Seeing the Gospel Through the Garden
A few years ago, I became an avid gardener. From the joy and satisfaction of growing a seed into a seedling to eventually bearing fruit - it was so exciting! The idea that something so small could provide food for our family's dinner plate brings a sense of fulfillment that you can accomplish something, even when the outside world feels chaotic. But the joys of gardening were also met with the pests of rabbits and deer, storms, and beetles. But as I have gone through the frustrations and joys of my garden, the most important thing happened in my garden. I learned more about the Creator through His creation—time to pray - time to listen. The Lord spoke to me through the abundance of produce and the abundance of pestilence! Scripture began to open up to me in totally new and unexpected ways!
Gardening in the Bible is far more than an agricultural practice—it is the foundational stage upon which the whole story of redemption unfolds. The Bible begins in the Garden of Eden; it brings us to the greatest sacrifice for restoration in the Garden of Gethsemane to the Cross at Golgotha and then culminates in a restored garden-city, the New Jerusalem, where all things will be made right. Gardening serves as a powerful biblical metaphor where we find the entire gospel arc is reflected in the dirt. It is not just metaphors, but it is a practice for us to embark into to deepen our understanding and relationship with the Creator.
In Hebrew, the word for Garden is made up of the Hebrew root verb ganan גָּנַן, which means “to cover”, “to surround”, “to defend”, or “to shield”. The imagery shows us that the Garden of Eden was intended to be a space that was to shield the new creation from sin. Gan is never an accident. To garden is to purposefully plant, feed, water, and cultivate a space to produce what the plants are supposed to produce. It is also a safe place for the plants to grow. Many gardeners have fencing around their garden for this very purpose. It is to represent sanctuary. Later in the Old Testament, Pardes פַּרְדֵּס is used to mean “orchard”, “park”, or “pleasure garden”. This term was borrowed from the Greek word paradeisos, meaning Paradise.
In the beginning, God formed Adam out of the dust (adamah) and placed him in the Garden of Eden to tend and keep it.
“ Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed.” Gen. 2:8
Interesting how God chose a garden to begin the creation of mankind, not a palace or a kingdom. In this garden is where Man communed with God; where God walked with Adam, gave him instruction, and fellowshiped with him. Humanity was created for unhindered fellowship with God in a lush paradise. However, when sin entered through disobedience, the ground itself was cursed with thorns and thistles.
Genesis 3:17–18
“To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate fruit from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat from it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.”
From that moment, the very ground and growth from it became a reminder of spiritual brokenness. When Adam and Eve sinned in Eden, they were not simply removed from a location, they lost that protective sanctuary or God’s intimacy and presence with them. They were now entering the world where sin and death were able to reach them.
As humanity falls deeper and deeper into sin, the metaphor of the garden continues. In Isaiah 5:1–7, Israel is depicted as God’s beloved vineyard.
Isaiah 5
“I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard: My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. “Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and people of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard: I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed; I will break down its wall,and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briers and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it.” The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the nation of Israel, and the people of Judah are the vines he delighted in. And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.”
The Creator of all things has cleared the stones, planted choice vines, and built a watchtower, anticipating a harvest of obedience and righteous fruit. Instead, like many of our real-life gardens, the vines rebelled. They became diseased, grew among weeds, and were burnt out from the sun. Prophets like Jeremiah subsequently called the nation to prepare for spiritual renewal: "Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns" (Jeremiah 4:3).
It is now that the Master Gardener must try to save this unruly garden through pruning and uprooting poor soil. The Israelites go through many seasons of pruning and at times abundant growth and more seasons of uprooting through the Old Testament. But God is ultimately preparing their hearts to receive his Son.
In the New Testament we can read many of the parables of Jesus pointing us right back to the garden. The Parable of the Sower in Matthew 13 explains that the condition of the heart is what determines if the seed of the gospel will take root and bear any fruit. The story of the Mustard Seed shows us that even the smallest amount of faith in a big God can bring about massive growth in our lives.
But the ultimate garden in the gospels is the Garden of Gethsemane. A Gethsemane is actually a stone press. It was where they pressed olives to make oil. In this garden we see the pressing down of the weight of the sins of the world onto Jesus as he totally surrenders Himself to the will of the Father. “Not my will but yours be done”. What a direct contrast from the first Adam that said, “My will, not yours” as he took the fruit that brought spiritual death to mankind. We see in this garden Christ sweat blood as the pressing of those stones poured out olive oil from the olives, so too did the weight of our sins press life-giving blood out of our Savior. And on that Cross, Christ died on a tree, adorned with a crown of thorns upon his head. What a reminder that the thorns were a curse to Adam in the garden, and now they were upon the second Adam as He bled for us.
1 Peter 2:24
“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”
After Jesus conquered sin and death, the first person that he sees is Mary Magdaline who mistakes him for a gardener. And as we can see from the Old to the New Testament, she is not wrong. And as we await the culmination of the New Garden, the New Jerusalem, we are told what to do: Abide in the Vine
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.
Fruitfulness is not achieved through striving, but through abiding and accepting the essential process of pruning. We abide through the storms and pestilence, we rejoice in the abundance of fruit and growth, and we remain dependent on our gardener until the New Creation comes to fulfillment.
Revelation 22:1-5 tells us of this glorious garden that awaits us!
“Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.”
What a glorious promise. As we remain connected to the Tree of Life and bear fruit, let us keep our eyes fixed on that glorious day when the nations will be healed, and sin and death will be no more!