Touch me not for I am not yet ascended, or Today shalt thou be with me in paradise?

 

The problem of the resurrected but not yet ascended Jesus telling Mary not to touch him but encouraging Thomas to do so in John 20 is hardly the only problem with John's death and resurrection narrative about Jesus. 

John never even gives us the promised ascension at all, despite all the talk in that gospel of the descending and ascending Son of Man.

The absence is not unique to John, however, which tells us that the thinking about all this was, if not fluid, at least not fully formed at the time.

Luke does not reconcile the ascension stories he himself tells in Luke 24:51 and Acts 1:9 with the words of Christ from the cross which he alone records, which imply that Jesus simply expected at death to go to heaven immediately, not to rise from the dead and ascend later, let alone descend into hell in the interim.

Compare Luke's Lazarus, who dies and goes to the bosom of Abraham, while the rich man who ignored him dies and goes to hell (Luke 16:22ff.). This is what is supposed to happen, right? There is no resurrection until "the last day", as Martha informs us (John 11:24). Everybody knows that! But then John's Jesus raises her brother anyway.

And like Matthew's I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world (28:20), the resurrected Jesus in John 21 never really exits the world either. He can appear at any time and say Follow me. Even to one untimely born (I Corinthians 15:8).

Matthew's Jesus doesn't leave in an ascension. He is always present.

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. 

-- Matthew 18:20

The ending supplied to Mark 16, however, agrees with Luke that Jesus ascended to heaven and sat on the right hand of God. Its fascination with signs done by those who believe echos the early Christian history recounted by Luke in Acts, and doubtlessly comes from that part of the tradition and is not originally Marcan. Mark's Jesus eschews signs absolutely (Mark 8:12).

 

And [the other malefactor] said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. 

-- Luke 23:42f.

Then came the soldiers, and brake the legs of the first, and of the other which was crucified with him. But when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was dead already, they brake not his legs: 

-- John 19:32f.

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.  

-- John 20:17

The ringleader of unbelief in the resurrection is Peter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted. 

-- Matthew 28:16f. 

The unique word for doubt here is used elsewhere in the NT only of Peter when walking on the water. Apparently doubt and Peter go together in Matthew's mind.

Immediately Jesus reached out with His hand and took hold of him, and said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"

-- Matthew 14:31

 

Peter does not figure in the resurrection narrative of Matthew, and only indirectly figures in Mark. In Luke Peter acts as an investigator of the empty tomb claim of the women, but comes away only with questions. He is also named as a recipient of a special appearance of Jesus, but this is so perfunctorily reported it is strange. A fuller account involving him is provided by John, which contrasts with the presentations of Matthew and Mark which refer to the persistent incredulity of the eleven summarily.

 

In John 21 the three core intimates of Jesus, Peter, and James and John the sons of Zebedee, go back to their old lives, despite seeing the resurrected Jesus in John 20 gladly. The impression is anti-climactic, to the extent that some see two competing and separate narrative endings to John in the accounts.

 

Doubting Thomas, privileged with a special appearance of Jesus in John 20, joins the three in John 21, as does Nathanael (of "in whom there is no guile" fame), and two others who are not named (probably Andrew is one, the brother of Peter and a partner with Peter in the fishing company, Zebedee and Sons).

 

That makes seven of eleven remaining disciples who do not go back to Jerusalem rejoicing as Luke would have it. They do not go into all the world making disciples after being clothed with power from on high. They go back to making a living in Galilee, about which Luke knows nothing. And it is Peter who leads them by example.

 

There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas called Didymus, and Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, and the sons of Zebedee, and two other of his disciples. Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. 

 

-- John 21:2f.   

It all flies in the face of the robust conception of belief and a changed life which the resurrection is supposed to have elicited from his closest followers. How we get from this sorry business in Galilee in John to what the disciples supposedly later do with their lives in Luke/Acts in Jerusalem remains a mystery.

The traditions about the resurrection in the gospels are deeply unsettled.

The Gospel of John is truer, you see . . .

The Gospel of John is truer, you see

than Synoptic Gospels ever could be:

Where it's "Verily, Verily I say unto thee",

and a single "Verily" won't quite do it for Me.

-- Johnny

A stylistic sign of the Fourth Gospel's claim to superiority over the Synoptics

Jesus' statements in the Fourth Gospel are never simply "Verily", but "Verily, verily" (25 times).

But the Synoptics (and the rest of the NT) do not know this double use of "Verily", only the single use:

Matthew (32 instances, including prayers)

Mark (15 instances, including long ending of Mark KJV)

Luke (8 instances).

John has a 26th use, his only instance of the single use category, the concluding line of John 21 which is also the conclusion of the Fourth Gospel, a devotional benediction to the work as in prayer. 

No more death, yet the resurrected Jesus eats fish

Not the lofty conception of Isaiah or even of The Apocalypse:

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

-- Isaiah 11:9

And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

-- Revelation 21:4

And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat before them.

-- Luke 24:42f.

Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. ... So when they had dined . . ..

-- John 21:12ff.

My words shall not pass away?

"My words shall not pass away" (Mt. 24:35, Mk. 13:31, Lk. 21:33).

"In all things I [Paul] have shown you that by so toiling one must help the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive'" (Acts 20:35).

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The words of Jesus Paul quotes are unexampled in the Gospels.

Isn't it just a little odd that were it not for Paul "it is more blessed to give than to receive" would have passed away, even though "... the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you" (John 14:25). Obviously not to the authors of the Gospels.

There must be other sayings we do not know about. After all, not all his deeds have been recorded, either:

"And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen" (John 21:25).