Gardener

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

In the beginning, the Word was with God.

In the beginning, God placed Adam in a Garden. A Garden brought forth by the Lord himself. Verdant trees, perfectly curving vines, lilies bowed by splendor, colors so rich they sang. Smells so deep they caressed. A rainbow lived incarnate in chlorophyll and plant pigment.

And there, in that new creation, Adam was placed to work it and care for it. The image-bearer of God who was to govern God’s Garden for God, bearing his name, representing his character. Adam was steward, meant to guard God’s beautiful creation against all harm. Adam was priest in the Garden-Temple of God, ministering before God.

Evil crept in to a garden; Adam and Eve weeping outside the Garden.

Fall.

Distortion.

Beauty shattered like the fallen petals, crushed, crumpled.

All is wrong.

All is wrong.

Hope shattered like a broken alabaster flask.
Crucifixion. 
Death. 

Evil seems to have conquered; Mary weeping in a garden.

“Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away’” (John 20:15).

She saw a gardener—“Where is he? Where is the body?”

Then she saw.

Really saw.

Him. Saw the Gardener.

The very lilies must have raised their bowed heads; a rainbow of God’s peace must have once again touched down! The very earth must have trembled with joy to feel the foot-touch of the Risen One as he stepped in that garden! The grass must have become greener with his step, life-power radiating from him. A new age has dawned! A new creation! The Word who was with God in the beginning, through whom all things were made, steps down in a new creation he is ushering in! Once again in a garden, new creation breaks out!

There, in that new dawn, the Gardener cares for new people, the firstfruits of a new heaven and a new earth. The true Image-Bearer of God governs God’s creation for him until he will deliver the kingdom to God his Father (1 Cor. 15:24). The true Image-Bearer, Emmanuel himself, bearing the Lord’s name and representing his character to all of creation—the character of a grace-filled, loving, giving, God who dwells with the humble and contrite. The true Steward, guarding his people to present them pure and blameless before the throne (Jn. 17:12; 1 Thes. 3:13; 5:23; Col. 1:22; 1 Cor. 1:8-9). The true Priest in the new creation of God, interceding for his people (Hebrews).

John the beloved disciple of Jesus, presents Jesus as the true Gardener. He, the one who takes us back to Genesis in the beginning in his prologue. Here, he takes us back to Genesis again. It is no mistake that Mary mistook him for the gardener. Jesus, the true Adam, the true Gardener. John is signaling—a new beginning! A new creation!A new dawn! A new age!

We, too, have a new beginning. Born from above, born again. There is a garden-joy that accompanies us. He is pruning us, shaping us, growing us, guarding us as part of his new creation, the firstfruits (Rom. 8:23; 2 Thes. 2:13; Jas. 1:18). His flowers, we waft the fragrance of a new creation to the world (2 Cor. 2:14-16). We are the bedecked Eden lilies in a sin-sacked desert. We are the sunflowers, looking at the Son, radiating the light of the Lord with unveiled faces to a dark world (2 Cor. 3:17-18).

Let the earth rejoice! Let us rejoice in the Image-Bearer, the Steward who guards, our Priest! Let us rejoice again in the newness! Let us bear glimpses of Eden to a bleak world!