It is fitting to remember...
Illustration
Object:
It is fitting to remember, this first Sunday after Easter, the appearances Jesus made to his
followers. Therein is hope. The fishermen had returned to fishing. They should have
waited for the word from Mary. Mary had gone very early to the tomb, to finish burial
preparation. Mary mistakes Jesus as the gardener. Amazing, isn't it, that the first Adam as
a gardener, was placed in the Garden of Eden to till and to keep it? Adam and Eve failed
in their gardening task. They thought they could do gardening without the guidance of
their Creator. Could it be that the reason Mary mistook him as a gardener was because he
was doing some gardening task? Perhaps he was stirring the soil, or pulling a weed --
symbolic of the spiritual task we all do in planting seeds of hope, or removing some weed
of disharmony or brokenness.
Jesus truly is the gardener of souls. Where the first Adam had failed himself and his God and was driven away from paradise, Jesus was able to say to the thief on the cross, "Today you will be with me in paradise, you will be working with me in the gardening task of beautifying all of creation.
"For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ" (1 Corinthians 25:21-22).
Jesus truly is the gardener of souls. Where the first Adam had failed himself and his God and was driven away from paradise, Jesus was able to say to the thief on the cross, "Today you will be with me in paradise, you will be working with me in the gardening task of beautifying all of creation.
"For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead has also come through a human being; for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ" (1 Corinthians 25:21-22).
