Jesus was a king with gardens

JESUS WAS A KING WITH GARDENS
EDITED BY GLENN PEASE
King’s Gardens By Spurgeon
“The king’s garden.”
Nehemiah 3:15
THERE have been many very famous king’s gardens, suchas those “hanging
gardens” in Nineveh, in which Sardanapalus delighted himself, and that
remarkable garden of Cyrus in which he took such greatinterest, because, as
he said, every tree and every plant in it had been both planted and tended by
his ownroyal hand. Imagination might bid you wander among the beauties of
the celebratedvillas and gardens of the Roman emperors, or make you linger
amid the roses and lilies of the voluptuous gardens of the Persiancaliphs but
we have nobler work in hand.
I call you to come with me to orchards of pomegranates, to beds of spices,
camphor with spikenard, calamus and cinnamon, myrrh and aloes, andtrees
of frankincense. I am not about to speak of the gardens of any earthly
monarch, for we can find far fairer flowers and rarer fruits in the gardens of
the King of kings, the resorts of His Son, the Prince Immanuel. There are six
of these “king’s gardens” to which I shall conduct you, but we shall not have
time to tarry in more than one of them.
1. The first of these king’s gardens was THE GARDEN OF PARADISE,
which was situated in the midst of Eden. You will read of it in the book
of Genesis. It was doubtless a fairer place than we have ever seenand
much more marvelous for beauty than we canimagine. It was full of all
manner of delights–a fruitful spotin which the man who was set to keep
it would have no need to toil, but would find it a happy and refreshing
exercise to train the luxurious plants. No sweatwas everseenupon his
happy brow, for he cultivated a virgin soil. Abundance of luscious fruits
ministered to his necessities. He could stretch himself upon soft couches
of moss and no inclement weatherdisturbed his repose.
No winter’s wind scatteredthe leaves of Eden! No summer’s heat burned up
its flowers!There were sweetalternations ofday and night, but the day
brought no sorrow and the night no danger. The beasts were there, yet not as
beasts of prey, but as the obedient servants of that happy man whom God had

made to have dominion over all the works ofHis hands. In the midst of the
garden grew that mysterious Tree of Life, of which we know so little, literally,
but of which, I trust, we know much in its spiritual meaning, for we have fed
upon its fruits and have been healedby its leaves.
Hard by it stoodthe Tree of Knowledge of Goodand Evil, placed there as the
test of obedience. Adam’s mind was equally balanced–ithad no bias to evil–
and God left him to the freedom of his will, giving this as the test of his loyalty,
that, if obedient, he would never touch the fruit of that one tree. Why need
he? There were tens of thousands of trees, all of which boweddown their
branches with abundant fruit for his hunger or his luxury. Why need he
desire that solitary tree which God had fencedand hedged about?
But, in an evil hour, at the serpent’s base suggestion–we know nothow soon
after his creation–he put forth his hand and plucked from the forbidden tree!
The mere plucking of the fruit seems little to the thoughtless, but the breaking
of the Maker’s Law was a greatoffense to Heaven, for it was man’s throwing
down the glove of battle againsthis Creator, and breaking his allegiance to his
Lord and Master. This was great, greatin itself and in its mischievous effects,
for Adam fell that day, and he was driven out of Eden to till the thankless,
thorn-bearing soil. And you and I fell in him and were banished with him. We
were in his loins. He was “the father of us all,” and on us he has brought the
curse of toil, and in us all he has sown the seeds of iniquity!
Let it never be forgotten that in connectionwith the garden of Eden we are
not now a pure and sinless race, and cannot be by nature, howevercivilized
we may become. Men are born no longerwith balanced minds, but a heavy
weight of original sin in the scale. We are averse to that which is good. The
bias of the mind of man, when he is born into the tear and to devour. Ah,
Brothers and Sisters, beware ofthinking too little of the Fall. Slight thoughts
upon the Fall are at the root of false theologies.The mischief that has been
workedin us is not a trifling matter, but a thing to be trembled at.
Only the Divine hand can reclaim us. The house of manhood has been shaken
to its foundations–eachtimber is decayed–leprosyis in the tottering wall. Man
must be made new by the same creating hand that first made him, or he never
can be a dwelling place fit for God. Let those who boast of their natural
goodness look to the garden of Eden and be ashamedof their pride–and then
examine their own actions by the glass ofGod’s most holy Law–and be
confounded that they should dream of purity! How can he be pure that is
born of woman? “Who canbring a cleanthing out of an unclean thing? Not
one.”

As our mothers were sinful, such are we and such will our children be. As long
as men are brought into the world by natural generationwe shall be “born in
sin and shaped in iniquity.” And if we are to be acceptedby God we must be
born againand made new creatures in Christ Jesus. Alas, then, alas, for that
first king’s garden! The flowers are gone and the birds have ceasedto sing!
The winter’s winds howl through it and the summer’s sun scorchesit! The
beasts of prey are there. Perhaps the very site of it, which is now unknown,
may be a den of dragons, an habitation for the pelican of the wilderness and
the bittern of desolation!Fit image, if it is so, of our natural estate, forwe
were altogethergiven up to desolationand destruction unless One mighty to
save has espousedour cause and undertaken our redemption.
II. The secondking’s gardento which I will introduce you is very different
from the first, but it yields more fragrant spices and healthier herbs by far. It
is THE GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE–the gardenofthe olive press, in which
the Lord Jesus Christwas the olive, and God’s angeragainstsin was the
press. Take offyour shoes, for the place where you stand is holy ground! ‘Tis
night. Yonder are 12 men walking and talking sweetlyas they walk. Observe
One, a mysterious, majestic Person, who is evidently superior to the rest. It is
the Sonof Man.
Hush! It is the Son of God, and as He talks you can hear words like these, “I
am the Vine, you are the branches. Abide in Me and I in you.” We will conceal
ourselves behind that group of olive trees and will see what is to happen here.
This is the place where that mysterious Son of God was often to be found with
His disciples. Justas God walkedin the first garden in Eden, so the Sonof
God walkedin the secondgarden. And as God in the first garden communed
with man, so of the secondgardenit is written Jesus oftentimes resortedthere
with His disciples. Look, He has dismissed eight of them. He has told them to
wait yonder and on He goes with only three–Peter, andJames, and John–the
chosenout of the 11–andspeaking to them, and bidding them watch, He
leaves them, and is all alone.
Let us draw as near as we may. We see the Son of God in prayer, and as He
prays His earnestnessgathers strength. He is striving with an unseen enemy–
struggling like a man who would overcome anadversary, wrestling so
vigorously that He sweats–butit is a strange sweat!“His sweatwas, as it were,
greatdrops of blood falling to the ground.” He is beginning to drink the cup
of Jehovah’s wrath which was due to our sins–a cup which we could not have
emptied even through eternity, though every drop of it had been a Hell.
Christ is downing the wrath-cup, and as He trembles under the fiery influence
of the draught of worse than wormwoodand gall, He cries, “If it is possible,

let this cup pass from Me.” But He recovers Himself and His prayer is,
“Nevertheless, notas I will, but as You will.” Backwards and forwards you see
Him go like a man distracted. Three times He looks to the disciples for
comfort, but they are slumbering. And then againHe returns to His God and
casts Himself upon His face, with strong crying and tears, pouring out His
soul in blood before high Heaven–suchis the anguish of His tortured heart!
Behold here the beginning of our redemption. Jesus then beganto suffer in
our place, atoning for our iniquity. The mischief of Eden fell upon
Gethsemane. The mist of sin rose up in the garden of Paradise, and as it rose
it gatheredand collectedinto a black tremendous storm cloud, and then it
burst, with flashes of lightning and with claps of thunder, upon the great
Shepherd of the sheep, that we, who deservedto be overwhelmedby the
tempest, might find fair weatherin the rest which remains for the people of
God. Perhaps no sight that was ever beheld of men or angels, exceptthe
Crucifixion, was more tremendous than the agony of Gethsemane!
It must have been a terrible spectacle to have seenmartyrs in the fire, or men
and women devoured by lions and bears in the Roman amphitheatre, but then
to the Christian’s eyes there was a pleasure mingled with these ghastlysights,
for Godsustained His faithful ones. They clapped their hands amidst the fire!
They sang when the wild beasts were leaping upon them! Such holy joy
beamed from their countenances thattheir Brethren were comfortedrather
than distressed, and saints wished to be there with them that they might die as
they died and win the martyr’s crown!
But, when you look at Christ in the garden, you miss the help which the
martyrs had. God forsakes Him! He must tread the winepress alone, and of
the people there must be none with Him. Yes, and yet, dark as that night was–
the darkestnight that ever fell upon this world–it was the mother of that
Gospellight of finished redemption which now enlightens the Gentiles and
brings glory unto Israel!
Let us leave the King’s garden, then, with feelings of deep repentance that we
should have made Jesus sufferso, and yet with holy gladness to think that
thus has He redeemed us from the ruins of the Fall.
III. I claim a moment’s thought for the GARDEN OF THE BURIAL AND
THE RESURRECTION.In Joseph’s garden, in the new tomb, the Belovedof
our souls slept for awhile and then arose to His Glory-life. Detainedof death
He could not be, for He was no longera lawful Captive. He had finished His
work and earned His reward, and therefore the imprisoning stone was rolled

away. He is not here, for He is risen! The sealis broken, the watchmenare
dispersed, the stone is removed, the Captive is free!
What comfort is here, for, as Jesus rose, so all His slumbering saints shall
likewise leave the tomb. His Resurrectionis the resurrectionof all the saints.
Wait but awhile and the tomb shall be no longerthe treasury of death. So
surely as the Lord came forth from the sepulcher to glory and immortality, all
His saints are justified and clean. None can accuse us now that the Lord has
risen, indeed, no more to die. His one offering has perfectedforever all the
chosenones and His glorious uprising is the guarantee of their acceptance.
Faith delights in the garden where Magdalene found her unknown, yet well-
known, Lord, and where angels kept watchand ward over the couch, which
the immortal Sufferer had relinquished. Henceforth it is to us a King’s
garden, abounding with pleasantfruits and fragrant flowers.
IV. And now I desire to take you to a fourth king’s garden. You will not have
far to go. Put your hand on your bosom and your finger will be on the latch of
its door. It is THE GARDEN OF THE HUMAN HEART. The heart is a little
garden–little, apparently, but yet so extensive that it is all but infinite–for who
can tell the limit of the heart of man? How far-darting the imaginations and
the affections ofthe soul of man may be? Now, this little-greatthing, the
human heart, is meant to be a gardenfor God.
Did I sayit was a garden? It should be so, but alas, by nature it scarcely
deserves the name, for I perceive it to be all overgrownwith weeds–thistle and
briar, deadly nightshade, and nettles, and I know not what besides–spring up
everywhere. I see trees, but they drop with poison, like the deadly upas, whose
drip is death. There are no luscious fruits, but instead the grapes of Gomorrah
and apples of Sodom. This loathsome den of festering evils is what should
have been God’s garden, but it is a tangledwilderness of all manner of
noxious things! Thorns, also, and thistles does it bring forth.
What must be done to this neglectedgarden? Whatheavenly horticulture can
be used upon it to reclaim it from its desert state? God, the greatFarmer,
must come and turn it over after His own fashion. The rough plow of
conviction must be draggedthrough it. The spade of trouble must break up
the surface and smash to pieces the clods, and kill the weeds. And fire must
burn up the rubbish. Has that ever been done in the garden of your heart,
dear Hearer? Have you ever had your soulplowed and cross-plowedand
harrowedwith sorrow till you were driven well-nearto despair? Have you
seenyour sweetsins killed so that you could not take pleasure in them any
longer, but desired to be cleanrid of them? That must be done if the gardenis
to be reclaimedand made worthy of the Divine Owner.

