Jesus was mistaken for a gardener

JESUS WAS MISTAKEN FOR A GARDENER
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
John 20:15 15
He askedher, "Woman, why are you
crying? Who is it 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."
BIBLEHUB RESOURCES
Pulpit Commentary Homiletics
Weeping For The Wrong Thing
John 20:15
D. Young
I. THE CAUSE OF MARY'S WEEPING. Try for a moment to think of the body of Jesus as
being only that of a common mortal. Let the instance be that of one dear to yourself. The body
has been safely laid away, and the earth heaped over it. Suppose, then, that in a morning or two
you find the grave broken open and the body removed. Your feelings upon such an outrage
would enable you to understand the feelings of Mary here. No feeling is more proper than that
which regards the body of a dead friend as something sacred. Consider, too, what an
extraordinary Benefactor to Mary Jesus had been. Out of her he had cast seven demons.
II. THE QUESTION COMES FROM THOSE WHO HAVE A RIGHT TO ASK IT. It is the
question of angels, and it is also the question of Jesus. It is the question of those who know the
real state of things, to one who in anguish is following a falsehood - one of the likeliest of
falsehoods, indeed, but a falsehood after all. As to Jesus, he would ask the question with a sort of
secret joy, well knowing how quickly those tears would be dried up, and how soon Mary would
stand awed and gladdened before this stupendous revelation of immortality. The question was
neither intrusive nor superfluous. How many are the tears and lamentations of ignorance! It
seemed as if, in this matter of the Resurrection, the possible must become the actual, before even
the possible could be credited. Jesus would not be astonished at this weeping of Mary; what he

wanted was to deal with it promptly. He did not seek to weep with weeping Mary, but rather to
have Mary rejoice with rejoicing angels, and with the rejoicing Jesus himself; and for once in the
history of human sorrow this was possible. Mary would have been satisfied if she had found the
corpse of Jesus: what shall she say when even more than the former Jesus appears? From the
sense of absolute loss she passes to the sense of full possession. And yet, great as the joy was, it
was not the greatest of joys, seeing it was only a revelation to the senses. This would not be
Mary's last experience of weeping. Though risen from the dead, Jesus was about to vanish, so
that the life in him might be manifested in another way. Mary had yet to win her way to the
sober, steady gladness of the Christian's hope.
III. THE QUESTION IS ONE TO ALL WEEPERS. Many besides Mary have groaned over
troubles of their own imagining. Many besides Mary have groaned over one thing, when they
should have been groaning over something quite different. The feeling will not bear to be
analyzed to its depths, and traced out to all its causes. Jesus can do little for weepers till they
weep for the right things and in the right way. Oftentimes the right question would be, "Why are
you not weeping?" We are glad when we ought to be sorry, and satisfied when we ought to be
anxious. We may have had a very great deal of trouble, and yet all the time our cares have never
gone deeper than our outward circumstances. It is hard to satisfy us in some ways, but very, very
easy in others. Jesus will never complain that we are troubled about common losses and
disappointments. Not to be troubled about these would only argue inhuman want of sensibility.
But we should also be troubled because of our weakness towards everything that would make us
Christ-like and well-pleasing to God. We need not bemoan the loss of an outward Jesus, a visible
Jesus, a Jesus after the flesh; such a Jesus could do us little good. We want a Jesus within,
blending with the life and making himself felt everywhere. - Y.
Biblical Illustrator
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou?
John 20:15
The risen Christ and the Magdalene
J. Guinness Rogers, B. A.: —
I. HOW JESUS WAS HIDDEN FROM MARY. There are times when friends are unrecognized
because of mental absorption or because of our belief that they are elsewhere, or because of a
supposed moral impossibility that they should be there.
1. Mary was under the influence of unfavourable associations.(1) She had passed the interval
doubtless with the disciples occupied with preparations for the completion of the embalmment.
Her thoughts, therefore, were about the tomb in which the joy of her life seemed buried, and her

companions would not exert any counteracting influence. The best answer to the calumny that
they invented or dreamed the Resurrection is that they were all so unprepared for it. While the
Lord was with them, disease and death fleeing at His presence, they could not believe that He
would die. Now that He had died they forgot all His assurances that He would live again. It is not
surprising, then, if Mary, drawn into the current of their unbelief and despair, should have her
vision now dimmed.(2) In our own daily life, are we not continually drawn away into modes of
thinking and feeling which operate to hide Christ from us? Modern teaching and example tend to
weaken the realizing power of faith. Numbers tell us that our own wisdom and strength are
sufficient to find the blessed life; that sin needs no cleansing in Christ's blood, and the heart no
quickening by His love. Then there is the spirit of unconfessed doubt, more deadly than
antagonism to trust in Christ, and indifference, which is more deadly still. All this helps to blind
the spiritual vision.
2. Closely connected was Mary's false notion of Jesus. He was, despite His own promise, a dead
Jesus to her. And so false thoughts of Him are largely the cause of unbelief and hatred on the one
hand, and of doubt and hesitation on the other. Men are thinking of another Christ than He who
came that we might have life — of the Christ as churches have often made Him — the Christ of
creeds and systems, of the dead letter rather than of the living Spirit, of sect or school. And men's
minds are so full of these representations that they do not know Him who is love.
3. Tears blinded Mary's eyes. So may sorrow, joy, excitement, dim ours. Our mistake may differ
from hers. We may mistake the gardener for Christ. All do so who put priest, church, system,
&c., in the place of Christ.
II. JESUS CONVINCED AND SUBDUED MARY. He had but to turn His eye upon her, and
address His gracious words to her; and then when her eyes were opened and her ears caught the
sound of His voice there was no doubt or hesitation longer.
1. Here we see the marvellous personal attraction of Jesus. Again and again do we find friends
and foes impressed by His aspect. In the synagogue at Nazareth; in the Temple before the
accusers of the woman taken in adultery; in the garden when the soldiers fell to the ground. Is the
power of His personal influence lost because He is no longer here as man with men? No; His
dealings with Mary are a type of His dealings with us.
2. He manifests Himself everywhere to seeking souls. Why was Mary honoured to be the first!
We might have thought His mother would have been selected, or John, or Peter. Christ blesses
men not because of birth, or talent, or office, but according to the humility and earnestness with
which they seek Him.
3. He revealed Himself in a personal call, and only as Mary heard and answered that call was her
joy complete. And there are innumerable voices that come from Him to-day — voices of mercy
or affliction; voices that waken to gratitude or melt to penitence; voices that startle in the ease of
carnal security or that comfort in the hour of trouble; voices to break the stubborn heart or to
revive the heart of the contrite one — and not one of them is without signification.
(J. Guinness Rogers, B. A.)
The Lord's question to Mary
J. Ker, D. D.I. SOME OF THOSE TO WHOM THIS QUESTION MAY BE STILL
ADDRESSED.

1. Those who have not yet found rest for their souls in God. If God be in the heart there are many
ways m which men may enjoy Him; and, if God be absent, there are as many by which they may
seek to fill up the vacant place — power, fame, pleasure, knowledge, and affection. For a while
they are deceived by the ardour of pursuit, or the first glow of possession. But there comes the
death of their hope, their grief before its grave. And so, if their nature be of the common
superficial kind, they begin the chase after new shadows. Or, if the nature be deeper, they turn in
upon them. selves to lament the vanity of human endeavour. And yet the Christ is near the place
where they are groping among the ashes of buried hopes, which come to them to make them feel
after and find Him.
2. Those who have had a deep sense of the soul's value, and of Christ as a Friend who could meet
its need. But they seem to have lost Him. It may come in different ways; through a shaking of
our faith in the Divine and eternal as real, or through a loss of our own personal hold of them, or,
as often happens, through an intermingling of both. But, however it comes, those who feel it are
of all men most miserable. The cause of the gospel was never so despaired of as in the hour of its
birth, and this question is for the encouragement of those who are seeking Him whom they seem
to have lost.
3. Some of those who know that they have not only a dead but a risen Lord. A little view of His
greatness made one of His disciples say, "Depart from me; for I am a sinful man," and the sight
of it, with the spiritual eye, filled the apostle with an eager longing — "If by any means I might
attain unto the resurrection of the dead."
II. THE ANSWER, WHICH IS CONTAINED IN THE FORM OF THE QUESTION. It is
composed of two parts; the first directs us inward to our own heart, with its want and sorrow, the
other, outward to what is to meet and relieve it. Let us look at them,
1. It may be that speculative unbelief is troubling your soul. Observe, then, how in creation and
man, there is an agreement between the need and cry, and the provision, e.g., seed and climate,
eye and light, hunger and bread, thirst and water, the breathing frame and the vital air, and the
manifold necessities and supplies which are like prayers and answers in every place and through
all time. If it be so in the lower wants, shall it fail to approve itself in the higher? Shall God have
regard to the animal necessities and turn a deaf ear to the cries of the soul? The ear which hears
the young raven's cry cannot be deaf to the sobs and prayers of human hearts. And let us thank
God that He has made the soul so that when it is truly wakened by Himself, none but Himself
can satisfy its need. If there are such breathings of desire in human spirits there must be an object
and end for them. The word is nigh thee, even in thy heart, and then the living Word Himself is
near who answers it: "Why weepest thou? whom seekest thou?"
2. But it may be that your trouble is that you feel unable to lay hold of Him. Then the question
still comes with its own answer. Ask yourself of your pain, and see if there be not in Him the
remedy you seek. Are you oppressed with the burden of guilt? Here is forgiveness from His hand
in a way which should meet your heart's desire. Is life a battle to you, with daily cares, troubles,
and temptations, others leaning on you, and you without strength? There is one who comes to
help the fallen that they who wait upon Him may renew their strength. Is it that you feel the
loneliness of life when lover and friend have been put far from you, and the world outside is
bleak and bare? There Christ stands at the door and knocks — "If any man open, I will come in."
3. It is by putting such questions as these that we learn the fitness of God's answer to our heart's
cry, and find it all in Jesus Christ. It is the way God Himself has taken in the Bible; for what is

