Jesus, the Perfect Gardener - John 20:11-18

The account of the appearance of the risen Jesus to Mary Magdalene recorded in Jn 20:11-18 warms my heart. There are many different layers of meaning to this first resurrection story and Jesus’ appearance to Mary. There was the restoration of the loss on a personal level. For Mary personally, Jesus’ appearance was a victory over her grief, it transformed her grief into great joy. Jesus was someone to whom she was utterly devoted. Jesus had cast seven demons out of her, which must have transformed her life. Mary had stayed with him by the cross when all the men had run off. Now Jesus her Lord seemed to be lost to her forever - it was inevitable that she was grief-stricken - even more now as she may have thought that Jesus’ body had been stolen from the tomb by his enemies in a final act of spite. But suddenly, there was Jesus, alive again, and standing before her.

Mary was looking for her Saviour, but she was looking in the wrong places. In her ignorance she was looking for a corpse to honour in his death, little realising that he was alive and risen.

Being a close eye-witness, Mary knew that Jesus had been well and truly killed the Friday before. She was a very close eye-witness of his exceptionally brutal death - a severe flogging, followed by crucifixion for 6 hours culminating in being speared, and now … He was alive again! The raising of her dear friend and her healer, her teacher and Saviour Jesus from the dead was obviously a great joy.

But on another level, I have two brief points to make for us beyond Mary’s personal joy:

Firstly, seemingly in passing, John tells us that Mary mistook the risen Jesus for the gardener.

Now, every word counts in John’s Gospel. In the previous chapter John points out that the tomb from which Jesus was raised was in a garden. Mary’s mistaking Jesus for the gardener was a mistake made in the right direction. It is often said that God’s plan of salvation for the human race began and ended in a garden. And there is a sense that Jesus WAS the gardener.

Kiwis love their gardens. But aren’t weeds a battle? A huge effort is made here to keep the gardens looking smart and tidy, and rightly so. But who was the first gardener? Adam of course, in the Garden of Eden. A task at which he famously failed, and brought death and separation from God on his descendants - the human race, all of us in this room. There is a sense that we all participated in Adam’s failure, and we live with the consequences.

Through his death and resurrection, Jesus, the Second Adam, the Perfect Gardener, cleanses the garden of the things that should not be there. He conquers sin and death, thus he begins the restoration of everything.

But first, Jesus had to ascend to the Father to complete this task. Jesus tells of the new restoration of fellowship with the Father by saying to Mary, as in our reading: ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ Jesus, the Second Adam, the perfect gardener, has broken the hold of the curse of death. But he has done even more than that … he has reconciled Mary to the Father. He has undone Adam’s failed gardening work and corrected the outcomes to how it should have been in the first place. This goes for all who believe in his name, not just Mary. It includes you and me this afternoon who believe. The true gardener has completed his work perfectly.

My second and final observation in our reflection this afternoon is the tenderness with which the resurrected Jesus calls Mary. There’s no rebuke, there are no hard words because of Mary’s failure to understand … just “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” and then … “Mary!”

The Lord is not in a blast of wind, nor in an earthquake, nor in a fire, but in a still small peaceful voice … “Mary!” In fact in all his resurrection appearances he greets his disciples gently, as he is doing this afternoon to those who may be struggling with disbelief.

Mary’s response is very simple, “Rabboni!” “Teacher” or “Master!”, she wanted no-one else. That was all that was needed from Mary, and in some ways from us.

That tenderness continues in the resurrection accounts in the New Testament. Later that first Easter Day Jesus appears to the ten disciples hiding away fearfully in the locked Upper Room. His first words to those cowardly runaways were: “Peace be with you!” A week later he gently shows his wounds to doubting Thomas and again greets them, “Peace be with you!” There’s a real calmness about these resurrection appearances. Easter really is about peace with God.

This tenderness and approachability remain 2,000 years later. He calls us by name and knows us by name. He still tenderly calls us this afternoon … Mary … Joyce … Alice … Eunice … John … Jim … “Peace be with you!” Through faith in the crucified and risen Christ our sins our covered and death is defeated. Yes, even yours … and even mine. As John writes at the end of this resurrection chapter: 20v31 “… these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” ….

What is your response to the good news of the risen Christ this Easter Day?