Then when the soil is brokenup and the clods are turned there must be seed
sown, and the planting of slips from the Tree of Life and seeds from the
nurseries of Heaven–seeds thatshall turn to flowers which shall be full of
sweetperfume, acceptable to Christ. The seeds offaith, love, hope, patience,
perseverance,and zeal must be carefully castinto prepared soil by the Holy
Spirit’s hand, and fosteredby the same kindly care. Before the heart can be
calleda garden fit for the King of kings, these must bud, and blossom, and
yield their fruits.
When I regard attentively that garden which was so lately coveredover with
weeds, but which is now sownand planted, I perceive that the plants grow not
well unless the soilis drained. There must be always drained out of us much
superfluity of naughtiness and excess ofcarnalconfidence or our heart will be
a cold swamp–a worthless plant-killing bog. Affliction drains us. We do not
like to have our money or our friends takenfrom us, and yet the love of these
might ruin us for all fruit-bearing if God did not remove them. Besides the
draining, there must also be constanthoeing, and raking and digging.
After a garden is made, the beds are never left long alone. The gardenermust
have his eye upon them or they run to riot. If they were left to themselves,
they would soonbreed weeds againand return to the old confusion–so the hoe
must be constantly kept going if the garden is to he clean. So with the garden
of the heart–cleansing and pruning must be done every day and God must do
it through ourselves, and we must do it by constantself-examination and
repentance, striving in the power of the Holy Spirit to keepourselves free
from the sins which do so easily besetus. I find that the weeds grow fast
enough in my soul, and keepme in full employment to check their growth.
Cowpertalks about–
“The dear hour which brought me to Your foot,
And cut up all my follies by the root.”
Surely, goodCowpermust have made a mistake!I know mine were never cut
up by the roots. When they have been cut down, the rootsoonsprouts again!
They will be cut up by the root one day, as I believe and hope, but till then I
must be incessantlywatchful. The roots are still there. Alas, alas, alas, that it
should be so!O Lord Jesus, help us, or we shall be overgrownwith our
besetting sins. Corruption still remains even in the heart of the regenerate,
and the garden of the King of kings is often overgrownwith weeds. But for
God it is still a garden–a gardenfor Jesus to walk in, and there are happy
times when He deigns to sit down in the arbor of our souls!

What a royal garden our poor heart then becomes!It may be the body is
coveredwith poor garments. It may be our whole outward man is very sick
and faint, but still our manhood is a King’s gardenwhen Christ is within and
we are kings and priests unto our God as Jesus holds fellowship with us! The
angels come into that garden, too, and when the air is still and the noise of
outside cares is hushed, we have often enjoyed a little Heaven within our
heart, the beginning of the Heaven to which we hope soonto go!
DearHearer, do you know what we mean by paradise within, glory beaming
in the heart, Heaven in the soul? Jesus canteachyou this. The heart is a
King’s garden, Beloved. Jesus bought it with His precious blood, and He has
now, by His Grace, come into it and claimed it to be His own. My Friend, if He
has not come to you yet, I hope He will. If you have not given your heart to
Him, I hope you may be led to do so by His gracious Spirit. But, if your heart
is His, oh, keepit for your Beloved!Do not give the keys to anyone else!The
love of husband, wife and child–eachof these is to have its proper place–but
the heart’s core is the King’s garden.
Mark you, it is not the husband’s garden, nor the wife’s garden, nor the
child’s garden–the dearestidols we have knownmust not be set up there–it is
the King’s garden! I hope you will saytonight, before you go to rest, “O king,
come into my garden, and eatmy pleasantfruit! Awake, O heavenly wind,
and blow upon the gardenof my soul, and let all the plants of my new nature
give forth their sweetness thatmy Belovedmay be charmed with my
company, and that I may be filled with His sweetlove.”
1. However, I want you to spend most of your time in a fifth garden, and
that is THE GARDEN OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH–our garden,
and yet the King’s garden–planted and flourishing in this place. Follow
me in eachword of the text. What is it? A garden. The Church of God is
a garden. Many thoughts are gatheredin that one metaphor like bees in
a hive. It is calleda garden in the book of Solomon’s Song, so I know
that we are not wrong in using the illustration.
But what does a gardenmean? In the first place it implies separation. A
garden is not the open waste, the shrubs, or the common. It is not a
wilderness. It is walledaround–it is hedged in. Ah, Christian, when you join
the Church, remember you, too, become by professionhedgedin for King
Jesus!I earnestly desire to see the wall of separationbetweenthe Church and
the world made broader and stronger. Believe me, nothing gives me more
sorrow than when I hear of Church members saying, “Well, there is no harm
in this. There is no harm in that,” and getting as near to the world as possible.
It does not matter what you may think of it, but I am certain that Divine

Grace is at low ebb in your soul when you even raise the question of how far
you may go in worldly conformity.
We are to avoid the very appearance ofevil, and especiallyjust at this festive
seasonofthe year, this Christmas, when so many of you are having your
parties, your children’s sports, and all that kind of thing. I would have you
doubly jealous, do remember, Church members, that you are to be Christians
always, if Christians at all. We do not grant dispensations to sin, as the Roman
Catholics did in Luther’s day. You are always to wearyour uniforms as
Christian soldiers and never, at any time, say, “Well, I shall do this just now–
it is only once a year. I shall do as the world does–Icannotbe out of fashion.”
You must be either out of the fashion, or out of the true Church–remember
that, because the place for Christ’s Church is altogetherout of fashion.
You are called to go forth outside the camp, bearing His reproach. If you want
to be in the camp, you cannot be Christ’s disciple, for the love of the world is
enmity to Christ. You must be a separatedone or be lost. If you want to be the
common, you cannotbe the garden! And if you are willing and anxious to be
the garden, why, then, do not attempt to be the common. Keep the hedges up.
Keep the gates wellbolted–king’s gardens must not be left open to thieves and
robbers. Be not conformedto the world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind. The King’s gardenis a separatedplace–keepit so.
The King’s garden is a place of order. You do not, when you go into your
garden, find the flowers all put in any which way–the wise gardenerarranges
them according to their tints and hues so that in the midst of summer the
garden shall look like a rainbow that has been broken to pieces and let down
upon the earth–delightful to gaze upon. All the walks are even, the beds are in
proportion, and the plants well arranged, just as they should be. Such should
the Christian Church be–pastor, deacons, elders, members–allin their proper
places. We are not a load of bricks, but a house.
The Church is not a mere heap, but it is to be a palace built for God, a temple
in which He manifests Himself. Let us all try to maintain order in the
household of Christ, and above all things hate discord and confusion. Let us
be men who know how to keeprank, maintaining a decent order and
regularity in all things. We seek notthe order which consists in all sleeping in
their places, like corpses in the catacombs, but we desire the order which finds
all working in their places for the common cause of the Lord Jesus. Maywe
never become a disorderly, disunited, irregular Church. May there be order
in the garden preservedby the powerof love and Divine Grace.

A garden is a place of beauty. Such should the Christian Church be. You
gather togetherthe fairest flowers from all lands and put them in your
garden. And if you see no beauties in the streets, you expectto see them in the
florist’s beds. So, if there is no holiness, no love, no zeal, no prayerfulness
outside in the world, yet we should see these things in the Church! We are not
to take the world to be our guide, but we are to excelit. We must do more
than others. The Lord Jesus Christ told His disciples that their righteousness
must exceedthat of even the Scribes and Pharisees orthey could not enter the
kingdom. And the genuine Christian must seek to be more excellent in his life
than the bestmoralist because Christ’s garden ought to have the best flowers
in all the world! Even the best is poor compared with what Christ’s deserves–
let us not put Him off with withered and dying plants. The rarest, richest,
choicestlilies and roses oughtto bloom in the place which Jesus calls His own.
The king’s garden is a place of growth, too. I do not suppose the florist would
think that soil fit to be a gardenin which his plants would not grow. It would
be a dead loss to him if the slips remained slips and if the buds never turned to
flowers. So in the Church of God. We are not introduced into fellowshipto be
always the same, always little children and babes in Grace. We should grow in
Grace and in the knowledge ofour Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The Prayer
Meeting should be a schoolof practicaleducationfor our Belovedyoung
members, a place for the young nestlings to try their callous wings. When they
try to pray, at first they may almost break down, perhaps, but if they will not
give way to a foolishtimidity, they will soongetover it and find themselves
useful–not merely in public prayer, but in a thousand works ofusefulness
besides. Growthshould be rapid where Jesus is the Gardenerand the Holy
Spirit the dew from above.
Again, a garden is a place of retirement. When a man is in his garden he does
not expectto see all his customers walking down betweenthe beds to do
business with him. “No,” he says, “I am walking in my garden, and I expectto
be alone.” So the Lord Jesus Christwould have us reserve the Church to be a
place in which He can manifest Himself to us as He does not unto the world.
Oh I wish that Christians were more retired, that they kept their hearts more
shut up for Christ! I am afraid we often worry and trouble ourselves, like
Martha, with much serving so that we have not the room for Christ that Mary
had, and do not sit at His feet as we ought to do. The Lord grant us Grace to
keepour hearts as closedgardens for Christ to walk in.
This, then, is a poor description of what the Church is. And now, very briefly,
whose is it? The Church is a garden, but it is the King’s garden. The Church

