God planted a garden in Eden but there was no man to cultivate the ground. The Father, Son and Spirit wanted human partners to steward God's very good creation, represent Him in the earth and to expand the Garden. We were made as the image of God and given a mission to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. Fill the earth with what? With more image bearers, with His glory, with the knowledge of Who He is (instead of the knowledge of good and evil) and with the Tree of Life (Christ). When the first Adam and his bride ate from the wrong tree their knowledge of who the Father really is was greatly distorted (this is why they hid). This led humanity astray, distancing us from His presence (the Garden) and plunging us deeper into our own distorted and futile concepts of good and evil, and ultimately, of the Father's goodness.

We believe Christ is the fulfillment of everything Adam was originally and Israel subsequently, called to do in the earth. Adam was commissioned to expand the Garden. Israel was given the mission to be a light to and bless the nations. Christ is the last Adam and He is the faithful Son to His Father, thereby bringing humanity back into the mission of God.
In Isaiah 58:10-11, God declares, "Feed the hungry, and help the afflicted. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon...You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring."
When we help the "least of these" we actually do it as unto Christ (Matt. 25:34-40) and therefore become the light of the world and a well-watered garden. 

Jesus is quickly approaching the culmination of why He came to dwell among us. It's time to undo the fall of Adam and bring us back to the Garden. It's time to bring God's sons and daughters back into their true identity as image bearers who fill the earth with His glory. Jesus knows what awaits Him. He knows the cup He is about to drink. His "soul is deeply grieved, to the point of death." (Matt. 26:38)
His creation has been under the curse of the first Adam in the original Garden. Now the second Adam is going back to a garden to wage a spiritual war that will ultimately reverse the curse and render the accuser powerless. (Gethsemane means "oil press") Three things of the forbidden fruit allured the first man and his bride in their fall (Gen. 3:6). Jesus overcame the three temptations of the satan before He began His public ministry. And Jesus prays 3 times in Gethsemane. He is completely undoing the fall.
Judas, a band of Roman soldiers (at least 300 armed men), and officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees came to arrest Jesus in the garden. Notice, this was the religious and political establishments joining forces to arrest God Himself. Jesus steps forward (instead of hiding like Adam did in the Garden) and asks them who they are looking for. "Jesus the Nazarene", they say. He responds by saying, "I AM", at which point ALL OF THEM fall backwards and hit the ground like a sack of bricks! (John 18)
Jesus could have walked away from the situation untouched but the mission of God would not have been fulfilled. So, in this moment, God does the unimaginable. He surrenders Himself to the wrath of His fallen and cursed creation in order to win back their freedom and destroy the curse.

It's no accident that Jesus' tomb was in a garden. As the last Adam He came to undo the fall of the first Adam and his bride in the original Garden. Jesus is taking us back to the beginning. There was a man and a woman in Eden and they were commissioned by God to expand the Garden all over the world. After the fall the mission seemed to be a lost cause.
When Mary first saw Jesus she thought He was the gardener. That's no accident either. Adam was the original gardener and now the Resurrected Jesus disguises Himself as a gardener. It's fascinating also that Jesus didn't appear to Peter or John there in the resurrection garden, but to Mary. A woman! Remember there was a man and woman in the original garden? She is a picture of the Bride of Christ, all of us, who were once completely lost and depraved but now totally restored in Christ. Adam and his bride turned the garden into a graveyard. Jesus turned a graveyard into a garden!
He then commissions Mary to go and tell the disciples the Good News! Jesus destroyed the effects of the fall of Eden (the curse, sin and death) and has brought us back to the Garden and set the mission of God back on course. 

When we come to Christ and profess allegiance to Him we are transformed into a new creation. The journey of being shaped into His likeness, embodying the new humanity, begins (Rom. 8:29). God is the Gardener (John 15:1) and we are His cultivated garden (1 Cor. 3:9). Just as a neglected plot of land requires cultivation and care, we must allow the Spirit of God to cultivate our lives so that what emerges is a beautiful garden that reflects and carries God's presence and glory on earth. In essence, we become a walking Eden, where heaven meets earth, and the Kingdom of God brings life, healing, and restoration. 

Coming soon...