The gardener

The risen Jesus meets Mary at the emp­ty tomb as a gar­de­ner. God is like a gar­de­ner for us. He knows how to trans­form bar­ren land into a flou­ris­hing gar­den. Eas­ter trans­forms a Good Fri­day of mour­ning into a Good Fri­dayA sto­ry of mour­ning beco­mes a sto­ry of hope.

When the hou­ses are built on a deve­lo­p­ment and the first peo­p­le move into their flats, the sur­roun­dings are still brown, dir­ty and drea­ry. The last pro­fes­sio­nal to come along is the gar­de­ner, who takes care of this drea­ri­ne­ss, crea­tes a gar­den, sows the lawn, plants sui­ta­ble trees and colourful flowers and lays beau­tiful stones. After a few weeks, the who­le envi­ron­ment looks trans­for­med: beau­tiful gar­dens and lush green lawns. Rein­hard Mey sings that the mur­de­rer is always the gar­de­ner, But actual­ly the gar­de­ner is one who crea­tes life and beau­ty.

Mourning

We come from Good Fri­day. The word Good Fri­day has its roots in Old High Ger­man karawhich means lamen­ta­ti­on, sor­row, grief. Mary had more than enough of that when she came to the tomb on the third day after Jesus» cru­ci­fi­xi­on. Now the­re was no stop­ping her. She cried bit­ter­ly. So much sad­ness, des­pair, inju­s­ti­ce. Ever­y­thing that had hap­pen­ed in the last days and hours was just too much. Her Jesus, who had done so much good for her fami­ly, was dead, exe­cu­ted. That which gave her life mea­ning and sup­port was gone. The most valuable thing has dis­ap­peared from their lives.

«Mary stood out­side the tomb wee­ping, and as she wept, she bent down and loo­ked in. The­re she saw two angels dres­sed in white sit­ting, one at the head and one at the foot of the place whe­re Jesus» body had lain. Why are you crying?» the angels asked her. «Becau­se they have taken my Lord away,» she repli­ed, «and I do not know whe­re they have laid him.» » (John 20:11–13 NL).

Jesus is no lon­ger the­re. The tomb is emp­ty and no one could explain it. Note: Angels could not com­fort Mary over the loss of Jesus. This is still true today: angels stan­ding around in the home are no sub­sti­tu­te for Jesus – even if they are high­ly popu­lar in many places today.

I think this fee­ling of Mary is an atti­tu­de towards life that we still know today. Mary wan­ted to che­rish the tomb of Jesus. How many gra­ves do we have to dig in of our bio­gra­phy, we had to bury so many hopes, wis­hes and visi­ons. Such gra­ves can be: the desi­re for child­ren or the desi­re for a spou­se, suf­fe­ring at work, phy­si­cal or men­tal suf­fe­ring, the break-up of a rela­ti­onship, the loss of a loved one, your own fail­ure, infe­rio­ri­ty, a secret that you have not yet reve­a­led to anyo­ne, dis­ap­point­ments, loneli­ne­ss, etc. Per­haps you are stan­ding in front of a gra­ve that resem­bles the sur­roun­dings of a new buil­ding after win­ter: brown, dir­ty and drea­ry. Good Fri­day. This is how Mary and pro­ba­b­ly also Jesus» twel­ve fri­ends felt.

Hope

But then Maria sees some­thing: «She loo­ked back over her should­er and saw someone stan­ding behind her. It was Jesus, but she did not reco­g­ni­se him. «Why are you crying?» Jesus asked her. «Who are you loo­king for?» She thought he was the gar­de­ner. «Lord,» she said, «if you have taken him away, tell me whe­re you have taken him; then I will go and fetch him.» «Mary!» said Jesus. She tur­ned to him and exclai­med: «Mas­ter!» » (John 20:14–16 NL).

Sud­den­ly a sto­ry of mour­ning beco­mes a sto­ry of hope and joy. An abysmal­ly sad per­son chan­ges into a hop­eful, joyful and cou­ra­ge­ous per­son. But what exact­ly pulls Mary out of her sor­row? What dries her tears here at the gar­den tomb? It is a stran­ge encoun­ter. She does­n’t seem to be able to do much with the angels. Then Mary meets the gar­de­ner, who is Jesus. But she does not reco­g­ni­se Jesus. Jesus as gar­de­ner! May we ima­gi­ne God at the tomb as a gar­de­ner? What is a gar­de­ner? In the very begin­ning, God crea­ted the Gar­den of Eden as an envi­ron­ment for the first human cou­ple, Adam and Eve. A gar­de­ner first pro­vi­des a good seed that is scat­te­red. Then the seed falls on the ground and the gar­de­ner takes care of it so that it can grow and new things come into being. We think it’s over, it’s died, we don’t see any­thing any­mo­re, and sud­den­ly new life comes out of the seed that the gar­de­ner has scat­te­red, com­ple­te­ly unex­pec­ted­ly. Won­derful gar­dens are being crea­ted around the new housing estate and are total­ly chan­ging the picture.

