Matthew 28: 8-10 So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. “Greetings,” he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.
John 20: 17-18 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Mary Magdalene and Mary, the mother of James, had been sitting opposite the tomb as Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus buried Jesus. So they knew where he was buried. On the first day of the week, early in the morning, the two women came with other women to finish the burial process but found the stone rolled away and the body of their Savior gone. Reminded by angels that Jesus had risen as He said that He would and that He would meet them and his disciples in Galilee, the women, filled with joy that Jesus was alive, ran to tell the Good News to the disciples.
But, on the way, they met Jesus. The story is told in John 20: 11-18. Mary Magdalene thought Jesus was the gardener, and she asked to be told where Jesus’ body was so that she could retrieve it. When Jesus called her name, she knew that voice (as do all of His sheep), and she and the other women ran to him and grasped his feet to worship him. I can almost hear them saying, “Hallelujah! You are alive! Praise be to God!” I understand that having felt they had lost His body once, they clung to him, not wanting him to disappear again. I can imagine the tears flowing in sheer happiness to see him again.
But Jesus told them not to cling to him, for he still had to ascend to his Father and their Father, his God, and their God. He was not meant to remain on earth but to ascend to heaven, sit at the Father’s right hand, and be an intercessor on our behalf as our great High Priest. Hebrews 7:23-25 states, “Now there have been many of those priests, since death prevented them from continuing in office; but because Jesus lives forever, he has a permanent priesthood. Therefore he can save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.” Letting go, the women went to tell the disciples what they had seen and heard. Reading the same story from more than one Gospel is important because it helps us know the whole story.
On this Resurrection Sunday, let us seek Him, for He has risen and sits with the Father. Now we can cling to Him for our salvation, hope, deliverance, redemption, and unfailing love. Cling to Him with all of your might and call on Him day and night, for He loves you so much. Because He lives on in the heavenly realm, we can be assured that He will never leave or forsake us, and He is with us, even until the end of the age. Today is the day of salvation!
Amen.
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