FOUR GARDENS (II) - Isaiah 58:11

A sermon by João Soares da Fonseca

We saw last Sunday that the Bible mentions some beautiful gardens, and we also saw that they contain some nice lessons. We took a walk by the garden of Eden, the garden of Gethsemane and the garden of Joseph of Arimathea. What about the fourth garden?

Let us begin by reading our text again. The comparison here is clear: the life of those who fear and obey God is like a well-watered garden. So let us draw from this picture some remarks for us:

1. The spiritual life, like a garden, is pleasing to see

1.1. Beauty – Brazilian poet Affonso Romano de Sant’Anna wrote in one of his chronicles, “Beauty is a sign that God exists”. Indeed, God created the Garden of Eden and surely granted it a beauty never seen on earth, before or after it. Eden became a model and inspiration for any other garden, because in it “God caused to grow every tree that is pleasing to the sight” (Gen 2:9). Therefore, the first glory of a garden is its beauty. It is the aesthetic spectacle it provides. We admire its flowers with their variety of different colours, sizes and shapes.
Likewise, Christian life has a similar beauty. It is a monument to be contemplated and admired. From nearby or from afar. It is no use to have a pretty appearance if our innermost life is ugly as sin, or uglier than Quasimodo, the hunchback of Notre Dame.

1.2. Perfume – A flowering and healthy garden is also a source of a lovely fragrance. We willingly inhale the perfumed air of a garden. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2Co 2:15. NAS). What a responsibility! You are the aroma of Christ. Wherever you go, the aroma of Christ is there with you. But I must also say that the opposite of a good fragrance is something that has a bad smell. The opposite of a fragrant garden is a stinking swamp. As far as I know, nobody goes to a stinking swamp to do tourism.

There is a story about Alexander the Great. A soldier is his army “was brought before the great world-conqueror for court martial. When the emperor had listened to the charges and the evidence, he turned to the soldier facing condemnation, and said,
- What is your name?
- Alexander! – was the reply.
Again the emperor questioned, ‘What is your name?’
And the second time the soldier answered, ‘Alexander!’.
With a cry of rage, the emperor roared, ‘I say, what is your name?’
And when the soldier answered for the third time, ‘Alexander!’ the great general angrily replied, ‘You say your name is Alexander? You are found guilty of your crime as charged, and now you must pay the penalty. Either change your conduct or you change your name, for no man can bear the name Alexander, my name, and do the things that you have done.”[1]

2. The spiritual life, like a garden, demands constant care

I am sure that when Spring comes, you will dress yourself in bermuda shorts and will go again to spend some hours each day in your garden. And what will you do? You will pull the weeds, you’ll mow the lawn, plant flowers, water the plants... In our last sermon we saw that if there is a garden, consequently there is a gardener. So if we want to enjoy a beautiful garden, we have to pay the price: time, devotion to it, work in it.

It is no less true in our spiritual life. We need to remove the weeds that persist in growing in the soil of our souls. Sometimes it is a pride here, an envy there, a “root of bitterness”, some lies being heaped in a corner of the garden. The context of our text, for example, is prophet Isaiah denouncing the hypocrisy of the Jews upon fasting. What a dangerous weed hypocrisy is! Do you know a worse weed than that?

A friend of mine, Solidônio Lima Cedro, used to say that we have to plant flowers, but weeds grow by themselves. It is the same with sin. It grows by itself. I need do nothing. It is enough to let your heart do whatever it wants to do. If we just give full reins to our despicable tendencies and sinful propensities, our heart will be fully inclined to vice. But virtue demands personal investment. Some times it will be necessary to pluck out the evil by its roots, as we do to weeds. As Dr. Martin de Haan wrote, “...it is not enough for the gardener to love flowers: he must also hate weeds”.[2]
Who should care for the garden of the heart?

As a matter of fact, two gardeners must join together for the maintenance of that very important garden: ourselves and the God whom we serve. You do your part. God does his.

When I say “constant care”, I want to emphasize that this care must be done daily. Occasional care is not enough to ensure the beauty of a garden. I know some gardeners that care for the garden only at Easter or Christmas. Jesus said that it must be constant. He said a verse that every lazy person avoids reading, “My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.” (John 5:17). Constant care means constant prayer, continuous reading of the Word of God, constant sanctification.

3. The spiritual life, like a garden, needs water

“And you will be like a watered garden”.
We know that water is essential to the soil. Where there is no water, there is no life. One of the pioneers of the Baptist work in Portugal, Rev. António Maurício, in a book Salvos para Servir (Saved to Serve) published in the first half of the twentieth century, tells us something funny. He said that when a farmer saw the ocean for the first time in Castelo do Queijo, in the city of Porto, he had an epiphany and yelled, “Wow! So much water, and my potatoes are dying of thirst”.

Not only the potatoes of a farm need water, but every plant, with the exception of one or another weird one. The garden of the heart does not survive without the water of life. Who is the water of life? Jesus. He said,

“If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. "He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.'" But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified” (John 7:37-39).

