John 20:11-31 Mary's encounter with Jesus vs. the Disciples

Can someone expound upon why Jesus told Mary not to touch Him because He have not yet ascended to the Father? John 20:17. But in a few verses over He told Thomas to touch His hand and side. (vs. 27). In contrast of Jesus telling Mary not to touch Him before He was ascended into heaven, Jesus allowed Thomas to touch Him by putting his finger in His hand, and His side. John 20: Are there some significant details between the two that we should understand?

Excellent question Linda. Interesting suppositions; Jesus did not come to fulfill Jewish Law or Tradition. He came to fulfill Divine Law as given by Moses; particularly the laws of sacrifice and more specifically the Passover. He was and is our Passover Lamb—the Lamb of God. This is the reason the Temple was destroyed in 70A.D. that no more sacrifices could be made. And they still cannot be made because of the Dome of the Rock sitting in its place, preventing Jewish sacrifices. Not only did Jesus fulfill the Passover sacrifice but all OT sacrifices and offerings. It was God’s own Lamb offered and received for the sins of all humanity as an eternal substitute for you and me so we, as believers in His death, burial, and resurrection (1Cor.15:1-58). Included in those offerings is the wave offering; Leviticus 23:9 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 10 “Speak to the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘When you enter the land which I am going to give to you and reap its harvest, then you shall bring in the sheaf of the first fruits of your harvest to the priest. 11 He shall wave the sheaf before the Lord for you to be accepted; on the day after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it. NASB. So Jesus was also the wave offering, meaning He was the offering of Firstfruit before the Lord God.  Thus He could not be touched by Mary. Sometime later, in the upper room, after He had been waved before the Lord God, [sometime between His encounter with Mary and the upper room encounter with the disciples He became our wave offering] He encountered the disciples in the upper room giving Thomas permission to touch, no actually inspect the now risen from the dead Living Sacrifice. Everything Jesus did was in exact accord with Divine Law in exact timing, on the exact day and hour as the Divine Law required. A survey of events in the life of Jesus reveal  the important timelines to set them in Divine order according to Divine Law. John 20:30-31states the signs given in the presence of the disciples that we might believe. Lev. 23:1-21 are the Feasts already fulfilled by Christ, vs. 22-44 are the Feasts yet to be fulfilled in Revelation. There is an intense difference between Jewish Law and Tradition and Divine Law.