Thought for the day – Wednesday 13th May 2020
Words are powerful things. They convey meaning when used well, but they can create mayhem if misused or misunderstood, or worse still used with malice or mischief. I’m sure at this moment, we are discovering afresh just how easily words can hurt and how they cause damage when they are taken out of context. For so many of us are living our lives out of context at the moment. We rely on technology to ease our communication with people we look to see and be alongside. Many of us long for that reassuring touch of the hand, the hug of greeting, the kiss. Without those human gestures, our words are stripped a little of their power.
I love playing with and exploring words – the delight of a pun, the dalliance of a clever play on words, the exploration of meaning, and delving into the etymology to discover the origin and even the connection between words. This is the first of what may become many opportunities to play with words, in our thought for the day.
As we engage with bible passages we rely on the skill of the translators, those who trawled through scraps of ancient texts seeking to make sense of long-dead languages, and to create modern meaning from out-dated idiom. If, like me, you will find depth of meaning in the editorial skills of the gospel writers who turned everyday stories into parables in their own right as they curated the materials to fit their understanding of the truth they were so eager to share. Turning stories passed on, enriched and adapted by both hearers and narrators of the oral tradition into hidden and glorious enlightenment which would surprise future readers for millennia to come.
Bible reading : John 20:10-18
Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?” “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her
Just as the gospel writers themselves imposed their interpretation and understanding onto the truths they shared, so too translators have introduced a little of themselves, however carefully they tried to remain true to the “original”, if there is such a thing. In the 20 different versions of the bible I have consulted on this passage, Jesus tells Mary not to hold onto him in nearly half, but in five of them he says “do not touch”, and in six his words are “do not cling to me”. Both my Greek reference books suggest that the meaning is perhaps better translated as “attach”, or “fasten to”.
In this time of Covid, deprived of the ability to fulfil our desires to reach out and enjoy physical contact with our friends, perhaps we will find truest meaning in Mary’s plight from King James Version. Can we empathise with Mary, who loved Jesus so much, and had just been cast into the deepest grief, when her worst fears were proven wrong, and she longed for that moment to touch again her Lord and Master, her Saviour, the one who had already saved her from the perils of her former life? That touch would confirm that he was real, and not just a dream conjured up out of her distress. Perhaps you get that same sense from the New International Version when we think of the importance of holding someone in a loving embrace. The warmth of an unexpected and joyous surprise of reunion conveyed in that closest of hugs, as she held onto him lest he should leave her bereft again. Or maybe you find more meaning in the Revised English Bible in which Jesus instructs Mary not to cling to him. Here is Jesus, the one she thought she had truly lost and would only ever encounter again in her memories – so full of the love and compassion, the sparkle in his eye, and the profound truths he could open up so clearly as she sat in his presence. In that moment, was her desire to cling onto all those past moments, so full of inspiration, and ossify those memories for all time, so that she could never move on? Just as Peter had wanted to freeze the moment in time on Mount Transfiguration. Jesus knew it was vital for her to let go of that frozen image she had, to allow her and all the disciples to move beyond that moment, to take the next steps towards a transformed future, in which God’s boundless grace, and the indomitable power of the Spirit would symbolise the freedom of new hope and life and peace. In these difficult times, are you longing to cling to memories, desperate to rediscover the warmth of a gentle touch to hold onto the moment, or are you ready to listen to what Jesus tells Mary in his next sentence ….. Go forward and tell?