another Gospel account, she was by herself when she met Jesus and He told her to stop touching Him, that is coming up shortly. For now just note He tells Mary to stop touching Him, but nothing is said to these other women? What is going on here? Why was Mary forbidden?
Back to Matthew his text seems to say that an angel rolled away the stone sat on it, scared the soldiers away, and then told the women Jesus was risen. The problem is that Matthew jumps around in the time line sometimes without telling us that is what he is doing. Let's look back a little further in his gospel and you will see what I mean. This is just a few verses before what we have already read:
PPT 8 text
Mt 27:50 And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up [His] spirit.
Mt 27:51 And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, and the earth shook; and the rocks were split,
Mt 27:52 and the tombs were opened; and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;
Mt 27:53 and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.
If Matthew hadn't given the explanation in verse 53 we could have thought they rose from the dead when the veil was split in two. Tombs were opened but no one was raised from the dead till later. The bible is very clear on this issue, Jesus is the first one rasied from the dead. But you see how Matthew jumps around in the story line, that is exactly what happened in chapter 28. Here are a couple of those verses again:
PPT 9 Text
Mt 28:3 And his appearance was like lightning, and his garment as white as snow;
Mt 28:4 and the guards shook for fear of him, and became like dead men.