the Old Testament, with its utterances of want and longing desire, but a pressing of the question,
Why weepest thou? and what is the New Testament but the unveiling of Him who answers the
question, Whom seekest thou? And when He comes in person what is His earthly life but a
touching of the deep chords of man's nature, that He may awaken him to a consciousness of his
misery and sin, and then assure him of His power to save and satisfy? And what is this life but a
questioning us of our heart-sores and losses, with strength and comfort interspersed like pledges
which make us say, Lord, to whom but to Thee? in order that He may prepare us for the answer
when the weeping of the night gives place to the joy of the morning? "I will come and take you
to Myself."
III. SOME THINGS WORTHY OF NOTICE IN THE RECOGNITION WHICH FOLLOWED.
1. That Christ reveals Himself to the heart before He discloses Himself to the eye. He stood at
first beside Mary as a stranger, led her to review her past, and seek and find Him in her sorrow;
and then He removed the cloud which had come between, and appeared as the risen Saviour. It is
this method which explains to us the gloomy hours and long questionings of some who are
seeking Him: "Oh, that I knew where I might find Him!" We wonder that God does not show
Himself and speak out. But He means to deepen the sense of need, and to make the revelation of
Himself more blessed, "Whom having not seen we love."
2. That Christ makes Himself known in the way of duty. Some make comfort the guide of their
spiritual life. But this recognition of Christ came to one who had no comfort, and who was
scarcely seeking it. She came to Christ's grave because she could not stay away. Grief, loyalty,
love, drew her there, and she had her reward.
3. Christ's way of revealing Himself. A human historian would have constructed a long speech,
but Christ used a single word — so simple, so natural. It is like Him who has distilled His mercy
into short Bible words — Immanuel, Jesus, Saviour, God is Love, — making it small that it may
enter feeble hearts, as He makes the drops of water small to visit the blades of grass. The single
word was a name. It spoke of personal knowledge and interest. We read that "God counts the
stars and calls them by their names;" but it is something greater in Him that He calls by name the
children of men: "Jacob whom I have chosen; the seed of Abraham my friend." "He called His
own sheep by name." It was at the name that she turned and knew Him.
4. In this way of recognition, we have a hint of how Christian fellowship shall be restored in the
world beyond death? This great Friend, who carries all other true friendships in His heart, named
Mary from beyond His grave, to bid us hope and trust that He will meet and name His friends on
the heavenly threshold Christ surely first as well befits Him, but afterward they that are Christ's,
and ours.
(J. Ker, D. D.)
A handkerchief1. Woman has had many reasons for weeping since the fall.
2. Jesus went to His death amid weeping women, and on His rising He met a little company of
them.
3. The first words of a risen Saviour are to a weeping woman.
4. He who was born of woman has come to dry up woman's tears.
5. Observe the wise method followed by the Divine Consoler.

(1)Magdalene is to state the reason of her weeping. Often sorrow vanishes when it is defined. It
is wise to chase away mystery and understand the real cause of grief.
(2)He helps her also by coming nearer to her grief in the second question. She was seeking Him.
He was Himself the answer to His own inquiries.
6. In all cases Jesus is the most suitable Comforter and comfort. Let us put this question in two
ways.
I. IS IT NATURAL SORROW?
1. Art thou bereaved? The risen Saviour comforts thee, for He —
(1)Assures thee of the resurrection of the departed.
(2)Is with thee, thy living Helper.
(3)Sympathizes with thee, for He once lost His friend Lazarus; yea, He Himself has died.
2. Are thy beloved ones sick? Sorrow not impatiently, for He —
(1)Lives to hear prayer for healing.
(2)Waits to bless them if they are dying.
3. Art thou thyself sick? Be not impatient, for Jesus lives —
(1)To moderate thy pains.
(2)To sustain thy heart under suffering.
(3)To give life to thy body, as He has done to thy soul.
4. Art thou poor? Do not murmur, for He —
(1)Lives, and is rich.
(2)Would have thee find thine all in Himself.
(3)Will never leave thee nor forsake thee.
5. Art thou of a sorrowful spirit? Do not despond, but see —
(1)Where His sorrows have brought Him.
(2)How He came to the sorrow, and how He cometh still. What He does in His consoling
ministry, and imitate Him by cheering others. Thus thou shalt thyself be comforted.
II. IS IT SPIRITUAL, SORROW?
1. Distinguish. See whether it be good or ill. Is it
(1)Selfish? Be ashamed of it.
(2)Rebellious? Repent of it.
(3)Ignorant? Learn of Jesus, and so escape it.
(4)Hopeless? Believe in God and hope ever.
(5)Gracious? Then thank Him for it.
2. Declare. Tell Jesus all about it.(1) Is it sorrow for others? He weeps with thee.
(a)Are loved ones abiding in sin?

(b)Is the Church cold and dead?(2) Is it the sorrow of a seeking saint? He meets thee.
(a)Dost thou miss His presence?
(b)Hast thou grieved His Holy Spirit?
(c)Canst thou not attain to holiness?
(d)Canst thou not serve Him as much as thou desirest?
(e)Do thy prayers appear to fail?
(f)Does thine old nature rebel?(3) Is it the sorrow of one in doubt? He will strengthen thee. Come
to Jesus as a sinner.(4) Is it the sorrow of a seeking sinner? He will receive thee.
(a)Dost thou weep because of past sin?
(b)Dost thou fear because of thine evil nature?
(c)Art thou unable to understand the gospel?
(d)Dost thou weep lest thou grow hardened again?
(e)Dost thou mourn because thou canst not mourn?Conclusion:
1. He is before thee: believe in Him, and weeping will end.
2. He accepts thee: in Him thou hast all thou art seeking for.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Women and the Bible
C. H. Spurgeon.A Hindoo woman said to a missionary, "Surely your Bible was written by a
woman." "Why?" "Because it says so many kind things for women. Our pundits never refer to us
but in reproach."(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Mission of sorrow
Mrs. H. B. Stowe.It is said that gardeners sometimes, when they would bring a rose to richer
flowering, deprive it for a season of light and moisture. Silent and dark it stands, dropping one
fading leaf after another, and seeming to go down patiently to death. But when every leaf is
dropped, and the plant stands stripped to the uttermost, a new life is even then working in the
buds, from which shall spring a tender foliage and a brighter wealth of flowers. So, often, in
celestial gardening, every leaf of earthly joy must drop before a new and divine bloom visits the
soul.
(Mrs. H. B. Stowe.)
The living God the source of comfort
J. L. Nye.A prudent and pious lady observing her husband dejected by some misfortune which
had befallen him, to such a degree that he could not sleep, pretended in the morning to be
disconsolate herself, and gave way to lamentation and to tears. As she had spoken cheeringly to
him the evening before, he was astonished and asked the cause of this sudden grief. Hesitating a
little, she replied that she had been dreaming, and that it seemed to her that a messenger had
come from heaven, and had brought the news that God was dead, and that all the angels were
weeping. "Foolish woman," said the husband, "you know right well that God cannot die!"
"Indeed," said the wife; "and if that be so certain, how comes it that you are now indulging your
sorrow as immoderately, as if He really did no longer exist, or, at least, as if He were unable to

set bounds to our affliction, or mitigate its severity, or convert it into a blessing? My dear
husband, learn to trust Him and to sorrow like a Christian. Think of the old proverb, 'What need
to grieve if God doth live?'"
(J. L. Nye.)
She, supposing Him to be the gardener. —
Christ the gardener
C. H. Spurgeon.1. It is not an unnatural supposition; Mary was mistaken here; but if we are
under His Spirit's teaching we shall not make a mistake, for if we may truly sing, "We are a
garden walled around," &c., that enclosure needs a gardener.
2. Neither is the figure unscriptural; for in one of His own parables our Lord makes Himself to
be the Dresser of the vineyard.
3. If we would be supported by a type, our Lord takes the name of "the Second Adam," and the
first Adam was a gardener. Thus also Solomon thought of Him when He described Him as going
out with His beloved for the preservation of the garden, saying, "Take us the foxes," &c.
"Supposing Him to be the gardener," we have here —
I. THE KEY TO MANY WONDERS in the garden of His Church.
1. That there should be a Church at all in the world; a garden blooming in the midst of this sterile
waste. "Ye are of God, little children, and the whole world lieth in the wicked one." We
understand its existence, "supposing Him to be the gardener," but nothing else can account for it.
He can cause the fir tree to flourish instead of the thorn, and the myrtle instead of the briar.
2. That the Church should flourish in such a clime. This present evil world is very uncongenial to
the growth of grace, and within are elements which tend to its own disorder and destruction if
left alone; even as the garden has in its soil all the germs of a thicket of weeds. The continuance
and prosperity of the Church can only be accounted for by "supposing Him to be the gardener"
Almighty strength and wisdom are put to the otherwise impossible work of sustaining a holy
people among men. "I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day."
3. That ever we should have been placed among the plants of the Lord. How is it that we have
been kept there, and borne with in our barrenness, when He might long ago have said, "Cut it
down: why cumbereth it the ground?" Who could have manifested such infinite patience? I know
not, except upon this ground, "supposing Him to be the gardener."
II. A SPUR TO MANY DUTIES.
1. Joy. Surely it must help every little plant to drink in the sunlight when it is whispered among
the flowers that Jesus is the gardener. "Supposing Him to be the gardener," He will make the best
of you. You cannot be in better hands.
2. Valuing the Lord's presence, and praying for it. We ought whenever the Sabbath morning
dawns to pray our Well-beloved to come into His garden and eat His pleasant fruits. It is our
necessity that we have Christ with us, "supposing Him to be the gardener"; and it is our bliss that
we have Christ walking between our beds and borders, watching every plant, training, maturing
all.

