Lent Reflection, Day 37, April 12

At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid.
John 19:41

Additional Reading: John 19:38-42

Recently, I read a book entitled Velvet Elvis, by Rob Bell. In one portion of this book, he talks about how significant it is that Jesus’ body was put in a tomb in a garden. I had overlooked in the past this detail about the tomb and had not ever recognized its importance. Until recently.

There’s another garden we remember very easily from the Bible. The Garden of Eden and the events that took place there are well known. Genesis 2:8 says, “Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and there he put the man he had formed.” In this garden, the first man, Adam, had a close relationship with God and nothing stood between them. When Adam sinned, God’s punishment for him and Eve was both serious and symbolic. Among other consequences, God threw them out of the garden, and this physical separation symbolized the spiritual separation between humanity and God that would continue for generations.

1 Peter 1:20 says, “He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake.” What happened in the garden was the reason Jesus had to come. God knew before he breathed life into Adam that He would be sending His Son to pay the price for Adam’s sins – and yours’ and mine. None of this was a mistake or a shock to God. God created humans, put them in a garden, and they so quickly wandered from the innocence they were created in. God sent Jesus to suffer and die for us, even planning that His body be laid and later raised from a tomb in a garden.

Can you picture in your mind the garden where sin entered the world? Picture in your mind Adam and Eve disobeying God by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and imagine God’s sadness when He banished them from the garden and from Himself. Now picture Jesus’ body, after being beaten and crucified, laid in a tomb in a garden. Imagine that as Jesus was being brought into the garden, God was bringing Adam and Eve - and you and me - back into the garden as well.


* Spend a moment today meditating on what God did for us by sending Jesus. Take a minute to stop and realize what your life would be like if a way had not been made for you to be in a relationship with God personally. Thank God that the story did not end in the “first garden,” with Adam’s sin and punishment, but that God had a “second garden” in store for us, the gracious ending accomplished by His Son.