Magdalenbrother
June 7th 2004, 06:14 AM
My contention in this modest post is that the author of the fourth Gospel shows us in his account of the resurrection (chapter 20) three different ways of knowing Christ after his exaltation.
I will start with verses 19-20.
Here the beloved disciple shows us the first way in which we can know the resurrected Messiah: by seeing and touching.
In the historical context of these verses, I think it is fair to say that this is the lowest way to know Christ, for this is clearly the knowledge according to the flesh that Paul repudiates. The male disciples believe in the resurrection of the Lord only after He, having pity on the weakness of their faith, has done a kind of show. In Mark, we see Christ rebuking the disciples for not believing His female followers.
Nevertheless, if we step back and pay attention to small details, we will see that out of this particular historical context knowing Christ by seeing and specially touching is a sublime way of knowing Him.
The significant details are the wounds and the fact that he appeared in the middle of them. For me, this is a reference to Matthew 25, in which Jesus teaches us that whoever clothes the naked and feeds the hungry will be saved because He is mystically present in the poor and suffering as the Cosmic Person in whom the Father has created everything.
We know Christ through his wounded humanity and this humanity are the poor who are in the middle of us. Blessed are they who can discern their Lord in this way! Blessed are they also who touch the wounded Lord without recognizing him, for to them also is the Kingdom, as Matthew 25 makes perfectly clear.
The second way of knowing the resurrected son of God is found in verses 16-17. This is what I call the 'Magdalene way'. This path is different in that it relies solely on hearing. That this is so is shown by the fact that contrary to what happened with the male disciples, Jesus didn't let the Magdalene touch him at all. Jesus, who was not a Victorian Puritan, clearly wanted to give her a higher teaching, a higher idea of who He was after his rising from the dead.
Neither does the sense of sight play a role since Mary mistook the man standing behind her for the gardener (a clear reference to Adam in Eden).
Mary the magdalene recognized Jesus through his voice and his voice only. Here we see a clear reference to the poem of the beautiful shepherd (Greek kalos means good and beautiful ) in chapter 10: the beautiful shepherd calls his sheep by their name and they follow him because they know his voice.
We need to pay attention to the fact that Mary recognized Jesus through his speaking her name. Jesus did not say: 'Hey I am Jesus'. No. He exclaimed with vibrant love: "Mary!".
Is there a relationship between this mode of knowing Jesus and the Scriptures, which are reputed to contain God's wisdom? My answer to that is a massive "yes" provided you the reader are able to hear the whole Bible as your own name spoken in your ear and your heart by Jesus today in the garden of the universe.
The third way of knowing Jesus is the highest and the most mysterious. It is revealed to us in verses 4-8.
This way is illustrated by the behavior of the OTHER disciple whom Jesus loved (as a relative: Greek ephilei). This disciple, who is different from the disciple whom Jesus loved with divine love and who leaned on his bossom at the Last Supper, runs to the sepulchre.
The disciple not only runs, he ( inclusive masculine !) outruns Peter. This shows not only that he had better legs but more importantly that his heart is not made heavy with remorse and dullness. This disciple could be compared to a dove or an eagle while Peter is a poor breathless cow.
Having arrived at the sepulchre, he stoops down and looks in. But he does not enter.
When Peter has entered, he comes also. He sees and he believes.
According to the flesh, he only saw Jesus' linen clothes and napkin and the empty space where Jesus body had lain. In fact he saw nothing.
Nothing according to the flesh but everything according to the Spirit: he saw and he believed. He saw Jesus as the resurrected Lord of the living and dead in the Spirit.
How did that happen?
To understand that, we need to turn to the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus in chapter 3. Can a man return in his mother's womb when he is old? The answer is: yes, this is possible but the womb into which one has to return is not the womb from which one was born but the innermost heart of man.
The cave here is the womb, the heart of the earth in which Jesus had predicted he would be for three days. As long as the other disciple whom Jesus loved as a relative remained outside the cave, nothing happened but when he descended into the heart/womb of the earth, the glory of Jesus as life-giving spirit was revealed to him in an ineffable way.
The third way I call the way of Mary, the mother of Jesus, because it is a knowing that seen from our perspective is dark and obscure, hidden and mysterious, one in which our senses and our ordinary understanding are completely "overshadowed" (Luk 1:35).
Such seeing happens in the innermost recesses of our being.
