Thomas can touch Jesus; Mary Can't?

After the tomb was found empty by some of the apostle's, Mary Magdalene remained to cry. Jesus appeared to her:

John 20:14 "And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus."

When he was resurrected Jesus changed! Perhaps "glorification" is a process! Just what is "glorification"? Let's take a look:

 Romans 8:30 "Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."

Preparing for eternal life is a process! Just think about it: even Christians still sin, but nothing sinful can be in the face of God.

 Habakkuk 1:13a "Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity..."

Yes, God sees evil, but it's out of his will to behold (ra'ah  in the Hebrew) it!  It's more than see. Perhaps tacit approval if he was to condone it! As an example, a person may be a drunk. His own father knows it, but the drunk doesn't flaunt it in the face of his dad because he knows his dad will turn his back on it. That's over simplification, but hopefully you get the idea.

Therefore, from Romans 8:30 we see that God calls sinners to repentance, and if they respond then by faith they are saved, but because they still sin, the last step before facing eternity is to be glorified. Before we stand in the face of God, he makes us "pure" just as he is (Habakkuk 1:13a).

Get used to it! You will change! Before you enter Paradise, God changes what sin remains in the Christian and makes you as pure similar to him! The presence of God is his "glory". It's the substance of him; the makeup of his divine existence. It's his truth, love and majesty. Words can't describe it sufficiently. We'll just have to be there to understand it!

Think about Moses. He couldn't look on God because of his glory. Think of divine Light as a solar eclipse. We can turn our back to the light to sense it (as God turned his back to Moses), we can feel it's heat and know that it represents life itself, but we can't look at the eclipse or we'll be blinded! In the case of God, it's more than blinded; it will be death!

At the transfiguration Jesus was anointed by God. No one understands what this was all about, but it would appear that Moses was a picture on Mt. Moriah of Jesus on Mt. Tabor. Moses could not look on God's glory and live, but Jesus looked on God's glory and had life. Somehow Jesus received more of God's Holy Spirit!

"What?" you say! "More of God's Spirit!" I don't want to imply that the Holy Spirit is a variable which could be measured, but it would appear that different people have different degrees of the Holy Spirit. Some who are saved may have little, but those living for Christ have much. Since Jesus is Christ, he has much! There was no evil within him, but somehow the power the Man Jesus had was variable based on his miracles!

Mark 5:30 "And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?"

Virtue (Greek dunamis) is "miraculous power". Jesus could sense the miracle working power leaving his body!

Jesus had degrees of glory at different times. He lost some here and when he was transfigured, he was somehow immersed in God's Holy Spirit! I don't claim to understand the Holy Spirit and neither do others. I can merely add 2 + 2 and come up with 5! It's an imperfect math and not meant to be comprehended, or we would be as gods!

However, before we can go to heaven, we will be changed. We will share a portion of God's glory. We won't get his majesty or the full measure of his love, but the remnants of original sin will be removed. We will become beyond temptation because Satan knows that we have already been glorified and out of his reach. The "hope of salvation" will become realized when we're glorified!

Note that the woman who touched Jesus was "made whole".

Mark 5:34 "And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague."

The woman was made "whole" in two ways. The second was whole (Greek hugies). Her health was restored. However, in the first instance she was made whole (Greek sozo) or "spiritual safety". Jesus' power had not yet "saved" her, but her soul was brought to "safety" until she is saved at the time she is glorified! She obtained the "hope of salvation", but she was not truly "saved" until she dies and is glorified, providing eternal safety from Satan. Glorification culminates in salvation! It took power from Jesus to provide wholeness for this one woman! Just think of the power it took at his death to take on the sins of the world all at one time! His death for us drained him somehow. Much virtue surely left Jesus to provide safety to all mankind!

When Jesus asked the Father on the cross "Why did you forsake me?" Jesus was surely feeling the loss of this virtue as he felt with the woman who touched his robe! With her he sensed the loss; on the cross the lost virtue or power was so extensive that he felt abandoned!

I somehow believe that the transfiguration may have been the taking on of God's virtue (almighty power) which Jesus would need to make us all "whole"!

It is in this state, with the loss of magnitudes of virtue, suffering death for mankind, that Jesus emerged from the tomb!

Jesus was different when he was resurrected. We know that others also failed to recognize him (Emmaus walk). We know that things material could not contain him because he just appeared in locked rooms.

Look at this passage:

John 20:19 "Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you."

(It would appear that Jesus was free to be here, there and anywhere after he was resurrected, but somehow he had not, as part of the plan, been glorified).

Yes, Jesus was changed, but between resurrection and the ascension, his transformation was not yet complete!

Jesus told Mary Magdalene "touch me not" .

John 20:17 "Jesus 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."

Mary Magdalene was instructed not to touch Jesus! Why? "I am not yet ascended to my Father". In effect, Jesus had not yet been glorified. This happens to us as we die, or even perhaps, as we're resurrected, but Jesus had forty days between his resurrection and ascension. Since his glorification did not occur until after he joined his Father in heaven, perhaps that will also be when we are fully glorified. (There us a hole in our knowledge. Jesus was to be with the thief in Paradise the day of his crucifixion, but yet he had not yet ascended.

Some would say "But Thomas touched him before he was glorified!" I beg your pardon. Reread this passage:

John 20:26 "And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing. 28 And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. 29 Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. "

Thomas was invited by Jesus to touch him (with his foreknowledge, Jesus knew that it wouldn't come to that). However, Thomas never touched Jesus. If he had, it would have said so! Jesus acknowledged  "because thou hast seen me", not "because thou hast touched me"! As far as I can tell from scripture, Jesus was not touched by anyone before he ascended!

Now why would Jesus desire that no one touch him? Possibly because of the uncleaness of the world and sinners within it. Knowing that he would be fully glorified, it may have been his desire to come before God without any contamination from those who still sin!

In all honesty, no one knows why Mary Magdalene wasn't allowed to touch Jesus, but it's for sure that Thomas didn't. We can only speculate the "why", but yours and my speculation is as good as others as long as it's based on scripture.

I do want to note: the apostles received the Holy Ghost before Pentecost. The Holy Ghost came on them while the resurrected Jesus was still here in the world.

John 20:21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost:

God just can't be put in our small box. He is not a mathematical equation or a spell. He does what he wants when he wants and our desire to know why for everything is still mankind's same old problem!