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The voice of Jesus transforms and changes Mary when she hears him speak her name. This is her last “turning.” So also the woman in the Song of Songs longs to hear the voice of her beloved.
Let me see your face, let me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet, and your face is lovely (Song of Songs 2:14).
I came to my garden, my sister, my bride . . .
I slept, but my heart was awakened.
A sound! My beloved is knocking . . . .
I opened to my beloved,
but my beloved had turned and gone.
My soul failed me when he spoke”
(Song of Songs 5:1, 2, 6; ESV).
Perhaps something closer to the Hebrew (and even the LXX) would be: “my soul went out with his word” (Heb. & LXX). We might say it like this: “I nearly died as he spoke.” Clearly the voice of the Husband brings about transformation similar to a death and resurrection. Now in the light of these words from the Song of Songs, listen again to John 20:14-17:
Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing,
But she did not know it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?
“Whom are you seeking?
Supposing him to the Gardener, she said to him,
“Sir, if you have carried him away,
tell me where you have laid him,
and I will take him away.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned and said to him in Aramaic,
“Rabboni! (which means Teacher).
Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to me,”
for I have not yet ascended to the Father;
but go to my brothers and say to them,
‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father,
to my God and your God.’”
So why does Jesus say Noli me tangere (20:17)? Stop clinging to me! Mary is clutching Jesus. Jesus says, “Stop holding me. I have not yet ascended to the Father.” Jesus then directs her to tell his “brothers” that he is presently ascending to the Father. Why does Jesus forbid Mary from clinging to him?
Some commentators have thought that Jesus here wants us to know that we now have a “spiritual” not a physical relationship with him. He forbids a literal touching and holding. The liberal Rudolf Bultmann even surmised that Mary should not touch Jesus because he does not actually have a resurrection body. How can that be in the light of 20:27 where Jesus asks Thomas to touch and feel is glorified body? Others have suggested that Jesus was somehow unclean or tainted or even dangerous to touch because he has not yet ascended to the Father. But that’s too weird, again in the light of 20:27.
The best answer is that Jesus is acting out the prophetic typology of the Song of Songs. He is the fulfillment of all the hopes and dreams of his people, his waiting Bride. But Mary is thinking that since Jesus is alive, she and everyone else can resume their normal day-to-day relations with Jesus. Travel with him. Walk with him. Sit and learn from him on the hillsides, and so on. But that cannot be. After his resurrection his disciples’ relationship with Jesus has changed. It can never be the same. He has risen from the dead and has been transfigured.
The next to last verse of the Song of Songs refers to the woman who dwells in the garden. There are companions listening for her voice. “Oh you who dwell in the gardens, with companions listening for your voice; let me hear it” (8:13). Mary now is sent to Jesus’ companions to listen to her word about his appearing and message to her.
You see, even though the Messianic Husband has triumphed and burst forth from his chambers smelling of myrrh and aloes, the marriage is not yet ready to be finalized. Jesus must return to his Father’s house to prepare a house for his Bride. And Mary, symbolic of the church, must recognize that the end is not yet. There is work to do. The Spirit to be poured out. There is a world to disciple.
There is to be a change in the way Jesus relates to his disciples, to his church, his Bride. The object of Mary’s desires must be suspended. She cannot “hold on” to Jesus as she may have before his death and resurrection. The victory is real. The spices are pungent. The Joy is irrepressible. But she, like the entire church she symbolizes, the Bride of Christ, must wait for the Husband. She has work to do. He will be absent for a while. Gone to prepare a place with in his Father’s house for his new bride. In the meantime the church must witness to his resurrection (20:17b).
As we the church, the bride of Christ, read this story with eyes and hearts illumined by the Holy Spirit, we know that the marriage Supper of the Lamb awaits the day of his return. He has gloriously triumphed over death and hell. He has proved himself to be a worthy Husband, a glorious new Adam. But we must trust him. And we must wait.
Jesus said, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father.” (20:17). This is the language of marriage preparation. The Husband is getting things ready. The Bride will be taken into the household of her beloved and his Father will be her Father. Jesus has gone to the Father to prepare a house for his Bride, the Church. He ascended to the Father alone, but he promises to return and bring his bride one day to be where he is.
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust even in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go and prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am, you may be also” (John 14:1-4).
Jeff Meyers is Senior Pastor of Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church in St. Louis.