Events in the Garden

God so loved the world, saw how sin had spoiled, sent his only Son to Calvary. Jesus, the perfect one, punished there for all I've done, on the cross he died for me at Calvary. When evening fell, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had become a disciple of Jesus.

He bravely went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus, and Pilate ordered it to be given him. Taking it gently down from the cross, he wrapped it in clean linen and laid it in his own new tomb, cut out of rock. He rolled a great stone to the entrance to the tomb and went away.

The woman who had accompanied Jesus from Galilee had followed and took note of where the tomb was. Then they went home to prepare spices and ointments. On the Sabbath day they rested in obedience to the commandment.

The following morning the chief priests and the Pharisees went to Pilate and said, Sir, we remember that this deceiver said, in three days I shall rise again. You have a guard, Pilate told them, make it as secure as you can. So they made the grave secure, sealing the stone and leaving the soldiers to guard it.

The Sabbath was over. Just as the first day of the week began to dawn, came Mary Magdalene and the other woman, bringing sweet spices intending to anoint the body of Jesus. Out of the gloom they came to the tomb on that first Easter morning, carrying spices untroubled in mind, just as the day was dawning.

Who shall roll away the stone? For it is so heavy. Will the soldiers still be watching? Their hearts too are heavy. But the sun was pulled away, and the night was turned to day.

God was all the darkness, sorrow, and grief, for Jesus' triumph and redemption In his prison, as he said, God erased him from the dead. Open up to the Lord, come, rest heaven still, for Jesus is alive forever. What a hap, hap, happy day, when the stone was rolled away.

Open up to the Lord, come, rest heaven still, for Jesus is alive, yes he is alive, Jesus is alive forever. What a lovely time of day, say hello to spring, new life is all around. Fruit and fruit are blossoming, it makes you want to sing, new life is all around.

And Jesus is risen, risen, Jesus is risen, risen, risen from the dead. Jesus is risen, risen, Jesus is risen, risen, risen, as he said. What a lovely time of day, say hello to spring, new life is all around.

Fruit and fruit are blossoming, it makes you want to sing, new life is all around. And Jesus is risen, risen, Jesus is risen, risen, risen from the dead. Jesus is risen, risen, Jesus is risen, risen, risen, as he said.

Thank you, Lord, for in the trees our baby birds are found, sharing for their food. God and Father sees whenever one falls to the ground, they know God is good. And Jesus is risen, risen, Jesus is risen, risen, risen from the dead.

Jesus is risen, risen, Jesus is risen, risen, risen, as he said. Thank you, Jesus, thank you, Jesus, that you gave your life to give. May we love you, may we serve you, for as long as we shall live.

Later, Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly, because he feared the Jews. With Pilate's permission, he came and took the body away.

He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who had earlier visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and alloys, about 75 pounds. Taking Jesus' body, the two of them wrapped it with the spices in strips of linen.

This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden. And in that garden, a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.

Because it was the Jewish day of preparation, and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb and we don't know where they have put him.

So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. Both were running, but the other disciple outrun Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in.

Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that had been around Jesus' head. The cloth was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.

Finally, the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. They still did not understand from scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.

Then the disciples went back to their homes, but 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. Woman, he said, why are you crying? Who is it that 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 towards him and cried out in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.

Go instead to my brothers and tell them, I am returning 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.

May God bless his word. You might like to have your Bibles open at John 20. There are three places, and I could perhaps leave this as a piece of advice for any successors of mine, as far as this pulpit and church are concerned.

Three places where you can do collective visitation, which actually costs you very little in terms of time, because there you can always guarantee tabernacle folk will be present. Number one, Marks and Spencers. I don't think I've ever been in there incognito.

Number two, the Aquarina, but they look different in bathing costumes. And number three, Highdown Gardens, where we could well have run another service Good Friday afternoon, judging by the folk who were there. I want to speak about gardens, not Highdown, not Kew, not Denham Gardens, but gardens that are actually referred to in Scripture 53 times.

You come across references to a garden in both the Old Testament and the New Testament. Indeed, there were occasions when our Lord revealed in His ministry that He was aware of the expertise that is part of the craft of gardening. He knows that the mustard seed is the smallest seed, and yet when it germinates and when it starts to grow, it will become as one of the tallest trees.

He knows that when the Pharisees grew in their gardens, in their herbaceous borders, literal herbs, they would tithe ten percent of the produce along with other things that they would bring to the temple or to the synagogue and present in the name of God. A garden is a lovesome thing. God what? Rose plot, fringe pool, fern grot, the various school of peace, and yet the fool contends that God is not.

Not God? In gardens? When the eve is cool? Nay, but I have a sign, tis very sure, God walks in mine. When Jerusalem was compacted together, that's what the psalmist says. In other words, it's like Tokyo, only Tokyo is much bigger.

