The Garden of Resurrection
In this Easter message from our Gardens of God series, we explore the garden tomb where Mary Magdalene encounters the risen Jesus and hears Him call her by name. Just as the story of humanity began in a garden, the resurrection invites us into a new beginning—moving from the tomb of despair to the garden of hope, new life, and transformation.
This sermon reflects on how the resurrection of Jesus brings personal renewal, spiritual growth, and the promise of eternal life. Whether you’re grieving, searching, or growing in faith, the Garden of Resurrection reminds us that Christ meets us where we are and calls us into relationship, healing, and joy.
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The Garden of Resurrection
“Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in.
Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes.
But Mary stood there weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” When she has said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Do not hold onto me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.”
Reading and meditating on this scripture, several things stand out to me. First, there is the emphasis on the tomb. In my Bible, the phrase, “the tomb,” is mentioned nine times in eighteen verses. That’s a lot.
“The tomb, the tomb, the tomb.” Tombs are places of death. The tomb is where the dead are laid to rest when life is no more. When we have lost a loved one, especially in the immediate aftermath of their death, a tomb is a place of heartache. There is darkness, coldness, grief, despair and perhaps even regret.
That’s what we usually find in and at a tomb. It’s not a place we want to be. We may feel drawn to visit in the hopes of still feeling a connection with the one we love, but it can be painful because it’s a reminder of what’s been lost. The tomb is where hopes have died and been buried – there will be no more days with the one we love.
The tomb is the place of endings with no more tomorrows, no more chances, no more opportunities. The tomb is a tough place to be and that’s where Mary, Peter, and the disciple Jesus loved are on the first Easter.
Some of us are also feeling that way this morning because we’ve lost someone we love recently or because a holiday like Easter when we gather with family can be a time when we especially miss someone we love even if she or he died many years ago. Some of us are “at the tomb” and despairing this morning because there is so much in the world that we find depressing. We see the struggles so many people have with addiction, jobs or finances or those may be our challenges. There are concerns at a national or global level that are causing anger, fear, and uncertainty.
There may be relationships in our family that seem dead and beyond revival. All these things feel like “the tomb” – they feel hopeless, like something has died and been lost – a certain level of innocence, safety, civility, opportunity, relationship or hope. Tombs are awful because when you feel like you’re in a tomb, you feel trapped with no way out.
In John’s Gospel the emphasis on the tomb begins at the end of John 19:41-42, just before the Easter story, that Gwyneth Preu preached about at our Good Friday service two days ago. That passage reads: “Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”
The tomb is mentioned twice but so is the garden. We may bring flowers to cemeteries and to the graves of loved ones and create mini gardens in front of their tombstones (photo of my family’s gravestone). The Laurel Hill Cemetery in Saco, Maine where my grandparents and parents are buried is one of the first garden cemeteries in the entire country. It was established in 1844.
People come from all over the state to visit it in the spring when the daffodils are in bloom (photos of daffodils). In many ways a garden is the opposite of a tomb. A garden is a place of new life, new hope, and new beginnings. Gardens are beautiful, lovely, inspiring, relaxing – at least to look at!
For those of you who are guests today, this is the next to last message in a series on The Gardens of God. In the Bible, the story of God and humanity begins in a garden. Genesis 2:15-17, states, “The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.” Of course, Adam and Eve, who represent all humanity, do the one thing they were told not to do and then they try to hide from God. Genesis 3:8-9 says,
“They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. But the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
Of course, God knows where they are. The question is for them and for us. God asks Adam and Eve and us, “Where are you?” They’re hiding from God because they’re ashamed of themselves because they’ve disobeyed God and messed up. Genesis teaches that humanity started a cycle of sin and violence, of brother killing brother, that’s still spiraling out of control today.
In John 18:1-8 this is what we hear about the last night of Jesus’ life:
“After Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron valley to a place where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered. 2 Now Judas, who betrayed him, also knew the place, because Jesus often met there with his disciples. 3 So Judas brought a detachment of soldiers together with police from the chief priests and the Pharisees, and they came there with lanterns and torches and weapons. 4 Then Jesus, knowing all that was to happen to him, came forward and asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” 5 They answered, “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus replied, “I am he.” Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them.
6 When Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they stepped back and fell to the ground. 7 Again he asked them, “Whom are you looking for?” And they said, “Jesus of Nazareth.” 8 Jesus answered, “I told you that I am he.”
Just like in Genesis, there’s a betrayal in the garden. And just as Cain killed his brother Abel in Genesis, they came with weapons to take and kill Jesus. They come to the garden and arrest Jesus and hand him over to executed. But that’s not the end of the story because John 20 tells us it’s in a garden that new life, new hope, and new beginnings are found.
In Genesis humanity is hiding in the garden and God is searching. On Easter morning, it’s Mary who is searching for the Lord and she moves from the tomb to the garden. On that first Easter morning, Mary Magdalene sees several things that are signs of the resurrection. She sees an empty tomb (20:1-2), she sees two angels (20:12-13) whom she talks to, (eventually she even sees the risen Jesus) (20:14-15) but seeing all those things, none of them caused her to believe in the resurrection.
Mary reacts in a typically human way to discovering the open tomb and the missing body– she assumed it was an act of robbery or vandalism and that the body had been taken.
In addition to Mary, Peter and John also see the empty tomb and the grave clothes lying there with no body inside them. We’re told John believes and Peter does not. I don’t know if the fact that this is John’s Gospel influences that part of the story, but I thought I’d mention it. Seeing doesn’t guarantee believing even for those who were with Jesus and knew him best.