is not mine, nor yours, but the King’s. It is the King’s garden because He
chose it for Himself–
“We are a gardenwalled around,
Chosen, and made peculiar ground.
A little spot enclosedby Grace
Out of the world’s wide wilderness.”
We are the King’s because He bought us–Nabothsaidhe would not give up
his vineyard because he inherited it. So does Christ inherit us by an
indefeasible title. We are His heritage and He has so dearly bought us with is
own blood that He will never give us up, blessedbe His name!
We are His because He has conquered us. He won us in fair fight and now we
acknowledge the validity of His titledeeds, and confess,everyone of us, as the
members of His church, that we are His, and that He is ours. What a nobility
this gives to Christ’s Church! I have sometimes heard people talk
disparagingly of Church meetings–there may be but few persons present–
some of those may be young members and some may be very old. Yet I have
been much grieved when I have heard people despise such a Church meeting
for Christ would not despise it! Let such beware. Wheneverthe Church
meets, either as a whole or representatively, there is a solemn dignity cast
about that assemblywhich is not to be found in a parliament of kings and
princes.
Yes, I will say it–if Louis Napoleoncouldcall a senate of all the potentates in
this world in Paris and hold a congress there–the whole ofthem put together
would not be worth the snap of a finger compared with half-a-dozen godly old
women who meet togetherin the name of Christ as a Church, in obedience to
the Lord’s command! God would not be there with the potentates–whatcares
He for them? But He would be with the most poor and despisedof His people
who meet togetheras a Church in Jesus Christ’s name. “Lo, I am with you
always, evenunto the end of the world,” is more glorious than ermine, or
purple, or crown!Constitute a Church in the name of Christ and meet
togetheras such, and there is no assembly upon the face of the earth that can
be compared with it! Even the assemblyof the firstborn in Heaven is but a
branch of the grand whole of which the assemblies ofthe Church on earth
make up an essentialpart. The Church is the King’s garden.
I am going to ask, now, if the Church is a garden, what does it need? One
thing it certainly requires is labor. You cannot keepa garden in proper order
without work. We want more laborers in this Church, especiallyof one sort.
We want some who will be planters. I had a letter last week from a young

woman. I do not know who she is. I do not know where she sits. It may be in
the top gallery, it is quite as likely to be in the second–perhapsmore likely–
and in the arena quite as likely again. She says that she has been here for two
years and that she has been very anxious about her soul, and she has often
wished that somebodywould speak to her but nobody has done so.
Now, if I knew where she sat, I should sayto the friends who sit there that I
am ashamedof them! As I do not know where she sits, will those of you who
love Christ, but who have not been in the habit of looking after others, be so
kind as to be ashamedof yourselves, because there is somebodyor other to be
blamed in this business!If you love Jesus atall, I cannot understand how you
can let a person come to this Tabernacle fortwo years and not speak to them!
Somebody has been negligent, very negligent! Whoeverit may be, let him see
to it! I do not say you canspeak upon the bestthings the first time you see
them, though you might try to do that at any rate–but how canyou have been
silent for two years?
How can this be? You have been here twice every Sunday and that young
woman has been here twice. Well, there are 200 times–200opportunities that
you have lost! Two hundred times that you have let that poor soul go away
burdened without speaking to her! I need laborers very badly, realhard-
working soul-winners! I need planters who canget the young slips and put
them where they will grow!I need helpers who will gatherup the young
lambs, just as they are born, and carry them in their bosoma little while. We
need spiritual nurses who will give comfort to the broken-heartedand pour in
the oil of consolationinto the wounds of poor trembling sinners!
In every Church there ought to be some to watchover those who are planted.
When we receive members we ought to look after them! And as one person
cannot do it thoroughly–as even the elders and deacons are hardly numerous
enough for so greata work–itshould be the aim and duty of all the
experiencedChristians in the Church to fondly tend the younger ones. I
believe that many of you do this, and I am very thankful to zealous friends
who are not in office in the Oh, if everybody were duly anxious about keeping
this gardenin order, how beautifully trimmed all the borders would be and
how few weeds should we find springing up in the beds!
May I ask you, members of the Church, are you doing your duty by the
King’s garden? You are yourselves His own chosenones, and He has worked
for you so that you have no need to work to save yourselves. But still, you
must not be idle, for your Lord has said to you, “Go, work today in My
vineyard.” Are you doing it? I thank you if you are. If you are not, blame
yourselves. There should be a little band in every Church to collectthe

stragglers.Our vines will grow out of order if they can, but we must deal
wiselywith them and fasten them up in their places. We must be on the alert
when we see backsliding begin. How much can be done by old Christians in
trying to stop backsliding among the young! I believe that half the cases that
have gone badly might have been stopped by a little judicious forethought.
I say again, what canwe, who are the officers of this Church, do with so
many? Why, we number more than 3,500 in Church fellowship. But if you will
look after eachother, and seek whereveryou see a little decline or a little
coldness, to bring the Brother back, the King’s gardenwill be well caredfor.
The King’s garden needs laborers–mayyou all labor, and its needs in this
respectwill be met. Sometimes we need, Brothers and Sisters, to burn up the
rubbish and sweepup the leaves. In the best Church there will always be some
falling leaves. Somebodygets out at the elbow with another Brother. We are
not any of us perfect, even though we get on far more than reasonablywell
with one another as a Church. I never saw any Church that was really so well
knit togetherin Christian love as we are–but there are always a few leaves
about, and not a little dust to be put in the corner and burned.
May I ask a Brother, whenever he sees anymischief, to sweepit up and say
nothing about it? Wheneveryou find that such-and-such a Brother is going a
little amiss, talk to him about it quietly. Do not spreadit all over the Church
and cause jealousiesandsuspicions. Pick up the leaf and destroy it. When a
Brother member has offended you so that you feel vexed, forgive him, for I
dare say you will need forgiveness before many days are over. We have none
of us, perhaps, the sweetestoftempers, but if we do have the sweetest,the way
to prove it is by forgiving those who have not. If every one would seek to make
peace there never could be any greataccumulation of discord in the King’s
garden to annoy Him. And when He came walking in He would find it all
beautiful and in goodorder, and all the flowers blooming delightfully–and He
would find His delights with the sons of men.
Now, I have saidthat the Church needs laborers, but, dear Friends, it needs
something else!It needs new plants. I wish I might find some tonight. Our
King finds plants for His garden outside the wall. He takes the wild olive
branches and grafts them into the goodolive, and then the sap changes the
nature. A new thing, that! It is not thus in our gardens at home, but wonders
are workedin the garden of the King! He transplants weeds from the dunghill
and makes them to grow as lilies in the midst of his fair garden. Will you be
such a plant? May the Master’s love constrainyou to desire to be such a one,
and, if you desire it, you shall have it! Trust in the Lord Jesus Christand you

are His! Restalone upon Him and you are a plant of His right-hand planting,
and shall never be rooted up. God grant that you may blossomto the skies.
But, dear Friends, all the laborers and all the new plants would not be what
the Church requires if she had not something else–foreverygarden needs
rain, and every gardenneeds sunshine. This Church, if it had ever so many
laborers, could never prosper without the dew of the Holy Spirit and the
sunshine of the Divine favor. We have had these blessings to a very great
extent. We must pray that we may have more. I should like to know of some of
you how long it is since you have been to a PrayerMeeting. Shall I stop and let
you count? Well, you have not been just lately because it is Christmas time.
Very well, I did not expectto see you. And if I had expected, I should have
been disappointed.
But it was not Christmas time lastOctober, and yet you were not here then!
Some of you very seldom come at all. If you are lawfully detained at home, I
would never ask you to come, or upbraid you for minding your home duties.
You have no right to leave legitimate business that ought to be done to come
here. But I am certainthat some of you are idle and might come if you liked. I
pray the Lord to send you a horsewhipin the shape of trouble in your
consciencetill you do come, for it very much weakensus all in our prayers
when our numbers decline!
And wheneverpeople come to despise weeknightservices–be sure of it–
farewellto the vital powerof godliness, for weeknightservices are very, very
much the stamp of the man. Any hypocrite will come on a Sunday, but a man
does need to take some interest in religious services to be found mingling with
the people of God in prayer. Am I to believe that some of you do not care
whether souls are savedor not? Am I to believe that some of you, our Church
members, have no care whether our ministry is blessedor not? Am I to
believe that you continue members of a Church in which you take no interest?
Am I to believe that it is nothing to you whether Christ is crownedor
despised? I will not believe it!
And yet your absence from the meetings for prayer tends to make me fear
that it must be so. I beg you correctyourselves in this matter, and as the
King’s gardenneeds rain and sunshine and we cannotexpect to have it
without prayer, let us not forget the assembling of ourselves togetheras the
manner of some is. Oh, for more prayer! More to pray! And for those who do
pray, to pray with more fervor and more constancyin supplication! One favor
I would ask. If you cannotcome to the Prayer Meetings–andmany of you, I
know, cannot, and I do not speak to you blaming you–but do pray in the
family, do pray in the closetfor us. Do not let us become poor in prayer. It is a

bad thing to become poor in money because we needit for a thousand causes,
and cannotget on without it. But we can do without money better than we can
do without prayer! We must have your prayers. I had almost said, if you do
not give us your daily prayers give up your membership, for it is no goodto
yourselves and cannot be of any use to us. The very leastthing that a Church
member can do is to plead with God that the blessing may descend. It is the
King’s garden, and will you not pray for it? It is the King’s own garden in
which He loves to walk and which He has purchasedwith His blood–shallnot
your prayers go up that His Church may flourish, and that His kingdom may
come?
And now, lastly, on this point. This King’s garden, what does it produce? If
there had been time, I meant to have waited while you answeredthe question
as to how much you produced. Sometimes in our garden we have a tree which
is so loaded with fruit that we have to put props under it to keepthe branches
from trembling. There are one or two in this Church of that sort, who bear
much fruit for God, and are so weak in body that their very fruitfulness of
zeal and earnestnessseems as though it would break them. I pray God that
with His gracious promise He may prop them up. I am afraid that this is not
the picture of most of us. You sayto the gardenersometimes, “Will there be
any fruit on that tree this season? Itis time that it should show.” He looks,
and looks, andlooks again, and at lastthe goodman says, “I think I cansee
one little one up at time top, Sir, but I do not know whether it will come to
much.”
That, I am afraid, is the photograph of many professors.There is fruit, or else
they would not be saved ones, but it is “a little one.” “Herein is my Father
glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be My disciples.” Mayyour
prayer be not for fruit only, but for much fruit, and may God send it!
Remember, if there is any fruit at all, it all belongs to the King. If a soul is
saved, He shall have the glory of it. If there is any advance made in the great
cause ofTruth and righteousness,the crown shall be put upon His head. The
keepers ofthe vineyard shall have their hundreds, but the King Himself shall
have His 10,000stime 10,000s,forHe deserves it all.
VI. And now, dear Friends, before I send you away, there is one more garden
I must mention, but the time is so far past that I shall not keepyou to say
much about it. It is the GARDEN OF THE PARADISE ABOVE. I shall let
God’s Word speak to you about that garden, and then have done. “And he
showedin a pure river of water of life, clearas crystal, proceeding out of the
throne of God and of the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on either
side of the river, was there the Tree of Life, which bore 12 manner of fruits,

