Did Jesus Die In A Garden

Daily Scripture

John 19:38-42

38 After this Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate if he could take away the body of Jesus. Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but a secret one because he feared the Jewish authorities. Pilate gave him permission, so he came and took the body away. 39 Nicodemus, the one who at first had come to Jesus at night, was there too. He brought a mixture of myrrh and aloe, nearly seventy-five pounds in all. 40 Following Jewish burial customs, they took Jesus' body and wrapped it, with the spices, in linen cloths. 41 There was a garden in the place where Jesus was crucified, and in the garden was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. 42 Because it was the Jewish Preparation Day and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus in it.

Did You Know?

Church of the Resurrection will offer 19 different Easter worship services: 3 Saturday and 6 Sunday at the Resurrection Leawood (details), 1 Saturday and 4 Sunday at Resurrection West (details), 2 from Resurrection Downtown Sunday at the Kauffman Center (details), and 3 Sunday at Resurrection Blue Springs (details). Please join us for one or more of these services tonight or tomorrow.

Reflection Questions

Genesis 2 told a story in which human life began in a garden. In John 18:1 only John's gospel alluded to Genesis by saying Jesus went into a "garden." After Jesus died, John recorded that two secret, wealthy followers of Jesus provided for his burial, and again noted that "there was a garden" where Jesus body was laid to rest. With the garden language, John was telling his readers that Jesus' self-giving, saving work opened a path for humanity to return to the lost garden of Paradise.

Roman soldiers knew their business. If they ever by mistake let a convict live, they paid with their own lives. Jesus really died, and his burial felt as final to his followers as the death of anyone we love feels to us. No one said, "Don't bother with the burial spices—he'll be alive again on Sunday." On that dark Saturday, it felt to them as though evil and hatred won, love and forgiveness lost, and death (as always) triumphed over life. What have been your darkest times, moments when hope seemed gone and despair held you in its grip? Are you facing a painful situation or problems that seem unsolvable right now? On this Saturday, join Jesus' first followers in feeling deeply how dark this world can be. But do so in the trust that, in God's world, despair, darkness and even death NEVER have the last word. Tomorrow is Easter.

Prayer

Lord Jesus, Genesis 2:2 said after you created the world, you rested. After creating a new path to Paradise, you rested in the tomb—but not for long. Keep your eternal light of hope aflame in my heart, no matter how dark my world may seem. Amen.

Family Activity

Celebrate Jesus and His resurrection by creating a small Easter garden! Select a container, fill it with dirt and place some simple plants inside. Build an empty tomb using rocks and sticks. Since Mary came to the tomb when it was still dark, add miniature candles to the garden to help light a path to the tomb. Collect one flat rock for each family member. Using a permanent marker, invite each person to write a word or phrase representing Easter such as, "Hope" or "Jesus is Alive!" Place these rocks around the empty tomb. Read John 20:1-18. As your family tends the Easter garden in the coming weeks and months, let it be a reminder to also tend to your relationship with Jesus!

GPS Guide

Whether you're just starting to explore the Christian faith, or you're a long-time Christian, we want to do everything we can to help you on your journey to know, love and serve God. The GPS (Grow, Pray, Study) Guide provides Scripture and insights to enhance your journey. If you have a question or comment about the GPS Guide, please send it to GPS@cor.org.

Matt Nixon

Matt Nixon has grown up at Church of the Resurrection and in rezlife Student Ministries, and is now a summer intern in rezlife. He is a student at the University of Arkansas (S'GO HOGS) studying Industrial Engineering. He loves being around students and going on mission trips, as well as talking sports with everyone he meets.

For a long time, Holy Saturday was very confusing to me. It never made sense to me that the Christian faith considered one of the darkest days in history Holy. Eventually, I recognized that this day was as Holy as it could be. Even in the midst of the darkness--the realization that the Savior was dead--his followers still had Jesus' entire life to be thankful for. Even though they didn't realize it yet, Jesus had died so that we could live. The magnitude of what God had done for us is unfathomable even today.

I have heard a story to illustrate the dynamics of the Crucifixion of Christ. A father, a bridge operator for the local train company, allowed his son to take the day off of school to go to work with him, because of the incredible, loving relationship they had. Whenever a boat needed to pass through, the father would lift the bridge and then lower it once again to allow trains to pass. While with his dad, the boy loved to fish in the river. His father could watch him through a window in the station. As a boat approached, the dad did as usual and put the bridge up. But on this particular day the train was early. The boy, still out by the tracks fishing in the river, heard the train before his father did. He couldn't get his dad's attention, but remembered that his father had shown him where the emergency lever was. But as the boy went to swing the lever, he slipped and fell into the bridge's gears below. The father was faced with a choice--save his son, or lower the bridge to save the train full of unsuspecting people. In anguish, the father chose to lower the bridge to save the train. The train crossed the bridge safely, and the passengers never knew the sacrifice the father had endured to save them.

We are like the passengers on that train--unsuspecting, sinful recipients of the greatest sacrifice in the world. Holy Saturday is the day we reflect that even before the Resurrection, in the midst of the worst darkness, we must still recognize the sacrifice given for us.

I choose to think that, although Christ was in the tomb, Holy Saturday is one of the best days to express my faith. While I know the resurrection is coming soon, Christ has not yet risen. Holy Saturday invites me, even requires me, to have faith and hope in what is not yet seen, but is to come.