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Welcome to St Mary's the Virgin
Looking back over the articles I have written for this month’s edition of the magazine over the years it is notable how often gardening and Easter have coincided. Actually, this should not surprise us; gardens feature prominently in the Easter narratives, echoing the first story in the Bible when God puts the humans in a garden and tells them to make all the world so beautiful. Maundy Thursday night ends in the garden of Gethsemane, a place Jesus and his followers met in frequently. It was a short walk from the city yet retained a quiet, possibly even secret atmosphere.
Then John tells us that near Golgotha where Jesus is killed there was a garden with a new tomb in it. The text implies that this tomb was used simply because of its proximity given the approaching Sabbath day; carrying a body would definitely have counted as work and therefore have been a forbidden activity. Mary goes to the tomb early on Easter morning. After alerting Peter and John to the lack of a body, she lingers, and when Jesus appears, her tear-stained vision assumes he must be the gardener.
Knowing the story so well, it is easy for us to forget (in all the resurrection accounts), that the very last person any of the disciples (or anyone else) expected to see was Jesus. We know he is about to pop out of the shadows: the extent of their knowledge was that he was dead and buried. Mary’s assumption that she is meeting the gardener makes perfect sense – who else would be up so early to be in a garden? as does her question about where the Lord’s body is – Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had laid him where they had because it was close, intending to move him somewhere more permanent after the Sabbath is what is implied by the text.
The deep irony is that Jesus is a gardener. He planted Eden; he displayed a keen-eyed love of the flowers of the field; he told many stories about things that grow, and, of course we believe he continues to maintain and uphold the universe in all its wonder.
Every garden needs different parts looked after particularly and at particular times: this is one of the reasons the Church has an annual, seasonal calendar, because we too need to address the different aspects of ourselves. As we consider Jesus the gardener, ponder which parts of your body mind and soul you might ask him to take some particular care of in this season of Easter.
Happy Easter to you all,
Fr Neil.
