Two Gardens, Two Graves

Please stand as we read God’s word

“At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the 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.” (John 19:41–42, NIV)

“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!”” (John 20:1–2, NIV)

“Now 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. He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it 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 toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending 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.” (John 20:11–18, NIV)

The Bible describes time as beginning in a garden…

Characterized as a place of beauty and abundance. Endless joy. Complete provision - everything they could possibly need or want was there.

Best of all, they enjoyed perfect fellowship with God and one another.

Expansive permission. Enjoy it all - except don’t eat of this certain tree because it’s poison. If you you eat from it, it will kill you.

The story introduces us to a deceiver who tricks them. They eat. And the poison of sin entered the world, bringing eventual death to them and to all the living.

Most grievous of the repercussions: the perfect fellowship they enjoyed with God was lost. Separation came in, intimacy was lost.

Centuries later, the apostle Paul would describe the results of their choice. “When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned.” (Romans 5:12, NLT)

The beautiful garden - and all of life - had become a grave.

But our story doesn’t end there. The Bible also gives a glimpse into what the future will be.

Time - as we know it now - will also close in a garden...

The Bible describes eternity as a garden-city. “Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations. No longer will there be a curse upon anything. For the throne of God and of the Lamb will be there, and his servants will worship him.” (Revelation 22:1–3, NLT)

The image is of complete renewal. Healing for the world. No more death. No more curse.

Best of all: intimate fellowship with God is restored.

The grave that is the world becomes a garden again.

The story of the Bible begins in a garden that becomes a grave. It ends with a grave that becomes a garden.

And in between these two bookends is a garden that contains a grave. And What happens here means that everything sad will come untrue.

Pray

God of glory, by the raising of your Son you have broken the chains of death and hell: fill your Church with faith and hope; for a new day has dawned and the way to life stands open in our Saviour Jesus Christ.  Amen.

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Mary’s dearest friend is dead. More than a friend, he is the one who delivered her from the demons of her past. She owed him her whole life. She would have followed him anywhere, but he’s gone to the one place she couldn’t. A tomb.

But early on the first day of the week - Sunday to us - she comes to the garden tomb to do one final act of loving service to her Lord. To wash his body so that he could rest in dignity.

But there is immediate confusion, because when she reaches the tomb the stone covering the entrance was rolled away and the tomb was empty. I image the first thing she did was to double-checked to make sure she was at the right place. But I’m sure she saw the Roman seal that had been placed on the stone to ensure no one tampered with it. But now the seal is broken. The guards are gone. And so is Jesus body.

She is now in the depths of despair. After such an ignoble death, after her dearest friend has been taken from her, she can’t even give him one last act of love. And all she can do in this moment is weep.

She is asked twice, once by angels and once by a stranger: “Dear lady, why are you weeping?” Embedded in that question is implied that a seismic has occurred: The reason for your tears is gone.

What happens next is the crux of the story. It is the hinge on which history swings.

She thinks she’s talking to the gardener.

AND SHE’S RIGHT!

Although she’s wrong about which Gardener.

Let me ask you; What do you need if the beautiful garden you planted becomes overgrown with weeds and poisonous plants and is in a state of decay? You need a Gardener! And this is exactly what God did in Jesus. The one who planted the garden send the Master Gardener. This is how God is healing the world. How he is healing you and me.

The garden becomes a metaphor for our life. Our lives, because of sin - which we have all willingly participated in - have become corrupted by decay and death. Each one of us has chosen to eat the poisonous fruit, and the death consequences of that decision plays out in our lives in numerous ways; through broken relationships and broken promises, through corrupted selfish ambition and self-serving agendas, through decaying moral compromises and death-inducing choices. Sin is literally killing us.

But God would not allow this to be the final story of his garden. He was unwilling to let your story end this way. Between the "Garden-Grave" of Eden and the "Grave-Garden" of Eternity stands the Gardener. And Because of him everything sad will come untrue.

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Mary is right in assuming this is the gardener. But in her despair she misses which gardener. Until he speaks her name.

“Mary!”

And then her eyes are opened.

“Rabboni!”

Rabbi is the respectful term given to a teacher. Rabboni, though, carries the idea of an intimate relationship. “My precious teacher”.