3. Yield ourselves up entirely to Him. A plant does not know how it ought to be treated.
Happiness lives next door to the spirit of complete acquiescence in the will of God, and it will be
easy to exercise that when we suppose the Lord Jesus to be the gardener.
4. Bring forth fruit to Him. If Jesus is to bear the blame or the honour of what we produce, then
let us use up every drop of sap and strain every fibre, that we may produce a fair reward for our
Lord's travail.
III. A RELIEF FROM CRUSHING RESPONSIBILITY. "Supposing Him to be the gardener,"
the Church enjoys a better oversight than mine; all must go well in the long run. He that keepeth
Israel doth neither slumber nor sleep. A certain man of God in troublous times became quite
unable to do his duty because he laid to heart so much the ills of the age. Then one said to him,
"Mr. Whitelock, are you the manager of the world?" No, he was not quite that. "Did not God get
on pretty well with it before you were born, and don't you think He will do very well with it
when you are dead?" That reflection helped to relieve the good man's mind, and he went back to
do his duty. While this relieves us of anxiety it makes labour for Christ very sweet. "Supposing
Him to be the gardener," I am quite willing to work on a barren rock, or tie up an old withered
bough, or dig a worthless sod; for, if it only pleases Jesus, the work is profitable to the last
degree.
1. In dealing with the souls of men, we meet with cases which are extremely difficult. Some
persons are so fearful that you do not know how to comfort them; others are so presumptuous
that you hardly know how to help them; others so fickle that you cannot hold them. Some
flowers puzzle the ordinary gardener: we meet with plants which are covered with prickles, and
wound the hand that would help them. These strange growths would make a great muddle for
you if you were the gardener; but "supposing Him to be the gardener," you can go to Him and
say, "Lord, I do not understand this singular creature. Oh, that Thou wouldest manage it, or tell
me how."
2. And then, again, plants will die down, and others must be put into their places, or the garden
will grow bare; but we know not where to find them. We say, "When yonder good man dies, who
will succeed him?" Let us wait till he is gone and needs following. "Supposing Him to be the
gardener," the Lord has other plants in reserve which you have not yet seen: the Lord will keep
up the true apostolical succession till the day of His second advent.
IV. A DELIVERANCE FROM MANY GLOOMY FEARS. I walked down a garden where all
the path was strewn with leaves and broken branches and stones, and I saw the earth upon the
flower-beds tossed about: all was in disorder. Had a dog been amusing himself? or had a
mischievous child been at work? No; the gardener had been doing it for the good of the garden.
It may be it has happened to some of you that you have been a good deal clipped lately. Well, if
the Lord has done it our gloomy fears are idle. Supposing Him to be the gardener, then —
1. The serpent will have a bad time of it. Supposing Adam to be the gardener, then the serpent
gets in and mischief comes of it. So, if we are afraid that the devil should get in among us, let us
be always in prayer, because Jesus can keep out the adversary. Other creatures intrude;
caterpillars and all sorts of destroying creatures, How can we keep them out? There is no
protection except one, "supposing Him to be the gardener."
2. What if roots of bitterness should spring up among us to trouble us? Who is to prevent this?
Only the Lord Jesus by His Spirit.

3. Suppose the living waters of God's Spirit should not come to water the garden, what then? We
cannot make them flow. All, but the Spirit of God will be in our garden, "supposing our Lord to
be the gardener." The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands.
V. A WARNING FOR THE CARELESS.
1. There are many to the Church what weeds are to a garden. Take heed; for one of these days,
"supposing Him to be the gardener," "every plant which My heavenly Father hath not planted
shall be rooted up."
2. Others are like the branches of the vine which bear no fruit. "Supposing Him to be the
gardener," He will fulfil that sentence: "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit He taketh
away."
VI. A QUIETUS TO THOSE WHO COMPLAIN
1. Certain of us have been made to suffer much physical pain; others have suffered heavy losses.
Take the supposition of the text. The Lord has been pruning you sharply. Be quiet until you are
able to say, "The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away," &c.
2. Especially I speak to those who have suffered bereavement. The best rose in the garden is
gone. The gardener came this way and gathered it. Dry your grief by "supposing Him to be the
gardener."
VII. AN OUTLOOK FOR THE HOPEFUL. "Supposing Him to be the gardener," then —
1. Expect where He works the best possible prosperity. It is our unbelief that straitens God.
2. Expect Divine intercourse of unspeakable preciousness. When Adam was the gardener the
Lord God walked in the garden in the cool of the day; and "supposing Him to be the gardener,"
then we shall have the Lord God dwelling among us.
3. Expect He will remove the whole of the garden upward with Himself to fairer skies; for He
rose, and His people must rise with Him.
(C. H. Spurgeon.)
Christ the Gardener
C. Stanford, D. D.If Creation itself was a mediatorial act; that "God created all things by Jesus
Christ"; then Jesus is the true Gardener.
1. Every flower that blows was once a thought in the mind of my Saviour; and every wave of
loveliness that charms me began in Him, passed on, at last reached my heart as its strand, and
broke there. All the blooms of all the gardens owe their life to Him; and all the lights of science
are hid in His "treasures of wisdom and knowledge." He plants God's gardens, He waters them,
He gives the increase. Flowers, like sweet wonders, blossoming in our hedge-rows; shy flowers
that look out from the green darkness of a Devonshire lane; flowers that waver like a rich mist of
beauty all round the shafts of the forest; flowers in every strip of moss that softens the wayside
stone; flowers under every leaf you lift in some rustic tangle; flowers that tesselate every inch of
the upland moor; small flowers such as those which only a magnifying glass can show; and great
flowers crowning stalks thirty feet high; flowers that blaze mile after mile in the rolling prairie;
flowers about which strange birds dart like live jewels in the tropical day; land-flowers that seem
delicate as coloured light, and fine as woven air; sea-flowers, in gardens that lie like worlds of
enchantment under the great southern oceans, on floors where no mortal can ever stand, but of

the existence of which science is sure; "Crimson weeds that spreading, flow, Or lie like pictures
in the sand below," in the pools left between sea-side boulders. All these are witnesses to Christ.
Oh, yes, He is the Gardener — Gardener of the wild landscape, Gardener of the trees as well as
of the flowers. Trees of the orchard, of the wood, of the stately forest, of the shadowed avenue,
of every zone, are all of His plantation. And as I muse in the solitudes of nature on these aspects
of His perfection, think of the infinite delight He must feel in creating flowers, and the tender
kindness He shows in giving them; think of Him "walking amidst the trees of the garden," and
think of Him for ever calling into life the million marvels of the green wilderness, I have larger
and more exalted thoughts of the Saviour who "wore the platted thorn" for me, and feel that these
revelations of His glory enlighten and animate my faith.
2. But He cultivates other gardens than these. "Devout Magdalene," meditates Bishop Hall, "thou
art not much mistaken. As it was the trade of the first Adam to dress the garden, so it is the trade
of the Second Adam to dress the garden of the Church. He digs up the soil by seasonable
afflictions, He sows in it the seeds of His grace, He plants it with gracious motions, He waters it
by His own Spirit, He weeds it by wholesome censures. Oh! blessed Saviour, what is it that Thou
neglectest to do for this selected enclosure of Thy Church? As in some respect Thou art the True
Vine, and Thy Father the Husbandman, so also in some other we are the vine, and Thou art the
Gardener. Oh! be Thou such to me as Thou appearedst to Magdalene! Break up the fallows of
my nature, implant me ever with Thy fresh grace, prune me with meet corrections, bedew me
with the former and the latter rain; do what Thou wilt to make me fruitful."
(C. Stanford, D. D.)
COMMENTARIES
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(15) Sir, if thou have borne him hence . . .—The word
rendered “Sir” is generally a mark of respect, but like the corresponding word in most languages,
was also used to a stranger, and even to an inferior. The “gardener,” moreover, corresponded
more to what we should call a “bailiff.” He would have been a servant of Joseph of Arimathæa,
and as such may have become known to Mary at the time of embalming. She says, with
emphasis, “If thou hast borne Him hence;” turning away from the angels to address him. The
word rendered “borne” here means properly “to bear,” and then “bear away,” “remove,” and then
“remove secretly.” (Comp. John 12:6.) Of this last meaning there are many undoubted examples
in Josephus, and this seems clearly to be the thought here.
Tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away .—Three times she refers to the Lord
simply by the pronoun “Him.” She has named Him in the previous verse, and perhaps thinks that
the gardener had heard those words; but the impression formed from her eager words is that her
own mind is so entirely filled with the one subject, that she supposes it to be in the minds of

others. The same passionate eagerness is heard in the words which follow. Devotion such as hers
does not weigh difficulties. A place of safety for that sacred body is the object of her will; and
that will neither dreads danger nor sees that the task would be physically impossible, but asserts
in the confidence of its own strength, “and I will take Him away.”
Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary20:11-18 We are likely to seek and find, when we seek
with affection, and seek in tears. But many believers complain of the clouds and darkness they
are under, which are methods of grace for humbling their souls, mortifying their sins, and
endearing Christ to them. A sight of angels and their smiles, will not suffice, without a sight of
Jesus, and God's smiles in him. None know, but those who have tasted it, the sorrows of a
deserted soul, which has had comfortable evidences of the love of God in Christ, and hopes of
heaven, but has now lost them, and walks in darkness; such a wounded spirit who can bear?
Christ, in manifesting himself to those that seek him, often outdoes their expectations. See how
Mary's heart was in earnest to find Jesus. Christ's way of making himself known to his people is
by his word; his word applied to their souls, speaking to them in particular. It might be read, Is it
my Master? See with what pleasure those who love Jesus speak of his authority over them. He
forbids her to expect that his bodily presence look further, than the present state of things.
Observe the relation to God, from union with Christ. We, partaking of a Divine nature, Christ's
Father is our Father; and he, partaking of the human nature, our God is his God. Christ's
ascension into heaven, there to plead for us, is likewise an unspeakable comfort. Let them not
think this earth is to be their home and rest; their eye and aim, and earnest desires, must be upon
another world, and this ever upon their hearts, I ascend, therefore I must seek the things which
are above. And let those who know the word of Christ, endeavour that others should get good
from their knowledge.
Barnes' Notes on the BibleKnew not that it was Jesus - She was not expecting to see him. It was
yet also twilight, and she could not see distinctly.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary15. Sir, if thou have borne him hence—borne
whom? She says not. She can think only of One, and thinks others must understand her. It
reminds one of the question of the Spouse, "Saw ye him whom my soul loveth?" (So 3:3).
tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away—Wilt thou, dear fragile woman? But
it is the language of sublime affection, that thinks itself fit for anything if once in possession of
its Object. It is enough. Like Joseph, He can no longer restrain Himself (Ge 45:1).
Matthew Poole's Commentary Either these words passed before the angels had told her that he
was risen, Mark 16:6 Luke 24:5,6; or (which is most probable) Mary was hard to believe what
the angels had told her so lately; but coming out of the sepulchre, Christ appeareth to her, whom
she knew not, but thought him to have been the person that had the charge of that garden where
Christ was buried, and that he for his own convenience had removed the dead body; she
therefore desires to know where he had disposed of it, having a mind to remove it to some
honourable place of burial.
Gill's Exposition of the Entire BibleJesus saith unto her, woman, why weepest thou,.... The same
question he puts to her, as was put by the angels: adding,
whom seekest thou? for she was not only weeping for the loss of him, but was inquiring after
him, if anyone saw him removed from thence, and where he was carried:

