Touch Me Not

It is Christmastime, and the world is celebrating the birth of our Savior. I love this time if the year because I feel that it is indeed the ”Happiest time of the year.” I know I am an old softy but I really can relate to the words from Michael McLain’s Forgotten Carols “I Cry on the Day that they take the tree down.” I want this season to last all year long.

My thoughts today, however, are turned to another holiday; Easter. I set a goal this year to read the entire Messiah Series by Elder McConkie. I read them a little out of order but am down to my final volume, Volume 4 of “The Mortal Messiah”. I have so touched by this volume. I feel it has forever changed my life by helping me to finally really “Know” the Savior.

This volume focuses on the final year of the Saviors ministry. During this time He was very bold and a perfect example of service in the kingdom. This volume takes us up through the crucifixion and resurrection. It is of the resurrection that I would like to make comment today.

We are all familiar with the scene at the Garden Tomb where Mary mistakes the Savior for the gardener.

13 “And they say unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She saith unto them, Because
they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.

14And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and
knew not that it was Jesus.

15Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She, supposing
him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.

16Jesus saith unto her, Mary. She turned herself, and saith unto him, Rabboni; which is to say, Master.

17Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.” (John 20).

I have often tried to imagine this scene in my mind and have always felt that it was a bit harsh for Mary not to be able to actually hold the Savior; to feel the nail prints in His hands and feet: To truly testify that He was resurrected because she saw and felt Him. Then in The Mortal Messiah I read the following:

“We cannot believe that the caution which withheld from Jesus the embrace of Mary was anything more than the building of a proper wall of reserve between intimates who are now on two sides of the veil. If a resurrected brother appeared to a mortal brother, or if a resurrected husband appeared to a mortal wife, would they be free to embrace each other on the same terms of intimacy as had prevailed when both were mortals? But perhaps there was more in Jesus' statement than Mary related or than John recorded, for in a very short time we shall see a group of faithful women hold Jesus by his feet as they worship him. The seeming refusal of Jesus to permit Mary to touch him, followed almost immediately by the appearance in which the other women were permitted to hold his feet, has always been the source of some interpretative concern. The King James Version quotes Jesus as saying "Touch me not." The Joseph Smith Translation reads "Hold me not." Various translations from the Greek render the passage as "Do not cling to me" or "Do not hold me." Some give the meaning as "Do not cling to me any longer," or "Do not hold me any longer." Some speak of ceasing to hold him or cling to him, leaving the inference that Mary was already holding him. There is valid reason for supposing that the thought conveyed to Mary by the Risen Lord was to this effect: "You cannot hold me here, for I am going to ascend to my Father." Volume 4 page 264.

As I understand this, Elder McConkie is telling us that it is possible that Jesus did indeed embrace Mary. Then He basically said “I can’t stay, don’t hold me here.” This seems to me a much more likely scenario of what happened. In fact when I read it… I wept as I thought of the love that was shared between these two and as Mary realized that it really was Him. This insight makes me feel closer to Him.