Alleluia! Christ is Risen!
Dear Friends,
It seems to me that time comes and goes so quickly, as you read this, I shall begin the privilege of receiving a sabbatical. These are used in different ways by colleagues, amongst my time away from Circuit and Church work I hope to spend a little more time in the garden than possible in the normal working pattern of life.
Have you noticed that there are two specific and detailed references to gardens in the Easter Story?
Garden 1
Following the momentous events of ‘The Last Supper, Jesus prays, ‘Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me, may be in them, and I in them.’ 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 17:25 – 18:1)
Gethsemane was a garden on the Mount of Olives where Jesus went to pray to his Father and express his concerns and doubts about his role in God’s plan to bring salvation and redemption to the world by his death on the cross and his resurrection. Accounts of the visit to Gethsemane can be found in Matthew 26:36- 56, Mark 14-32-51, Luke 22:39-53, John 18:1-10.
Each of the accounts are similar in content but different in detail and emphasis. Each agrees that Jesus came to the Garden to pray to his Father and share his deepest thoughts. For me, this is Jesus, the human being, sharing with his Father his own concerns about his work of bringing salvation and redemption to his people. He expresses doubts about his role in the amazing, sacrificial act of love he is called to undertake. Although Jesus struggles, his final words are put simply in Luke 22:42 ‘Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me; yet not my will but yours be done.’
In his ‘human’ response to his task Jesus places his future into God’s hands taking the step of faith we all need to take. Jesus goes back to the disciples and, according to Luke, found them sleeping–exhausted and says to them, “Why are you sleeping? Get up and pray that you may not come into the time of trial.’ (Luke 22:46) They awake, and get up, and go to meet that ‘time of trial’ which, for them it is the arrest and mock trial of Jesus which leads to humiliation, Crucifixion, and the death of Jesus. Jesus goes from Gethsemane to Golgotha without complaint, and in love gives his life on the cross for all, including you and me. ‘Amazing Love! How can it be? That you, my God, should die for me? (Charles Wesley)
Garden 2
The story does not end there, and we come to the second garden featured in the story. At the end of that horrendous day of Crucifixion, in fact, in the evening a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, a disciple of Jesus went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus; then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. Joseph
wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had hewn in the rock. He then rolled a great stone to the door of the tomb and went away. (Mt 27:57: Mk 15:42: Lk 23:50, John 19:38-41)
It is John who specifically mentions the garden. But, as we know, it didn’t end there either. Again, the four Gospel writers record the events with their own emphasise and their accounts are recorded in Matthew 28:1-10, Mk 16:1-8, Lk 24:1-12, John 20:1-18. We are told that after Jesus was laid in the tomb some of the women – Mary
Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome and perhaps some others came to check on Jesus’s body. They went away to prepare the spices used to embalm a body. In the early morning of the day after the Sabbath, they returned, but found the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty! Jesus was not there, and, in various ways, they were informed he had risen as promised!
They were instructed to tell the disciples that Jesus had arisen!
Through his prayers in the garden, Jesus accepted the difficult task before him, and God’s love and power went with him to the amazing, triumphant end! Over the years there have been times when I, and likely many of you, have faced situations causing worry and concern in everyday life and then at other times decisions to make. I suggest a response to God’s call to serve, no matter what, might lead us into a much-loved outdoor space to pray to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to the love and power sufficient to achieve what God has called us to do or say. I pray it may be so.
Every Blessing,
Rev Mark