Don Friesen
Dorothy and I studied at a seminary located on a large tract of land. The seminary itself, with its classrooms and offices, was in the centre of the tract of land, and on its perimeter lay a series of duplex student houses. One day, while studying in the library we saw the two-year-old son of a friend walk haphazardly across the campus, with no particular destination in mind, it seemed, so I went to find his father in another part of the library. The father left, grabbed his bike, caught up with his meandering son, set him in the child's seat at the back of the bike, and cycled him back to their house. Our friend took the boy out of the child's seat, set him down on the ground, then went into the house. Within seconds the boy was off on another journey, in yet another direction, all of which we witnessed, with some amusement and affection, from the distant library windows. This boy is now a university professor, but at that time he didn't have any particular sense of direction, or purpose, except to keep moving! You could not hold him down!
I have a book entitled Great Escape Stories (Eric Williams, 1958), a series of stories of people in captivity whose will to be free inspired some amazing and successful escape plans. In his introduction the author alludes to the Luftwaffe fighter-pilot, Franz von Werra (1914-1941), who twice escaped from prison camps in England, the second time nearly succeeding in stealing one of the latest Hurricanes from the Rolls-Royce testing field. Von Werra also escaped a third time, while a prisoner of war in Canada. He was aboard a prison train on its way from Montreal to a prison camp on the north shore of Lake Superior in mid-winter, when he jumped out of a window, ending up near Smiths Falls. From there he made his way to the Saint Lawrence River, staggering to freedom across the ice-bound river into the United States, neutral at the time. Like our two-year-old friend, it was very difficult to hold of this man down! He did not like to be restrained, contained, or confined!
Not Another Escape?!?
I doubt that escape was on Mary Magdalene's mind as she made her way to the tomb the Sunday after Jesus' death, but she could tell that something was amiss as soon as she arrived. Even though it was dark – very early in the morning – she saw that the stone intended to seal Jesus' tomb had been moved! In fact, it had been moved well clear of the tomb's entrance.
Mary immediately ran to tell the other disciples, who out of fear of the Roman soldiers and the religious leaders were in hiding. Together they ran back to the tomb, the first disciple to arrive seeing, in the gathering light, that Jesus' grave-clothes were strewn about. When the next disciple arrived, they went inside together, but their perplexity only increased as they noticed the linen burial wrappings lying on the ground "and the cloth that had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself." (John 20:7) All very strange!
The disciples returned home, but for some reason Mary Magdalene lingered, upset, no doubt, not just about Jesus' death, but also about the violation done to Jesus' final resting place. She looked in the tomb herself, and saw two figures sitting there, one on each end of the place where they had lain Jesus' body. They asked her why she was crying – as if the answer wasn't obvious – but she replied, "They took my Master, ...and I don't know where they put him." (John 20:13) And then she turned around and saw a third figure, which we know was Jesus, but Mary didn't recognize him. He too asked why she was crying, and supposing him to be the gardener she thought he might have seen something that would provide a clue to Jesus' whereabouts. And then there is that touching moment when Jesus uses Mary's name, and she recognizes his voice.
Do Not Hold on to Me
I imagine that at that moment Mary wanted to hug Jesus. It sounds like she tried to embrace him. After all, discovering Jesus was alive was a fabulous and welcome surprise, but Jesus' reply is curious one. He told her, "Do not hold on to me...." (John 20:17) He says it's because he has not yet ascended – and we usually accept that answer and read on – but it's a curious thing to say because he later allowed other women to hold his feet and worship him before his ascension. (Matthew 28:9) When the disciples later met together he also invited Thomas to touch him. "Reach out your hand and put it in my side," he said to Thomas.
Some translations render the line, "Do not hold on to me...." (John 20:17) as "Do not cling to me" (NJER), meaning, perhaps, that the other disciples had to be notified, and right quick! We can understand, however, if Mary wanted to hang on to Jesus, now that she had found him.
Whatever the meaning of Jesus' statement, "Do not hold on to me," I think it captures an element of Jesus that we don't normally see. After all, he healed people by touching them. He was not averse to touch, or intimacy, but there is also an elusive quality to Jesus hinted at by his statement to Mary. In other words, he is not one who is easily captured or contained. Remember when he was but a boy and while on a trip to Jerusalem with his parents he slipped through their fingers and they had to go search for him. We often see that experience as a parental nightmare, but it's a good thing that he was in the Temple instead of getting lost in the city's questionable quarters. That experience shows an independence of spirit, even at the young age of twelve, prompting one to wonder if he also tried to climb out of the manger!
Remember Jesus' many discussions with the Pharisees, the Pharisees trying to trap him, but he slipped through their fingers as well, time and time again. He refused to be pigeon-holed, even when under arrest and standing before a formidable power who held Jesus' destiny in his powerful hands.
Jesus gravitated to the Temple when he was twelve, and so you might expect to see him there as an adult, but for most of his public life he was out in the desert, praying, or on a hillside, teaching; or in small towns, healing. You might expect Jesus to spend a lot of time with the Pharisees, indulging in the same discussions that stimulated him when he was twelve, but he spent a lot more time hanging out with prostitutes, tax collectors, and other sinners and outcasts.
Remember in the Gospel of John, when Nicodemus was puzzled by Jesus' "born of the Spirit" language, and Jesus explained to him that the Spirit is much like the wind: "The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit." (John 3:8) The Spirit may not have been the only member of the Trinity he was describing.
This elusive characteristic of Jesus is also seen in the many times he told people not to talk about what they had seen him do. This is especially true in Mark's Gospel. Good news, however, has a way of spreading, whatever cautions accompany it. The good news, Mark seems to suggest, is uncontainable, as uncontainable and unpredictable as the One who brought us the good news!
Death Could not Hold Him in its Power
Perhaps the elusive streak or thread in Jesus' life should have prepared us for the Gospel's climax and conclusion. His parents couldn't hold him down; the Pharisees couldn't pin him down; Nicodemus couldn't wear him down; the authorities tried to bring him down by killing him and sealing him in a tomb, but even death could not hold him down! Mary Magdalene couldn't track him down, and when she found him – or rather, he found her – she could not hold him down; she had to let go of him.
The book of Acts tells us that "God set (Jesus) free from death.... Death could not hold him in its power." (Acts 2:24, CEV) "God ...liberat(ed) him from the pangs of death, seeing that it was not possible for him ...to be controlled or retained by it." (AMP) In other words, Christ is on the loose! He's at large! There's no pinning him down, no getting a handle on him, no holding him back. Jesus is free of the grave and roaming at large in the world. He will not be confined again. He is on the loose in order to loose us from our graves, to free us from the false securities that become graves for us.
Because death could not hold Jesus in its power, he has freed us, freed us, for example, from the grave of fear. His disciples were all huddled together in fear after his death, and I imagine that Mary Magdalene had to crank up her courage to walk to the tomb that Sunday morning, but Christ has freed us from fear and from other things that inhibit and dull us and keep us in captivity. The elusive Christ is at loose in the world, inspiring hope and joy! A poet who was helped by Christ's presence in her time of need wrote:
Filled afresh with
(Sally Coleman, "Death could not hold him! Reflecting on John 20:1-18")
Filled afresh with
AMEN
resurrection power,
he met me in my grief,
and I wanted to hold him,
to contain him,
to keep him for myself.
But he was made
for greater things;
his every pore
exuded glory
bursting to be free!
resurrection power
he met me in my need,
banished my grief,
and made me the bearer of
good news.
Death could not hold him,
he is risen!
Quotations of Scripture are from the New Revised Standard Version, unless otherwise noted.