John chapter 20

vs 11

While the disciples go home to brood or think or whatever, Mary just sits there and cries. But when she plucks up the courage to look in the tomb herself, she sees something that neither disciple sees.

vs 12

I try not to look too deeply into things - a lot of the details, especially in John (being an eyewitness account) will simply be because he remembers them. But look at this - John and Peter, whom we would rank pretty highly in disciple world, didn't get to see any angels, they just saw linen strips. But Mary Magdelene, who stayed by the tomb and wept, saw them. Is this just God's way of giving her comfort because she's so upset? Or of exalting the lowly above the highly rated?

vs 13

Mary must be fairly overwhelmed with grief, because according to John she doesn't have the typical fear reflex - she's too sad. She misses Jesus. I can sort of understand, from this verse, why people might think she was married to him. But Jesus' words explain the situation just as reasonably - those who have been forgiven much love much.

vs 14

Mary Magdelene was the first person to see Jesus, and she didn't even recognise him. Now, to be fair, no one does at first. Is it just that they don't expect Jesus to be alive, so they assume he's someone else? Some people would argue that, especially from Isaiah which says that he's not pretty, or that his looks were nothing special. Others would say that it's a function of the glorified body that he looks different somehow.

vs 15

Mary must have thought that this garden had a lot of gardeners - that's three people in white she's seen! She goes with the most logical approach - the gardeners have somehow moved this stone away, taken Jesus' body, and dumped it. She therefore offers to take the body from them, so that she can treat it respectfully. After all, they might have removed it because it wasn't Jesus' tomb.

vs 16

All he has to say is her name, and suddenly she knows who it is. She calls out to him with joy. Does she say "Husband!" No. She says "Teacher!"

vs 17

Depends what translation you read here (NIV says don't hold on to me, NASB says Stop clinging to me, KJV says Touch me not), but to be honest none of them make the key issue clear. Which, of course, is why? Why can't she cling to him? Well, let's try and be logical about this. Can it be because he isn't fully substantial yet? I don't think it can. Why? Because he was bodily resurrected - his body isn't lying on that stone, so where is it? It's in front of her. He's got a body, no worries there.

So why can't she cling to him? Because he's got to go back to heaven, and I guess he doesn't want her to fly up with him. He's not superman, after all. Besides, he has a job for her - to tell the disciples (he calls them his brothers - awesome). Interestingly, his message is not that he is risen (perhaps he thought that should have been obvious to them) but instead that he is going to the Father, who is also their Father, to God, who is also their God.

vs 18

And so she goes and tells them. Apparently they were incredulous, but it doesn't say so here - that's the testimony of another gospel.

vs 19

Your leader has been killed. The people who killed him are still out there, and are in charge. His body's missing. So you're afraid. Huddled together in some room somewhere. You've heard that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdelene - was he an angel? A ghost? A vision?

Suddenly, he appears in the room and says "What up?" I want to run a pool on how many people fell off their chairs. I mean, he didn't even knock.

vs 20

But when he shows them his physical signs (of his physical body), they knew it was him. And they were overjoyed, which is understandable.

But here's a curly one. Jesus went to be with the Father (that's what he said to Mary - it was his excuse for her not being allowed to cuddle him). Now he's here. God is perfect. And he can't allow imperfection in his presence, right? So is Jesus body, marred as it was by his death (he just showed them his scars), perfect in the eyes of God? If it isn't, then how did Jesus go before God with it? Perhaps God doesn't require perfection to be before him. If Jesus' body is perfect, then perhaps we just don't understand what the term perfect means.

I am personally for number two. I think our culture misunderstands the ANE cultural meaning of "perfect" in the same way we misunderstand the ANE cultural understanding of "truth". In this case, perfection isn't being some pristine model free from damage. Perfection and holiness are synonyms - so Jesus' body is holy (and he is completely holy) because he has used his body to perfectly obey God. Whether you have holes in you or whatever is not going to make any difference.

There's a third option which I won't discount - those holes in Jesus' hands and feet and side are perfect reminders of what he has done for us, and an eternity with them is an eternity of a badge of honour, showing Jesus' perfect submission to God in all things, including bringing us to Him. What could be more perfect than that?