And then like clueless men, they leave Mary alone with her tears. Men, don’t make this mistake. Mary is bawling her eyes out and they leave her standing there alone and walk away. These guys are part of Jesus’ inner circle, pillars of the early church, yet they leave Mary drowning in her tears.
Because they don’t stay and linger with Mary, they miss out on seeing Jesus. It’s when Mary turns from the tomb that she hears Jesus call her by name, “Mary.” Then she cries out in recognition (20:16). Her recognition comes from hearing the word Jesus spoke.
Jesus asks Mary the same question that he asked Judas and those who came to arrest him in the garden on Thursday night – “Whom are you looking for?” The question in the garden remains the same, the difference is who is being addressed. Are we meeting Jesus in the garden to betray him or with hostility because we oppose him like Judas and that crowd, or like Mary are we looking for and longing for Jesus because we know he cares for us?
Mary shows that seeing alone doesn’t necessarily lead directly to believing. If there’s to be faith in the resurrection it needs to come from something more than seeing an empty tomb. Hearing is crucial to faith because John’s Gospel was written for folks who lived after Jesus had been physically present, so hearing was more crucial to faith than seeing. Mary is the pattern for Christians in later generations like us who come to know Jesus because of what we hear rather than physically seeing Jesus.
We won’t have the chance to see the signs of the resurrection that Mary saw like an empty tomb or abandoned grave cloths, and we may not be spoken to by a couple of angels or even the risen Christ. But we can hear the story and decide where we want to spend our time and invest our life – at the tomb or in the garden.
It’s in the garden where Mary hears Jesus say, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’ ” Those words are so important and yet they’re easy to overlook. Jesus has died and now he is alive again and he’s telling Mary and all of us – my Father is your Father; my God is your God – what has happened to me can happen for you. As Pastor Nate shared at the sunrise service this morning, this is reflection of Jesus being the first fruits of those who will rise and the trailblazer of our faith. There is hope in our everyday lives that the tomb is not the last word; there is a garden of new life, new hope, and new beginnings for all who trust in Christ.
If your life is hard right now, don’t just look at the tomb, look for the garden. If you’re grieving right now because death has taken someone you love, don’t just think of the tomb, think of the garden of new life, new hope, and new beginnings. If you’re down, depressed, scared, frightened, or discouraged, turn your focus from the tomb to the garden where you can meet the risen Christ, the garden where his Father can comfort you, the garden where God can give you new life, new hope, new beginnings – that’s what happens in the garden.
Focusing on the tomb keeps us centered on loss, grief, and the seeming finality of death, while turning to the garden and the Gardener (Jesus) shifts our attention to new life, hope, and resurrection. The garden represents the place of encounter and transformation, where despair is turned to joy. This perspective encourages us to move beyond regret and embrace the possibilities Jesus offers.
John 20:15 says that Mary looked at Jesus and, “Supposing him to be the gardener;” well he wasn’t the gardener, but he is in a sense, the Gardener. Just like in Genesis 3, Mary encounters God walking in the garden. In the garden, Jesus knows your name. He calls you just like he calls Mary and invites you to a relationship with him in the garden of new beginnings.
The first time Mary ran from the tomb in fear and with a question. The second time she ran with joy and a transforming message of hope. Mary Magdalene ran and announced to the other disciples the first Easter message, “I have seen the Lord”; and she told them that he had said these things to her.”
We can echo Mary’s testimony by sharing how we have experienced Jesus’ presence, love, or transformation in our own stories. Whether through answered prayers, moments of peace, or acts of grace, we can tell others, “I have seen the Lord,” by pointing to the ways Christ is alive and active in our lives today.
In the resurrection of Jesus God turns us from the tomb to the garden in which new life, new hope, and new beginnings emerge and grow so that like Mary and we can say, “I have seen the Lord!” The resurrection assures us that death and despair don’t have the final word, giving us hope and courage for today’s challenges. It means that new beginnings are possible, and that God’s power is at work in our lives right now. For the future, it promises eternal life and the ultimate restoration of all things through Christ.
Leave the tomb and walk and live with Jesus in the Garden.
Prayer: Risen Lord, we thank You for meeting us in the garden of resurrection, just as you met Mary in her grief and turned her sorrow into joy. In the quiet places of our hearts, remind us that resurrection is not only a moment in time but a promise that transforms our everyday lives. Help us to hear your voice calling our name and to carry the hope of new life into the world around us. Like the garden or resurrection, may our hearts be places where faith can grow, and love can bloom and be shared.
Teach us to linger in Your presence and to run with joy to share the good news with others. We ask this In the name of the Risen Christ, Amen.
Questions for Reflection or Discussion
- Are there any Easter traditions that you look forward to each year? If so, what are they and what makes them fun or special?
- Look at John 20:1-18 and notice how often the words “saw” and “seen” are mentioned. What do you make of the emphasis on “seeing?”
- Look at the scripture again for where hearing is involved, what do you notice about what happens when Mary “sees” and when she “hears” something?
- In the Easter story in John 20:1-8 do you relate more to the response of Mary, John, or Peter? Which one is more representative of your faith experience or perspective?
- What difference does in make if we place our focus more on “the tomb” and all that represents, versus concentrating on the garden and the Gardener?
- Mary delivers the first Easter sermon and it’s short and memorable, “I have seen the Lord.” How can we say that in our own lives?
- How does the resurrection of Jesus matter for our present as well as our future?