A young man inquiring into the faith recently asked me why Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, the first witness of his resurrection, “Touch me not” (John 20:17). While on a trip to Europe, this young man had visited an art museum where he saw a painting that greatly moved him. It showed Mary Magdalene and Jesus reaching out to each other yet holding back from touching. The young man was moved by the painting because it seemed to express our yearning to be with God.
All four Gospels testify to the fact that Mary Magdalene is among the women who go to the tomb of Jesus early in the morning on the first day of the week and find the tomb empty. The full story of the appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene by herself, though, is told only in chapter 20 of the Gospel of John. Mary Magdalene apparently separates herself from the other women and goes off to tell Simon Peter the startling news.
Peter and John then run to the tomb and also find it empty. John, narrating the event, says he came to “believe” when he saw the burial cloths of Jesus lying on the floor in the empty tomb. Peter and John go away, but Mary remains, peers into the tomb, sees a vision of two angels, and then, weeping, asks where the Lord was taken. Then she turns, and suddenly Jesus himself is there, but she does not immediately recognize him.
This non-recognition of their master in his glorified body is the typical first impression of the disciples who encounter the risen Jesus. It happens on the road to Emmaus, as Luke relates (24:13-35). It happens to the group of the apostles on the shore of the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1-23). Mary Magdalene recognizes Jesus only when he speaks her name. She replies, “Rabboni” (teacher). It is then that Jesus tells her not to touch him, giving as the reason for this the fact that he has not yet “ascended” to his Father (20:17).
This scene has captured artists’ imagination, and the theme of not touching has been prominent in many representations. This is no doubt because the Scripture passage in question was known to them in its Latin Vulgate version: “noli me tangere,” or “touch me not.” The famous paintings of this moment by Fra Angelico, Botticelli, and Titian, for example, all have the title Noli me tangere. Any of these paintings could have been the one the young man viewed in Europe, or it could have been yet another. What is clear both from these paintings and from the text of the Gospel is that Jesus did not, in fact, want Mary to touch him, much as she longed to.