Tag: resurrection

Mary Could Not Touch Jesus

Ruth D – Why does Jesus say to Mary, touch me not for I am not yet ascended to my Father?

Dave: I’ve had the same question for years. No one knows, therefore any answer is speculation. He is saying that the reason for “stop clinging to Me” is because He has not yet ascended to the Father. Maybe He was preparing her for the fact that He will be disappearing soon and that she needs to have faith and not sight for the rest of her life. Or Jesus may be simply saying, “It’s time for you to go and tell others about Me rising from the dead.” Or, He had to ascend to the Father in order to send the Holy Spirit to her and many others to get the New Covenant going via His Church. I don’t think the issue was mere touching because Jesus told Thomas to touch Him in order to feel His wounds and convince him of actual resurrection. The Greek word used here for “touch” is “cling.” The reason Jesus said this to Mary was because He had not yet ascended to the Father. I think Jesus was saying that a major change was coming. He had to go, so He could send the Holy Spirit to get the New Covenant going, and she no longer could “walk by sight” and needed to learn to “walk by faith.”

Easter Mentioned in Acts

Ruth D – David, my old King James Version in Acts 12:4 – “And when they had apprehended him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers to keep him; intending after Easter to bring him forth to the people.” I know this Passover, but Easter was not established until 190 Ad. Why do you think it is in the KJV?

Dave – Good question. I do not think “Easter” in Acts 12:4 in the KJV is an error. From the early church until relatively recently “Passover” and “Easter” were basically synonyms and used interchangeably. The event referred to in Acts 12:4 is the Jewish week-long feast of unleavened bread (not the Christian commemoration of Christ’s resurrection, nor a pagan festival), and to refer to it as “Easter” was common, even though it is no longer so.

Three Things that Jesus did NOT do.

Jesus did so many things. In fact, John claims at the end of his Gospel that if someone recorded all the things that Jesus did, the world could not contain the books. This may be more literal than figurative when we consider that Jesus made everything in this world (Colossians 1:16). Just the DNA instructions alone from one person, if written out, would fill the Grand Canyon 40 times! His works are far beyond awesome. But it’s what Jesus did NOT do that also captures my attention.

First, and foremost, He never stopped someone who worshiped Him. Throughout the Bible either men or angels began to be worshiped and the first thing they did was to stop it because they were not God. Jesus, however did not stop it. This is a glaring indication that either He was guilty of sin by allowing a false god to be worshiped thus breaking one the biggest Jewish Laws or He was God in the flesh. There are several other supports to His deity, but this one seems to get little attention.

Second, after rising from the dead, there is no indication from Scripture that He appeared to His enemies that arranged His brutal crucifixion. He could have done this to prove to them how wrong they were. It would be like us sticking out our tongue at someone when we are proven correct about something. Our God has amazing, deep humility.

Third, He did not heal everyone who needed healing. He did heal all who came to Him, but there were many more who needed a touch from God in the areas where He preached. One time there were many people sitting around the Pool of Siloam that needed healing, but He healed just one man. A critic commented that he did not want to believe in a god that healed just a few but rather healed all. We must understand what Jesus’ mission was. It was to preach the Kingdom of God first then sacrifice Himself to open doors of eternal life for people. If He healed every person in Israel and beyond, He would not have had time to teach and establish the New Testament Word of God for future generations. Jesus also realized that if He cast out demons from all who needed it, many would later be 7 times worse because they did not get the Kingdom in their hearts (Matthew 12:43-45). Therefore, He had a difficult tightrope to walk on. He had to balance miracles, healings, and exorcisms with getting out the Truth about His Kingdom. An amazing prophecy in Daniel 2:44 speaks of God setting up His Kingdom “in the days of those kings” (context is Roman Empire) that will never be destroyed. This, I believe, was describing Jesus coming to earth the first time (Daniel 7:13-14). So Jesus had to multi-task but also had to keep a proper balance to do just what His Father was telling Him to do (John 5:19).

Feedback:

Jim M – Boy did I enjoy reading this!!!

AR – Thank you – I intend to pass this on to my Sunday Adult Bible study class and a few others.

VG – I liked that 3rd point. That gave me clarity on why God didn’t heal everyone. His purpose was foremost, as you said, for people to come into the kingdom or else the permanency of the healing would be abridged.

 

 

© 2024 Scripture Thoughts

Theme by Anders NorenUp ↑