The Gardener and Easter

In simple humility, let our gardener God, landscape you with the Word, making a salvation-garden of your life.

(James 1:21)

Christianity is not turning over a new leaf, its starting a new life. The goodness of the gospel at Easter and every other day of our life, is not what we can do for Jesus but what Jesus has already done for us. What is the greater threat to the Gospel? The self righteousness of good people? Or the unrighteousness of bad people?

When this writer was younger and more energetic, I would walk the five blocks from my townhouse in the city where I lived to the church where I was a member. One beautiful Sunday morning on my walk down Front Street, a girl was sitting on a stoop across from the notorious bar called The Barbary Coast. Now there was no doubt that I was on my way to church, suited, carrying my bible. It is unusual for anyone to ask a blind man about anything, but this girl asked me if I could give her a dollar. I said: "Of course I can, here is a dollar for you and I want God to bless you." Of course I knew she was planning to go across the street and spend the money at the bar.

Later, at lunch with some members of the First Baptist Church, I relayed the incident. They felt that I should not have given her money for a drink. Perhaps not, but as I said to them, "This girl knew her condition, today in the church house we had people sitting all around us who I honestly believe, are deceived about theirs." We simply have no idea how much baggage most people carry around, both inside the church and out.

It is at Easter that we share our blessed Lord's agony, the wrath of his father-- sin of the world, which he carried to the cross. Easter is a time of new beginnings. Hidden foliage, coming forth in full bloom. In my city, we have beautiful azaleas, lilacs, dogwood.

The thrill of springtime, Easter; always brings the memory of my grandmother working in her garden, An old lady, Miss.Ida, working in her garden. Like my mother, grandmothers and most of the worlds population, people love the beauty of flowers as well as vegetables growing. How better could God show his love for beauty to us?

There are two Gardens mentioned in the bible. Of course, this world traveler has seen beautiful gardens all over the world; but just think of the beauty of the Garden of Eden: everything perfect there... Every thorn-less flower, beautiful in color and smell. I imagine just miles of God tending to flawless landscaped beauty. You know that when he looked over it and called it good, it was beautiful. (Gen 1:31)

The problem that still exists: God showed us that he is boss, that he has certain parameters. There was just one tree in that beautiful garden, "don't touch that tree." In the garden of Eden, Adam failed, chose the spirit of death instead of the spirit of life. In that other garden, Garden of Gethsemane, ugly-nasty-flies-stray dogs, Christ was crushed. The first man Adam failed, the second man Jesus triumphed; both in a garden... God the gardener.

The Romans crucified thousands of human beings every year. At the time of Jesus, a large percentage of the worlds population were slaves. He delivered us from our slavery and took on all of our rotten sins. The second Adam gave humanity the spirit of life... a free gift.

The best memory I have of my maternal grandmother, returning from her garden carrying a hoe... always with her large apron carrying vegetables which she had picked from her garden. In God's marvelous grace and mercy, he created on this earth every chemical we would ever need for anything. There is no excuse for the multiplicity of sicknesses which afflict our population. There is no excuse for the epidemics involving food intake such as diabetes. When I was in school, cancer and diabetes were rare diseases. It is all a matter of treatment from the Supreme Gardener... The great position. What better time than Easter to center our thoughts on self control? God has supplied our every need, Jesus has supplied our every escape.

Just as 16.4% of our population between the ages 16-64 has sexually transmitted diseases, life is a matter of liberty in Christ, but recognizing that we "wrestle" against the power of evil.(Ephisians 6:12)

The two greatest events in the Gospel message, have been so distorted... Christmas with its spending, spreeing, tinsel and decorated trees. Easter with its rabbits laying colored eggs. The greatest sound in the history of the world was a baby's cry in Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. The greatest event in the history of the world was the resurrected grown body, having been crucified for the sins of the world on that first Easter. All history-beauty-intelligence revolves around this one solitary life, God putting on a tent of flesh and dwelling among us. Jesus must have enjoyed, although God, living on this earth with his friends (It give this writer joy to think that Jesus enjoyed good food with Mary, Martha and Lazarus, fishing with his disciples). After suffering cruelty beyond belief, he was still willing to ask his Father to forgive them, for they didn't know what they were doing. (Luke 23:34)

On this Easter and everyday, those of us who bear his name, who have a personal relationship with him, should rejoice in our knowledge of what happened in these two gardens supervised by the gardener who created the world and everything in it.

#1717