would he suddenly give such a cold response? The answer lies in an
understanding of the Eternal Christ.
I don’t believe the resurrected Jesus was being aloof or rejecting Mary’s
friendship, nor was he afraid of intimacy. He was saying that the Christ is
untouchable in singular form because he is omnipresent in all forms—as we
soon see as the “gardener” at the tomb (John 20:15), as a wayfarer on the road to
Emmaus (Luke 24:13), as a man tending a cooking fire by the side of a lake (John
21:4). In each of these inner and outer journeys, Jesus was in the process of
returning to his God and Father, whom Jesus tellingly describes as both “my
God” and “my Father” and “your God” and “your Father” (John 20:17b). Jesus
now speaks from his omnipresent and inclusive Christ role. (I personally suspect
this is the same kind of presence that so many people experience right after the
passing of a friend, or shortly thereafter.)
I believe that, by repeating “my” and “your” twice, the text is trying to
communicate that the event under way describes one common and shared God
experience—his and ours. Yes, they are the same experience! You could even
say this is the first premonition of what will become the doctrine of the Body of
Christ, the radical unity between Christ and all people (1 Corinthians 12:12ff.).
Jesus of Nazareth, an individual man, has become Christ, the Corporate
Personality.
We used to know him primarily by outer observation, but now we know him
primarily by interior exchange. (Which is how we all know Christ, and is
commonly called “prayer.”)
Now we can put the whole of Mary Magdalene’s story together. Apparently
over much of Jesus’s ministry life, she had been a frequent witness to the
personal, concrete Jesus of Nazareth. But after the resurrection, she also had the
unique experience of being the first witness to the Omnipresent Christ. Then,
acting on his charge for her to tell his friends what she had seen, Mary passed
on the good news to the “apostles” (John 20:18, Matthew 28:8). This singular
role makes her indeed the “apostle to the apostles,” which is exactly how the
early church, commentators throughout history, and even early liturgical texts
honor her. The first apostle was a woman. And saying that is not trying to be
politically correct. It’s true by the early definition of an apostle as a “witness to
the resurrection” (Acts 1:22).
Like Mary, we must somehow hear our name pronounced, must hear
ourselves being addressed and regarded by Love, before we can recognize this
Christ in our midst. And like Mary, we usually need to start with the concrete