Between Two Gardens
“They went to a place called Gethsemane; and Jesus said
to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ Jesus came
and found them sleeping; and he said to Peter, ‘Simon,
are you asleep? Could you not keep awake one hour?
Keep awake and pray that you may not come into the time
of trial; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is
weak.’” Mark 14:32, 37-38
It is the middle of Lent and the beginning of Spring,
and I have been thinking about Gardens. The warmth of
the sun and the song of the birds, have caused me to
start planning what I will plant in my garden,
visualizing what it will look like with all its color
and fullness.
Typically, Wilderness is the geography of Lent, but I
think the Garden is also. The Bible is full of Gardens
and many of them are places of challenge as well as
blessing. The Garden of Eden is certainly such a
place: a lush place full of life and promise, but a
place of boundaries and challenge.
This passage from Mark’s gospel describes Jesus’ agony
in the Garden of Gethsemane hours before he is arrested
and crucified. We feel echoes of Gethsemane on Easter
morning, when Mary mistakes Jesus for the Gardner at the
empty tomb: resurrection occurs somewhere in-between
these two Gardens.