Talking to the Samaritan woman, Jesus said to her:

“Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (John 4:13, 14).

When the Bible talks about the Christian ministry it usually uses words from the farmer’s world: to plow, to plant, to prune, to water, etc. Paul, you remember, said, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth” (1Cor 3:6).

Friend, your heart is a plant that needs the water of life. Your life is a garden that cannot exist without God’s water. When you deprive your soul of this water, it happens to you the same that happens to the plants: first, they fade and wither; then they lose their vitality and finally they die and disappear.

Conclusion

“A Frenchman named Charney incurred the displeasure of Napoleon and was put into a dungeon. He seemed to be forsaken by his friend and forgotten by everyone in the outside world. In loneliness and despair he took a stone and scratched on the wall of his cell. ‘Nobody cares.’

One day, a green shoot came through the cracks in the stones on the floor of the dungeon and began to reach up toward the light in the tiny window at the top of the cell. The prisoner kept part of the water brought each day by the jailer and poured it on the blade of green. It grew until at last it became a plant with a beautiful blue flower. As the petals opened in full blossom, the solitary captive crossed out the words previously written on the wall and above them scratched, ‘God cares.’

But God had a further blessing for this prisoner, and the story ends even more happily. The man’s next-cell friend had a little daughter who was permitted to visit the prison. The little girl was pleased with Charney’s love for this plant. And the news reached the amiable Empress Josephine, who commented: ‘A man who so devotedly loves and tends a flower cannot be a bad man.’ And so she persuaded the emperor to set him free.

Charney carried his flower home and carefully tended it the rest of his life. It had taught him to believe in God.”[3]

Guided by God, your life will be like a garden. Sometimes you may think that nobody cares, but, remember, God cares, because He loves you!


________________________________________
[1] TAN, Paul Lee. Encyclopedia of 7.700 illustrations: Signs of the times. Third printing. Dallas: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996, p. 1138, illustration number 4999.
[2] DE HAAN, M. R. and BOSCH, Henry. Bread for each day – 365 devotional meditations. Fifth printing. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1967, Meditation of August 8th.
[3] TAN, Paul Lee. Encyclopedia of 7.700 illustrations: Signs of the times. Third printing. Dallas: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996, p. 483, illustration number 1888.

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FOUR GARDENS (I) - Isaiah 58:11

A sermon by João Soares da Fonseca

When I first came to North America, in 1992, I was in awe of the greeness of the grass and the gardens. I could not stop admiring the natural beauties of Raleigh, North Carolina, even though it was December. Nine years later, I discovered that Canada is about the same, during Spring and Summer, of course.

In Brazil, setting up a garden in the most prominent public square of the town is the main goal of all politicians. We enjoy gardens today as much as the Babylonians enjoyed them and made them famous. One of the seven wonders of the Ancient World were the Suspended Gardens of Babylonia.

Today I want to invite you to take a stroll through some of the beautiful gardens of the Bible. You know, the Bible begins with a garden (Gen. 2:8) and finishes with a mention of the “tree of life” (Rev. 22:2).

1. The Garden of Eden

Let us then begin at the beginning. When I lived in Iraq, people used to say that the Garden of Eden was there, because 2 of the 4 rivers are still there: the Euphrates and the Tigris. Once in a while there were expeditions from our camp site to the supposed original place of this garden. Frankly the location is not as important as the lesson we learn from it:

1.1. It was a garden planted by God himself (Gen 2:8)

Let me tell you a story about this:

“Once upon a time, two explorers came upon a clearing in the jungle. In the clearing, growing side by side were many flowers and many weeds. One of the explorers exclaimed, ‘Some gardener must tend this plot!’. So they pitched their tents and set a watch. But though they waited several days no gardener was seen.

‘Perhaps he is an invisible gardener!’ they thought. So they set up a barbed-wire fence and connected it to electricity. They even patrolled the garden with bloodhounds, for they remembered that H. G. Wells’ ‘Invisible Man’ could be both smelt and touched though he could not be seen. But no sounds ever suggested that someone had received an electric shock. No movements of the wire ever betrayed an invisible climber. The bloodhounds never alerted them to the presence of any other in the garden than themselves. Yet, still the believer between them was convinced that there was indeed a gardener.”

‘There must be a gardener, invisible, intangible, insensible to electric shocks, a gardener who has no scent and makes no sound, a gardener who comes secretly to look after the garden which he loves.’(...).[1]

Throughout history, humankind has tried to understand God. Some people reject his existence, because they cannot see him, but then they have a problem: how to explain the garden without a gardener? The Bible says that God created the world, then planted a garden for Adam and Eve.

1.2. That garden was built in order to be our parents’ home, Gen 2:15

It amazes me the fact that God did not create a city, but a garden for our parents. The first time a city appears in the Bible is related to Cain, the first criminal. He killed his brother and then built a city (Gen 4:17). Please, remember that, next time you are stuck in a traffic jam.

