Verse by Verse

Hi. I'm Erik Jones, and this is Verse by Verse, a short podcast all about exploring the insights and lessons of the inspired word of God. In today's episode, we'll focus on words spoken by Jesus Christ not long after his resurrection from the dead. Contrary to what many believe, when he spoke these words, Jesus had already been resurrected for a number of hours. He actually rose from the dead right around sunset the evening before, which was Saturday evening.

So he may well have been alive for over 10 hours when he came across Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb very early in the morning on the 1st day of the week. John tells us that Mary had come to the tomb and was weeping because she found it empty. She mistakenly believed that somebody had stolen Jesus's body, which caused her to get emotional. When a man came up behind her, she assumed he was a local gardener and asked if he had taken Jesus' body away. But the man she supposed was a gardener was actually the resurrected Jesus Christ.

When he came near her and spoke her name, she immediately recognized the voice and knew exactly who he was. After recognizing that the living, breathing man standing near her was none other than the resurrected Jesus of Nazareth, she tried to touch him. Perhaps she tried to bow at his feet or cling to his arm or even hug him, but he backed away and did not allow her to touch him. His response is our verse of the day, and it's recorded in John 20 verse 17. We read, Jesus said to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father and to my god and your god.

So before anyone could touch and embrace him, Jesus had to first ascend to the 3rd heaven to the very throne room of god and present himself alive to god the father. Perhaps it was only appropriate that the first being to touch the resurrected Christ was his father in heaven. This event was actually prefigured by an old testament ceremony that God had commanded Israel to practice over a 1000 years earlier. It was an annual ceremony that fell on the Sunday within the Days of Unleavened Bread, which was the same day that Jesus revealed himself to Mary. Let's briefly read about that ceremony back in Leviticus 23 verses 9 through 11.

And the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel and say to them, when you come into the land which I give you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring a sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord to be accepted on your behalf. On the day after the Sabbath, the priest shall wave it. That sheaf had to be waved before God and accepted by him before the Israelites could harvest the rest of the first fruits. The symbolism is amazing.

The first of the first fruit sheaf represented Jesus Christ who was and is the first of the first fruit harvest of God. Before he could be embraced and begin his activities as the resurrected savior, Jesus had to ascend to his father in heaven and be formally accepted. It's amazing to consider what this reunion must have been like. Sometime on this day, the 2 beings who formed the god family who had spent eternity together, were reunited as God the Father and God the Son. Now the Bible doesn't give us any details about this event, but it must have been momentous, and no doubt the angels of the 3rd heaven witnessed and rejoiced as the word, Jesus Christ, was restored to his eternal place at the father's right hand.

So when Jesus encountered Mary early that morning, he had not yet ascended to his father but did sometime shortly thereafter because John records a little bit later that later in that day, he did allow his disciples to touch him. Jesus' fulfillment of the wave sheaf ceremony should point us to the truth that Jesus Christ was the first of many first fruits god would call from that moment forward. God is harvesting human beings into his eternal family. Jesus Christ was the first, but his ascension and acceptance by the father assures us that he won't be the last.

Verse by Verse is a companion podcast to the daily bible verse blog, which you can find on the Life, Hope, and Truth Learning Center. Check out the show notes for more.