Monday, April 1, 2013

THE GARDENER

John 20: 11, 14-16
But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.  .  .  .   She turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher).

   JOHN’S EASTER STORY IS MOVING and profound. In his gospel, he intends to do more than tell us what happened. His stories and their details are meant to show us what the story means.

   Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. The stone had been rolled away. Jesus’ body was not there. She did not yet understand. To her grief had been added the painful thought that someone had taken Jesus’ body from the tomb to further humiliate him.

   Composer C. Austin Miles penned his well-loved hymn “In the Garden” after reading John’s account of the Resurrection. It is sung in Mary’s voice: “I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses.” Suddenly Jesus appears next to Mary, but she doesn’t recognize him. Since the tomb was located in a garden, Mary thought at first that Jesus was the gardener.

   This mention of the garden, with Jesus seeming to be the gardener, only appears in John’s gospel. John wants the reader to connect the dots between this garden and the Garden of Eden. Remember, John begins his gospel pointing back to the Garden of Eden by echoing the opening words of Genesis: “In the beginning  .  .  .” (John 1: 1). John wants us to see that what happened in Eden— the loss of paradise— was being reversed in Jesus’ death and resurrection. In Genesis, God had said, “In the day you eat of the forbidden fruit you will die.” The archetypal story of Adam and Eve in that first garden point to the pain and death that come when we turn from God’s way. But in this garden— where Jesus is crucified, is buried, and then emerges from the tomb— he takes away the sting of our sin, and he conquers human mortality.

   When I wrote the companion book to this devotional, I described a woman named Joyce and her cancer diagnosis. In the month between the writing of that book and this one, Joyce died. A day or so before her passing, I stood by her bedside at the Hospice House. Her family was there. One of our worship leaders sang some of her favorite songs. Joyce faced her death with confidence and hope, and she instilled these in her husband, children, and grandchildren. She found hope in the story of Christ’s resurrection. And with C. Austin Miles she would sing, “And He walks with me, and He talks with me, / And He tells me I am His own; / And the joy we share as we tarry there, / None other has ever known.”

Lord, help me to trust in the hope of Easter— that you live and walk with me, and that you have conquered death. I believe that because you live, I shall live also. I entrust my life to you. Amen.

Adam Hamilton, The Way: 40 Days of Reflection: Walking in the Footsteps of Jesus