Easter Sunday – Your Audio Tour of the Garden…

Eastertide involves entering the sacred space of the garden.

John has Jesus entering the garden at the beginning of chapter 18. It’s the garden of God’s glorification as shining on the face of Jesus. Betrayal, arrest, crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection all happen here. 

Again, this is not, as I earlier believed, the garden of Eden. That word is paradiso. John uses kemo here. On the one hand, it’s the garden of loving encounter as exemplified in Song of Songs:

Song of Solomon 6:2 (NRSV) — 2 My beloved has gone down to his garden, to the beds of spices, to pasture his flock in the gardens, and to gather lilies.

Song of Solomon 8:13 (NRSV) — 13 O you who dwell in the gardens, my companions are listening for your voice; let me hear it.

On the other hand, it’s the garden where idolaters meet in rebellion:

Isaiah 65:1–3 (NRSV) — 1 I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask, to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, “Here I am, here I am,” to a nation that did not call on my name. 2 I held out my hands all day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices; 3 a people who provoke me to my face continually, sacrificing in gardens and offering incense on bricks;

Isaiah 66:17 (NRSV) — 17 Those who sanctify and purify themselves to go into the gardens, following the one in the center, eating the flesh of pigs, vermin, and rodents, shall come to an end together, says the Lord. 

Life and Death contend together in the garden. And so during this Easter season as you and I live out this mystery at work in us… in the garden!