she supposing him to be the gardener; that had the care of the garden, in which the sepulchre
was; for not the owner of the garden, who was Joseph, but the keeper of it is meant; she could
not imagine that Joseph should be there so early in the morning, but might reasonably think the
gardener was:
saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will
take him away; she addresses him, though she took him to be but the gardener, in a very civil and
courteous manner; which was rightly judged, especially since she had a favour to ask of him: she
does not mention the name of her Lord, but imagined he knew who she meant, being so lately
buried there; and suggests, that perhaps it might not have been so agreeable to the gardener to
have his body lie there, and therefore had removed it; and would he but be so kind as to let her
know where he was put, she, with the assistance of her friends close by, would take him away
with them: so in a spiritual sense, a truly gracious soul is willing to do anything, and to be at any
trouble, so that it may but enjoy Christ; it dearly loves him, as this good woman did; it early, and
earnestly, and with its whole heart, seeks after him, as she did; and absence of him, or loss of his
presence for a while, sharpens the desire after him, and makes his presence the more welcome.
Geneva Study BibleJesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? whom seekest thou? She,
supposing him to be the gardener, saith unto him, Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me
where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away.
EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)
Expositor's Greek TestamentHYPERLINK "/john/20-15.htm"John 20:15. λέγει … ζητεῖς; That
she was searching for some one she had lost was obvious from her tears and demeanour. But not
even the voice of Jesus sounds familiar. Ἐκείνη … ἀρῶ. She supposed Him to be the gardener
(or garden-keeper) not because He had on the gardener’s clothes—for probably He wore merely
the short drawers in which He had been crucified (see Hug and Lücke)—nor because He held the
spade as represented in some pictures, but because no one else was likely to be there at that early
hour and question her as to her reason for being there. Her answer shows that she thought it
possible that it had been found inconvenient to have the body of Jesus in that tomb and that it
had been removed to some other place of sepulture. In this case she will gladly relieve them of
the encumbrance. It is none to her.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges15. the gardener] Because he was there at that early
hour.
if thou have borne him hence] The omission of the name is very lifelike: she is so full of her loss
that she assumes that others must know all about it. ‘Thou’ is emphatic; ‘Thou and not, as I fear,
some enemy.’
I will take him away] In her loving devotion she does not measure her strength. Note that
throughout it is ‘the Lord’ (John 20:2), ‘my Lord’ (John 20:13), ‘Him’ thrice (John 20:15), never
‘His body’ or ‘the corpse.’ His lifeless form is to her still Himself.
Bengel's GnomenHYPERLINK "/john/20-15.htm"John 20:15. Ὁ κηπουρὸς) The article indicates
that the garden was a large one, such a one as could not be kept without a gardener.—Κυριε, Sir,
Lord) Since she addresses with this title a gardener) dresser of herbs), she herself seems to have
been in an humble position of life.—αὐτὸν, Him) She supposes that it must be evident at once to

the gardener, who it is that she wants.—ἀρῶ, I will take Him away) out of the garden. She was
ready to seek for a new sepulchre.
Pulpit CommentaryVerse 15. - Jesus saith to her, in the words of the angels, Woman, why
weepest thou? These are the first words of the risen Jesus, for Mark tells us, "He appeared first of
all to Mary of Magdala." And Matthew's summation of the entire narrative makes it clear that she
was at least one of the first group who saw the risen Lord. He recalls her to herself. He seeks to
assuage the grief of desolation, the bitterness of despairing love. As his first great Beatitudes had
been "Blessed are the poor in spirit," "Blessed are those who mourn and weep," and "Blessed are
the meek," so the first words he uttered after he rose from the dead were intended to console
human weeping over the most irremediable of human sorrows. They are the beginning of a
fulfillment of the Divine promise "to wipe away tears from off all faces." But the Lord adds,
Whom seekest thou? She has lost some one, not some thing. Questions these which he has been
asking the souls of men and women ever since, when their grief and tears, their unconscious and
unsatisfied yearnings after himself, have confused their perceptions and riven their hearts. She,
supposing him to be the gardener, a friend, not a stranger, a disciple, not a Roman soldier or a
hostile priest, perhaps some man who had been with Joseph of Arimathaea on the Friday
evening, or even the senator himself, said to him, Lord, (Sir,) if thou hast borne him hence, tell
me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. This passionate burst reveals the blinding
dominance of a fixed idea. She had no notion of the Resurrection. She was utterly overwhelmed
with one bitter, cruel thought. The sacred body was to be embalmed with the precious spices
which she had spent her all to buy. Others have forestalled her. Perhaps unsympathizing hands
have been doing their worst. She does not know, in her terrified grief, if some wicked hands have
not cast out his body into the Valley of Hinnom. She seems to imply that the κηπουρός has heard
the words of the angels, and her previous reply to them. She is so filled with one thought, that the
him, not it, explains itself. She is reckless of herself, and does not stay to count the cost. Had she
not poured the precious ointment on his feet, in happier days, and washed them with her tears?
Of whom can she speak but of him who said, "Thy sins, which are many, are forgiven;" "She
loved much;" "Thy faith hath saved thee"? So far all is preparation for the great revelation. "The
Lord has risen indeed;" but, unlike what poetry or theology might have pictured, or the
mythopceic faculty have woven out of its strong persuasion of the Lord's indissoluble life, he has
chosen first of all to present this signal manifestation of spiritual corporeity to a loving heart
crushed with grief, to one groaning over irreparable wrong, without a spark of hope, that death
was indeed vanquished. But she who received the objective presentation was too much
preoccupied to feel her footing and her home in two worlds. It was not "an enthusiast (une
hallucinee, Renan) who gave the world (un Dieu ressuscite) a resuscitated God," but a doubter, a
despairing, broken-hearted sufferer, who did not know him when she saw him.
PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES

PRECEPTAUSTIN RESOURCES
“SUPPOSINGHIM TO BE THE GARDENER” NO. 1699
A SERMON DELIVERED ON LORD’S-DAYMORNING, DECEMBER 31,
1882, BYC. H. SPURGEON,AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE,
NEWINGTON.
“Supposing Him to be the gardener.” John 20:15.
I WAS sitting, about a fortnight ago, in a very lovely garden, in the midst of
all kinds of flowers which were blooming in delightful abundance all around.
Screening myself from the heat of the sun under the overhanging boughs of an
olive tree, I castmy eyes upon palms and bananas, roses and camellias,
oranges and aloes, lavenderand heliotrope. The garden was full of colorand
beauty, perfume and fruitfulness. Surely the gardener, whoeverhe might be,
who had framed, fashioned and kept in order that lovely spot deservedgreat
commendation. So I thought, and then it came to me to meditate upon the
church of God as a garden, and to suppose the Lord Jesus to be the gardener,
and then to think of what would most assuredlyhappen if it were so.
“Supposing Him to be the gardener,” my mind conceivedof a paradise where
all sweetthings flourish and all evil things are rootedup. If an ordinary
workerhad produced such beauty as I then saw and enjoyed on earth, what
bounty and glory must surely be brought forth, “supposing Him to be the
gardener”!You know the “Him” to whom we refer, the ever-blessedSonor
God, whom Mary Magdalene in our text mistook for the gardener. We will for
once follow a saint in her mistaken track, and yet we shall find ourselves going
in a right way. She was mistakenwhen she fell into “supposing Him to be the
gardener,” but if we are under His Spirit’s teaching, we shall not make a

mistake if now we indulge ourselves in a quiet meditation upon our ever-
blessedLord, “supposing Him to be the gardener.” It is not an unnatural
supposition, surely, for if we may truly sing— “We are a garden walled
around, Chosenand made peculiar ground,” that enclosure needs a gardener.
Are we not all the plants of His right hand planting? Do we not all need
watering and tending by His constantand gracious care?He says, “Iam the
true vine: My Fatheris the vinedresser,” and that is one view of it. But we
may also sing, “My well-belovedhas a vineyard in a very fruitful hill: and He
fenced it, and gatheredout the stones from it and planted it with the choicest
vine”—that is to say, He actedas gardenerto it. Thus has Isaiahtaught us to
sing a song of the Wellbelovedtouching His vineyard. We read of our Lord
just now under these terms—“You that dwells in the gardens, the companions
hearkento Your voice.” To what purpose does He dwell in the vineyards but
that He may see how the vines flourish and care for all the plants? The image,
I say, is so far from being unnatural that it is most pregnant with suggestions
and full of useful teaching. We are not going againstthe harmonies of nature
when we are “supposing Him to be the gardener.” Neither is the figure
unscriptural, for in one of His own parables our Lord makes Himself to be the
dresserof the vineyard. We read just now that parable so full of warning.
When the “certainman” came in and saw the fig tree, that it brought forth no
fruit, he said unto the dresserof his vineyard, “Cut it down: why does it
cumber the ground?” Who was it that intervened betweenthat profitless tree
and the axe but our greatIntercessorand Interposer? He it is who continually
comes forwardwith, “Let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it and
fertilize it.” In this case He Himself takes upon Himself the characterof the
vine-dresserand we are not wrong in “supposing Him to be the gardener.” If
we would be supported by a type, our Lord takes the name of, “the Second
Adam,” and the first Adam was a gardener. Moses tells us that the Lord God
placed the man in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keepit. Man in his
best estate, was notto live in this world in a paradise of indolent luxury, but in
a garden of recompensedtoil. Behold, the church is Christ’s Eden, wateredby
the river of life and so fertilized that all manner of fruits are brought forth
unto God. And He, our secondAdam, walks in this
2 “Supposing Him to Be the Gardner” Sermon #1699

