If you were asked to name a garden from the Bible, what would you say? Even those who have never even set foot in a church could likely come up with one — the Garden of Eden. This is where the Bible story famously begins, where the first two humans took that fateful bite of fruit, in disobedience to God, and brought sin into the world by their choice. The next most well-known Biblical garden is likely the Garden of Gethsemane, which is where Jesus was captured by those who would crucify Him soon thereafter.
Millennia separate the events which happened in these two gardens, and yet last night I was taught a truth in their connection.
My weekly Bible study group has just started going through the Gospel of Luke. Last night, after we read though the genealogy that traces Jesus’ lineage all the way back to Adam, one of our members made an aside joke about how dangerous gardens in the Bible seem to be — referencing the aforementioned events that occurred in Eden and Gethsemane. Our group leader responded briefly, as it had only been a lighthearted joke, reminding us that Eden was intended to actually be a perfect place until sin entered it.
But then another member of our group spoke up and shared something that was an entirely new idea to our leader, the rest of the group, and even to the person sharing it!
In Eden, a sinful choice altered the world forever, and in Gethsemane, an obedient and sacrificial choice did the same. I struggle to think of any other gardens which are prominently named in the Bible, and yet these two act as figurative bookends. While Adam and Eve brought condemnation into the world in that first garden, in the other, Jesus offered his life freely to bring salvation. God warns Eve’s tempter in Eden of his future loss, saying, “He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel,” and in Gethsemane Jesus took his first step to doing just that. In purely literary terms, it’s a beautiful story arc — one that begins with a strike against the weak by the proud in the picturesque setting of a beautiful garden, and one that ends in another garden, in the darkness of night, with the hero offering Himself as a sacrifice.
In terms of reality and our own existence, it’s life-changing.
This is certainly not the first time someone has drawn a conclusion between the two most famous Biblical gardens, but last night we were blessed to have God point this out to our quaint little study group — and it meant so much to me that I have fumbled for far too long tonight through such a short blog post, all in an attempt to convey that same encouragement to you 🙂