A garden grew where they crucified Jesus. I was reading the story of Jesus’ death in John’s Gospel today, and I noticed something I had never seen before. John writes, “Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.”

Wait. There was a garden in the place where Jesus was crucified? John gives us a spatial image of a garden—a place, the original place, of life and growth—surrounded by Golgotha, a brutal place of execution. And then he gives us another image of death within that garden in the form of a new and empty tomb. 

Gardens can grow in the midst of the most brutal experiences and circumstances. 

There can be life even when death is all around us. There is hope. Light can shine in the darkness of our lives. 

As we go into this holy weekend, I’m looking for both—not shrinking back from the horrors of evil in this world, and continuing to seek after, proclaim, and put my trust in the goodness of love that lasts. 

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