Your Garden View [Easter 2015]
In John’s telling of the resurrection story, we’re told that Mary mistakes Jesus for a “gardener.” What an odd detail to include. That is, it’s an odd detail until we realize that John is helping us to see how Jesus’ death and resurrection restored the brokenness that was introduced in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve ate the fruit and all of the relationships in life (God, ourselves, each other, and creation) were shattered. The empty tomb signified that Jesus defeated both sin and death (in a garden, no less), and that there was endless hope available to humanity because the power of the resurrection is available to all. But the question John poses is, “Do you see it?” Peter, John, and Mary didn’t “see it” right away. It was a process for them. Indeed, faith is a process for us all. And our faith grows as we’re willing to move. We must all wrestle with the claims of the resurrection, because its reality changes everything.