How many strange phenomena happened when Jesus died on the cross!
The veil of the Temple was ripped in two from top to bottom. There was a great earthquake and the tombs broke open, with the result that many of God's saints were raised from the dead (Matthew 27:51-52), though they did not walk out and appear to people until after Jesus' resurrection (Matthew 27:53).
Jesus rose on the day after the Sabbath, the eighth day, the first day, not simply of the week, but the first day of the new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), a day that marks the end of one world order and the beginning of a new (Hebrews 9:8-18; Colossians 2:9-12; Genesis 17:12).
Jesus had obtained full forgiveness for all our sins when he cried out, "It is finished" (John 19:30; Hebrews 9:11-14). But he did not complete his rescue of his people until he ascended to the Father (Hebrews 10:12-14), and brought Old Testament saints into their heavenly possession (Hebrews 11:39-40).
That's why he tells Mary Magdalene, "Don't cling to me" (John 20:17).
It wasn't that he could not be touched; he wasn't a ghost. Though he could do things in his glorified human body that he could never do before, such as disappearing at will (Luke 24:31), he ate and drank with his disciples and invited them to touch him (Luke 24:38-43; John 20:27).
As with Elisha's command to Gehazi (2 Kings 4:29) and our Lord's instructions to the seventy (Luke 10:4), the urgency of Jesus' mission does not allow him to delay with Mary Magdalene.
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After serving Grace Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, Louisiana, Bob was honorably retired on Sunday, September 27, 2015, and given the title "Pastor Emeritus." This was forty years to the day after he became their pastor.
He now works for the Presbytery of the Gulf South as...