and yielded her fruit every month and the leaves of the tree were for the
healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse but the throne of God
and of the Lamb shall be in it; and His servants shall serve Him: and they
shall see His face;and His name shall be on their foreheads. And there shall
be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the
Lord God gives them light: and they shall reign forever and ever.”
In that garden of the Paradise above may we all be found at the last. Amen.
Previous Next
King Jesus Hath a Garden
• Duration: 5 minutes
• Chorus: SSAA
• Instrumentation: Organ
• Published by: Hawes Music
A bright, festive arrangement of the well-known Dutch carol written for the girls of the
Charterhouse Choir.
Each verse provides variation and contrast with the intricate, playful organ underpinning the
soprano and alto textures.
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King Jesus hath a garden, full of divers flowers,
Where I go culling posies gay, all times and hours.
Refrain:
There naught is heard but Paradise bird,
Harp, dulcimer, lute,

With cymbal, trump and tymbal,
And the tender, soothing flute.
The Lily, white in blossom there, is Chastity:
The Violet, with sweet perfume, Humanity. Refrain
The bonny Damask-rose is known as Patience:
The blithe and thrifty Marygold, Obedience. Refrain
The Crown Imperial bloometh too in yonder place,
‘Tis Charity, of stock divine, the flower of grace. Refrain
Yet, ‘mid the brave, the bravest prize of all may claim
The Star of Bethlem-Jesus-bless’d be his Name! Refrain
Ah! Jesu Lord, my heal and weal, my bliss complete,
Make thou my heart thy garden-plot, fair, trim and neat. Refrain
Words from Heer Jesus heeft een Hofken,
Traditional Dutch from Geestlijcke Harmonie, Emmerich, 1633
Translation by Rev. George R. Woodward (1848-1934)
https://www.patrickhawes.com/2016/11/24/king-jesus-hath-garden/
Here’s What Grows in King Jesus’ Garden
16
http://blog.adw.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/flower-
garden-634578_960_720.jpghttp://blog.adw.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/flower-garden-
634578_960_720.jpgFlowers, besides being beautiful, have often been used in Christian tradition
to signify virtues and remind us of the saints. For example, consider this brief meditation of St.
Augustine on the virtues related to our state in life:
I tell you again and again, my brethren, that in the Lord’s garden are to be found not only the
roses of his martyrs. In it there are also the lilies of the virgins, the ivy of wedded couples, and
the violets of widows. On no account may any class of people despair, thinking that God has not
called them. Christ suffered for all. What the Scriptures say of him is true: He desires all men to
be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth (Sermo 304, 1-4: PL 38, 1395-1397).

In addition, a number of flowers trace their name to the Virgin Mary. The marigold, most often a
bright yellow color, is a shortened version of “Mary’s gold.” The carnation is a corruption of the
word “coronation”; these flowers were often used to crown statues of Mary. The herb rosemary
is said to honor Mary’s title Rosa Mystica, (Mystical Rose). The beautiful Lady’s Slipper was
shortened from “Our Lady’s Slipper.”
Consider, too, this old Dutch carol from the 17th century, which links various virtues to flowers
in the garden of King Jesus:
King Jesus has a garden, full of diverse flowers
Where I go cutting bright bouquets, all times and hours.
Refrain:
There, naught is heard but Paradise bird,
Harp, dulcimer, lute,
With cymbal, trump and timbral,
And the tender, soothing flute.
The Lily, white in blossom there, is Chastity:
The Violet, with sweet perfume, Humility.
The lovely Damask-rose is known as Patience:
The bright and sturdy Marigold, Obedience.
The Crown Imperial also blooms in yonder place,
`Tis Charity, of stock divine, the flower of grace.
Yet, mid the brave, the bravest prize of all may claim
The Star of Bethlem—Jesus—blessed be his Name.
Ah! Jesu Lord, my heal and weal, my bliss complete,
Make thou my heart thy garden-plot, fair, trim and neat.
–Traditional Dutch, from Geestlijcke Harmonie, 1633; tr. George Woodward in Songs of Syon,
1908.
A few years back I made a video that features a rendition of this carol. I hope you’ll enjoy the
music and the beautiful flowers and celebrate the virtues in the garden of King Jesus.
The King of Creation in the Gardens of Redemption
A Holy Week/Easter Series
By Verlan Van Ee
• RW 106
During Holy Week we often focus on the “red” storyline of Christ’s shed blood offered as
atonement for our sins. This is the central message of the cross. However, both before and
beyond the cross is a bigger, grander, “greener” story of redemption that highlights the “red”
storyline even more.

My original inspiration for this series was from the first lesson in a young adult study entitled
Voices. There the author outlines an overview of Scripture and the redemptive drama through
four “covenant gardens”: the garden of Eden, the garden of Gethsemane, the garden of
Resurrection (Jesus’ tomb), and the garden of Heaven (the new heaven and the new earth
mentioned in Rev. 21).
With additional inspiration from Cal DeWitt (author of Earthwise [Faith Alive]), and after
purchasing a copy of the Green Bible (HarperOne), I knew it was “planting time.” So I expanded
my short “Easter Garden” sunrise service into a four-part “Green Redemption” series.
A cautionary note: If the term “green” raises red flags in your church and community, you may
want to eliminate the use of the terms “green” and “red” in the following services. The focus on
the creational fullness of Christ’s redemption can be communicated without “green” language.
However, consider this: Where is the first mention of color in the Bible? What color is it?
Hopefully, your own wrestling with these questions and key Scriptures (perhaps along with your
council and worship leaders) will impassion you to preach a Christ-centered “Gardens of
Redemption” series of your own.
Palm Sunday: The King of Creation Comes to ReclaimHis Garden
Scripture: Colossians 1:15-20; Luke 19:28-40 (also ref. Matt. 21:12-17)
Our church practices blended worship, and it was refreshing to discover how creational and
“green” many of the traditional hymns and contemporary praise songs are.
Our Palm Sunday worship began with contemporary upbeat “Hosanna” songs and then
transitioned into a time of prayer, confession, and profession. Following the Apostle’s Creed we
sang “Holy, Holy, Holy.” Then, following the message, we planned an atypical second praise
section using three hymns: “Beautiful Savior,” “Hosanna, Loud Hosanna,” and “All Glory, Laud,
and Honor.” Following a blessing from “Christ, the King of Creation” we sang “Glory, Glory to
the King of Kings.”
This service and message highlighted Christ’s claim on the whole of creation, and his coming in
the incarnation as the Son of man—the Son of Adam—the perfect “second Adam” who has
come to reclaim and redeem “all things [which] were created by him and for him” (Col. 1:16b).
Cal DeWitt posed the following five questions to a pastors’ group I was a part of. I don’t recall
the precise wording and order of the questions, but they gave me new “glasses” through which I
saw the Scriptures in a glorious new light.
• Question 1: Why is “Son of Man” the title Jesus most often uses to refer to himself?
(Check the gospels; the NIV Study Bible has a very helpful footnote at Mark 8:31.)
• Question 2: What does it mean to be a human being made in the image of God: the deity
who fully became human in Jesus Christ? Read and unpack the Christological hymn of
Colossians 1:15-20. Then answer this additional key question: What does it mean to
follow Jesus, the Christ, “the firstborn over all creation”?
• Question 3: Why did Mary Magdalene mistake the risen Jesus for the gardener in John
20:15? Contemplate Rembrandt’s painting “The Resurrected Lord Appears to Mary
Magdalen.” What biblical, Reformed, and “green” implications are embedded in this
garden painting?

• Question 4: Reflect on Psalm 24:1 (NIV). What does “everything” and “all” really
include? (Cal DeWitt actually put us pastors to the test by asking, “What Greek word
does the OT Septuagint use for ‘everything’ and why?” (You may want to check other
English translations if this is “Greek and Hebrew” to you).
• Question 5: Now in light of Psalm 24:1, read Mark 16:15 and ask yourself again, What is
“all” included in Mark’s shorter but more comprehensive version of the Great
Commission (Matt. 28:16-20)? Check out other English versions of Mark 16:15, noting
that “preach the good news to all creation” (NIV) is also translated “to every creature.”
How can humans “preach the good news” to the birds of the sky, the fish of the sea, and
all living creatures? That, of course, will bring you back to Genesis 1 and 2, which also is
a great place to begin your “green” reread of the Scriptures.
I used Luke’s version of the Triumphal Entry because it includes Jesus’ words that “the stones
will cry out” (Luke 19:40) with praise if the joyful assembly of disciples were kept quiet. Why
the stones? Because all creation cries out to praise its Creator. The message began with a
personal experience of God’s grandeur in the Garden of the Gods in Colorado and ended with a
return to the Garden of Eden following our King of creation.
Song Suggestions
“Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty” LUYH, CH 3, PH 138, PsH 249, SWM 28, TH 100, WR 136
“Beautiful Savior” LUYH, PsH 461, WR 105
“Hosanna, Loud Hosanna” LUYH, CH 297, PH89,PsH 378,WR 267
“All Glory, Laud, and Honor” LUYH, CH 300, PH88,PsH 375/376,SFL 161, TH235, WR 265
GoodFriday: The King’s Gracious Submission in a Garden called
Gethsemane
Scripture: Matthew 26:36-46
On Good Friday we used the classic hymn “In the Garden” to set the tone. The service was an
invitation to a deeper relationship with Christ, to come and “walk with him in the garden” more
often by watching and praying with him in that darkest garden of all: Gethsemane.
Here the “green” and “red” storylines of Scripture come together vividly as the fully human and
fully divine “Son of Man” suffers and sweats great drops of blood, wrestling with his Father in
prayer over the redemption of the world that God loves.
Before the message we sang a medley of “Standing on Holy Ground” with “Were You There.”
In the message, present-day pictures of the garden of Gethsemane were used to ground the
message in the down-to-earth aspects of redemption, and other classic pictures of Christ’s
praying and suffering were used to invite us into the intense spiritual realities of Christ’s
sacrifice for us. A key contrast was comparing the first Adam, who submitted to sin in the
glorious paradise of the garden of Eden, to the second sinless Adam, Christ, who bore our sin
and suffering in the crushing darkness of the garden of Gethsemane.
After the message we used John 3:16 as the invitation to holy communion. During communion
we sang “The Wonderful Cross,” “Man of Sorrows—What a Name,” “There Is a Redeemer,”
and “You Are My King/Amazing Love.” Following the blessing we sang “My Tribute.”
Mary wasn’t really mistaken when she thought Jesus was a gardener.