At some point she must have dropped to her knees and clung to him in utter joy. That would be the obvious reaction to seeing someone you loved, who you thought were dead, suddenly alive again.

But then Jesus says a curious thing. “Do not hold on to me.”

That almost sounds mean, doesn’t it? How could she not hold on to him after seeing him brutally executed?

But Jesus went on to say “because I have not yet ascended to the Father.” Jesus wasn’t saying “Don’t touch me”. He was saying that his work wasn’t finished yet. Things had changed. They wouldn’t be traveling around together anymore. Don’t hold on to the good of what it once was or you won’t be able to embrace the better that it will be now. His great work had now begun - the thing causing death and decay in the garden had been destroyed - but he had to go back to the Father in order to bring it to completion.

And so he sends her off with the good news. Mary, a woman in a culture that did not respect the testimony of women, becomes the first apostle of the Resurrection.

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In 40 days we will celebrate the Ascension of Jesus. This is where we find ourselves in the story. Christ is risen. Sin and death have been conquered. This is what the resurrection conclusively proves. Christ has ascended to the Father where he is at work restoring all things, bringing about the vision we saw in Revelation 22. But the Resurrection isn’t just good news for a far-off time. It is good news for us - right now. In fact, I’d love for you to come back next week for a new series we’re beginning on how the Resurrection can become our daily reality - not just a past miracle or a future hope, but a current source of real transformation. We will see what it means to be Easter People.

But even now in this passage, we can begin to see some of the powerful effects of the Resurrection in our own lives. The New Creation is already breaking into our lives. We see that In the Resurrection...

God restores joy. What most characterized Mary was weeping. The questions asked by the angels and Jesus indicated that the need for weeping was gone. And while one day day there will be no more tears, even now there is the possibility of real and unbridled joy because we know that death does not have the final say anymore. The resurrection gives us real hope.

God reverses corruption. Mary went to the grave expecting to find Jesus already in the beginning state of decomposition. Instead she finds life - the kind of life that even now takes away the corrupting power and hold that sin has over us. It is possible to now live truly human lives as God intended, rather than as slaves to our disordered desires. The resurrection gives us freedom.

God removes alienation. Mary stands on the outside looking in. But Jesus doesn’t invite Mary to join him in the tomb; he comes out to her and invites her to join him in New Creation. The resurrection restores what was separated.

According to the Bible, alienation is what has characterized all of our lives since that first garden. Sin has separated us from God. We should be very clear about something: sin did not make God turn his back on us; it made us turn our back on him. But he was unwilling to let this be our final state. And so he came pursuing us.

And because our sin led us into death, he pursued us even there. He took the consequences of our sin upon himself, so that we could be free. So that we can be healed. So that we can live with present hope and joy.

But as we celebrate today, death could not contain him. The power of his life is greater than the power of our death. He came out of the tomb in resurrection life, and now he offers this same life to those who will believe. Whatever you think might stand in the way of a relationship with God is gone. His arms are open wide to you. If you’ve never made the decision to surrender you life to him - to call him Lord and receive his New Creation life - I’d plead with you to do that today. If you’re ready to make that decision I’d like to invite you to fill out one of our Connect Cards so that we can make this a reality.

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There is a scene toward the end of The Lord of the Rings trilogy that didn’t make it into the film. One that makes me think Tolkien must have been thinking about this garden-tomb when he wrote it. Frodo and Sam had cast the Ring of Power into the fires of Mount Doom, destroying the evil lord Sauron. But now the mountain is coming down around them. They crawl together onto a ledge of rock, grasp hands, and wait for death to claim them. After the terror, exhaustion, and despair, now they can go to their death in the peace that they had accomplished their great assignment. But then Sam wakes up.

When Sam awoke, he found he was lying on some soft bed, but over him gently swayed wide beechen boughs, and through their young leaves sunlight glimmered, green and gold. All the air was full of a sweet mingled scent.

