T HE GARDEN of Eden is the story of God’s good creation which became broken through human disobedience. The Garden of Gethsemane is where Jesus committed to defeat sin and death through his death and resurrection.
The third garden is that time in the future when heaven and earth will come together and all of creation will be renewed forever.
In the last chapter of the Bible, we get a glimpse of that time in the future when Jesus will reappear and will set up his rule over all of creation once and for all.
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THE RENEWAL began in Gethsemane and reaches its conclusion in the New Jerusalem. In his helpful book A New Heaven and a New Earth, Richard Middleton calls the New Jerusalem a “Garden-City” ([Baker Academic, 2014], 172).
Here is Eden renewed.
We are told that this third garden will have a tree of life with all kinds of fruit and a river will run through it, reminding us of the first garden before the thorns and thistles. There are still thistles and thorns in creation that need to be removed even after the victory of Easter’s empty tomb.
In this third garden, there will be no more crying, no more mourning, no more tears, and no more death.
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GOD REDEEMS and renews all things. The end of God’s story envisions not a flight from the created world to an otherworldly existence “up there,” but a coming down of God to earth. God does not abandon his created world, both human and non-human, but remakes it as the glorious words of the Father attest: “Behold, I make all things new!”
■ Just as Eden was watered by a river, so, too, the New Jerusalem has a life-giving river.
■ The tree of life, once blocked off, is now present and available to all God’s people.
■ The closed gate of Eden is now replaced with the eternally open gates of the New Jerusalem.
■ The curse, pronounced in Eden and embraced in Gethsemane, is now removed.
■ Death, which entered through the first garden and was courageously faced in the second, is eradicated in the third.
■The rule and reign of humanity gone awry in the first garden is restored forever in the final garden, where God’s people will reign forever and ever.
■ The light of the heavenly bodies of the first garden gives way to the light of God and the Lamb and all because the Son of Man faced the darkness of Gethsemane.
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WHAT WAS LOST in Eden was won back in Gethsemane and will be fulfilled in the New Jerusalem. In these three gardens, we find the beginning, middle, and end of God’s story.
The end is not yet here. We still live in this world. We live in the “in-between time.”
Christ has come and is victorious over sin and death. But there are still thorns and thistles. There is still pain and sorrow. There is still the reality of death.
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JUST AS JESUS HAS GONE through death before us, and resurrection before us, and on to God’s perfect promised presence before us, so, too, He has gone through Gethsemane before us. He has lived the frustrating messy middle of our human existence.
And He has not abandoned us. He is still with us. Jesus gave us His Spirit, and that Spirit lives within us. God has not abandoned this Gethsemane world. God plans to reclaim it, remake it, renew it.
We all face Gethsemane-like experiences in this life. We go through dark times in this life. I mean DARK.
■ Abuse
■ Addiction
■ Death of a loved one
■ Divorce
■ Mental illness
■ Suicide
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EVERY ONE OF THOSE has impacts our lives in significant ways. And to be honest, sometimes we feel like we’re not gonna make it. Sometimes we’re not sure we want to make it. We retreat into our pain, distract ourselves, we think dark thoughts, and we ask terrifying questions in our head… .
Gethsemane matters because Jesus has been there.
Jesus has been where you are, Jesus has made it through to the other side, and He’s with you, taking you to that place.
We are survivors. You are a survivor — you are not overcome by the darkness, that light burns within you, God’s Spirit is always with you. When you feel like you cannot face another day, tell yourself, “I’m a survivor, Jesus is leading me through.”
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WE ARE CARETAKERS: We don’t own this garden — God does — but we have a responsibility to take care of it. You are a caretaker of God’s amazing creation.
Guess what caretakers do … they “take care” of whatever they’ve been given to take care of.
God has tasked you with taking care of the life and creation around you. Now that means people. But is also means we’re to take care of the plants and the animals, too. God’s made life on this planet interdependent, meaning it all depends on each other.
And as the height of God’s creation, we humans, we’re like big brothers and big sisters to all the other species. We take care of them for our Father.
We reclaim the original role of Adam — to “till it and keep it.”
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IN THIS TIME in between, look to the gardens. Know that Jesus, the New Adam, has been to and through Gethsemane ahead of you.
This week, know that Jesus redeems the past and provides hope for the future.
This week, as God does a new thing in you, know that God loves you, God has a purpose for you, God is with you, and God desires for you to join Him in His gardening work.
This week, remember God has kept His promise to send a Messiah who opens the gates that were closed. Remember that you have a Savior, who accomplished his goal to bring you back to God.
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REMEMBER that Jesus goes before us to show us the way to this “Garden-City.” So that you and all people have a home in the new heavens and earth, no longer cast out but welcomed in his name.
The garden awaits. AMEN.
