In the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden containing a new tomb in which nobody had yet been laid. Because it was the preparation day and because the garden tomb was conveniently near, they laid Jesus in this tomb.
On the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene arrived at the tomb, very early in the morning, while it was still dark, and noticed that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
Mary stood outside the tomb weeping. As she wept, she knelt to look into the tomb and saw two angels sitting there, dressed in white, one at the head, the other at the foot of where Jesus’ body had been lain.
They said to her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“Because they have taken away my Lord, and I don’t know where they have put him!” she said.
Then she turned and noticed Jesus standing there. But she didn’t recognize him.
Jesus spoke to her, “Why do you weep? Who are you looking for?”
She, supposing that he was the gardener, said, “Oh, sir, if you have carried him away, please tell me where you have put him.”
Jesus said to her, “Mary!”
At this she turned to face him and said to him, in Hebrew, “Master!”
John 19: 41 and 20:1, 11-16
This is one of my very favorite passages in all of Scriptures.
And I love it for so many reasons…on so many levels.
For one thing, I love that of all the places that God could have arranged for his Son’s body to be lain after the Crucifixion, he had him placed in a tomb in a garden.

And that makes sense. It was, after all, in a garden that God’s story with humanity first began.
The Eternal God planted a garden in the east in Eden—a place of utter delight—and placed the man (and woman) whom He had sculpted…whom He had formed…there to care for it.
And where it all went terribly wrong…
The woman approached the tree, eyed its fruit, and coveted its mouth-watering, wisdom-granting beauty. She plucked a fruit from the tree and ate. She then offered the fruit to her husband who was close by, and he ate as well. Suddenly their eyes were opened to a reality previously unknown. For the first time, they sensed their vulnerability and rushed to hide their naked bodies, stitching fig leaves into crude loincloths.
Genesis 2:8 and 3:6-7
Then, in this garden where Jesus is lain, God redeemed that story.
The circle once broken in Eden’s Garden, by flawed, sin-stained humans like you and me, finds its completion at the foot of a cross in Golgotha where Jesus died, then climaxes in this garden when he rose again.
God brought His story…our story…full circle in a garden.
Another part of this story that I love is God’s timing! Of all the times of the year that Jesus’ death and resurrection could have taken place, he chose springtime! A time when life here on earth is awakening from the deep death of winter. Both landscape and human hearts alike are experiencing the renewal of hope that this Easter time of year brings.
Easter is the soul’s first taste of spring.
Richelle Goodrich