The Reverend Philip Banks writes:

Eater 2010
“Nearer to God in a Garden?”

Gardening in the rain or freezing cold isn’t top of my list of ‘fun things to do’ on a day off! So it is a relief that the interminably long, cold and wet winter we’ve had this year finally seems to be ending – and Janet and I are determined to get out into the Vicarage garden to do all those jobs which we’ve left undone in the past few months. And, as Easter approaches, when nature is resurrecting itself from the cold, a garden is a good place to reflect on the events of Holy Week. It is surely no coincidence that many of the bible’s pivotal events take place with the characters surrounded by God’s works. 

The story of Adam and Eve, for example, takes place in a garden – for the author of Genesis, knowing the aridity of his middle-east surroundings, sees in a garden the harmonious relationship between God and Creation. Although this state of paradise is disrupted when they become tempted “to become like God” (Genesis 3), their exile from the Garden of Eden still puts them on the land – this time to work “by the sweat of your brow”. I’ve no doubt that any allotment holder – or Pete Day, Jill Tattersfield, and all the team who dug and planted the sensory garden and churchyard last month – will identify with that! 

I hope, during Holy Week, that you will commit to coming to all our services which follow the story of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus our Lord. We will follow this story as he goes to another garden – the Garden of Gesthemane. Pilgrims today still pass through that very garden, and I still remember being moved by our visit there at night, years ago, and saying prayers with a group of fellow pilgrims, standing amongst the olive trees. Tradition has it that seeds from the trees that were planted there at the time of Jesus have produced the trees that grow there today. 

“There is a green hill far away” – the Victorian hymn of Mrs Alexander, may not really describe the desolation of the Hill of Calvary. But the words do remind us that the wood of the cross on which Jesus died becomes, for believers, the ‘tree of life and hope’. And the gospel of St John says that “in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb where no one had ever been laid”. 

One of the final scenes in the gospels also takes place in a garden. It is captured beautifully in Titian’s Noli me Tangere*: the desolate Mary, weeping at the tomb of Jesus, encounters the risen Christ – God coming close to her in a garden, and transforming her life from the darkness of bereavement to the joy of knowing God’s resurrection power for her and all who follow Jesus.

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God's heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.

We might take issue with the theology of this poem (Garden Thoughts by Dorothy Frances Gurney), but perhaps, being in a garden this spring, will help you to reflect on your faith and on the possibility of God’s transforming touch in your life. 

With my prayers for a happy and holy Eastertide. 

Fr Philip Banks 

Images © www.gardenevolution.com and www.nationalgallery.org.uk

*Titian's Noli me Tangere is described by
London's National Gallery as follows:
Christ appears to the Magdalen after the Resurrection to comfort her. At first she thinks he is a gardener; when she recognises him he tells her not to touch him - 'noli me tangere' (let no one touch me) - as told in the Gospel of John (20: 14-18). Elsewhere, the Bible records that Christ will soon ascend to heaven and send the Holy Spirit down to his followers: he does not want them to cling to his physical presence.  

Titian’s Noli me Tangere in London's National Gallery collection