| When did Yahshua or Christ ascend to his Father? Was it before or after he spoke to his disciples? Did he remain on Earth forty days and nights before he ascended to his Father? Or did he ascend after Mary clinged to him? The incident takes place with Mary in John 20:17 Below is the Greek translation of the verse. The Amplified version adds a footnote of Mary holding his knees and ankles. Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, `I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’ “ |
Touch me not – Μη μου ἁπτου, Cling not to me. Ἁπτομαι has this sense in Job 31:7, where the Septuagint use it for the Hebrew דבק dabak, which signifies to cleave, cling, stick, or be glued to. From Matthew 28:9, it appears that some of the women held him by the feet and worshipped him. This probably Mary did; and our Lord seems to have spoken to her to this effect: “Spend no longer time with me now: I am not going immediately to heaven – you will have several opportunities of seeing me again: but go and tell my disciples, that I am, by and by, to ascend to my Father and God, who is your Father and God also. Therefore, let them take courage.”
John Gill’s Exposition of the Whole Bible
for I am not yet ascended to my Father; nor shall I immediately go to him; I shall make some stay upon earth; as he did, forty days before his ascension; when he intimates, she might see him again, and familiarly converse with him; at present he would have her stay no longer with him:
Robertson’s Word Pictures in the New Testament
For I am not yet ascended (ουπω γαρ αναβεβηκα — oupō gar anabebēka). Perfect active indicative. Jesus is here at all only because he has not yet gone home. He had said (John 16:7) that it was good for them that he should go to the Father when the Holy Spirit will come through whom they will have fellowship with the Father and Christ.
I think Robertson’s makes a good point that the holy spirit could only be given until he went to the Father. In John 7:39 it says he had to be glorified for the spirit to be sent. This would have taken place after he would go to heaven. He was not yet glorified when he was on the Earth. The Holy Spirit was not given from on high until Pentecost and after Christ was in heaven now glorified.
(John 7:39) (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)
Then we have the statement about him” breathing” on them and apparently receiving the holy spirit before Pentecost. Was this a symbolic act of what would take place in the future? I think that this was either a symbolic act or a portion of the Spirit was given them to carry out their job of being sent out. The Spirit was not dwelling in them.
(John 20:21) Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22) And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23) Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. I think that Christ words clear up the discrepancy in John14:17
John_14:17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.
He says that the spirit dwells with you now but will be in you in the future, namely at Pentecost. So, there was guidance by the spirit to a certain extent but the full measure of the Spirit did not come into them until Pentecost. The phrase “on that day” is that point in time they were “filled” with the Holy Spirit.
In John 15 and 16 he clearly says that the comforter or the spirit of truth would not come until he would send it when he was with the Father in heaven.
John_15:26 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:
John_16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.
At Pentecost is when we see the disciples “Filled” with the Holy Spirit not before.
Acts_2:4 And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
So, taken all the evidence these scriptures present it appears that Yahshua was here on earth for forty days and nights and that he did not go to the Father until he ascended at Mt. Olives before their eyes. If he went to heaven and then came back to earth he would have given the Holy Spirit to the disciples before Pentecost. But that is not the case. In fact the disciples after the initial contact with Yahshua after the resurrection went back to their trades, such as fishing. They were not imbued with the spirit at that time.
One can dispute the phrase spoken by Messiah; I ‘am ascending to the Father” to mean that he was about to go to the Father after Mary “clinged to him” but the other scriptures establish the timing of his departure from the earth and the giving of the Holy spirit. It is when he ascended and was glorified in heaven that the disciples received the spirit ten days later at Pentecost, not before.
The other aspect that needs to be addressed is the “acceptance of the sacrifice” of Messiah to the Father. When did that acceptance take place? The argument that is presented is that the Son had to present himself to the Father to be formally accepted as the perfect sacrifice before he saw the disciples. But the scriptures bear out that the Son`s sacrifice was accepted the moment that he died. The veil was ripped in two from top to bottom in the Temple at that instant of Christ`s death, signifying that through the flesh of Yahshua we would now have access into the Holy of Holies which is representative of the Father. There was no need to present that sacrifice to the Father after the resurrection, it was already accepted at the cross or stake.
(Mat 27:50) Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. 51) And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent;
(Heb 10:19) Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, 20) By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;
Mark Rusinko
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