But Jesus (as too the angels had done), after having got out all that was in Mary Magdalene’s heart, called her by her name, as the good and divine Shepherd who knows all His own sheep by their names; and soon as she hears her name she recognizes Him. Then Jesus commissions her to take the highest privileges, immense truths, to His disciples. What a contrast between the disciples going to their own home and Mary Magdalene! This new revelation is not that of the work of salvation, precious though that be. This revelation is respecting the position of Christians. “Touch me not,” He says to her, because He had not ascended to the Father to take the kingdom and to return to earth, as the Jews looked for Him. This is the first time Jesus calls His disciples “brethren;” He had called them friends, but not as yet brethren, because the work of the Cross was not accomplished; and according to the 22nd Psalm, He would call them brethren only after His resurrection. After having been heard from the horns of the unicorns, that is after death, (as the judgment of God) then He would make known the name of His Father and of His God to His brethren, and lead the praises of God in the midst of the assembly. This position must then be revealed, after the work of redemption had been accomplished.
After the new position is revealed to the disciples, they are gathered together for the first time. This effect is produced not by what they had seen, but by the message announced to them by Mary Magdalene. The fact of the resurrection was not sufficient to gather them together in assembly. Jesus comes into their midst. Moreover it is likewise the first time that He pronounces peace to them—that peace He had made by His death. He had no doubt said to the woman who was a sinner, “Go in peace,” (Luke 7); but peace is here pronounced as already made by the work of Christ—made by the cross. Jesus, in resurrection, takes a spiritual body; we cannot well picture to ourselves what this spiritual body is, such as we too shall have at the coming of Christ; that is a body that has bone and flesh, that can eat, be touched; and nevertheless a body that can enter through a closed door and then vanish. When we shall be in that state, we shall fully understand that Christ was the firstfruits of the resurrection, and then we who are Christ’s. In this chapter then we have Christ raised; then the disciples have the revelation of their new position; then we have their gathering together and the Lord in their midst; then He announces peace, and sends the disciples to their work. Finally they receive the Holy Spirit, not the Person in fact, but as the power of life. Here the Holy Spirit is introduced to present the picture of the completeness of their position.
Thomas presents to us the remnant of the last days, that will believe only when they see with their eyes, but meantime we believe without seeing. The chapter presents to us a beautiful picture of the history of Christianity from first to last.