This knowing is the true virginal birth of Jesus in our hearts.
That the knowledge of such a glorious birth may be granted to us all !
99
I will start with verses 19-20.
Here the beloved disciple shows us the first way in which we can know the resurrected Messiah: by seeing and touching.
In the historical context of these verses, I think it is fair to say that this is the lowest way to know Christ, for this is clearly the knowledge according to the flesh that Paul repudiates. The male disciples believe in the resurrection of the Lord only after He, having pity on the weakness of their faith, has done a kind of show. In Mark, we see Christ rebuking the disciples for not believing His female followers.
Nevertheless, if we step back and pay attention to small details, we will see that out of this particular historical context knowing Christ by seeing and specially touching is a sublime way of knowing Him.
The significant details are the wounds and the fact that he appeared in the middle of them. For me, this is a reference to Matthew 25, in which Jesus teaches us that whoever clothes the naked and feeds the hungry will be saved because He is mystically present in the poor and suffering as the Cosmic Person in whom the Father has created everything.
We know Christ through his wounded humanity and this humanity are the poor who are in the middle of us. Blessed are they who can discern their Lord in this way! Blessed are they also who touch the wounded Lord without recognizing him, for to them also is the Kingdom, as Matthew 25 makes perfectly clear.
The second way of knowing the resurrected son of God is found in verses 16-17. This is what I call the 'Magdalene way'. This path is different in that it relies solely on hearing. That this is so is shown by the fact that contrary to what happened with the male disciples, Jesus didn't let the Magdalene touch him at all. Jesus, who was not a Victorian Puritan, clearly wanted to give her a higher teaching, a higher idea of who He was after his rising from the dead.
Neither does the sense of sight play a role since Mary mistook the man standing behind her for the gardener (a clear reference to Adam in Eden).
Mary the magdalene recognized Jesus through his voice and his voice only. Here we see a clear reference to the poem of the beautiful shepherd (Greek kalos means good and beautiful ) in chapter 10: the beautiful shepherd calls his sheep by their name and they follow him because they know his voice.
We need to pay attention to the fact that Mary recognized Jesus through his speaking her name. Jesus did not say: 'Hey I am Jesus'. No. He exclaimed with vibrant love: "Mary!".
Is there a relationship between this mode of knowing Jesus and the Scriptures, which are reputed to contain God's wisdom? My answer to that is a massive "yes" provided you the reader are able to hear the whole Bible as your own name spoken in your ear and your heart by Jesus today in the garden of the universe.
The third way of knowing Jesus is the highest and the most mysterious. It is revealed to us in verses 4-8.
This way is illustrated by the behavior of the OTHER disciple whom Jesus loved (as a relative: Greek ephilei). This disciple, who is different from the disciple whom Jesus loved with divine love and who leaned on his bossom at the Last Supper, runs to the sepulchre.
The disciple not only runs, he ( inclusive masculine !) outruns Peter. This shows not only that he had better legs but more importantly that his heart is not made heavy with remorse and dullness. This disciple could be compared to a dove or an eagle while Peter is a poor breathless cow.
Having arrived at the sepulchre, he stoops down and looks in. But he does not enter.
When Peter has entered, he comes also. He sees and he believes.
According to the flesh, he only saw Jesus' linen clothes and napkin and the empty space where Jesus body had lain. In fact he saw nothing.
Nothing according to the flesh but everything according to the Spirit: he saw and he believed. He saw Jesus as the resurrected Lord of the living and dead in the Spirit.
How did that happen?
To understand that, we need to turn to the conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus in chapter 3. Can a man return in his mother's womb when he is old? The answer is: yes, this is possible but the womb into which one has to return is not the womb from which one was born but the innermost heart of man.
The cave here is the womb, the heart of the earth in which Jesus had predicted he would be for three days. As long as the other disciple whom Jesus loved as a relative remained outside the cave, nothing happened but when he descended into the heart/womb of the earth, the glory of Jesus as life-giving spirit was revealed to him in an ineffable way.
The third way I call the way of Mary, the mother of Jesus, because it is a knowing that seen from our perspective is dark and obscure, hidden and mysterious, one in which our senses and our ordinary understanding are completely "overshadowed" (Luk 1:35).
Such seeing happens in the innermost recesses of our being.
This knowing is the true virginal birth of Jesus in our hearts.
That the knowledge of such a glorious birth may be granted to us all !
99