2 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. Volume 29
spiritual Eden to dress it and to keepit. And so, by a type, we see that we are
right in “supposing Him to be the gardener.” Thus also Solomonthought of
Him when he describedthe royal Bridegroomas going down with His spouse
to the gardenwhen the flowers appearedon the earth and the fig tree had put
forth her greenfigs. He went out with His beloved for the preservationof the
gardens, saying, “Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines: for our
vines have tender grapes.” Neithernature, nor Scripture, nor type, nor song
forbids us to think of our adorable Lord Jesus as one that cares forthe
flowers and fruits of His church. We err not when we speak of Him,
“supposing Him to be the gardener.” And so I sat still and indulged the
suggestedline of thought, which I now repeat in your hearing, hoping that I
may open many roads of meditation for your hearts also. I shall not attempt to
think out such a subject thoroughly, but only to indicate in which direction
you may look for a vein of precious ore. I. “Supposing Him to be the
gardener,” we have, here, THE KEY TO MANY WONDERSin the gardenof
His church. The first wonder is that there should be a church at all in the
world, that there should be a garden blooming in the midst of this sterile
waste. Upon a hard and flinty rock the Lord has made the Eden of His church
to grow. How came it to be here—anoasis oflife in a desert of death? How
came faith in the midst of unbelief, and hope where all is servile fear, and love
where hate abounds? “You are of God, little children, and the whole world
lies in the wickedone.” Why this being “ofGod” where all besides, are fast
shut up in the devil? How came there to be a people for God, separated,
sanctified, consecratedand ordained to bring forth fruit unto His name?
Assuredly it could not have been so at all if the doing of it had been left to
man. We understand its existence, “supposing Him to be the gardener,” but
nothing else canaccountfor it. He can cause the fir tree to flourish insteadof
the thorn, and the myrtle instead of the briar, but no one else canaccomplish
such a change. The garden in which I sat was made on the bare face of rock,
and almostall the earth of which its terraces were composedhad been
brought up there from the shore below, by hard labor and so upon the rock a
soil had been created. It was not by its own nature that the garden was found
in such a place, but it had been formed by skill and labor. Even so the church

of God has had to be constructedby the Lord Jesus, who is the author as well
as the perfecterof His garden. Painfully, with wounded hands, He has built
eachterrace and fashioned eachbed, and planted eachplant. All the flowers
have had to be wateredwith His bloody sweatand watchedby His tearful
eyes. The nail prints in His hands and the wound in His side are the tokens of
what it costHim to make a new Paradise. He has given His life for the life of
every plant that is in the garden, and not one of them had been there on any
other theory than “supposing Him to be the gardener.” Besides, there is
another wonder. How came the church of God to flourish in such a clime?
This present evil world is very uncongenialto the growth of grace, andthe
church is not able by herselfto resistthe evil influences which surround her.
The church contains within itself elements which tend to its own disorder and
destruction if left alone, even as the garden has presentin its soil, all the germs
of a tangled thicket of weeds. The best church that ever Christ had on earth
would within a few years, apostatize from the truth if desertedby the Spirit of
God. The world never helps the church. It is all in arms againstit. There is
nothing in the world’s air or soil that can fertilize the church even to the least
degree. How is it, then, that notwithstanding all this, the church is a fair
garden unto God, and there are sweetspices grownin its beds, and lovely
flowers are gathered by the Divine hand from its borders? The continuance
and prosperity of the church can only be accountedfor by “supposing Him to
be the gardener.” Almighty strength is put to the otherwise impossible work
of sustaining a holy people among men. Almighty wisdom exercisesitselfupon
this otherwise insuperable difficulty. Hear the word of the Lord and learn the
reasonfor the growthof His church below. “I, the Lord, do keepit: I will
waterit every moment, lest any hurt it, I will keepit night and day.” That is
the reasonfor the existence of a spiritual people in the midst of a godless and
perverse generation. This is the reasonfor an electionof grace in the midst of
surrounding vice, worldliness and unbelief. “Supposing Him to be the
gardener,” I can see why there should be fruitfulness, and beauty, and
sweetness,evenin the centerof the wilderness of sin. Another mystery is also
clearedup by this supposition. The wonder is that everyou and I should have
been placed among the plants of the Lord. Why are we allowedto grow in the
garden of His grace?Why me, Lord? Why me? How is it that we have been

kept there and toleratedin our barrenness, when He might long ago have said,
“Cut it down: why does it cumber the ground?” Who else would have
Sermon #1699 “Supposing Him to Be the Gardner” 3
Volume 29 Tell someone todayhow much you love Jesus Christ. 3
borne with such waywardness as ours? Who could have manifested such
infinite patience? Who could have tended us with such care, and when the
care was so ill-rewarded, who would have renewedit so long from day to day,
and persistedin designs of boundless love? Who could have done more for His
vineyard? Who could or would have done so much? A mere man would have
repented of his goodintent, provokedby our ingratitude. None but God could
have had patience with some of us! That we have not long ago beenslipped off
as fruitless branches of the vine, that we are still left upon the stem, in the
hope that we may ultimately bring forth fruit, is a greatmarvel. I know not
how it is that we have been spared, exceptupon this ground—“supposing Him
to be the gardener,” for Jesus is all gentleness andgrace, so slow with His
knife, so tardy with His axe, so hopeful if we do but show a bud or two, or,
perhaps, yield a little sour berry. So hopeful, I say, that these may be hopeful
prognostics ofsomething better by-and-by. Infinite patience! Immeasurable
long-suffering! Where are you to be found, except in the breastof the Well-
beloved? Surely the hoe has sparedmany of us simply and only because He
who is meek and lowly in heart is the gardener. Dearfriends, there is one
mercy with regard to this church which I have often had to thank Godfor,
namely, that evils should have been shut out for so long a time. During the
period in which we have been togetheras pastor and people, and that is now
some twenty-nine years, we have enjoyeduninterrupted prosperity, going
from strength to strength in the work of the Lord. Alas, we have seenmany
other churches that were quite as hopeful as our owntorn with strife, brought
low by declension, or overthrown by heresy. I hope we have not been apt to
judge their faults severely, but we must be thankful for our own deliverance
from the evils which have afflicted them. I do not know how it is that we have
been kept togetherin love, helped to abound in labor and enabled to be firm
in the faith, unless it is that specialgrace has watchedoverus. We are full of
faults. We have nothing to boastof, and yet no church has been more divinely

favored. I marvel that the blessing should have lasted so long, and I cannot
figure it out except when I fall into “supposing Him to be the gardener.” I
cannot trace our prosperity to the pastor, certainly. Nor even to my beloved
friends, the elders and deacons, noreven to the best of you with your fervent
love and holy zeal. I think it must be that Jesus has been the gardenerand He
has shut the gate when I am afraid I have left it open. And He has driven out
the wild boar of the woods just when he had entered to root up the weaker
plants. He must have been about at nights to keepoff the prowling thieves,
and He must have been here, too, in the noontide heat to guard those of you
who have prosperedin worldly goods, from the glare of too bright a sun. Yes,
He has been with us, blessedbe His name! And that is why all this peace, and
unity and enthusiasm. May we never grieve Him so that He shall turn away
from us, but rather let us entreat Him, saying, “Abide with us. You that dwell
in the gardens, let this be one of the gardens in which You condescendto
dwell, until the day breaks and the shadows flee away.” Thus our supposition
is a key to many wonders. II. Let your imaginations run along with mine
while I say that “supposing Him to be the gardener” should be A SPUR TO
MANY DUTIES. One of the duties of a Christian is joy. That is a blessed
religion which among its precepts, commands men to be happy. When joy
becomes a duty, who would wish to neglectit? Surely it must help every little
plant to drink in the sunlight when it is whispered among the flowers that
Jesus is the gardener. “Oh,” you say, “I am such a little plant! I do not grow
well! I do not put forth much foliage, nor are there so many flowers on me as
on many around about me!” It is quite right that you should think little of
yourself, perhaps to droop your head is a part of your beauty. Many flowers
had not been half so lovely if they had not practiced the art of hanging their
heads. But “supposing Him to be the gardener,” then He is as much the
gardenerto you as He is to the lordliest palm in the whole domain. In the
Mentone garden right before me grew the orange and the aloe, and others of
the finer and more noticeable plants. But on a wall to my left grew common
wallflowers and saxifrages,and tiny herbs such as we find on our own rocky
places. Now, the gardener had cared for all of these, little as well as great. In
fact, there were hundreds of specimens of the most insignificant growths, all
duly labeled and described. The smallestsaxifrage could say, “He is my
gardenerjust as surely as he is the gardenerof the Gloire de Dijon or

MarechalNeil.” Oh feeble child of God, the Lord takes care ofyou! Your
heavenly Father feeds ravens and guides the flight of sparrows, shouldHe not
much more care for you, oh you of little faith? Oh, little plants, you will grow
rightly enough. Perhaps you are growing downward just now, rather than
upward. Rememberthat there are plants of which we value the underground
root much more than we do the hull above ground. Perhaps it is not yours to
grow very fast. You may be a slow-growingshrub by nature, and you would
not be healthy if you were to run to wood. Anyway, this is your joy, you are in
the gardenof the Lord and “supposing Him to be the gardener,” He will make
the bestof you. You cannot be in better hands. Another duty is that of
valuing the Lord’s presence and praying for it. We ought whenever the
Sabbath morning dawns, to pray our Well-beloved to come into His garden
and eatHis pleasantfruits. What can we do without Him? All day long our
cry should go up to Him, “O Lord, behold and visit this vine and the vineyard
which Your right hand has planted.” We ought to agonize with Him that He
would come and manifest Himself to us as He does not unto the world. For
what is a garden if the gardenernever comes nearit? What is the difference
betweenit and the wilderness if he to whom it belongs never lifts up spade or
pruning-hook upon it? So that it is our necessitythat we have Christ with us,
“supposing Him to be the gardener.” And it is our bliss that we have Christ
walking betweenour beds and borders, watching every plant, training,
tending, and maturing all. “Supposing Him to be the gardener,” it is well, for
from Him is our fruit found. Divided from Him we are nothing. Only as He
watches overus can we bring forth fruit. Let us have done with confidence in
man, let us forego all attempts to supply facts of His spiritual presence by
routine or rant, ritualism or rowdyism, but let us pray our Lord to be always
present with us, and by that presence to make our garden grow. “Supposing
Him to be the gardener,” there is another duty, and that is, let eachone of us
yield himself up entirely to Him. A plant does not know how it ought to be
treated. It knows not when it should be wateredor when it should be kept dry.
A fruit tree is no judge of when it needs to be pruned, or dug, or fertilized.

