John 19:40-42
So they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen cloths 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. So because of the Jewish day of Preparation, since the tomb was close at hand, they laid Jesus there.
Oh, to see the marvel and majesty and poetry of the divine play. When Adam and Eve took the fruit and ate back in the garden, death, sickness and calamity all descended upon the human race. They surely died…just not right then. And God, being so wondrously merciful, not only delayed their punishment, but he covered them with clothes and promised the Redeemer. Well, here is the Redeemer. He is brought – lifeless – to the garden. He comes to the peaceful place that Adam had been brought in the newness of life. Yet Christ comes to be entombed, having bore the horrific punishment of sin. His body is wrecked by hateful fists, whips, nails, and a spear. Adam had lived in the serenity of God’s garden and had the fruits of all the trees at his disposal. There was nothing that he needed that wasn’t within his earthly grasp.
Jesus has been forsaken by the Father and left to die as the punishment for Adam’s fall. Jesus had gone to the wilderness to battle that serpent and He defeated him and his guile while hungry, thirsty and alone. Adam fell in opulence and ease. Jesus trusted God even unto death – and death on the cross! Adam, surrounded by bliss and ease, disobeyed and plunged mankind into sin and judgment.
But how merciful is our Father, and how beautiful He is too. Not only has He brought an end to sin by taking out His just wrath upon Jesus but He does so in a way that moves the heart. Adam and Eve took and ate from the forbidden tree; Jesus was crucified and hung on a tree. The one cancels out the other. Do you struggle with the deep things of theology? Do you puzzle over the Old Testament? Then look here and see how God doesn’t just tell…he shows too. And to bring Jesus to a garden for burial is the next to last piece of the great and poetic truth of salvation and redemption. The final piece, of course, is yet to come. On Sunday Jesus rises and with Him, our hopes too. The heavenly Father could very well have orchestrated His plans in any way He desired. Redemption could have been carried out like a government office issues licenses or permits – impersonally and with cold inhumanity. But God (aren’t these the two greatest words in Scripture?) is a God of unlimited, unfathomable love and He sets forth His plan to restore all things in this, a nearly magical and meaningful way. He is a personal God. He is a God that gives purpose and meaning. This is but one example. God is no impersonal force or some kind of energy permeating the universe; He is divine personality and divine love.
The Old Testament is about Jesus Christ and here is the glorious summation of the divine play. The story of our redemption starts and ends in a garden. It’s the perfect display of God’s meaning of history – the righteousness of Christ for the sin of mankind. This was all God’s plan from the beginning and it’s breathtaking in both its enormity and passion. No writer could have achieved such an epic. Tolstoy was prolific, Dostoevsky brilliant; this is divine. It’s the blessing of God upon His children to see the sweep of it all, the days, years, decades and centuries tumbling by, like a ball rolling down a hill, all leading to Jesus Christ where we meet Him. And we all must – either in faith or in judgment because the God that made sure of every little event here will not let a single sin go unpunished, not even an idle word.
So, you see, it isn’t enough for God to simply cancel the sin debt we owe for our thousands of treasons against His holy majesty. No. He redeems His children in truth and beauty and meaning. When we come to Him in repentance we are guaranteed not some impersonal mercy or cold pardon, but the fullest of life and love too. Every Christian that has tasted the sweet, sweet tears of repentance knows that truly indescribable embrace of God that restores all – heart and soul. He will never leave us or forsake us. He will never overlook the small details. He will redeem us, restore us and lift us at last to the glory and beauty we were created to have with Him, in Him and through Him.
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