The resurrection of Christ was not only discovered by the seeking ones but also testified to by the angels sent from God (20:11-13). When Mary looked into the tomb, she saw “two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain” (20:12). These two angels were like the cherubim on the propitiation cover, watching and observing how the glorious Lord, who is the resurrection, carried out the wonderful task of walking away from the threatening of death. These two observing angels became the strongest witness that the Lord Jesus had resurrected. As the linen cloths and the napkin were the testimony from man’s side, the angels were the testimony from God’s side. All these were seen only by a sister who sought the Lord.
In 20:17 the Lord Jesus said to Mary, “Do not touch Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.” In this verse the Lord refers to His ascending to the Father. On the day of His resurrection, the Lord ascended to the Father. This was a secret ascension, the ultimate fulfillment of the going predicted in 16:7, forty days prior to His public ascension before the eyes of His disciples (Acts 1:9-11). On the day of resurrection, early in the morning, He ascended to satisfy the Father, and late in the evening He returned to the disciples (20:19). The freshness of His resurrection must first be for the Father’s enjoyment, as the firstfruit of the harvest was, in type, brought first to God.
In her experience, Mary nearly experienced what God the Father experienced shortly thereafter. The Lord Jesus revealed Himself to Mary even earlier than He did to the Father when He ascended into heaven. Mary saw the resurrected Lord earlier than God the Father did. At that time, Mary was trying to touch the Lord, but He forbade her. It was sufficient for her to see Him. As we have seen, the Lord prevented her from touching Him because He had not yet ascended to the Father. He had to present Himself to the Father and contact Him first. When He came to the disciples in the evening of the same day, He asked them to touch Him (Luke 24:39). By these incidents we can realize that Mary was the first one to see the resurrected Lord.
The Lord Jesus also told Mary, “Go to My brothers.” Here we come to one of the greatest points in the Gospel of John, a point which not many Christians have seen clearly. Prior to His resurrection, the Lord never called His disciples “brothers.” The most intimate term He used before that time was “friends.” In 15:14 and 15 He said, “You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his lord is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things which I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.” But now, after His resurrection, His “friends” have become His “brothers.” Through His resurrection, His disciples have been regenerated (1 Pet. 1:3) with the divine life released by His life-imparting death, as indicated in 12:24. All His disciples were regenerated in His resurrection. First Peter 1:3 says that we were regenerated through Christ’s resurrection. It was through His resurrection that the Lord imparted Himself as the Spirit into all His disciples. By receiving His life, they were all reborn, regenerated, and became His brothers. Remember that on the cross the Lord told His mother to take His disciple John as her son, and that He told His disciple to take her as his mother (19:26-27). On the day of His resurrection, the Lord’s word on the cross was fulfilled. At that time, John became a brother to the Lord; hence, the Lord’s mother became his mother.
By the resurrection of Christ, the disciples became the brothers of the Lord because they now had the same life as the Lord. The Lord regenerated them by His resurrection, and thus they were no longer merely disciples and friends but also His brothers. The Lord was the one grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died and grew up in resurrection to bring forth many grains for the producing of the loaf which is His Body (1 Cor. 10:17). Before His death, He was only one, unique grain. But after His resurrection that one, unique grain became the many grains. This is the multiplication of life through the death and resurrection of Christ.
In His resurrection, the only begotten Son became “the Firstborn among many brothers” (Rom. 8:29). The “many brothers” are those who have been regenerated through His resurrection with the divine life released by His life-imparting death. Through His resurrection, the divine life of the Father has been imparted into us. Thus, we all have become sons of God. In this way the unique Son of God has become the “Firstborn among many brothers.” Therefore, the Lord did not tell Mary, “Go to My friends”; He said, “Go to My brothers.”
Before His resurrection, Christ, as the Father’s only begotten Son, was the Father’s individual expression. Now, through His death and resurrection, the individual expression of the Father has become the corporate expression of God the Father in the Son.
Christ’s many brothers as the “many sons” of the Father are the “church” (Heb. 2:10-12) to be a corporate expression of God the Father in the Son. This is God’s ultimate intention. Therefore, the many brothers are the propagation of the Father’s life and the multiplication of the Son in the divine life. Hence, in the Lord’s resurrection, God’s eternal purpose is fulfilled.
Let us consider Hebrews 2:10-12 in more detail. Verse 10 says, “For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and through whom are all things, in leading many sons into glory, to make the Author of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” The One “for whom are all things and through whom are all things” is the Father, and the Author of salvation is the Son. The Father is bringing many sons into glory.
Verse 11 says, “For both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of One, for which cause He is not ashamed to call them brothers.” In this verse, “He who sanctifies” is the sanctifying Son, and “those who are being sanctified” are the sanctified sons. The “One” here refers to the Father. Thus, the Son, who is the Sanctifier, and we, who are the sanctified, are all of one Father. Therefore, “He is not ashamed to call them brothers.” When did He first call us “brothers”? In John 20:17, when He told Mary, “Go to My brothers.” Why is He not ashamed to call us brothers? Because we all have received His Father’s life. After His resurrection, all His disciples received the Father’s life. Now, because both He and we are of the same source and have the same life with the same nature, He is not ashamed to call us brothers.
Verse 12 continues, “Saying, ‘I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the church I will sing hymns of praise to You.’” Here we see the Son declaring the Father’s “name” to His brothers, that is, making the Father known as the source of life and as the begetting God. This verse also tells us that the Son sings hymns of praise to the Father in the midst of the church. By this we see that the brothers are the church. I have spent much time to find another verse which says that the Lord Jesus sings praises to the Father. Eventually, being unable to find one, I realized that whenever His brothers sing praises to the Father, He sings in their singing. While we are singing, He sings in our singing.
In 20:17 the Lord Jesus also said to Mary, “I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.” Through His life-imparting death and resurrection, the Lord has made His disciples one with Him. Therefore, His Father is also His disciples’ Father, and His God is also their God. Through His resurrection, they have received both the Father’s life and God’s divine nature. By making them His brothers, He has imparted the Father’s life and God’s divine nature into them. By making His Father and His God theirs, He has brought them into His position—the Son’s position—before the Father and God that they might participate in His Father and God in resurrection. Thus, in life and nature inwardly and in position outwardly, His brothers are the same as He is. Inwardly we have the reality, and outwardly we have the position. The Father is not only the Father of the Lord Himself; He is also the Father of the disciples. Henceforth, all the disciples are sons of God. We are the same as the Firstborn, and He is the same as we are. This is the church in His resurrection. Praise Him!
Why did the Lord tell Mary that He was ascending to the Father and to God? On the one hand, the Lord is the Son of God; therefore, He will see the Father in the person of the Son. On the other hand, He is still the Son of Man; therefore, He will see God in the person of man. We also are men on one hand and sons of God on the other. Since we are men, God is God to us; since we are the sons of God, God is also the Father to us. At this very moment, because we are both men and sons of God, we have both God and the Father. All the disciples, as human beings, have become brothers to the Lord and sons to the Father because they have received the same life as the Lord. This is the revelation which Mary brought to the Lord’s brothers.