Why Can't Mary Cling to Jesus?

<p>This upcoming Sunday is the Sunday of Joseph the Arimathea and the Myrrh-Bearing Woman.</p><p>Although the story of the women finding Jesus’s tomb empty is told by several of the evangelists, I want to narrow in on John’s telling of the story.<br> <br> It’s only in John’s Gospel that Mary mistakes Jesus for a gardener. And, it’s only in John’s Gospel that Jesus tells Mary not to “touch him” because he has not yet ascended (past tense) to his Father because he is <em>in the process</em> of ascending (present tense).<br> <br> But, what does this mean? Why would Jesus say this? </p><p>Perhaps a clue comes from Jesus’s teaching earlier in the Gospel. And, perhaps, as we’ll soon discover, it has to do with eating his flesh (bread) and drinking his blood (wine).<br> <br> <strong>The Bottom Line: </strong>It isn’t the appearance of Jesus to us that saves, but our faith in what has been written by John that saves</p>