Song Suggestions
“Were You There” LUYH, CH 315, PH102, PsH 377,SFL 167, TH 260, WR 283
“The Wonderful Cross” (Matt Redman and Chris Tomlin) LUYH
“Man of Sorrows—What a Name” LUYH, CH 311, PsH 482,TH 246,WR 301
“There Is a Redeemer” LUYH, CH 308, SNC 145, SWM 128, WR 117
“You Are My King/Amazing Love” LUYH, CH 351, CSW 12, WR 259
“My Tribute” LUYH, CH 54, TH640, WR 363
EasterSunday: Our ResurrectedGardenerKing Makes Everything New!
Scripture: John 20:1-18;
Revelation 21:1-7
Easter Sunday is the climax of this series, with the subtle revelation that Mary wasn’t really
mistaken when she was thought Jesus was a gardener (John 20:15b). Rembrandt’s 1638 painting
“The Risen Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalen” (see back cover of this issue of RW) helps
frame this expansive vision of the scope of Christ’s resurrection.
We hoped this service would be a wake-up call to those who had only seen the “red” redemptive
storyline of Scripture. Our resurrected Lord is not just our personal Savior; he is indeed the King
of Creation and the Restorer of all creation. He is the divine/human Gardener who reestablishes
an unbreakable covenant bond between heaven and Earth, between God the Creator and his
redeemed creation.
In order to reveal the greener, earthy ramifications of Christ’s resurrection, we first projected
some of the typical blinding, bright-light pictures of Christ’s resurrection. Then we reflected on
Rembrandt’s painting in our dimly lit sanctuary. It is subtle upon first sight, but profound in its
scope—so much so that the series would not have been complete without that forward look to the
future garden of our God.
Once again, both traditional and contemporary Easter songs complement this series. The hymns
“Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven” and “Crown Him with Many Crowns” call all creation
into God’s glorious praise.
Song Suggestions
“Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven” LUYH, CH 1, PH 478, PsH 475, TH 76/77,WR 82
“Crown Him with Many Crowns” LUYH, CH 45, PH 151,PsH 410, SFL 181, TH295, WR 317
Ideas for Visuals
Being visually creative can help bring this series “down to earth” where it belongs. Try to create
a garden setting in your sanctuary, perhaps starting already in the entryway and fellowship area.
Why not ask members to loan their house plants and have a team of people who know how to
arrange them create a garden-like setting? If you have landscapers in your church, use them.
Bringing in some big stones to “cry out” their Creator’s praise could work for Palm Sunday and
perhaps double to suggest the stone tomb of Easter. Maybe a local nursery would donate small
potted trees that could be used inside during the series and then planted Luther-style in the
church grounds to conclude the series. This might even be the beginning of a memorial prayer
garden for your church.

Sunday after Easter:Back to the Future Garden of Our God
Scripture: Revelation 21:1-5; 22:1-6
I’m sure my upcoming Easter message could have used a little more work, but I chose to follow
that great preacher, Luther, who got out of the study and into the world to dirty his hands with
the holy earthiness of planting trees.
The final message of this series posed a question that was intended to get people to think and act
re-creationally. The question was “What’s your view of heaven?” The action point was “How
does your view of heaven affect how you live on earth?”
I used three types of pictures to frame the question: typical Garden of Eden pictures like Adam
naming the animals; typical heaven pictures of golden light, angels, with Jesus in the clouds or
God on the throne; and the picture by William Strutt called “A Little Child Shall Lead Them”
based on Isaiah 11:6. Then I asked, “Which picture best represents your view of Heaven?”
In the end the key Scripture was Jesus’ words in Revelation 21:5, “I am making everything
new,” coupled with the challenge to join the King of Creation in renewing his reclaimed garden
of earth here and now.
The well-known story about Martin Luther being caught planting a tree in his backyard by a
church member who thought that preachers should spend their time with more churchly things
makes a great ending. The pious church member questions Luther’s tree planting by asking what
he’d be doing that minute if he knew Jesus was returning the next day. Luther answers boldly
that he would finish the planting the peach tree so that it might become part of the new earth
under a new heaven.
A year after I preached this Easter series, Earth Day fell on Holy Saturday, and several young
adults from our church and community were planting trees on the disc golf course we had built
together. I’m sure my upcoming Easter message could have used a little more work, but I chose
to follow that great preacher, Luther, who got out of the study and into the world to dirty his
hands with the holy earthiness of planting trees.
Song Suggestions
“Hallelujah Forever” CSW 24
About the Author
Verlan Van Ee
Verlan Van Ee is the pastor of Living Hope Community Church in Fox Lake, Wisconsin.
The Tale of Two Gardens
Articles

Dr. Dan Hayden •
Let’s go for a walk in the garden. The serenity of a garden is a good place to get in touch with
your thoughts – where you’ve been and where you are going. And if you are listening, the garden
itself may have something to tell you. For if the truth is known, all of life can be told in a tale of
two gardens…
The Garden of Eden
A well-kept garden is full of spectacular wonders as the shades of green foliage encompass the
splashes of color. Yet in the garden of God, there was an exalted splendor above anything we
have ever known. The Bible called it Eden and described it as a paradise of sensory pleasure
where divine perfection reached out and touched human awe.
“No evil thoughts can enter here,” you would say. A perfect environment is the ultimate answer
for our human woes. Yet, that is where our pain and trouble began. In glorious Eden, man chose
himself over God and plunged the perfect creation into a chaotic pattern of sin and death. The
Bible says that every evil and all sadness can be traced to the rebellion of the human heart
against God in that garden.
As you think about where you have been, you would do well to listen to the tale of Eden. You,
like the rest of us, are the product of that rebellion and subsequent eternal alienation from God.
You are a son or daughter of Adam, part of a depraved race that lost its innocence in the first
garden. The record of Eden is the story of paradise lost. Your paradise lost.
The Garden of Gethsemane
It was dark as twelve men crossed the brook in the early hours of the morning. Shimmers of light
from the not too distant city cast ominous shadows through the garden of gnarled olive leaves.
Gethsemane was what they called the olive press so prominently exposed in the heart of the
grove. Eleven men lay down to rest. One lone figure knelt to pray. It was a night for evil and the
drama of our hope was beginning to unfold in the colorless recesses of the garden – the Garden
of Gethsemane.
There was nothing spectacular about this garden. Only the symbolism of olives crushed and oils
flowing captures our attention. Yet it was there that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, resisted
temptation to rebel against the will of God and submitted himself to be sacrificed for our sins.
What Adam had refused to do in the first garden, Jesus agreed to do in this garden – He obeyed.
Only hours later, Jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world.
There is a Choice
The Bible says that Jesus Christ is the “last Adam.” What the first Adam lost in the Garden of
Eden, the last Adam regained in the Garden of Gethsemane. Now there is a choice. For all who
are lost in Adam, there is the hope of being saved in Christ. It is simply a matter of repenting of
your sin and placing your faith in Jesus Christ as the One who paid the penalty for your guilt.
After thinking about where you have been, perhaps you would like to think where you are going.
Listen to the Garden of Gethsemane. You can go to God’s heaven with your sins forgiven

through faith in Jesus Christ as your Savior. Paradise lost can be paradise regained – for you.
That is the tale of two gardens. ■
The Scriptures tell us that the Son of God began His sufferings in a Garden and brought them to
a close in a Garden. That is an absolutely amazing display of God's wisdom. After all, Jesus is
the second Adam undoing what Adam did and doing what Adam failed to do (Rom. 5:12-21; 1
Cor. 15:47-49). He is the Heavenly Bridegroom, entering into His sufferings in a Garden for the
redemption of His bride, the Church. He is the Heavenly Gardener, giving Himself to the
cultivation of the souls of His people through His atoning sacrifice and continual intercession.
When He hung on the cross, He spoke of Glory under the name of "Paradise"--an evident
allusion to the paradise in which our first parents dwelt and the paradise from which they fell. He
is the second Adam who, by the shedding of His blood, secured the New Creation. As we
consider the double entendres of the fourth Gospel, we come to those specifically concerning the
biblical theology of the second Adam in the Garden. Consider the theological significance of the
following two Garden settings in which Christ carried out the work of redemption:
1. Jesus began His sufferings in a Garden in order to show that He came to undo what Adam had
done. In his soul-stirring book, Looking Unto Jesus, Isaac Ambrose explained the theological
significance of the Garden motif in the Gospels--both with regard to the beginning of Christ's
sufferings in the Garden of Gethsemane and at the end of His sufferings in the Garden where His
body was laid to rest in the tomb. Concerning the first of these symbolic gardens, Ambrose
suggested:
"Jesus went forth with his disciples over the brook Kidron, where there was a garden
(John 18:1)" many mysteries are included in this word, and I believe it is not without
reason that our Savior goes into a garden...Because a garden was the place wherein we
fell, and therefore Christ made choice of a garden to begin there the greatest work of our
redemption: in the first garden was the beginning of all evils; and in this garden was the
beginning of our restitution from all evils; in the first garden, the first Adam was
overthrown by Satan, and in this garden the second Adam overcame, and Satan himself
was by him overcome; in the first garden sin was contracted; and we were indebted by
our sins to God, and in this garden sin was paid for by that great and precious price of the
blood of God: in the first garden man surfeited by eating the forbidden fruit, and in this
garden Christ sweat it out wonderfully, even by a bloody sweat; in the first garden, death
first made its entrance into the world; and in this garden life enters to restore us from
death to life again; in the first garden Adam's liberty tosin brought himself and all of us
into bondage; and, in this garden, Christ being bound and fettered, we are thereby freed
and restored to liberty. I might thus descant in respect of every circumstance, but this is
the sum, in a garden first began our sin, and in this garden first began the passion, that
great work and merit of our redemption.1
Since "a garden was the place wherein we fell...therefore Christ made choice of a garden to begin
there the greatest work of our redemption." He is the second Adam. It is fitting, therefore, that
His work of undoing all that Adam did should begin in a Garden. Charles Spurgeon drew out his
same observation when he observed: "May we not conceive that as in a garden Adam’s self-
indulgence ruined us, so in another garden the agonies of the second Adam should restore us.