Jesus likes to come to your gra­ves as a gar­de­ner. Per­haps the gra­ve of the break-up of a rela­ti­onship. Deep emo­tio­nal wounds, for exam­p­le cau­sed by a divorce, can be trans­for­med by Jesus the gar­de­ner into a cent­re of com­pe­tence. And you can beco­me a bles­sing for others in simi­lar situa­tions. Or to your sen­se of not belon­ging, he can give new hope so that new life sprouts. Think of God as a gar­de­ner at the gra­ves of your life! We think so much is gone, dead, but the gar­de­ner can take care of it. When God comes into our world as a gar­de­ner, it can hap­pen in your life today that a sto­ry of sor­row beco­mes a sto­ry of hope. Eas­ter turns a sto­ry of mour­ning into a sto­ry of hope.

The Eng­lish do not speak of Good Fri­day, but of «Good Fri­day». Good Fri­day it is becau­se this God has beco­me a gar­de­ner in the per­son of his Son Jesus Christ. Good Fri­day it is becau­se Christ has purcha­sed eter­nal life for us, and not only for after our death. The effect is alre­a­dy true now through our uni­on with God through the Spi­rit who takes up resi­dence in us and chan­ges us from the insi­de out. This is ulti­m­ate­ly all a fruit of the cross. The resur­rec­tion power is powerful. With the same power with which God rai­sed Jesus from the dead, he works on his fol­lo­wers and turns drea­ri­ne­ss into a beau­tiful gar­den. Unli­ke a gar­de­ner with a green apron, he even crea­tes life from nothing.

Inci­den­tal­ly, Jesus intro­du­ces God to us as a gar­de­ner in ano­ther place: «If God cares so won­derful­ly for the flowers that blos­som today and wither tomor­row, how much more does he care for you?»(Matthew 6:30 NL). How can you tell that God cares for the flowers? Alt­hough they do not work and do not sew clo­thes for them­sel­ves, they are dres­sed more glo­rious­ly than King Solo­mon in all his sple­ndour. In this so-cal­led «how much more para­ble» the­re is a gre­at pro­mi­se: God cares for you. He is also your gar­de­ner. The­r­e­fo­re, you do not need to worry (Matthew 6:31)! We are allo­wed – even in the face of bro­ken dreams – to live a care­free life. When we stop worry­ing in one fell swoop, it frees up a lot of emo­tio­nal and ratio­nal capa­ci­ty. We should put this to good use as soon as pos­si­ble, other­wi­se the worries will come back. Jesus sug­gests: «Make the king­dom of God your pri­ma­ry con­cern, live in God’s righ­teous­ness and he will give you all that you need»(Matthew 6:33 NL). Actual­ly, this means not­hing other than that we, as God’s gifted ones, are to be «gar­den­ers» for others.

Being a gardener

I will bless you and you shall be a bles­sing. Like you and me. We too can and should be «gar­den­ers» for others. Inde­ed, God as the pro­to­ty­pe gar­de­ner has had a plan from the begin­ning: «Then he said: «Let grass grow on the earth, and let it bring forth plants bea­ring seed, and trees full of various fruits, in which is their seed». And so it came to pass»(Gene­sis 1:11 NL). In all his crea­ti­on lies the seed of mul­ti­pli­ca­ti­on. When you con­sider how many mil­li­ons of seeds each plant or per­son pro­du­ces, it seems almost was­teful, but life should go on.

Using Mary as an exam­p­le, we see what this could mean: « «Do not touch me,» said Jesus, «for I have not yet ascen­ded to the Father. But go to my brot­hers and tell them that I am ascen­ding to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God.» Mary Mag­da­le­ne found the disci­ples and told them, «I have seen the Lord!» Then she repor­ted what he had told her to do» (John 20:17–18 NL).

Mary shared the good news of Jesus so that the disci­ples were also brought out of their gloom and back into the sprou­ting life. For whom could you be a «gar­de­ner»? Who could you help, espe­ci­al­ly in the cur­rent sta­te of emer­gen­cy, to turn a sto­ry of mour­ning into a sto­ry of hope? Even a pho­ne call or a litt­le help can green up a drea­ry envi­ron­ment. Why not ask our sick and suf­fe­ring peo­p­le how they are doing? Per­haps, like Mary, you can share the good news that Jesus is tru­ly risen. Jesus is risen, he is tru­ly risen.

Eas­ter turns a sto­ry of mour­ning into a sto­ry of hope. You can expe­ri­ence this per­so­nal­ly through faith in Jesus Christ. He can turn the gra­ves you tend into hope and beau­ty. The gar­de­ner is not a mur­de­rer, but a life-giver par excel­lence. That is what we want to cele­bra­te today.

Possible questions for the small groups

Read the Bible text: John 20:11–18

1. What kind of gra­ves do you tend?
2. What does it mean that God is the gar­de­ner of your bar­ren places in life?
3. Have you ever expe­ri­en­ced at one point that God has built a cent­re of com­pe­tence out of a wound?
4. If God were also your gar­de­ner, what worries could you con­fi­dent­ly lay aside?
5. For whom could you and do you want to be a gar­de­ner this Eas­ter time?