From Garden to Garden

As we celebrate the Resurrection of our Lord, it's good to remember that name, “ The resurrection a the Life”, The name Jesus called Himself before He raised Lazarus. It’s also the very fitting name for the very one who restores on this easter Sunday. Mary Magdalene, as we know according to Johns gospel was the one to first be greeted by the Resurrected Christ. The interesting thing is that she didn’t recognize him but mistook Him for the Gardener. Little did she know just how right she was in that assumption. For we trace the original tilling of the ground as a job given to Adam, to properly steward Gods creation, to be a proper gardener. Yet Jesus, the Last Adam, restores the role of the gardener back to man through His perfect obedience. Let us draw near and accept this sacrifice and new life as our own, and with this hope we await the Garden to come.

Leaning in

In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus struggled in prayer. And Christians have struggled with his prayer ever since! What was he praying for? Was his prayer answered? What do we learn about his nature and his character? What is the role of other people in his prayer? Consequently, we ask the same questions about our prayers.  Jesus was, one the hand, engaged in a unique battle that only he could fight. And on the other, he is an example for all of us to follow.  

Yet how Jesus engaged in prayer and what example he set for us isn’t so obvious at first. The text is thick and heavy with context, pathos, and trouble. Jesus faces a challenge unique to him and, at the same time, he represents all human beings in their plight. We are in awe of his courage and his vulnerability.  

What Jesus shows us is how much trust he has in the Father. That’s where he leans in. And I think he wants us to lean in with him, into a place of trust deeper than even death itself.  

The Resurrection and the Life

This week’s Gospel reading from John 11—the raising of Lazarus from the dead—is one of the longest and most carefully crafted narratives in the Gospel of John. It moves from grief to glory, from the tomb to new life, and at its center stands one of the most astonishing statements Jesus made: “I am the resurrection and the life.”

But to feel the full weight of that declaration, we need to walk through the whole story—the deliberate delay, the raw grief, the tears, the stone rolled away, and the voice that commands a dead man to walk.

The central truth this chapter presses upon us is that Jesus does not show his love by sparing us from grief and sorrow. He shows his love by offering himself—his presence, his glory, his very person. And this is the infinitely greater gift.