Gethsemane supplies the medicine for the ills which followed upon the forbidden fruit of Eden.
No flowers which bloomed upon the banks of the four-fold river were ever so precious to our
race as the bitter herbs which grew hard by the black and sullen stream of Kedron."
2. Jesus concluded His sufferings in a Garden to show that He accomplished all that Adam failed
to accomplish. It is not only in a garden that Jesus began the work of redemption; it is in a
Garden that Jesus finished the work of redemption. Our Lord Jesus was buried and raised in a
Garden. When he came to expound the account of Mary Magdalene outside of the Garden-tomb,
weeping and thinking that Christ was merely "the Gardener" on the day of His resurrection,
Ambrose again noted:
As Adam in the state of grace and innocency, was placed in a garden, and the first office
allotted to him, was to be a gardener; so Jesus Christ appeared first in a garden, and
presents himself in a gardener's likeness: and as that first gardener was the parent of sin,
the ruin of'mankind, and the author of death; so is this gardener the ransom for our sin;
the raiser of our ruins, and the restorer of our life. In some sense, then, and in a mystery,
Christ was a gardener; but Mary's mistake was in supposing him the gardener of that only
place; and not the gardener of our souls.3
Spurgeon further unpacked the idea that the Scriptures mean for us to view Jesus as the Gardener
of the souls of His people when we see Him appearing to Mary in the Garden where His body
had been buried. In his sermon, "Supposing Him to be the Gardener," he explained:
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 keep it. Man in his best estate was not to live in this
world in a paradise of indolent luxury, but in a garden of recompensed toil. Behold, the
church is Christ's Eden, watered by the river of life, and so fertilized that all manner of
fruits are brought forth unto God; and he, our second Adam, walks in this spiritual Eden
to dress it and to keep it; and so by a type we see that we are right in "supposing him to
be the gardener." Thus also Solomon thought of him when he described the royal
Bridegroom as going down with his spouse to the garden when the flowers appeared on
the earth and the fig tree had put forth her green figs; he went out with his beloved for the
reservation of the gardens, saying, "Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines:
for our vines have tender grapes." Neither nature, nor Scripture, nor type, nor song
forbids us to think of our adorable Lord Jesus as one that careth for the flowers and fruits
of his church.4
Adam was called to guard and keep the Garden. This certainly included his need to protect his
bride from the temptations of the evil one. When Jesus entered into His sufferings on the cross,
He did so with His bride--the church--with Him there in the Garden. As Adam should have
warned Eve to "watch and pray lest you enter into temptation," so Jesus warns His bride--the
Church to do that very thing. There is a striking parallel between the events of the two Gardens--
Eden and Gethsemane.
There are also striking parallels between the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the tree
from which Jesus is to drink the fruit of the cup place before Him. In the Garden of Eden, God
told Adam that he could eat of every tree except one. In the Garden of Gethsemane, God the
Father essentially told Jesus to eat from one tree and one tree only. "The cup" symbolized the
fruit of Adam's sin--the wrath of God. The wrath of God was the fruit that Jesus was to partake

of as our Redeemer. When he presses through the soul struggles of Gethsemane and makes His
way to the sufferings of Gothgotha, Jesus is showing that He is the second Adam who came
conquering and to conquer--Satan, sin and death. Now, all those who trust in him are given
freely to eat of the Tree of Life.
Sinclair Ferguson sums this all up for us when he writes:
Adam was to "garden" the whole earth for the glory of His Father. But he failed. Created
to make the dust fruitful, he himself became part of the dust. The Garden of Eden became
the wilderness of this world. But do you also remember how John's Gospel records what
happened on the morning of Jesus' resurrection? He was "the beginning [of the new
creation], the firstborn from the dead." But Mary Magdalene did not recognize Him;
instead, she spoke to him, "supposing him to be the gardener." Well, who else would he
be, at that time in the morning?
The Gardner? Yes, indeed. He is the Gardener. He is the second Man, the last Adam, who
is now beginning to restore the Garden.
Later that day Jesus showed his disciples where the nails and the spear had drawn blood
from his hands and side. The Serpent had indeed crushed his heal. But he had crushed the
Serpent's head! Now he was planning to turn the wilderness back into a garden. Soon he
would send his disciples into the world with the good news of his victory. All authority
on earth--lost by Adam--was now regained. The world must now be reclaimed by Jesus
the conquerer.
In the closing scenes of the book of Revelation, John saw the new earth coming down
from heaven. What did it look like? A garden in which the tree of life stands!5
Meditation on these truths ought to make our souls to sing. These truths should stir up within us
greater love to the Christ who first loved us. They should make us long to go to the One who
tends to and tills the soil of our souls. We are a garden to our God and Father, and Jesus in our
heavenly Gardener who cultivates the sweet fruit of the Gospel in us.
1. Isaac Ambrose Looking Unto Jesus (Pittsburgh: Luke Loomis & Co., 1832) pp. 337-338
2. An excerpt from C.H. Spurgeon's sermon, "The Agony in Gethsemane."
3. Ambrose Looking Unto Jesus p. 442
4. An excerpt from Spurgeon's sermon "Supposing Him to be the Gardener."
5. Alistair Begg and Sinclair Ferguson, Name Above All Names (Crossway, 2013) p. 34.
https://www.placefortruth.org/blog/jesus-the-true-and-greater-gardener
Why Is the Garden of Gethsemane so Crucial
to Jesus' Life?
Jessica Brodie

It is a vulnerable moment just after the Last Supper when Jesus has told His closest friends on
earth what would soon happen to Him — the painful betrayal He would endure from one of
them, and His coming arrest, torture, and crucifixion.
Filled with anguish and deep dread over what He would soon experience, Jesus withdraws with
His inner circle, the three disciples closest to Him, and takes refuge in a special place. There,
alone on His knees in the dark night beneath the shelter of olive trees, in a place called the
Garden of Gethsemane, He cries out to His Father God.
And then, resolutely, He does what He needs to do to save all humankind.
Where Is the Garden of Gethsemane?
While the exact location is difficult to pinpoint, the Bible indicates the Garden of Gethsemane is
on the Mount of Olives, a historic place of great meaning throughout the Bible. The Mount of
Olives was a “Sabbath day’s walk from the city,” we are told in Acts 1:12. Easton’s 1897 Bible
Dictionary tells us the Mount of Olives was named as such because it was clothed in olive trees.
Sitting about 200 feet above sea level, it was one of a few mountain ridges east of Jerusalem and
afforded a good view of the city. The valley of Kidron lies between the mountain and Jerusalem,
and the whole region was a place Jesus often visited in his travels throughout the Gospels.
The Mount of Olives is a place of significance; King Solomon erected a “high place” there for
the worship of foreign gods, causing the Lord to become very angry with him (1 Kings 7-11).
King David and his followers fled Jerusalem through the Kidron Valley and up the Mount of
Olives, weeping and barefoot, after his son Absalom rebelled with an uprising (2 Samuel 15:13-
30). The Old Testament prophet Zechariah prophesied that “a day of the Lord” would be coming
when the Lord would stand upon the Mount of Olives, ready for battle, and be king over the
whole earth (Zechariah 14:1-9).
The garden was a place of profound weight, where not only a momentous happening in the life
and death of our Lord Jesus Christ occurs, but also where we can learn critical lessons about
what it means to be a Christian.
What Is the Garden of Gethsemane?
The Garden of Gethsemane was a place of great importance to Jesus, referred to in all four
Gospels as a place where Christ retreated into deep prayer and a time of agony before His arrest
and crucifixion, and near where He ascended to heaven in the Book of Acts.
According to Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Gethsemane is translated from the
Greek to mean “an oil press.” It is a place thought to be situated at the base of the Mount of
Olives beyond the Kidron Valley. Because of its reference to an oil press on a mountain ridge
covered in olive trees, it is assumed to be a small garden, plot of ground or enclosure tucked
away and relatively private. It also likely contained an oil press, a mechanical device of sorts
used to crush olives and then extract their oil for cooking and other uses.
Gethsemane is mentioned specifically by name only twice in the Bible, though references to it
are peppered throughout the New Testament as a place Jesus traveled to and through frequently.
In the Gospel of Matthew, it notes Jesus took His three closest disciples — Peter, James, and
John — with Him “to a place called Gethsemane” (Matthew 26:36) so He could pray. There He
wrestled in great sorrow with the torture and humiliation He knew was before Him.