The wit and wisdom of the garden lies not in the flowers and shrubs, but in
the gardener. Now, then, if you and I are here today, with any self-will and
carnaljudgment about us, let us seek to lay it all aside that we may be
absolutely at our Lord’s disposal. You might not be willing to put yourself
implicitly into the hands of any mere man (pity that you should), but surely,
you, plant of the Lord’s right-hand planting, you may put yourself without a
question into His dear hands. “Supposing Him to be the gardener,” you may
well say, “I would neither have will, nor wish, nor wit, nor whim, nor way, but
I would be as nothing in the gardener’s hands, that He may be to me my
wisdom and my all. Here, kind gardener, Your poor plant bows itself to Your
hands, train me as You will.” Dependupon it, happiness lives next door to the
spirit of complete acquiescencein the will of God. And it will be easyto
exercise that perfectacquiescencewhenwe suppose the Lord Jesus to be the
gardener. If the Lord has done it, what has a saint to say? Oh you afflicted
one, the Lord has done it, would you have it otherwise? No, are you not
thankful that it is so, because so is the will of Him in whose hand your life is
and whose are all your ways? The duty of submission is very plain,
“supposing Him to be the gardener.” One more duty I would mention,
though others suggestthemselves. “Supposing Him to be the gardener,” then
let us bring forth fruit to Him. I do not address a people this morning, who
feel no care as to whether they serve God or not. I believe that most of you do
desire to glorify God, for being savedby grace, you feela holy ambition to
show forth His praises who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous
light. You wish to bring others to Christ, because you yourselves have been
brought to life and liberty in Him. Now, let this be a stimulus to your fruit-
bearing, that Jesus is the gardener. Where you have brought forth a single
cluster, bring forth a hundred, “supposing Him to be the gardener”. If He is
to have the honor of it, then labor to do that which will give Him great
renown. If our spiritual state were to be attributed to ourselves, orto our
minister, or to some of our fellow Christians, we might not feel that we were
under a great necessityto be fruitful. But, if Jesus is the gardenerand is to
bear the blame or the honor of what we produce, then let us use up every drop
of sap and strain every fiber, that, to the utmost of which our manhood is
capable, we may produce a fair rewardfor our Lord’s travail. Under such
tutorship and care we ought to become eminent scholars. DoesChristtrain

us? Oh let us never cause the world to think less of our Master. Students feel
that their alma mater deserves greatthings of them, so they labor to make
their university renowned. And so, since Jesus is tutor and university to us, let
us feel that we are bound to reflectcredit upon so greata teacher, upon so
divine a name. I do not know how to put it, but surely we ought to do
something worthy of such a Lord. Each little flowerin the gardenof the Lord
should wearits brightest hues and pour forth its rarestperfume, because Je
sus cares forit. The best of all possible goodshould be yielded by every plant
in our Father’s garden, supposing Jesus to the gardener. Thus much, then,
on those two points—a keyto many wonders, and a spur to many duties. III.
Thirdly, I have found in this supposition A RELIEF FROM CRUSHING
RESPONSIBILITY. One has a work given Him of God to do, and if he does it
rightly he cannot do it carelessly. The first thing when he wakeshe asks,
“How is the work prospering?” And the last thought at night is, “What canI
do to fulfill my calling?” Sometimes the anxiety even troubles his dreams and
he sighs, “O Lord, send now prosperity!” How is the garden prospering which
we are setto tend? Are we broken-heartedbecause nothing appears to
flourish? Is it a bad season? Oris the soil lean and hungry? It is a very blessed
relief to an excessofcare if we canfall into the habit of “supposing Him to be
the gardener.” If Jesus is the Masterand Lord in all things, it is not mine to
keepall the church in order. I am not responsible for the growth of every
Christian, or for every backslider’s errors, or for every professor’s faults of
life. This burden must not lie on me so that I shall be crushed by it.
“Supposing Him to be the gardener,” then, the church enjoys a better
oversightthan mine. Better care is takenof the gardenthan could be takenby
the most vigilant watchers, eventhough by night the frost devoured them and
by day the heat. “Supposing Him to be the gardener,” then all must go well in
the long run. He that keeps Israeldoes neither slumber nor sleep. We need not
fret and despond. I beg you earnestworkers who are becoming depressed, to
think this out a little. You see it is yours to work under the Lord Jesus, but it
is not yours to take the anxiety of His office into your souls as though you

were to bear His burdens. The under-gardener, the workmanin the garden,
needs not fret about the whole garden as though it were all left to him. No, no.
Let him not take too much upon himself. I pray you, bound your anxiety by
the facts of the case. So you have a number of young people around you, and
you are watching for their souls as they that must give account. This is well,
but do not be worried and wearied, for after all, the saving and the keeping of
those souls is not in your hands, but it rests with One far more able than
yourself. Just think that the Lord is the gardener. I know it is so in matters of
providence. A certainman of Godin troublous times became quite unable to
do his duty because he laid to heart so much the ills of the age. He became
depressedand disturbed, and he went on board a vessel, wanting to leave the
country which was getting into such a state that he could no longer endure it.
Then one said to him, “Mr. Whitelock, are you the managerof the world?”
No, he was not quite that. “Did not God get on pretty well with it before you
were born, and don’t you think He will do very well with it when you are
dead?” That reflectionhelped to relieve the goodman’s mind and he went
back to do his duty. I want you thus, to perceive the limit of your
responsibility, you are not the gardener, you are only one of the gardener’s
boys, setto run errands, or to do a bit of digging, or to sweepthe paths. The
garden is well enoughmanaged even though you are not head manager in it.
While this relieves us of anxiety it makes labor for Christ very sweet, because
if the gardendoes not seemto repay us for our trouble, we say to ourselves,
“It is not my garden, after all. ‘Supposing Him to be the gardener,’I am quite
willing to work on a barren piece of rock, or tie up an old withered bough, or
dig worthless sod, for if it only pleases Jesus, the work is for that one sole
reason, profitable to the lastdegree. It is not mine to question the wisdom of
my task, but to setabout it in the name of my Masterand Lord. ‘Supposing
Him to be the gardener,’lifts the ponderous responsibility of it from me, and
my work becomes pleasantand delightful.” In dealing with the souls of men,
we meet with cases whichare extremely difficult. Some persons are so timid
and fearful that you do not know how to comfort them. Others are so fastand
presumptuous that you hardly know how to help them. A few are so double-
facedthat you cannotunderstand them, and others so fickle that you cannot
hold them. Some flowers puzzle the ordinary gardener. We meet with plants
which are coveredwith thorns and when you try to train them, they wound

the hand that would help them. These strange growths wouldmake a great
muddle for you if you were the gardener, but, “supposing Him to be the
gardener,” you have the happiness of being able to go to Him constantly,
saying, “GoodLord, I do not understand this singular creature. It is as odd a
plant as I am myself. Oh, that You would manage it, or tell me how. I have
come to tell You of it.” Constantly our trouble is that we have so many plants
to look after that we have not time to cultivate any one in the bestmanner,
because we have fifty more all needing attention at the same time. And then
before we have done with the watering-pot, we have to fetch the hoe and the
rake and the spade. These multitudinous cares puzzle us, even as Paul was
when he said, “Thatwhich comes upon me daily, the care of all the churches.”
Ah, then, it is a blessedthing to do the little we cando and leave the rest to
Jesus, “supposing Him to be the gardener.” In the church of God there is a
discipline which we cannot exercise. Ido not think it is half so hard to exercise
discipline, as it is not to be able to exercise it, when you feel that it ought to be
done. The servants of the householder were perplexed when they might not
root up the tares. “Did you not sow goodseedin your field? Why, then, has it
tares?” “An enemy has done this.” “Would you, then, that we go and gather
them up?” “Notso,” saidhe, “lestyou root up the wheatwith them.” This
afflicts the Christian minister when he must not remove a pestilent, hindering
weed. Yes, but “supposing Him to be the gardener,” and it is His will to let
that weedremain, what have you and I to do but to hold our peace? He has a
discipline more sure and safe than ours, and in due time, the tares shall know
it. In patience let us possessoursouls. And then, again, there is that
successionin the garden which we can not keepup. Plants will die down and
others must be put into their places or the gardenwill grow bare, but we
know not where to find fresh flowers. We say, “When yonder goodman dies,
who will succeedhim?” That is a question I have heard many a time, till I am
rather weary of it. Who is to follow such a man? Let us wait till he is gone and
needs following. Why sell the man’s coatwhen he can wearit himself? We are
apt to think, when this race of goodbrethren shall die, that none will arise

worthy to unloose the laces of their shoes. Well, friend, I could suppose a great
many things, but this morning my text is, “Supposing Him to be the
gardener,” and on that supposition I expect that the Lord has other plants in
reserve which you have not yet seen, and these will fit exactly into our places
when they become empty, and the Lord will keepup the true apostolic
successiontill the day of His secondadvent. In every time of darkness and
dismay, when the heart sinks and the spirits decline, and we think it is all over
with the church of God, let us fall back on this, “Supposing Him to be the
gardener,” and expect to see greater and better things than these. We are at
the end of our wits, but He is not at the beginning of His yet. We are
nonplussed, but He never will be. Therefore let us wait and be tranquil,
“supposing Him to be the gardener.” IV. Fourthly, I want you to notice that
this supposition will give you A DELIVERANCE FROM MANY GLOOMY
FEARS. I walkeddown the garden and I saw a place where the entire path
was strewnwith leaves, and broken branches, and stones, and I saw the earth
upon the flowerbeds tossedabout and roots lying quite out of the ground, all
was in disorder. Had a dog been amusing himself? Or had a mischievous child
been at work? If so, it was a greatpity. But no, in a minute or two I saw the
gardenercome back and I perceived that he had been making all this
disarrangement. He had been cutting, and digging, and hacking and making a
mess, and all for the goodof the garden. It may be it has happened to some of
you, that you have been a gooddeal pruned lately, and in your domestic
affairs things have not been in so fair a state as you could have wished. It may
be in the Church we have seenill weeds pluckedup and barren branches
lopped, so that everything is in disarray. Well, if the Lord has done it, gloomy
fears are idle. “Supposing Him to be the gardener,” all is well. As I was
talking this over with my friend, I said to him—“Supposing Him to be the
gardener,” then the serpent will have a bad time of it. Supposing Adam to be
the gardener, then the serpent gets in and has a chat with his wife, and
mischief comes of it. But supposing Jesus to be the gardener, woe to you,
serpent, there is a blow for your head within half a minute if you do but show
yourself within the boundary. So, if we are afraid that the devil should getin
among us, let us always, in prayer, entreat that there may be no space for the
devil, because the Lord Jesus Christ fills all and keeps out the adversary.
Other creatures besides serpents intrude into gardens, caterpillars,