Land is at a premium, and because Jerusalem was house to house, there was really very little room for any gardening within the holy city. So, if you were well to do, you had your own plot out by the Mount of Olives or the surrounding territory of Jerusalem. And sometimes our beloved Lord, He would leave the hurly-burly of the holy city and He would go apart to a place to rest.

And it becomes fairly obvious that He has some friendship with a family who own a garden, and there He will go for meditation and reflection. Interesting, isn't it? That when you open the Bible, you find that immediately you're in a garden setting, the garden of Eden, the garden of trial. And when you go into the Gospels, you find yourself, sooner or later, in another garden, the garden of Gethsemane, the garden of tears.

And before the story is complete, you're in yet another garden, the garden of the resurrection, the garden of triumph. It's the first and the last that I want to concentrate your attention upon. Listen to the great Bishop Ryle of last century.

He says, The curious coincidence that the fall of the first Adam, the agony of the cross and the sepulchre of the second Adam were all alike connected with a garden can hardly fail to strike a reflecting mind. Well, let's do a contrast. The garden of Eden, the garden of trial, with the garden of resurrection, the garden of triumph.

And in both gardens, women play a very prominent part. And in both gardens, one is appointed to be a gardener, and another is supposed to be the gardener. And both gardens have a theological correspondence.

In other words, what happens in the one is related to what happens in the other. And again, both gardens have a prophetic significance. They speak beyond themselves.

They point to a future. The garden of Eden, well, it's referred to on several occasions as the garden of the Lord, paradise. I tell you, you can put Wisley Gardens alongside Kew.

You can go to some of the beautiful gardens down in the southern tip of South Africa. And you'll not even then begin to understand the beauty of Eden as it was, fresh from the hands of God. So very precious that God takes a walk, so to speak, in the cool of the day.

And within that garden there is a woman who for a while will be deranged. At least she will act out of sorts as to what she might have done had she thought through the consequence of her action. I refer to our Mother Eve, not the first and not the last, to influence a man wrongly.

In the garden she takes of the fruit that is forbidden. She touches, she takes and she eats. And she gives the same to Adam, our first father, who also takes and eats.

Two thousand years will go by and God will have to die before the verbs taking and eating become verbs of salvation and not judgment. Our first parents were expelled from that garden. But before the expulsion a word is spoken.

Spoken to the snake who epitomizes the forces of evil, the malevolent power who put within Eve the temptation to disobey God. And although Eden will be in some measure despoiled, certainly men and women will be expelled from the garden of paradise. The prophecy is given that one day someone will come who will know the bruising of the serpent as he attacks his heel, but he will crush the serpent's head and undo the damage that was perpetrated in the first garden, the garden of God, the garden of the Lord, the garden of trial, where man and woman failed, where you failed in them, where we as sons and daughters of Adam have turned into horror what God left as beautiful, his world.

So we move from the garden of Eden to the garden of resurrection and there's a woman, significantly a deranged woman, at least that's what she was at one stage. Seven demons assaulted her, but it's a different woman who comes as far as her mindset is concerned into the resurrection garden. She might well have adapted T. E. Brown's poem.

A garden is a lovesome thing, God what? Empty tomb, rolled stone, angels squat, the very school of peace, and yet the fool contends that God is not, not Christ in gardens. When the morn is cool, nay, but I have a sign, it is very sure, God walks in mine. Mary, from Magdala, comes into the garden.

Eve, who influences Adam to the wrong, is beautifully juxtapositioned in Scripture by Mary Magdala, who, as a result of what she experiences in the garden, will go to men and tell them, Come, see. Eve, who at the human level is responsible for the expulsion, is counterbalanced by Mary, who shall broadcast the invitation. For in the garden of resurrection, there is a balance to what you discover in the garden of trial.

The garden of Eden knew a curse. The garden of the resurrection sees the lifting of the curse. The garden of Eden is closed.

The garden of resurrection is open. The garden of Eden is guarded by two seraphim, who will prevent men from ever entering into the presence of God. The resurrection garden has angels seated on the stone, which was to have been the protection between hostile, curious eyes or even robbers of tombs.

But on the stone sits the smiling angels. In the garden of Eden, a woman brought a message of lust. Eat, Adam, and we will be like him, lusting to be like God.

In the garden of resurrection, a woman brings a message of love. Come and see, the Lord is risen, as he said. I've often thought of Mary.

I guess there's not a woman in the Bible whose character I've come to love more than her. You see, she was taken from a very difficult background. I have my own ideas about Mary and an even fuller identity, but won't share them now.

It seems to me that to some degree she stands as the equivalent to the prodigal son in the Gospels. The prodigal daughter, who has been badly affected by malevolent powers. It seems as though if she was possessed by seven demons, then she must have sold herself on many, many an occasion.

And yet one day there came into her life a man who was different from any other man, who restored her dignity. And Mary Magdala becomes a potential saint. And when you're in love, there's a love that goes stronger than death.

