When I was growing up I had the privilege of being able to travel a lot with my family. When I was little we travelled to the East Coast where my Grandparents, Aunts, and Uncle lived and spent a lot of time there. Actually my brothers and I spent most of our summers there and then our parents would come out before school started and bring us back home. During those trips we would take little trips to Washington D.C., Philadelphia, down to the beach, and many other places around Wilmington and Newark, Delaware.
During those trips we would go into gift shops, museums, or places that “little hands” shouldn’t reach out and touch things. So my parents would give us the lecture before entering the store, “Now we are going in to this place, but keep your hands to yourself. DON’T TOUCH. You can look, but DON’T TOUCH. Understand?” Of course I’m going to say that I understood, because I wanted to go into the store. I could see some of the neat things that were in there and I wanted to get my hands on those things. I heard what they had told me, but I had other motives. In the back of my head I heard them telling me, “DON’T TOUCH.” I would wait until they were out of sight and then I would pick up the item and look at it, roll it on the shelf, or play with it making sure that it didn’t break. I always made sure that my parents didn’t see me playing with the item, or looking at it. Because they said, “DON’T TOUCH.”
I find this passage interesting here. Jesus has just risen from the dead. Mary is excited to see Him alive. She has been so heart broken. After all she was in the crowd when they cried, “Crucify Him.” She watched as they nailed Him to the cross. She laid His body in the tomb. Her whole life had been lost. She was in mourning because she had lost her teacher, her master. Now here He was alive. Here He was walking around. Here He was talking with her. Here He was comforting her. She goes to touch Him and He says, “DON’T TOUCH.”
The phrase here actually means, “Don’t cling to me.” There is a difference. She was clinging to Him physically. She was holding onto Him in one relationship and He was teaching her about another relationship. She wanted Him to be there physically, they way things were. He wanted a deeper relationship, a different kind of relationship. Not that He still wasn’t her Master, her Teacher, because He was and is. But He was now moving into the realm of being her Lord and Savior. He had conquered the grave. He had conquered sin and Satan himself. He had proved Himself to be the King of kings and Lord of lords. He was going to His Father to be glorified and then to come again to live inside of her as her Savior. Not just her Teacher. Not just her Master, but also so much more. He wanted to touch her in so many different areas of her life.
He wants to be more to us as well. He not only wants to just be some figure that we come to when we are in trouble. He not only wants to be someone we come to on Sunday morning, or Saturday night depending on what church you attend. He wants to be someone that is more than just a Teacher or Master. He wants to be your Savior, your Lord, your King, your Redeemer, your Bright and Morning Star, your Banner, your Provider, your Healer, your Peace, your Joy, your Sound Mind, your Banker, whatever You need Him to be that’s what He wants to be. However, you have to let Him. I fear that most of us are not allowing Him to be more than just something or someone we come to on occasion.
There was one important job as well. Not only did He need to go to His Father, but also she had a job. That job was to go and tell. She couldn’t fulfill that job if she was there clinging and clutching Him. She had a job to do. I wonder, do we spend too much time clinging when Jesus had told us to go? I wonder do we spend too much time clutching when Jesus had told us to share? I wonder do we spend too much time in prayer when Jesus has already given us the answer and said, “Okay, you have your marching orders, its time to get up and start moving.” Yet we sit back and say, “Wait, I’m not sure I heard You right. Maybe I should stay here a little while longer. Maybe I should read Your Word some more.”
We have a job to do. We can’t stay in the gift shop of life forever. We have to get out and share the Love of the Lord with a dying world. We have to carry out what He has commanded us. We have to tell the world, “He’s alive!! Death couldn’t hold Him. The grave couldn’t have Him. Satan didn’t win!! You can have freedom today. He’s alive!!!”
One last thing, Scripture says that we can touch Him. Hebrews tells us that we have a High Priest that can be touched. He is touched with our infirmities. Think on that because that is for another blog. Love you all and I’ll see you next time. Oh and by the way in case you were wondering, I did get caught from time to time in the gift shop and in the museum touching things I wasn’t supposed to.
Pastor Rob