palmerworms and all sorts of destroying creatures are apt to devour our
churches. How can we keepthem out? The highest wall cannotexclude them.
There is no protection exceptone, and that is, “supposing Him to be the
gardener.” Thus it is written, “I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes,and
he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine casther
fruit before the time in the field, says the Lord of hosts.” I am sometimes
troubled by the question, What if roots of bitterness should spring up among
us to trouble us. We are all such fallible creatures, supposing some brother
should permit the seedof discord to grow in his bosom? Then there may be a
sisterin whose heart the seeds will also spring up, and from
her they will fly to another sisterand will be blown about till brothers and
sisters are all bearing rue and wormwoodin their hearts. Who is to prevent
this? Only the Lord Jesus by His Spirit! He can keepout this evil, “supposing
Him to the gardener.” The root which bears wormwoodwill grow but little
where Jesus is. Dwell with us, Lord, as a church and people. By Your Holy
Spirit reside with us and in us, and never depart from us, and then no root of
bitterness shall spring up to trouble us. Then comes anotherfear. Suppose
the living waters of God’s Spirit should not come to waterthe garden, what
then? We cannot make them flow, for the Spirit is a sovereignand He flows
where He pleases. Ah, but the Spirit of God will be in our garden, “supposing
our Lord to be the gardener.” There is no fear of our not being wateredwhen
Jesus undertakes to do it. “He will pour wateron him that is thirsty and
floods upon the dry ground.” But what if the sunlight of His love should not
shine on the garden, if the fruits should never ripen, if there should be no
peace;no joy in the Lord? That cannothappen “supposing Him to be the
gardener,” for His face is the sun and His countenance scatters healthgiving
beams, and nurturing warmth, and perfecting influences which are necessary
for maturing the saints in all the sweetness ofgrace to the glory of God. So,
“supposing Him to be the gardener” at this, the close ofthe year, I fling away
my doubts and fears, and invite you who bear the church upon your heart to
do the same. It is all well with Christ’s cause because itis in His own hands.

He shall not fail nor be discouraged. The pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
His hands. V. Fifthly, here is A WARNING FOR THE CARELESS,
“supposing Him to be the gardener.” In this great congregationmany are to
the church what weeds are to a garden. They are not planted by God. They
are not growing under His nurture. They are bringing forth no fruit to His
glory. My dear friend, I have tried often to getat you, to impress you, but I
cannot. Take heed, for one of these days, “supposing Him to be the gardener,”
He will reachyou and you shall know what that word means, “Every plant
which My heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up.” Take heed to
yourselves, I pray. Others among us are like the branches of the vine which
bear no fruit. We have often spokenvery sharply to these, speaking honest
truth in unmistakable language, and yet we have not touched their
consciences. Ah, but “supposing Him to be the gardener,” He will fulfill that
sentence, “Everybranch in Me that bears not fruit He takes away.” He will
get at you, if we cannot. Would God, before this old year is quite dead, you
would turn unto the Lord with full purpose of heart, so that instead of being a
weed, you might become a choice flower. Thatinstead of a dry stick, you
might be a sappy, fruit-bearing branch of the vine. The Lord make it to be so.
But if any here need the caution, I pray them to take it to heart at once.
“Supposing Him to be the gardener,” there will be no escaping from His eye.
There will be no deliverance from His hand. As “He will thoroughly purge His
floor and burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire,” so He will thoroughly
cleanse His garden and castout every worthless thing. VI. Another set of
thoughts may well arise as A QUIETUS TO THOSE WHO COMPLAIN,
“Supposing Him to be the gardener.” Certainof us have been made to suffer
much physical pain, which often bites into the spirits, and makes the heart
stoop. Others have suffered heavy temporal losses,having had no successin
business, but on the contrary, having had to endure privation, perhaps even to
penury. Are you ready to complain againstthe Lord for all this? I pray you,
do not do it. Take the supposition of the text into your mind this morning. The
Lord has been pruning you sharply, cutting off your best branches and you
seemto be like a thing despisedthat is constantlytormented with the knife.
Yes, but “supposing Him to be the gardener,” suppose that your loving Lord
has workedit all, that from His own hand all your grief has come, every cut,
every gash, and every slip, does not this alter the case? Has not the Lord done

it? Well, then, if it is so, put your finger to your lips and be quiet, until you are
able from your heart to say, “The Lord gave and the Lord has takenaway,
and blessedbe the name of the Lord.” I am persuaded that the Lord has done
nothing amiss to any of His people, that no child of His can rightly complain
that he has been whipped with too much severity, and that no one branch of
the vine can truthfully declare that it has been pruned with too sharp an edge.
No, what the Lord has done is the best that could have been done, the very
thing that you and I, if we could have possessedinfinite wisdom and love,
would have wished to have done. Therefore let us stop eachthought of
murmuring and say, “The Lord has done it,” and be glad. EspeciallyI speak
to those who have suffered bereavement. I can hardly express to you how
strange I feelat this moment, when my sermon revives a memory so sweet
dashed with such exceeding bitter
ness. I sat with my friend and secretaryin that garden some 15 days ago and
we were then in perfecthealth, rejoicing in the goodness ofthe Lord. We
returned home and within five days I was struck with disabling pain. And
worse, far worse than that, he was calledupon to lose his wife. We saidto one
another, as we sat there reading the Word of God and meditating, “How
happy we are! Dare we think of being so happy? Must it not speedily end?” I
little thought I should have to sayfor him, “Alas, my brother, you are brought
very low, for the delight of your eyes is taken from you.” But here is our
comfort, the Lord has done it. The bestrose in the garden is gone. Who has
takenit? The gardenercame this wayand gatheredit. He planted it and
watchedover it, and now He has takenit. Is not this most natural? Does
anybody weepbecause ofthat? No, everybody knows that it is right and
according to the order of nature, that He should come and gatherthe best in
the garden. If you are sorely troubled by the loss of your beloved, yet dry your
grief by “supposing Him to be the gardener.” Kiss the hand that has wrought
you such grief? Belovedbrethren, remember the next time the Lord comes to
your part of the garden, and He may do so within the next week, He will only
gather His own flowers, and would you prevent His doing so even if you

could? VII. “Supposing Him to be the gardener,” then there is AN
OUTLOOK FOR THE HOPEFUL. “Supposing Him to be the gardener,”
then I expectto see in the garden where He works, the best possible
prosperity. I expect to see no flowerdried up, no tree without fruit. I expect to
see the richest, rarest fruit, with the daintiest bloom upon it, daily presented
to the greatOwner of the garden. Let us expectthat in this church and pray
for it. Oh, if we have but faith, we shall see greatthings. It is our unbelief that
straitens God. Let us believe greatthings from the work of Christ by His
Spirit in the midst of His people’s hearts and we shall not be disappointed.
“Supposing Him to be the gardener,” then, dear friends, we may expectdivine
union of unspeakable preciousness.Go back to Eden for a minute. When
Adam was the gardener, what happened? The Lord God walkedin the garden
in the coolof the day. But “supposing HIM to be the gardener,” then we shall
have the Lord God dwelling among us, and revealing Himself in all the glory
of His power, and the plenitude or His Fatherly heart, making us to know
Him, that we may be filled with all the fullness of God. What joy is this! One
other thought. “Supposing Him to be the gardener,” and God to come and
walk among the trees of the garden, then I expect He will remove the whole of
the gardenupward with Himself to fairer skies, forHe rose and His people
must rise with Him. I expect a blessedtransplantation of all these flowers
below to a cleareratmosphere above, awayfrom all this smoke and fog and
damp, up where the sun is never clouded, where flowers never wither, where
fruits never decay. Oh, the glory we shall then enjoy up yonder, on the hills of
spices in the garden of God. “Supposing Him to be the gardener” what a
garden will He form above and how shall you and I grow there, developing
beyond imagination. “It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when He shall appearwe shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He
is.” Since, He is the author and finisher or our faith, to what perfection will
He conduct us, and to what glory will He bring us! Oh, to be found in Him!
God grant we may be! To be plants in His garden, “Supposing Him to be the
gardener,” is all the heaven we can desire.

STEVEN COLE
From Sorrow to Hope (John 20:11-18)
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August 23, 2015
The current “Voice of the Martyrs” magazine tells about a 13-year-old Nigerian boy who was
critically wounded during a January 28th attack on his village by the Islamic terrorist group,
Boko Haram. They slashed his head with a machete, hacked at his left arm, cut out his right eye,
and cut off his genitals. Thankfully, he only remembers the first slash of the machete to his head.
But although he is permanently disfigured and has to carry around a catheter bag that collects his
urine, the boy is full of joy in the Lord. He wants others to know that Christ can get them through
any trial if they will embrace God and trust in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
That remarkable boy has the joy and hope in the midst of overwhelming trials that we all need,
although few of us experience it. I confess that often I’m prone to complaining even about minor
trials. So I need—we all need—joyous hope in the Lord to sustain us through our trials. We need
hope that faces reality, not hope in wishful thinking or positive thinking. We need hope that
sustains us in the most difficult times.
The news of Jesus’ resurrection brought hope to people who were overwhelmed by despair and
grief. You can hear the deep disappointment in the words of the two disciples on the road to
Emmaus. Concerning the crucified Jesus, they said (Luke 24:21), “But we were hoping that it
was He who was going to redeem Israel.” “We were hoping ….” But their hopes had been
dashed.
The disciples were engulfed by gloom. They had left everything to follow Jesus, pinning all of
their hopes on Him as the Messiah. But now, He was dead. On top of the shock of watching

