Everlasting Life

On Good Friday, I decided to go on a walk with a good friend. We didn't decide where to, we just walked.

When we approached a bench tucked in the corner of a neighborhood, I gasped as the scene was all too familiar.

Just one year ago, I began Good Friday with a run off campus, listening to a Good Friday service on a podcast. I didn’t decided where to, I just ran. I approached a bench tucked in a corner of a neighborhood, and I sat down with God. I knew I was in a nearby neighborhood, but I didn't make it back there since.
And, I don’t think I could have ended up there again if I tried.

We read the statement carved into the bench:

“May Your Garden Be Full of Life Everlasting.”

After I felt as though I was "led" back to a spot I hadn't been in precisely a year, I was certain that this statement would have some kind of rich meaning that would resound in the depths of my heart.

I got nothing.

Sure, the phrase sounded nice, but I had to face it-
that string of words had absolutely no meaning to me.

On the walk back, I wondered aloud to that good friend,
that good friend who was always willing to listen to whatever random wondering that was wandering n my mind.
“I don’t get it… was that God, just wanting to make me smile? 

Why was I brought back there? Why did I read that now, today?”

So I just smiled, and I let it go.

---

This is what I heard this morning,
this Easter Sunday of 2012.

Pastor Nick Ostermann
The Rooted Church

“Turn to John Chapter 20, verse 11

“…but 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.

“Woman,” he said, “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.”” 

John 20: 10-16

Was Mary mistaking Jesus for a gardener? Only slighty.

Jesus is Our Gardener.

In the beginning, God created for us a perfect garden. 

God walked with Adam every afternoon. In this garden, there was life.

However, Adam and Eve stopped listening to the voice of God 

and started listening to the voice of Satan. 

Then, everything went from beautiful, to ugly. 

They could not walk with God, anymore.

This garden turned into a wilderness. All was undone, unwoven, broken. 

But, the great reversal was on it’s way…

Immediately after Jesus was baptized he was put into the wilderness. 

He was tempted by Satan, just as Adam and Eve were. 

He started, where Adam ended. 

But what was the difference?

Adam failed.

Jesus was faithful.

Jesus was faithful in the wilderness.

This made everyone furious. Thus, he was condemned. 

The one who never sinned, died like a filthy, wicked sinner.

He was faithful until the end. 

Because in the garden, He said “Not my will but Yours be done.” 

Instead of Adam’s “Not Your will but Mine be done.”

You and I are invited freely into the garden today,

and forever with our Everlasting Gardener, Jesus Christ.”

Happy Easter,

& May Your Garden Be Full of Life Everlasting.

“Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. 

No one comes to the Father except through me. 

If you really knew me, you would now my Father as well. 

From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” John 14:6-7

“Because I live, you also live,” John 14:19

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, 

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:16

Dear Lord,

You amaze me.

I am stunned by Your love lavished on me in the midst of my favorite holiday, the celebration of Your power, love and life. 

Your creativity is perfect, and You truly know how to make me fall more in love with You in every day that You give me the gift of living in Your presence. 

Please Lord, remind me of just that. That every single day I wake up and take a breath that I am given the gift of walking in Your presence in every minute. Thank You for going the greatest length, to become man and die on the cross so that I may have this life next to You. 

Please Lord, be my strength so I may be faithful to You in the wilderness of my life. I know that these trials are ultimately for Your glory in that you make all things work together for good. Jesus was faithful by clinging to Your Word. Bind myself to the infallibility, strength and power of Your Word.

Thank You for desiring to make my garden full, when without You, it would be nothing but weeds and constant drought.

Thank You, again, for being faithful. Help me to be more faithful to You with every single day I live in Your garden.

I love you!

In Your Beautiful Name,

Amen. 



PS: Find the full sermon by following this link. Indubitably a wise use of time- I promise. :)
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/easter-2012-resurrected-gardener/id305591618?i=112892728