ShalomSample

“Thinking He Was the Gardener …”

 From the moment humanity rebelled, God’s redemptive plan to rescue humanity and restore creation was launched. Through the person of Jesus, God’s plan to bring shalom reached its climax. 

In John’s account of Jesus’ resurrection, a woman named Mary mistakes the risen Jesus for a gardener. She didn’t see a gardener and think he was Jesus, she saw Jesus and thought He was a gardener. Why is that significant? Because Mary didn’t show up to the tomb expecting Jesus to be alive! She expected Him to do what dead people do … stay dead. By including that detail in his Gospel, John is clueing us into something that we may miss at first glance. As a Jewish author, John is employing a technique known as the Principle of First Mention. By pointing out that the resurrection of Jesus takes place in a garden, John is calling his readers back to the first mention of a garden in the Bible. Which just so happens to be the creation story found in Genesis. 

So, why does John want us to think about the first garden? Because John believes that through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the rebellion of Adam has been undone, the disease of sin has been cured, and the way to God has been revealed. The path to God was paved by the person of Jesus. And now, anyone who chooses to commit their life to Him can experience the shalom of God. 

This scene isn’t just a callback to the Eden that was. It’s a foreshadowing of the Eden that will be. The biblical story begins with God and His people living in perfect shalom in the garden of Eden; it ends with God and His people once again reunited in a new Eden. And the turning point takes place in a garden where a man who was supposed to be dead walked out of His tomb. 

Now, as people living on the other side of the empty tomb, we are called to embody the cross-shaped example of our risen King. To live as people who have been forgiven and redeemed by God, offering that same forgiveness and redemption to others.