Do not hold onto me
Hark! His gracious lips bestow
Blessings on his church below. Charles Wesley
Read John 20:11—18
‘Do not hold onto me.’ I need to think about this word of Jesus to Mary and the reason for it. Because I also would hold onto him. Emotionally, I would want to hold him. I would want to hold him lest I lose him again, in case he should die again, in case he should be taken from me, in case we should be separated. I would not want to lose all that we had together. But that would be me holding onto him. Somehow, though he does not cease to be mine, much more I have become his. His Father must become my Father. He is not what he was to me, but what he will be. Somehow I have not had him yet. He will be who he will be. And somehow I need to be not what I was but what I will be.
Prayer
Thank you, Lord, that by your resurrection you became Lord over death, and the firstborn from the dead, the beginning, the one who has first place in everything. Thank you that you have ascended to the Father, and in his presence you intercede for me. In you my name is brought into your Father’s very presence. I am recognised and loved. So you opened the way for me to call your Father my father, dear Father. Thank you that my own future is now one of resurrection, and that you have won that for me and guaranteed that to me. All this being so, I can rest tonight, secure in your name, ready to rise tomorrow to what you will do, to where you will lead me.