EASTER DAY

Sunrise. On the first Easter Sunday, Mary Magdalene - one of Jesus' closest friends - went to his tomb in the garden, early in the morning, and saw that the stone which sealed it had been rolled away. Peter and another disciple also saw that the tomb was empty and ran off to spread the news. Mary, though, stood outside weeping.

When, in turn, she looked into the tomb, she saw two angels. They asked her why she was crying. "They have taken my Lord away", she said, "and I don't know where they have put him." At this she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus. 'Woman,' he said, 'why are you crying? Who is it that you are looking for?' Thinking he was the gardener, she said, 'Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.' Jesus said to her, 'Mary'. She turned towards him and cried out in Aramaic, 'Rabboni!' (which means teacher)" (John 20:13-16 NIV)

JESUS THE GARDENER The idea of Jesus coming back to life again was beyond Mary's expectations. Three days before he had been brutally killed. So it's not surprising that Mary couldn't recognize Jesus even when he was standing in front of her. Who did Mary think he was? The gardener! For this Easter Garden, Jesus as the gardener seems a fitting image to tie together the thoughts that the flowers give rise to.

A SIGN OF HOPE For Christians, the resurrection of Jesus foreshadows the end of time, the coming of God's kingdom. Perhaps the fact that in St John's gospel Mary mistakes the risen Jesus for the gardener is not as accidental as it at first seems. In the Old Testament the very first human, Adam, was a gardener. St Paul describes Jesus as the second Adam, when he talks about the resurrection: 'and just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.' (I Corinthians 15:49). So perhaps life for humans in God's Kingdom could be seen as full of co-operation with the rest of creation, rather than the conflict and exploitation that we can see all around us. Maybe the fact that the Risen Jesus appeared as a gardener is a sign for our own age of the best way forward.