John 18:1
“When Jesus had spoken these words, he went out with his disciples across the Kidron Valley, where there was a garden, which he and his disciples entered.”
What’s remarkable about this passage is what isn’t directly said. First, Jesus is about to correct the central problem plaguing all of mankind – sin. And his passion begins in a garden. This is noteworthy because Scripture later tells us that Jesus is the new Adam and we are either in Adam (dead in sin) or alive in Christ. These are the two types of people in the world and it’s ultimately the only distinction that matters.
All of mankind’s troubles began in a garden. Surrounded by plenty, awash in the presence of God, nestled in the green lap of Eden, Adam succumbed to Satan’s lies. Knowing no deprivation or want, Adam and Eve betray the God who has given them everything because they wanted the one thing beyond their grasp. Back in Eden, their hands were full of blessings everywhere and yet they reached out for that one thing which was forbidden.With the cross beckoning, Jesus begins our redemption in a garden.
All of the problems of life, whether they be death, illness, the struggle for meaning, heartbreak, betrayal, etc – they’re all solved on the cross of Jesus Christ because they find their birth in man’s rebellion against God. Jesus, of course, endures the wrath of God in our place. Our beloved Savior obliterates life’s problems with His sacrifice. Isn’t it interesting that he begins the play at the garden? Isn’t it fascinating that life’s Author writes the script in this way, as though reaching across the pages of history and showing us how His plan is not only always perfect but beautiful and meaningful too? Jesus goes back to the garden where He knows that arrest awaits Him. Adam was kicked out of the garden because he rejected God’s word and wanted to be his own authority. Jesus, in great agony over his coming torture and crucifixion, obeys His Father’s word even to the point of death.
Adam fell in trying to be like God, the judge of good and evil. Adam fell because he endeavored to make himself God’s equal and to do this is to doubt His word, which is to make the Almighty a liar. To doubt God’s word is to hate Him as it is the grossest violation of all nature, a suspension of all good and natural things, and the supreme act of treason in the universe. But thanks be to God for Jesus Christ our Lord in that Jesus, in submitting to God’s law, exalted all who believe in Him. And who are those that believe in Him? They are those impoverished souls that know deeply and wretchedly that they cannot pay heaven’s high toll. They are those that cling to the ankles of Jesus, weeping upon His very feet, and agree with God’s word, which says that man is not God, has fallen in rebellion and is in need of grace and grace alone. To have faith is to admit the truth of our sorry condition; to shun faith is to embrace the ugly lie that we don’t need God and that we can determine good and evil without Him.
And here in the garden, on that blackest of nights, our Lord began our redemption by going back to the garden. Only God could write such a story. He reaches across the thousands of days between this moment and that, touches our hearts with His magnificent tenderness, and claims us in truth and beauty. The garden is ours again; we are again God’s. Christ has paid our ransom and in faith we are no longer sons of Adam.
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