Jesus’ grisly death on the cross, Peter was wrestling with his own failure in denying the Lord. All
of the disciples were guilty of abandoning Him and fleeing in fear.
We also see grief and despair in the tears of Mary Magdalene. The Greek word used to describe
her weeping means loud, uncontrollable wailing. She was despondent that not only had Jesus
died, but now she thought they had taken away His body so that she could not give Him a proper
burial.
It was to people overwhelmed by such a dark cloud of grief that the fact of Jesus’ bodily
resurrection broke in with life-changing hope. The fact that Jesus is risen and ascended into
heaven, soon to return for His own, can break into your life with genuine hope in the midst of
your worst trials, if you will learn the lessons from this true story.
It’s significant that Mary Magdalene was the first person to whom Jesus revealed Himself after
His resurrection (Mark 16:9). She was not an especially important person, and she was a woman.
In that culture, women were not considered reliable witnesses in court. You would think that the
Lord would have picked maybe Peter, James, or John as the first witnesses of His resurrection.
Or if it was a woman, I would have thought that He would have picked His mother, Mary, or
perhaps Mary of Bethany, who anointed Him just before His death. But Mary Magdalene was
first.
That fact is even more arresting when you recall that Mary had a rather seamy past. Jesus had
cast seven demons out of her (Luke 8:2). Seven is the biblical number of perfection, so perhaps
we are to understand that Mary was under the total domination of satanic power. While there is
no biblical evidence for the commonly held notion that she had been a prostitute, we can surmise
that a woman under demonic power did not have a squeaky clean past. Jesus had rescued her
from a horrible life of sin.
The fact that the Lord revealed Himself first to Mary Magdalene shines a ray of hope for every
person struggling with sin and guilt. If the Savior rescued this insignificant, demon-possessed
woman from her life of sin and chose her to be the first witness of His resurrection, then He can
save you from your sin and use you to serve Him! This story teaches us that…
Sorrows are turned to hope when we seek the risen Savior.
The background of the story is in verses 1-10. Mary had been to the tomb and discovered that the
stone was taken away. She ran to Peter and John and excitedly reported (John 20:2), “They have
taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him.” Peter and
John immediately ran to the tomb. John got there first, but just looked in. In his usual blustery
fashion, Peter entered the tomb and discovered the grave clothes without Jesus’ body. Then John
went in, saw, and believed that Jesus was risen (John 20:8). But Peter went away still pondering
what had happened (Luke 24:12). But neither man understood yet from the Scriptures that Jesus
must rise from the dead (John 20:9). After viewing the empty tomb, both men returned home.
Meanwhile, Mary Magdalene had come back and she remained by the tomb, weeping. She
wanted to find Jesus, although at this point she was just trying to find His corpse. In her thinking,
someone had added insult to injury by robbing the grave.
In this state of confusion, she stooped and looked into the tomb, where she saw two angels in
white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet of where Jesus’ body had been lying. They
asked Mary (John 20:13), “Woman, why are you weeping?” (Dr. S. Lewis Johnson observed that
even angels are puzzled by women’s tears!) Jesus repeats the same question and adds another

(John 20:15), “Whom do you seek?” Neither Jesus nor the angels asked those questions to gain
information! Rather, they wanted Mary (and us) to think about the implications of those
questions, because in doing so we will learn how seeking the risen Savior will turn our sorrows
into hope. So let’s explore these questions:
“Why are you weeping?”
1. We weep because of sorrow, but we need to process these
sorrows in light of Jesus’ resurrection.
The point of this repeated question was to get Mary to process her sorrow in light of the fact that
Jesus was now risen. Yes, watching the crucifixion had been horrific. You have to work through
the emotional shock of such an event. But, Mary was now weeping from sorrow because the
tomb was empty, whereas that fact should have caused her to weep for joy! Mary’s experience
reveals three reasons why we often go through sorrow, which we need to process in light of
Jesus’ resurrection.
A. Disappointments and misunderstanding cause sorrow, but we must process
them in light of Jesus’resurrection.
Mary was deeply disappointed, first by the shock of the crucifixion, but now by the fact that she
wanted to finish embalming Jesus’ body. She was thinking, “If only I knew where they laid Him,
I could finish embalming His body!” But she didn’t understand the big picture, which included
Jesus’ resurrection.
So often, we’re just like Mary. We’re disappointed because we don’t understand the big picture
of what God is doing. We’re disappointed because God isn’t working as we think He needs to
work. It seems that His promises aren’t true! But from God’s perspective, we’re asking the
wrong questions and trying to accomplish the wrong tasks! We need to process our
disappointments in light of the risen Savior’s love and care for us. We often don’t understand His
sovereign perspective.
B. The evil deeds of evil men cause sorrow, but we must process these deeds in
light of Jesus’resurrection.
Mary thought that evil men had triumphed over God’s sovereign purposes. They had killed Jesus
and now they had stolen His body. Twice she laments (John 20:2, 13), “they have taken away my
Lord….” It’s an ironic complaint. If He is the Lord, no one could take Him anywhere without
His consent! If God gives His angels charge to guard His Messiah in all His ways (Ps. 91:11-12;
Luke 4:10-11), then surely God would not permit the crucifixion and then allow the body to be
stolen against His sovereign will.
We often suffer needless sorrow because we forget that God is sovereign and that evil men can’t
do anything to thwart His eternal purpose. I realize that some horrible atrocities take place. I’m
not denying the emotional struggle of working through the aftermath of those atrocities if you or
your loved ones are the victims. Often, we will not understand in this lifetime why God allowed
such suffering to take place. But there is no comfort apart from the facts of God’s sovereignty
and Jesus’ resurrection. If those facts are true, then someday God will work it all together for
good (Rom. 8:28). Although evil men crucified Jesus, they were only inadvertently fulfilling
God’s sovereign purposes (Acts 4:27-28).

C. The death of a loved one causes sorrow,but we must process it in light of
Jesus’resurrection.
Of course we grieve when we lose a loved one. In many cases, we will feel the loss every day for
the rest of our lives. It’s not wrong to weep over such losses (John 16:20). But the Bible says that
although we grieve, we do not grieve as those who have no hope (1 Thess. 4:13). The hope that
Jesus is risen and that He is coming again to take us to be with Him and with our loved ones who
have died in Him, comforts us through our tears (1 Thess. 4:14-18). While we may never
understand why God allowed a loved one to die, we can know that the risen Savior has a greater
purpose and He sympathizes with us (John 11:1-15, 35). Whatever our loss, we must process our
sorrow in light of the sure fact that Jesus is risen and thus His promises are true! Those promises
give us hope in our sorrow.
Perhaps the risen Lord is asking you the same question that He asked Mary: “Why are you
weeping?” Maybe, like Mary, you’re inclined to think, “That’s a dumb question! Lord, don’t
You see what they have done? I’m weeping because they….” The Lord gently says, “Wait a
minute! The tomb is empty because I have risen. Now, why are you weeping?”
But, there’s a second important question that the risen Lord asks Mary (John 20:15): “Whom are
you seeking?” He asks it even before she has a chance to answer the first question, because the
answer to why she is weeping is found in the answer of whom she is seeking.
2. If we will seek the crucified, risen, and ascended Savior,
He turns our sorrows into hope.
Clearly, Mary was seeking a dead Lord (John 20:13, 15). Her love for Jesus is commendable, but
really, what good would it have done for Mary to haul off Jesus’ dead body and add a few more
embalming spices? A dead religion that dresses up the corpse of a dead prophet is worthless!
Only a living Savior who has triumphed over the grave offers hope for our sorrows.
A. We seek the crucified Savior.
Mary knew that, of course. But she had forgotten that Messiah’s death was prophesied in the
Scripture hundreds of years before He came. Isaiah 53 predicted in miraculous detail Jesus’
death as a lamb led to the slaughter. It says (Isa. 53:5-6), “But He was pierced through for our
transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the chastening for our well-being fell upon
Him, and by His scourging we are healed. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each of us has
turned to his own way; but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on Him.”
David is equally explicit in Psalm 22, which begins with the haunting words that Jesus cried
from the cross, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken me?” It goes on to describe in detail
death by crucifixion, hundreds of years before that was a known means of execution.
Jesus Himself said that He came to this world to lay down His life for His sheep (John 10:11-18).
If you do not know Jesus Christ, crucified for your sins, you do not know Him at all. You must
come to God as a guilty sinner and trust in Jesus as the only perfect sacrifice. If you trust in His
shed blood, God will forgive your sins because of what Jesus did on the cross.
B. We seek the risen Savior.
Just as the Scriptures predicted that Jesus would die, so they predicted His resurrection. In Isaiah
53, the prophet goes on to tell of how the One who was pierced through for our transgressions

would also divide the booty with the strong. A dead Messiah who stayed in the grave could not
do that! Only a risen Savior could.
In Psalm 22:22, after describing death by crucifixion and talking of God’s deliverance, Messiah
proclaims, “I will tell of Your name to my brethren.” Only a risen Savior could do that! Note
Jesus’ words (John 20:17), “go to My brethren ….” It is significant that this is the first time Jesus
refers to the disciples as His brethren. Why did He do that? Clearly, He said this to fulfill Psalm
22! He is telling Mary to proclaim to His brethren that God has not left Him in the tomb. He is
risen and He will ascend to His Father!
C. We seek the ascendedSavior.
Jesus told Mary (John 20:17), “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but
go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and
your God.’” This verse raises difficult questions that I can only touch on here: Why does Jesus
ask Mary to stop clinging to Him, when He accepted the touch of the other women on
resurrection morning (Matt. 28:9) and He invited Thomas to touch Him a week later (John
20:27)? Why does He mention His ascension? Merrill Tenney explains (The Expositor’s Bible
Commentary, ed. by Frank Gaebelein [Zondervan], 9:191),
He was not refusing to be touched but was making clear that she did not need to detain him, for
he had not yet ascended to the Father. He planned to remain with the disciples for a little while;
she need not fear that he would vanish immediately. Ultimately he would return to God, and he
urged her to tell the disciples that he would do so.
So He was signaling a new relationship with Mary and with His disciples: “After I ascend, you
will have My presence spiritually, but not physically.” He didn’t leave the grave to stay with
them on earth, but so that He could ascend to the Father where He would intercede for them and
ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit. But the fact that Mary was clinging to Jesus shows that He
was not a phantom. He was raised bodily from the dead and He ascended bodily into heaven, and
He will return bodily in power and glory.
Note also that Jesus both links and yet distinguishes His relationship with the Father and theirs.
Jesus by nature is eternally the Son of God, whereas we are only sons of God by adoption. By
His incarnation as the Son of Man, Jesus could call the Father, “My God.” We can only do so by
grace through faith in Christ as our Mediator. But, in our deepest sorrows, it is a great comfort
that we have access to the Father through our risen Lord Jesus Christ!
These two questions, “Why are you weeping?” and “Whom are you seeking?” raise two further
questions. First, “What results from seeking the risen Savior?” The answer to this question is
stated in my second main heading, and so I include it here:
D. When we seek the risen Savior, He turns our sorrows into hope.
At first, Mary didn’t recognize Jesus, but mistook Him for the gardener. We aren’t told why she
didn’t recognize Him. Perhaps, like the two on the Emmaus Road, God prevented her. Or,
perhaps it was because she wasn’t expecting to see the risen Lord. But Mary’s gloom was turned
to joy when the Lord spoke one word: “Mary!” Her eyes may not yet have recognized Jesus, but
her ears knew that voice speaking her name! Jesus said that He is the good Shepherd, who calls
His sheep by name. He knows each one and they know Him (John 10:3-5, 14, 27). He still seeks
individuals. He still calls His sheep by name. You can take your sorrows to Him and have a

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