Friday April 7th: This garden: A place of healing and restoration

Good Friday

Jesus’ obedience in the garden is a reversal of the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.

John 18: 1 – 19: 42

The gospel passage opens with Jesus crossing the Kedron Valley with his disciples and entering a garden there. Judas brought a cohort to that garden where they arrested Jesus and brought him to trial. The garden is symbolic.

A garden was the place of the first trial and betrayal. The man and the woman in the garden of Eden disobeyed God and lost both their place in the garden and their relationship with God.

Now Jesus entered another garden. There, in that garden, Jesus submitted willingly to the chain of events that would lead to his death on the cross. Jesus’ obedience in the garden is a reversal of the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. While Adam and Eve sought to be like God, Jesus humbled himself and submitted even to death. Jesus’ submission to God’s will became the healing the world needed.

As we enter ‘the garden’ again today, we can embrace the healing Jesus won for us. Let us embrace God who wants to embrace us!