He remembered that smell: the fragrance of Ithilien. ‘Bless me!’ he mused, ‘how long have I been asleep?’ For the scent had borne him back to the day when he had lit his little fire under the sunny bank; and for the moment all else between was out of waking memory. He stretched and drew a deep breath. ‘Why what a dream I’ve had!’ he muttered. ‘I am glad to wake!’ He sat up and then he saw that Frodo was lying beside him, and slept peacefully, one hand behind his head and the other resting upon the coverlet. It was the right hand, and the third finger was missing.

Full memory flooded back and Sam cried aloud, ‘It wasn’t a dream! Then where are we?’

And a voice spoke softly behind him, ‘In the land of Ithilien and in the keeping of the King; and he awaits you.’ With that Gandalf stood before him, robed in white, his beard now gleaming like pure snow in the twinkling of the leafy sunlight. ‘Well, Master Samwise, how do you feel?’ he said.

But Sam lay back and stared with open mouth, and for a moment, between bewilderment and great joy, he could not answer. At last he gasped: ‘Gandalf! I thought you were dead! But then I thought I was dead myself.

Listen to what Sam asks next...

Is everything sad going to come untrue? What’s happened to the world?’‘

A great Shadow has departed,’ said Gandalf, and then he laughed and the sound was like music, or like water in a parched land; and as he listened the thought came to Sam that he had not heard laughter, the pure sound of merriment, for days upon days without count. It fell upon his ears like the echo of all the joys he had ever known. But he himself burst into tears. Then, as a sweet rain will pass down a wind of spring and the sun will shine out the clearer, his tears ceased, and his laughter welled up, and laughing he sprang from his bed.

‘How do I feel?’ he cried. ‘Well, I don’t know how to say it. I feel, I feel’ – he waved his arms in the air – ‘I feel like spring after winter, and sun on the leaves; and like trumpets and harps and all the songs I have ever heard!”

Is everything sad going to come untrue?

Yes, Sam, everything sad is going to come untrue. Christ is risen. The garden is blooming again. Hallelujah and Amen!

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Communion

Invite people to stand.

Invite Communion/ministry team forward.

Every Sunday we close our time by receiving Communion together. This symbolic meal reminds us of Jesus’ sacrifice. Through it we testify that Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again. Jesus said this is his body and blood, true food and true drink. It is a grace given to us for our spiritual nourishment.

If you would like to participate, after I pray step into the nearest aisle. Someone at the front will take a piece of bread dipped in wine and offer it to you as the body and blood of Jesus. If you prefer not to have wine, close your hands together and that will be the sign for them to give you a sealed container with grape juice and a wafer.

This moment in our service may feel formal or ritualistic to you. I wrote this past week on social media that God doesn’t need our religious rituals. But we do. Rituals - like graduations and weddings and funerals - remind us that what we are doing has weight. It matters. That this isn’t normal space but sacred space. God is here. So as we come to the table this morning, allow yourself to feel the weight of God’s presence, and especially be reminded of the extent of his love for you.

Let us pray.

Holy are you, and blessed is your Son Jesus Christ. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection you gave birth to your Church, delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit. By your great mercy we have been born anew to a living hope through the resurrection of your Son from the dead and to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading. Once we were no people, but now we are your people, declaring your wonderful deeds in Christ, who called us out of darkness into his marvelous light. When the Lord Jesus ascended, he promised to be with us always, in the power of your Word and Holy Spirit.

The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the bread, or touch the bread, or lift the bread.

On the night in which he gave himself up for us, he took bread, gave thanks to you, broke the bread, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me."

The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the cup, or touch the cup, or lift the cup.

When the supper was over he took the cup, gave thanks to you, gave it to his disciples, and said: "Drink from this, all of you; this is my blood of the new covenant, poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me."

The pastor may raise hands.

On the day you raised him from the dead he was recognized by his disciples in the breaking of the bread, and in the power of your Holy Spirit your Church has continued in the breaking of the bread and the sharing of the cup.

And so, in remembrance of these your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice, in union with Christ's offering for us, as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ has died; Christ is risen; Christ will come again.

The pastor may hold hands, palms down, over the bread and cup.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here, and on these gifts of bread and wine. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood.

The pastor may raise hands.

By your Spirit make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world, until Christ comes in final victory, and we feast at his heavenly banquet.

Through your Son Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, almighty Father, now and for ever. Amen.

Invite the worship team to receive Communion first and then everyone else.