Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
John 20.10-18
What joy! What hope!
At the beginning Paradise was a Garden – The Garden of Eden from which mankind was barred lest they eat of the Tree of Life and live for ever.
Following the Last Supper Jesus prayed in a Garden – The Garden of Gethsemane as he prepared to reopen the way to Paradise.
On Good Friday, Jesus’ body was laid in a tomb in a Garden
On Easter Day Mary mistook Jesus for the Gardener but how right she was.
The New Heaven and the New Earth are pictured in Revelation as a Garden City with the
‘river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 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.’ Revelation 22.1-2
That is our destination, our hope, our joy because
JESUS IS RISEN FROM THE DEAD!
Let us rejoice and be glad today as on no other!