Read: John 20:11-21
Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended. (v. 17)
In my final year of swimming lessons, I learned some basic lifeguarding skills. My instructor emphasized the importance of approaching a panicking swimmer with caution. He explained that a drowning person will cling so powerfully that a would-be rescuer cannot perform their saving work.
After Jesus’s crucifixion, Mary Magdalene must have felt like she was drowning. The beloved teacher in whom she had placed her hope was dead and buried. Then the risen Jesus appeared to her. Mary wanted nothing more than to hold him and never let go. Surprisingly, Jesus told Mary not to cling to him. His reason? “I have not yet ascended to the Father” (v. 17). He has something better in store for her.
To complete his saving work, Jesus must ascend to heaven. In letting Jesus go, Mary would experience his closest embrace. Jesus’s subsequent disappearances and reappearances establish that he is never far away. Mary didn’t need to cling to Jesus because she wasn’t losing him.
It’s hard for us to imagine that a Jesus we cannot see, hear, or hold is better than the Jesus the disciples knew during his earthly ministry. What the risen, ascended Jesus promises is that though we cannot see him, he is closer than we can imagine. And that though we cannot hold him, he is holding us. We hold on to the hope that, no matter what we must let go of in this life, Jesus always has something better in store for us.
As you pray, trust that Jesus is holding on to you.
About the Author
Ben Van Arragon
Ben Van Arragon is a preacher and writer based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He preaches and teaches the Bible in church, online, and anywhere else he has the opportunity.
