The Johannine account of the Resurrection (Chapter 20) offers some pointers worthy of reflection:
So on the first day of the week, The women come to the tomb to find it empty. Mary Magdalene hurries to Peter and "the other disciple" (John), and tells them the body's gone.
So Peter and John run together. John outstrips Peter and gets there first, sees the tomb is empty, "but he did not enter" (20:5). Then Peter then runs up, and he enters the tomb. Then John enters, "and he saw and had faith" (20:8).
I have written before about a particular interpretation of this text – that John signifies the heart-intellect, and Peter the will; that the intellect 'sees' by its own light, but cannot enter where it cannot shine its light – it cannot illuminate what it does not know. The will, on the other hand enables us to take that 'step into the darkness', that leap into the unknown.
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"So the disciples went away home again. But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping" (20:10-11). Then we move from the empty tomb realisation by Peter and John, to Mary's realisation, and Jesus' admonition: "Jesus says to her, 'Mary'. Turning, she says to him in Hebrew, 'Rabbouni' ('Teacher'). Jesus says to her, 'Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and tell them: I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.'" (20:16-17).
I have written on the spiritual significance of "Do not cling to me" in this verse, but here I would reiterate John's wording, both in the "go to my brothers and tell them", by which He refers to the disciples, but has never referred to them as "brothers' before, and also that he reinforces "my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God", because up until now, in the Gospel of John, Jesus makes a clear distinction – most notably between 'my father' and 'your father' in John 8, in which He accuses his detractors of not receiving the Word nor being able to recognise it, being subject to the Archon of this Cosmos, and born in their sin – that no man knows the Father unless Jesus chooses to reveal the Father to them (John 1:18, also Matthew 11:27, Luke 10:22).
So on the first day of the week, The women come to the tomb to find it empty. Mary Magdalene hurries to Peter and "the other disciple" (John), and tells them the body's gone.
So Peter and John run together. John outstrips Peter and gets there first, sees the tomb is empty, "but he did not enter" (20:5). Then Peter then runs up, and he enters the tomb. Then John enters, "and he saw and had faith" (20:8).
I have written before about a particular interpretation of this text – that John signifies the heart-intellect, and Peter the will; that the intellect 'sees' by its own light, but cannot enter where it cannot shine its light – it cannot illuminate what it does not know. The will, on the other hand enables us to take that 'step into the darkness', that leap into the unknown.
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"So the disciples went away home again. But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping" (20:10-11). Then we move from the empty tomb realisation by Peter and John, to Mary's realisation, and Jesus' admonition: "Jesus says to her, 'Mary'. Turning, she says to him in Hebrew, 'Rabbouni' ('Teacher'). Jesus says to her, 'Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to my brothers and tell them: I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God.'" (20:16-17).
I have written on the spiritual significance of "Do not cling to me" in this verse, but here I would reiterate John's wording, both in the "go to my brothers and tell them", by which He refers to the disciples, but has never referred to them as "brothers' before, and also that he reinforces "my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God", because up until now, in the Gospel of John, Jesus makes a clear distinction – most notably between 'my father' and 'your father' in John 8, in which He accuses his detractors of not receiving the Word nor being able to recognise it, being subject to the Archon of this Cosmos, and born in their sin – that no man knows the Father unless Jesus chooses to reveal the Father to them (John 1:18, also Matthew 11:27, Luke 10:22).
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