Good morning. In the Word of God there are two gardens that are at the center of man’s story. One of them is called Eden, it was the garden of beauty and perfection where God’s created masterpiece, Adam and Eve, walked with Him in quiet love and adoration. In that garden, all was at peace. In that garden, there was only joy.
The other garden that takes center stage in the story of mankind is that garden that was located just outside the city of Jerusalem, across the Kidron valley on the Mount of Olives. It was a quiet place in the middle of an olive grove. It was Jesus’ favorite place of prayer.
The stories of these two gardens became powerfully linked.
In the first, Adam and Eve listened to the whispers of the enemy who had taken the form of a serpent. In that garden, Adam and Eve fell. In the other garden, while His friends and closest followers slept, Jesus took a stand.
In the first garden, after they had rebelled and violated the will of God, Adam and Eve hid from God. In the second garden, knowing that His mission was at hand and the pain of separation from the Father was soon to come, Jesus cried out as He joined with His Father in powerful prayer.
In the first garden, Adam and Eve pointed their fingers at each other, not wanting to be responsible for their actions. In the second garden, Jesus accepted their sins, and our sins, as He accepted that His mission must go forward without change. There was no other way, no other Savior, it was up to Him.
In the first garden, Adam and Eve knew the will of God and refused to follow it. Instead, they listened to the lies, bit into the forbidden fruit, and hoped that they would become as God. In the second garden, Jesus cried to the Father, “Not my will but yours be done!” With those words He accepted that He would, for an agonizing moment at least, take our sins upon Himself and be ripped away from the heart of God.
Praise God today for that second garden and for our Savior’s courage, love, and determination.
Vern