God invites you to the Garden to disclose his presence, grace, and Godself. You can indeed find joy unknown. Continue Reading…
We admire and cherish the beautiful gardens that we have around us. The very mention of gardens gives us a refreshing feel. The Garden in the Bible symbolizes space/ home, prayer, and reflection.
The Garden symbolizes a strong sense of an encounter with God. Adam and Eve walked with God with responsibility – stewardship, and identity at the Garden of Eden. Jesus surrendered to God’s plans and purposes in the garden of Gethsemane. Mary Magdalene encountered the Risen Jesus at the Garden Tomb.
Let’s look at these three gardens mentioned in Scripture to learn how we can find healing for our pretense of excitement, agonizing inner struggle, and blurring of vision.
The Garden becomes a symbol of Jesus’ suffering, just as the olives were pressed in this garden to extract the oil.
The Garden of Eden: Responsibility
Then God planted a garden in Eden, in the east. He put the Man he had just made in it – Gen 2:8 (a).
The Garden of Eden symbolised the created world that God had made. The Garden was the handiwork of God, just as the heavens are God’s handiwork. (Psalm 19:1). The Garden was the garden of the Lord.
The first human couple was placed in the Garden of Eden to live in and make their home. Eden is symbolic of a home, a dwelling place. Moreover, the human couple was responsible for ‘tending and keeping the garden‘, their dwelling place. The garden provided them with a sense of purpose.
He reveals himself to us and helps us “see” clearly. All our anxieties, doubts, tears, and fears end at this meeting place.
Let’s be thankful for the earth – our home – that the Creator God has graciously given us. We must protect its precious resources, God’s generous gift to humanity. Let’s be committed to tend and keep it.
The Garden Of Gethsemane: Intercession
After Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.- John 18:1
The Garden of Gethsemane continues to have great resonance with Jesus’ followers. Jesus and his disciples were frequent visitors to the garden of Gethsemane (Jn 18:2). Jesus often prayed in the Garden with his disciples.
Gethsemane could have been a garden/estate of olive trees which housed an “oil press”. Interestingly, Jesus chose this garden to pray before his arrest and subsequent death on the Cross. The Garden becomes a symbol of Jesus’ suffering, just as the olives were pressed in this garden to extract the oil.
The human couple was responsible for ‘tending and keeping the garden, their dwelling place. The garden provided them with a sense of purpose.
The Garden of Gethsemane is a powerful reminder of intercession. Just as Jesus surrendered himself and interceded on our behalf, we must commit ourselves to intercede on behalf of the suffering Church.
The Garden Tomb: Encounter
At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden was a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. John 19:41
The third Garden remains unfamiliar to most of us. But the garden Tomb was one of the most significant Gardens, central to Jesus’ life event after his crucifixion. It was in this very garden that Jesus was laid in a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid (Jn 19:41).
Jesus reveals his identity to Mary Magdalene. Mary went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been taken away. As Mary stood weeping, the resurrected Jesus revealed himself to her. At first, Mary mistook Jesus for being the gardener. But Jesus revealed himself to her, and she announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’.
Just as Jesus surrendered himself and interceded on our behalf, we must commit ourselves to interceding on behalf of the suffering Church.
The Garden-tomb symbolises an encounter with the Risen Saviour and Lord. He reveals himself to us and helps us “see” him clearly. All our anxieties, doubts, tears, and fears end at this meeting place.
Conclusion
God walks with us. God listens to us. God reveals himself to us. We no longer have to carry the weight of our anxieties, fear, and confusion. He invites us to the Garden to disclose his presence, grace, and Godself. We can indeed find joy unknown in the garden.
I come to the garden alone,
While the dew is still on the roses;
And the voice I hear, falling on my ear,
The Son of God discloses.
Refrain:
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.
(Austin Miles, 1913)
Photo by Albrecht Fietz from Pixabay; Photo by Stacey Franco on Unsplash; Image by Reijo Telaranta from Pixabay