And here is poor, demented, grief-stricken Mary as she makes her way to the garden. It's still dark. The beginning of the day has yet to dawn.

Mary, who was last at the cross, is first at the tomb. Mary, who was longest there, is soonest in the garden. But Mary, what are you going to do? Show me where you have laid the body and I'll take him away.

But Mary, that body has got more than 60 pounds worth of frankincense and myrrh. It's nearly three days. Those myrrhs, they will be encased to the corpse.

How could you, you frail, silly, lovable woman, carry that burden away? All the anguish of love, all the depths of despair when she came to the tomb and the Lord was not there. And she desolate stood with the balm and the myrrh, all the anguish of love, all the depths of despair. And his winding sheet only was waiting for her.

But you know, don't you, that her grief turns to joy. She peers into the tomb. There is no body, but a shadow is thrown by one who is standing at the rear of her.

She does not turn round to identify him exactly, but supposes that he is the gardener. Sir, tell me, tell me where you have laid him. And then he says in one of the most historic moments in the whole of human history, one word, Mary.

I'd trade my hi-fi set and my little radios to have that on tape, to listen to him speak to her. And I'll give you my camera, but allow me one shot to take a picture of her. She turns and she speaks, Rabboni.

Not Rab, not Rabbi, both Aramaic terms, both fitting in this situation, but Rabboni, my master, my Lord. Mary realizes what has happened. Up from the grave, he arose.

And Mary is the first person to be introduced to the resurrected Jesus. The garden of trial, the garden of triumph, and each garden has a gardener. Dear old Martin Luther was right.

When God placed man in paradise, he did not place him there to be idle. He's got to work, and he becomes a zoologist and a botanist. The animals are brought to him, and in the paradise of nature, which is fresh from the hands of God, Adam is to bask in the joys of horticulture.

Adam is to bask in the presence of the animals. Adam is there in paradise. And when Adam is expelled, he's still going to work.

But now nature will tend to work against him. There will be toil. There will be the sweat of your brow.

There will be the curse on the earth. And you, Adam, will spend your days. And at the end, the earth that you till will consume your body and turn it back into the dust from which you came.

But here's another gardener. Mary, supposing him, the Lord Jesus. Blessed, inspired supposition, I say, because if he is the gardener, and he knows about gardening, indeed surveying the world, he says of the world, My father is the husbandman, and I his son.

I too have the same characteristics. I have the same leaning. Mary, you're right and you're wrong.

You're wrong. He's not just an ordinary gardener. But you're right.

He is a gardener. He's a gardener that's come to tend your soul. He's a gardener that lives on after his death.

On and on and on. And you're right, Mary, the relationship that you have with him cannot be broken. But this you have to know too, that his life continues.

Mary, it's not just memory. It's experience that will be yours until the day dawns when your earthly body crumbles and then your soul, which he loves, he will receive into his father's house. I ask you, friend, is he the risen Christ who comes to the garden of the resurrection and makes it a garden of triumph? Does he tend your soul? Do you belong to him? How wonderful when a garden has a dedicated gardener.

If Jesus is the gardener of this flock, to shift the metaphor a little, now to come back to it, he has the right to pluck the choices bloom. And he's done that. He's done it recently.

He's taken to be with himself those who we would have had continue here. But he's every right because he's the gardener. If Jesus is the gardener, remember this.

The day will come when there will be a mass transplantation, when he'll not just take one. He'll take the whole, the whole of his church. And he will replant them in a world which has some connection with this world, but it will be a renewed world.

It will be paradise restored. It will be Eden regained, only even more wonderful than what it was at the beginning. And don't you see that the whole theology of the resurrection and the whole theology of salvation really spins on these two gardens? The garden of testing.

Eve failed, and Adam failed, and you have failed, and there is no way into God's presence as a result of human initiative. But he came, the second Adam, to the rescue, to do for you what you could not do for yourself. And as a result, the door is open in the early morning of your life, in the noontide of your life.

Even if foolishly you've allowed it to get to eventide and you still have not been introduced to this garden and this gardener, he's there, and the door is open. The price has been paid. The garden is a lovesome thing, God what.

Empty tomb, rolled stone, angel squat. The very school of peace, and yet the fool contends that God is not, not Christ in gardens when the morn is cool. Nay, but I have a sign, it is very sure, God walks in mine.

Do you hear him? Call your name, then suppose him to be the gardener, and give him the right to tend you now and forever. Ruth's going to sing one of the thirty oratorios that will be sung at my funeral service. Okay.

At my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand, At the latter day upon the earth, I know that my redeemer liveth, And he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. Songs destroy this body, Yet in my flesh shall I see God. Yet in my flesh shall I see God.

And the worms destroy this body, At my redeemer liveth, Is Christ risen from the dead? Of them that sleep, Of them that sleep, The firstfruits of them that sleep. Is Christ risen from the dead? Is Christ risen from the firstfruits of them that sleep? Is Christ risen from the dead?