It Starts In The Garden

John 19:40-41 (NKJV)

⁴⁰ Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury.

⁴¹ Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid.

Song of Solomon 5:1-2 (NKJV):

¹  I have come to my garden, my sister, my spouse;
I have gathered my myrrh with my spice;
I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey;
I have drunk my wine with my milk.

² I sleep, but my heart is awake;
It is the voice of my beloved!
He knocks, saying,
“Open for me, my sister, my love,
My dove, my perfect one;
For my head is covered with dew,
My locks with the drops of the night.”

As I was reading the Gospel of John, I realized the significance of the location where Jesus was buried in the tomb. If you notice, Jesus was buried in the garden being anointed with all the spices and the necessary preparations for the body. The Bible depicts this metaphor and a parallel in our relationships with Jesus on the example of a husband and wife in the Song of Solomon that we read above. The metaphor that the Bible uses when depicting our relationships with Jesus is Jesus being the Groom and Church being His bride for which He died on the cross and rose on the third day from the dead.

It is in this garden where our relationships with Jesus started when His tomb stone was removed on the third day of the resurrection. He was anointed with spices and prepared for the feast with His bride celebrating new Covenant and new relationships.  

It is here, in the garden, when Jesus knocked on the door of our hearts upon His resurrection providing the good news of salvation, and like His beloved, we have a choice to make: whether to accept Him or reject His knock on our hearts.

Jesus is telling each one of us these same words:

“Open for me, my sister, my love,
My dove, my perfect one;
For my head is covered with dew,
My locks with the drops of the night.”

Our response could be either the same as Shulamite`s as we read further in Song of Solomon 5:3- rejecting Jesus` call:

³ I have taken off my robe;
How can I put it on again?
I have washed my feet;
How can I defile them?

Shulamite chose not to unlock the door, and the consequences were as we read further in the verse 6 is she couldn`t find her Beloved once she decided to open the door. How many times did Jesus knock on the door of your heart and you chose not to “put on the robe”? This is the choice for rejection of the ultimate gift that we have from our Groom- Jesus: His sacrifice on the cross. He bled for each one of us enduring the worst last 6 hours of his life in severe agony, only so He could knock and give you and me this chance to open the door.

The second response that we may have could be like Mary Magdalene`s: she wept and sought Jesus when she couldn`t find Him until she saw Him:

¹¹ But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept she stooped down and looked into the tomb. ¹² And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. ¹³ Then they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” ¹⁴ Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. ¹⁵ Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” She, supposing Him to be the gardener, said to Him, “Sir, if You have carried Him away, tell me where You have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” ¹⁶ Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him,^[a] “Rabboni!” (which is to say, Teacher). ¹⁷ Jesus said to her, “Do not cling to Me, for I have not yet ascended to My Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, and to My God and your God.’” ¹⁸ Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord,^[b] and that He had spoken these things to her (John 20:11-18 NKJV).

I don`t know how about you, but I am restless on the days when I don`t find the Lord face to face. I am desperate and out of place when I don`t see the scriptures alive, speaking into my heart. Like Mary, I don`t find peace until I get to the place when Jesus speaks to me and provides further guidance.

These are the two choices we have: we can either get lazy and say: “the robe is off, and the feet are washed”, or we can stand and weep searching for Jesus until we find Him. The outcome is obvious as we read in both of these accounts: the Groom would either walk away, and we would not be able to find Him, or He would speak to us reassuring of His hope and the future that He has for us.

Jesus made this call to everyone:

²⁰ Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. ²¹ To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne (Revelation 3:20-21 NKJV).

I must point that it was in the garden that Adam and Eve sinned and fell short of the glory of God; they suffered the consequence of being exiled out of the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). It is here, in the garden, we see Jesus restoring our access to our Heavenly Father. The Bible never mentions details like these without a reason. I believe that the significance of the location only validates the scripture that Paul wrote to 1 Corinthians 15:45 (NKJV):

⁴⁵ And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.”^[d] The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Jesus restored and repaired that direct access that Adam initially had with the Lord in the Garden of Eden; the access to the personal relationships that God intended for us to have with Him from the start. We have this luxury of coming to Him directly without any hesitation and dwell in His presence.

The tomb in the garden has been removed, and there is nothing else that stops us from coming to the Lord Jesus openly seeking Him and accepting Him. It is here, in the garden, that Jesus initiated this call for the knock on our hearts as soon as He had this chance upon His resurrection, so let us always remember and respond to His call appropriately: accepting Him into our hearts regardless of the minimal price “to dress up, a.k.a. cleaning our hearts and lives for Jesus”, so we could have this communion with Him.

We should not cling to the things it may require of us to give up when looking at the cross and realizing the steep price that Jesus paid for each one us to have this personal relationship. Let us put aside any kind of spiritual laziness or ignorance and start seeking Him diligently responding to His knock.