The Garden of the Empty Tomb

After Gethsemane, God used another garden. After Jesus was crucified, Joseph of Arimathea gave up his tomb and buried Jesus there.

Jesus tomb was in a garden.

There’s so much symmetry in Jesus God’s only son being buried in a garden. Afterall, a garden is the first thing God made in this world so it seems only fitting that He would be buried in a garden. For three days, Jesus was buried in that garden because He took on the sins of mankind. He died to appease God’s perfect justice and punishment for our sins.

Yet, on the morning of the third day Mary Magdalene went to the tomb to and found it empty! She rushed back to tell Peter and the other disciples. When they returned, Peter and John went with her to see for themselves. After seeing it was empty, John tells us they returned home but Mary remained. She stood outside Jesus tomb in that gardening weeping for Him and weeping because she believed someone had moved his body.

Eventually, Mary looked up to see a man standing there in the garden with her. John tells us she thought he was the gardener – the keeper of the garden. He asked her why she was weeping and she said someone had moved or taken Jesus’ body so she begged him to tell her where Jesus’ body had been moved.

The gardener simply responded “Mary.” Immediately, Mary looked up a realized the gardener was actually Jesus risen from the dead. She rushed over and hugged him but Jesus informed her He needed to first return to God so she needed to go tell the others she has seen and spoke to the resurrected Jesus.

What an honor for Mary. She is the first person to see the resurrected savior. She went to the tomb to weep multiple times and even after Peter and John left she remained. So, to comfort her Jesus came to her and called her my name.

This interaction reminds me so much of Isaiah 43:

“And thus says the Lord God who created Jacob and who formed Israel, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name, You are mine.”

The Garden of the Empty is the most important garden this side of eternity:

🧑‍🌾 It shows God keeps His promises.
🧑‍🌾 It shows how deeply Jesus loves us.
🧑‍🌾 It shows Jesus defeated sin and death.
🧑‍🌾 It shows God’s plan of salvation was achieved.
🧑‍🌾 It shows Jesus actually died and was resurrected.
🧑‍🌾 It shows Jesus paid the ransom for our soul.
🧑‍🌾 It shows us not to fear death.
🧑‍🌾 It shows us that Jesus is our ultimate comforter.
🧑‍🌾 It shows that Jesus knows and calls us by name.

Without this garden, Paul tells us our lives as Christians would be the most pitiable because we would all this hope in something that didn’t happen. BUT – Chris is the risen savior!

Thanks be to God for the garden of the empty tomb which gave us the risen savior – Jesus who defeated sin and death for us. The garden of the empty tomb should push us to be immovable and steadfast in our work for the Lord because He died and was resurrected to save our souls. #lessonsfromthemastergardener