The Bible recounts much the same in Mark 14:32, where that Gospel account also notes Jesus
took Peter, James, and John with Him “to a place called Gethsemane,” where He prayed in deep
distress, overwhelmed about what was to come.
What Happened in the Garden of Gethsemane at the Mount
of Olives?
The Gospels note that Jesus told His disciples to “sit here while I pray” (Mark 14:32). He
acknowledged His sadness, asking them to keep watch, as “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow
to the point of death” (14:34). He walked a bit farther from them, sank to His knees, and cried
out to His Father, God. “‘Abba, Father,’ He said, ‘everything is possible for You. Take this cup
from me. Yet not what I will, but what You will’” (14:36). This was no casual prayer — Jesus
was distraught. Matthew’s Gospel tells us “He fell with His face to the ground” (Matthew 26:39)
as He prayed with all His might.
He prayed throughout the night, periodically returning to His disciples to find them sleeping. The
Gospels recount Jesus chastising them for their weakness and inability to keep watch during this
time of deep need, a time when He prayed so earnestly the Gospel of Luke said “His sweat was
like drops of blood falling to the ground” (22:44). When He returned to wake His friends the
third time, however, Jesus appeared resolute, ready to face the path His Father had laid before
Him. “Are you still sleeping and resting?” Jesus asked. “Enough! The hour has come. Look, the
Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes My betrayer!”
(Mark 14:41-42).
Just then, Judas, one of Jesus’s twelve disciples, arrived with a large crowd armed with swords
and clubs. With a kiss, Judas betrayed Jesus, and the Son of God was seized and arrested (Mark
14:43-46). One of Jesus’s disciples — John says it is Peter — attempts to defend Jesus, drawing
his sword and slicing off the ear of Malchus, the servant of the high priest (John 18:10). But after
His all-night agony of sorrow and prayer, Jesus knew what needed to happen. He would have no
violence or resistance. “Jesus answered, ‘No more of this!’ And He touched the man’s ear and
healed him” (Luke 22:51). Then, He went with the crowd willingly. At that, as Jesus had
predicted, “All the disciples deserted Him and fled” (Matthew 26:56).
Later, after His death and resurrection, the Book of Acts, also known as Acts of the Apostles,
places Jesus again upon the Mount of Olives (Acts 1:12). The disciples asked Jesus whether He
would now be restoring the kingdom to Israel. Jesus responded, “‘It is not for you to know the
times or dates the Father has set by His own authority. But you will receive power when the
Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’ After He said this, He was taken up before their very eyes,
and a cloud hid Him from their sight” (Acts 1:6-9).
As the disciples stood, staring into the sky where they had last seen their Lord ascend, two angels
appeared beside them, reproving them for standing and staring into the sky, and letting them
know Jesus would come back in the very same way they’d seen Him depart. Then the disciples
headed back from the Mount of Olives to Jerusalem, ready to do the work Jesus had planned for
them (1:10-12).

Why Is the Garden of Gethsemane Important?
Not only was the garden an important locale, special to Jesus as a place where He sought much-
needed comfort and solace with His Father in a time of pain and sadness, and the place where He
was betrayed and arrested, but it also serves as a setting for important instruction on key
concepts critical for today’s Christians. First, we are shown Jesus as the true “Word (that)
became flesh” (John 1:14), the incarnate Son of the Lord God, born of a virgin and called
Immanuel — God with us (Isaiah 7:14). This means that Jesus, though very much divine, also
shared fully and completely in the human condition. There in the Garden of Gethsemane, He felt
sorrow and great distress over the hardship He would need to endure. He sought out the quiet and
privacy of this special place so He could go before God and beg for a reprieve — though not a
reprieve from the will of God, which Jesus was committed to.
Then, when His closest friends, whom He’d implored to stay awake and keep watch, couldn’t do
even that for Him, Jesus reacted with what could be interpreted as impatience, disgust, or
scolding. He, just like us, likely felt the sting of alienation, isolation, and betrayal. “‘Couldn’t
you men keep watch with Me for one hour?’ He asked Peter” (Matthew 26:40b). Second, Jesus’s
references to the coming sacrifice and pain by referring to them as “this cup” (Matthew 26:39,
42, Mark 14:36, Luke 22:42) are thought to be a reference to the cup of “the blood of the
covenant” (Matthew 36:27-29). This blood is Jesus’s blood (Mark 14:23-24), which He said at
the Last Supper was poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. There with His disciples at
their last major gathering before His arrest and crucifixion, Jesus did not merely share a holy
meal with His closest friends. Rather, He told them what was going to happen: He was going to
be a living sacrifice, offered as a debt payment for the sins of all humankind. He revealed He
would be betrayed by one of them, indeed that all of the disciples would scatter, and even Peter
would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed the next morning (Matthew 26:34).
Third, Jesus’s nonviolent reaction when the armed and angry crowd came to arrest Him
underscores His message of peace and love, which He spent a great deal of time teaching His
followers during His time on earth. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus offered wisdom such as
turning the other cheek (Matthew 5:38-39), loving our enemies and praying for those who
persecute us (5:44), giving to the needy (6:1-4), serving God and not money or other temporary
things of the earth (6:19-24), etc. He exemplified that message in the final moments in the garden
as He was confronted with His arrest, both sides brandishing swords.
“‘Put your sword back in its place,’ Jesus said to him, ‘for all who draw the sword will die by the
sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more
than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must
happen in this way?’” (Matthew 26:52-54). The will of the Father would be done no matter what,
Jesus was saying, and there was no point in resisting or causing further bloodshed. And finally,
Jesus’s urging of the disciples to stay awake and keep watch in the garden helps us remember
what He wants us to do: to be on guard, to not succumb to temptation, to face even difficulties
we would rather avoid by turning to the Father and not to ourselves.
Even though they failed to do what He asked, His requests of them — and His modeling of the
right way to behave in times of distress and anguish — illuminates what we are to do today as
Christians. Today, the Garden of Gethsemane is a holy place, a pilgrimage site where people
flock today to wander among still-growing olive trees and try to pinpoint the exact place where
Jesus sank to His knees or offered Himself willingly over for arrest and sacrifice. Whether they

travel to the accurate location or not, or simply read about it, for many Christians meditating
upon the Garden of Gethsemane and its importance to Jesus is a significant step in understanding
the actions, the message, and the will of Christ.
Photo credit: Unsplash/David Boca
Jessica Brodie is an award-winning Christian novelist, journalist, editor, blogger, and writing
coach and the recipient of the 2018 American Christian Fiction Writers Genesis Award for her
novel, The Memory Garden. She is also the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist
Advocate, the oldest newspaper in Methodism, and a member of the Wholly Loved Ministries
team. Learn more at http://jessicabrodie.com.
Lessons From The Garden
Introduction
Preparing the soil
Fallow Ground
Tilling and Planting
Planting the Seed
Germination and the nature of seeds
Sunshine
Watering
Weeds
Pests and Insects
Fertilizer
Pruning
Harvesting
Conclusion
Introduction
The garden is God’s place where we fulfill His calling. Man was created in the beginning, and
placed in the garden. His first encounter with God took place there, and, unfortunately, sin began
in the garden. God cursed the ground because of man’s sin in the garden, but He also gave hope
and a divine promise for restoration in the garden.
The garden’s prominence did not begin and end in Eden. Nearly 4000 years after man’s first
transgression of the holy commandment, Jesus the Christ knelt in the garden of Gethsemane,

agonizing, over the will of his Father in heaven and declaring with droplets of blood on his
forehead, “Father, nevertheless, not my will, but Thine.”
The garden can be a place of hope, of decision, and as Jesus found out, a place of betrayal. The
garden has both good and bad in it; in the garden is evil and righteousness. In the garden is the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and also the tree of life.
Many Americans and folks across the globe love to plant, grow, and tend the garden. In this
study a common love for God’s creation in the rich and productive soil of their gardens is looked
at from a natural and spiritual perspective. It is an adventure in your own back yard and Christian
life with the lessons learned from composting, planting, pruning, harvesting, and yes, even
weeding!
Our prayer together for you is that the Creator will enrich your life as He has ours. Step-by-step
we can learn something from all phases of gardening, through the preparation of humus, the
nurturing of garden soil, choosing the right kind(s) of seed for both ground and raised gardens,
including proper drainage.
What does the Lord teach us from His word, the scriptures, in each phase of gardening? You will
see that each weed represents those areas in our lives that must not be allowed to “take root” and,
for example, like bitterness, be allowed to grow unchecked.
We are called together with the Lord Jesus Christ to work diligently in the harvest field of souls
each year, living and loving God’s creation, and nurturing individual crops by listening to and
obeying the word of God as we get our gloves dirty. Many things, even slugs, snails,
grasshoppers and aphids teach us lessons from the garden.
There is a two-fold purpose in writing this study. First, to share the joy of gardening, and to
make it something you can identify with as you plant and water your own garden. Sharing
insights and helpful gardening tips, including how to compost, how to build and maintain a
raised garden, soil preparation, planting techniques, and even weeding tips help build upon our
understanding of God’s agrarian church.
You will go on an adventure that takes you from seed to harvest, and secondly, but most
important, learn that each labor of love in the garden has a spiritual counterpart…a lesson…a
‘Lesson In The Garden!’ So sit back, pour yourself a cup of hot tea, or hot chocolate, snuggle in
front of the fire, and let the Lord Jesus use this humble work to teach you His marvelous and
simple ways.
Have you ever raised a vegetable garden? Every Spring I prepare my small vegetable garden for
planting, and raise a variety of vegetables. I plant carrots, lettuce, summer squash, zucchini
squash, cucumbers, rhubarb and potatoes. I was never too successful with tomatoes...not enough
sun. There are many spiritual lessons to be learned from working in the garden. Each year, as I
work in my garden, numerous truths from scripture come to mind. So, as we embark on a
journey together in the garden, let’s see what we can learn from God’s word.
Before starting, consider how much emphasis God puts on agriculture in the scriptures. Here are
a few examples:
1. From the beginning of creation, God createdthe earth to bear seedand
fruit:
Genesis 1:11-13

Then God said, “Let the earth sprout vegetation, plants yielding seed, {and} fruit trees bearing
fruit after their kind, with seed in them, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth
vegetation, plants yielding seed after their kind, and trees bearing fruit, with seed in them, after
their kind; and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, a third
day. (NAS)
From the beginning of our new life in Jesus Christ, God intended us to be as plants that yield
seed, and bear fruit after our “kind.” That is, we are to bear the fruit of the Spirit of God, and we
are to mature as plants that yield the “seed” of God’s word. Of course, “seed” can speak of the
nature of the man Jesus Christ, who was planted in God’s garden. Through Christ’s death and
burial, God brought new life forth in us through his resurrection. Except the seed (Christ) goes
into the ground (tomb) and dies, it cannot bear fruit of itself (John 12:24).
2. God’s plan for communing with mankind beganin a garden:
Genesis 2:8-9
And the LORD God planted a garden toward the east, in Eden; and there He placed the man
whom He had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God caused to grow every tree that is
pleasing to the sight and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the
tree of the knowledge of good and evil. (NAS)
God had created man (Adam) in His own image and likeness, so that man could have fellowship
with Him. Just as the gardener plants his seed, that he might nurture and tend the plants to bear
fruit, so God made man in the garden, so that He might nurture man with His love and truth.
God planted the “tree of life” in the garden of Eden to represent the place where man could come
to commune with Him. Later the “tree of life” in Eden’s garden symbolized the eternal life given
to us as the “fruit” of Jesus, who bore our sins in His body upon a tree (the cross).
Just like there are good and fruitful plants in a garden, so there are also harmful plants (weeds
and thorns), which can choke out the plants. There was also the “tree of the knowledge of good
and evil,” that which man could choose as an alternative to communion with God. The weeds are
things like greed and the cares of life that choke out the spiritual life and our growth as believers.
The “tree of the knowledge of good and evil” represents a toxic and noxious plant, and, as such,
is what man partakes of when he lives by his own human reasoning instead of living by every
word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Matthew 4:4).
3. Temptation and sin beganin a garden:
Genesis 3:1-13
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field, which the LORD God had made.
And he said to the woman, “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the
garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may
eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall
not eat from it or touch it, lest you die.’” And the serpent said to the woman, “You surely shall
not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be
like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make {one} wise, she took
from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of
both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves
together and made themselves loin coverings. And they heard the sound of the LORD God

walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the
presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the
man, and said to him, “Where are you?” And he said, “I heard the sound of Thee in the garden,
and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.” And He said, “Who told you that you
were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” And the man
said, “The woman whom Thou gavest {to be} with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate."”
Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said,
“The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (NAS)
A gardener, who is not careful to tend his or her garden, can allow harmful weeds, and even
poisonous plants to grow amongst the good vegetation. The tree of life is like the good
vegetation; the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents poisonous plants, which result
in sickness and death.
The serpent tempted Eve to partake of that which would bring forth death, while promising her
that it would make her “wise” like God. Satan deceived her, appealing to the lust of the eyes, the
lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life (1 John 2:16).
When we try to use our own reasoning, rather than being obedient to what God commands us,
we become deceived. Watch out! There may be a snake in the garden of your heart! If we choose
our own knowledge of what we think is “good” or “evil” rather than seeking the mind of Christ,
it brings forth death (Romans 6:23).
4. Redemption beganin a garden(Gethsemane):
Genesis 3:14-15
And the LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you more than
all cattle, and more than every beast of the field; on your belly shall you go, and dust shall you
eat all the days of your life; and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your
seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, and you shall bruise him on the heel.” (NAS)
Matthew 26:36-39
Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, “Sit here
while I go and pray over there.” And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and
He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed. Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly
sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.” He went a little farther and fell on His
face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless,
not as I will, but as You will.” (NKJ)
John 19:41
Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new tomb, in
which no one had yet been laid. (NAS)
Even though Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and listened to the voice of the serpent, the LORD
promised them there would come a plan for redemption. In Genesis 3:13-14 God said the “seed”
of the woman would “bruise” (Literally “crush”) the head of the serpent. The MASTER
GARDENER, who is God Himself, planted a perfect “seed” (Jesus) in the garden of humanity
(Galatians 3:16, 19). Jesus came, not only to redeem mankind from sin, but also to destroy the
works of the devil (1 John 3:8). Jesus crushed the head (authority) of the serpent, for all who will
believe in His name.

After planting His holy “seed” in the womb (uterus) of the virgin Mary, there came forth from
the earth of humanity (Mary) the fruit (Jesus) of the Spirit of God (the Master Gardener). Jesus
grew up as a “tender shoot” and was made like his brethren in all aspects (Read Isaiah Chapter
53 with Hebrews 2:16-18).
Isaiah 53:2
For [the Servant of God] grew up before Him like a tender plant, and like a root out of dry
ground… AMP
Jesus “grew” in wisdom and stature, and in favor with both God and man (Luke 2:52). As he
matured, Jesus bore the fruits of righteousness, love, mercy and compassion. In the garden of
Gethsemane the seed of redemption was planted, as Jesus chose not His own will, but the will of
God (Matthew 26:36-42). Jesus chose to die, that having tasted death, He might become the
source of eternal life for all who believe in Him.
Hebrews 2:9
But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering of death crowned
with glory and honor, that He, by the grace of God, might taste death for everyone. (NKJ)
Finally, in the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden with a tomb, and that is where
God’s seed (Jesus) was planted (buried). Other references for Jesus’ body being planted in death
are found in Matthew 27:60; Mark 15:42-47; Luke 23:50-56.
John 19:40-42
And so they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in linen wrappings with the spices, as is the
burial custom of the Jews. Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in
the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore on account of the Jewish
day of preparation, because the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there. NAS
When Jesus was raised from the dead, new life sprouted in God’s garden, offering hope to all
who are seed “after it’s kind” (i.e. - that are followers of, and believers in Jesus). Read Matthew
28: 1-11; Mark 16:1-8; 1 John 3:9-10; 1 Peter 1:23; James 3:18.
5. The kingdom of heaven is comparedto a garden:
Matthew 13:31-32
He presented another parable to them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed,
which a man took and sowed in his field; and this is smaller than all {other} seeds; but when it is
full grown, it is larger than the garden plants, and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air
come and nest in its branches.” (NAS)
The kingdom of heaven is likened to a mustard seed. Just like a man sows seed in a field, so
Jesus sowed himself into the ground of God’s garden. He likens the mustard seed that is the
smallest of seeds to Him, because Jesus made Himself the least, that He could be exalted to the
position of the greatest of all plants (Philippians 2:8-10).
So many analogies of gardening, farming, and vegetation exist in scripture, that it is literally
impossible to list every example without quoting a great percentage of the Bible itself! Next, we
will look at the steps of gardening. We will begin with preparing the soil, fertilizing, planting,
watering, weeding, pruning, and harvesting. In each category, you will see a simple, yet very
‘truth yielding’ crop of ideas found only in the...garden of God.

2 Corinthians 9:8-10
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in
everything, you may have abundance for every good deed; as it is written, "He scattered abroad,
he gave to the poor, His righteousness abides forever." Now He who supplies seed to the sower
and bread for food, will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of
your righteousness. NAS
Preparing the soil
Perhaps the most important ingredient of growing a garden is the proper preparation of the soil.
Those who are new to gardening often fail to recognize this vital step, and so their gardens yield
small, unripe, diseased, and unappealing vegetables. Soil speaks of the ground of our heart.
Unless we prepare our hearts properly for what God wants to plant inside of us, we will not yield
good fruit. If the soil of our heart is not “fertile” it will not receive what God plants in obedient
growth.
Ezekiel 17:5,8
“He also took some of the seed of the land and planted it in fertile soil. He placed {it} beside
abundant waters; he set it {like} a willow...It was planted in good soil beside abundant waters,
that it might yield branches and bear fruit, {and} become a splendid vine.” (NAS)
2 Chronicles 26:10
{He also had} plowmen and vinedressers in the hill country and the fertile fields, for he loved
the soil. (NAS)
The Lord loves the soil of a heart that is fertile, and ready to receive the implanted word of God.
Fertile soil is that kind of heart which is both humble, and responsive (obedient). We must also
be as plowmen, who are willing to break up the hardened ground of our hearts. Ground can
become hardened by the deceitfulness of sin, and so we must pray and ask that God put the sharp
blade of His plow into these areas of our life (Hebrews 3:12-13). Also, we must encourage one
another in these areas, as good vinedressers.
James 1:21-22
Therefore putting aside all filthiness and {all} that remains of wickedness, in humility receive
the word implanted, which is able to save your souls. But prove yourselves doers of the word,
and not merely hearers who delude themselves. (NAS)
Fallow Ground
The ground must lay fallow for a season to enable it to produce a crop. When treating fallow soil,
it is important to till mulch (decomposed organic material) into it to enrich it. Proper mulching
requires that the organic material be regularly turned. This allows the old material to decompose,
and become a rich, dark material, from which the roots of the plants can obtain the necessary
nutrients. This tilling of decomposed organic material represents us dying to the things of the
world, and allowing God to make our weaknesses into our strengths. Wisdom is the nutrient of
healthy soil, learning from our mistakes.
We need to be constantly tilling the soil of our hearts, particularly in the cold seasons of our
lives. Winter and Fall Seasons are the times of year when soil lays fallow, and winter speaks of
those difficult times in our lives. It is when we are in a season of spiritual barrenness, when trials

come, that we must till up the mulch in our hearts. All that old, rotten material must be
thoroughly turned over, so that God can decompose it, and cause it to be transformed into
something that will enrich our hearts to receive His word.
Hosea 10:12-13
Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; break up your fallow
ground, for it is time to seek the LORD until He comes to rain righteousness on you. You have
plowed wickedness, you have reaped injustice, you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have
trusted in your way, in your numerous warriors. (NAS)
We can see from this scripture that God wants us to plow our soiled hearts so that He can rain
righteousness on us. The rains and snow of winter, fall, and spring all contribute to adding
certain trace minerals back into the garden soil. So also, God’s Spirit is the only source of
righteousness for us...given freely through the shed blood of His son Jesus Christ. If we plow
improperly (wickedness), we will reap injustice.
Jeremiah 4:3
For thus says the LORD to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem, “Break up your fallow ground,
and do not sow among thorns.” (NAS)
It is also important WHERE we plow our soil. In the Northwest where I am from, the thorny
blackberry plants and other thorny vines are prolific. These hearty plants are able to grow in just
about any kind of soil. Any good gardener will tell you that it is a mistake to grow your garden
amongst the thorns, for they will overgrow your garden plants, and choke out any fruit producing
ability. I have seen blackberry vines overgrow an entire acre of land in just a few seasons of
growth, unless the roots are pulled out. You can hack it down, but if the roots remain, it will just
grow back. These thorny plants represent the kind of things we allow to reside in our
hearts...cares of life, greed, and bitterness:
Hebrews 12:15
See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up
causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. (NAS)
Thorns speak of weed-like plants, which are good for nothing except being uprooted, and thrown
into the burn pile. We live in the country, where most people with land have burn piles when
they are allowed to burn brush. God will burn up all of the things in our life that are not eternal
and lasting. Christians spend far too much of their time pursuing careers, riches, and all the
“things” of life which will make them at ease, giving very little consideration to their eternal
destiny. Bitterness comes from unforgiveness, and holding a grudge against those who have
wronged us. We must keep the soil of our hearts tenderhearted, and kind, forgiving one another
as God in Christ has forgiven us (Ephesians 4:32).
John 15:6
“If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away as a branch, and dries up; and they gather
them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.” (NAS)
Jesus spoke of different types of soil upon which the word of God is sown. Thorny soil is the
kind that represented the cares of life, the desire for riches, and things like these. As you read
these verses, let them apply to your life; consider what thorns may need uprooting from your
garden:

Jesus was a king with gardens

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Jesus was a king with gardens