1.3. But that first garden was also the stage for the most heinous episode in human history.

Then and there, sin appeared and destroyed the fellowship that human beings enjoyed with the Gardener (Gen 3). Adam and Eve disobeyed God and lost the right to live in that wonderful Garden. Since then, as French philosopher Jacques Maritain said, man “is a fallen angel, crying with homesickness for Paradise”.[2]

So the Garden of Eden is the birth of humankind but because of the bad choice of our parents, Eden became a synonym of tragedy.

Then we can move to our second important garden in the Bible:

2. The Garden of Gethsemane

2.1. Garden of Prayer -- Located at the foot of the Mount of Olives, the garden of Gethsemane was at a walking distance from the Temple in Jerusalem. “When he had finished praying, Jesus left with his disciples and crossed the Kidron Valley. On the other side there was an olive grove, and he and his disciples went into it” (John 18:1). The silence of that place was an invitation to prayer. And it was Jesus’ favorite place for prayer. Luke tells us, “Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him” (Luke 22:39). Notice that Luke said, “as usual”. Prayer was not an accident in Jesus’ life. It was his priority. He did not pray “once in a while”, but “time and again”. He had the habit of praying; he felt the need to pray; he had a place to pray. What about you? As someone has said, “Life is fragile; handle it with prayer”.

2.2. Garden of Trial -- Certainly the great recollection that the name Gethsemane brings to mind is the trial that beset our Lord. The evangelists are unanimous in telling us that his soul was deeply distressed. He said to his disciples, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death” (Matt. 26:38). From that place, where he prayed so many times, he was able to catch a glimpse of the cross looming in the horizon. But why was he in distress? Not only because of the physical suffering but mainly because of the moral shame and spiritual debasement of the cross. Calvary would be a humiliating experience. But that was the price for our sins. In the Garden of Gethsemane he was able to see how the mistake of the Garden of Eden could be solved: by his death. Indeed, he prayed to the Father IF there would be another plan. The Father was silent; no answer at all. And the cross grew in size before his eyes. But thanks be to God that Jesus was obedient to the original plan. He didn’t flee the cross. He overcame all the temptations of that moment. In that garden, our salvation was in danger. But Jesus was faithful to his mission. That’s why we can leap for joy!

2.3. Garden of Betrayal -- In that garden, Jesus was arrested and taken to the cross. It was there that his own disciple gave him a despicable kiss, a password for him to be arrested.

Gethsemane became a synonym of trial and betrayal.

Eden, Gethsemane... there is another garden.

3. The Garden of Joseph of Arimathea

3.1. After Jesus died, “Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus.” (John 19.38a). Well, who was this man? “(...) Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jews.” (John 19.38b). It is sad to say but there will be always followers like this one:

people who are afraid of the Jews,

afraid of the authorities,

afraid of being ostracised by the system.

I hope you are not one of them.

“At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden” (John 19:41). Matthew said that “Joseph took the body [of Jesus ]..., [and] placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock.” (Matt. 27:59, 60).

So a summary goes like this:

once upon a time,

there was a rich man who had a garden,

a garden that had a tomb,

a tomb in which Jesus was laid.

That would be the end of the story.

3.2. But... Jesus promised he would rise again from the dead.

And he did it.

The same tomb that saw Jesus dead saw Jesus alive again.

The same garden that saw his motionless body, saw also his life anew.

That garden is a silent witness that he is alive.

The resurrection is fundamental TO Christianity:

3.2.1. It proves that Jesus fulfills his promises. He never fails.

3.2.2. It proves that his death was valid. God’s plan was perfect.

3.2.3. It forms the basis for our own resurrection in the last day.

The Garden of the resurrection became then a synonym of triumph. We don’t have to live like Adam and Eve, under the curse of sin.Friend, lift up your face. Jesus is alive.

“In the 18th century, the U.S. Congress once issued a special edition of Thomas Jefferson’s Bible. It was a simple copy of our Bible with all references to the supernatural eliminated. Jefferson, in selecting, had confined himself solely to the moral teachings of Jesus.

The closing words of this Bible are; ‘There laid they Jesus and rolled a great stone at the mouth of the sepulchre and departed.’”.

Thank God, our Bible ended with the news that He is Risen.”[3]

Conclusion

Well, we said we would think about four gardens: we had the Garden of Eden, Gethsemane and the one belonging to Joseph of Arimathea. Where is the fourth? The fourth is here, in our text, Isaiah 58:11, but we will take a closer look at it, God willing, NEXT Sunday. How can your life be a garden?

[1] FLEW , Anthony. Theology and Falsification. IN: HICK, John, ed. The Existence of God. New York: Collier Books, 1964, p. 225, IN: ZACHARIAS, Ravi K. Jesus among other gods. Nashville: Word Publishing, 2000, p. 166.

[2] From website http://www.pgj.ce.gov.br/artigos/artigo26.htm access in Nov 18, 2005. The expression “saudade do paraíso” is also a title of a play (1980) by Portuguese author Yvette Centeno. It is also the title of a book of poems by Brazilian poet Marco Lucchesi (1997).

[3] TAN, Paul Lee. Encyclopedia of 7.700 illustrations: Signs of the times. Third printing. Dallas: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996, p. 669, # 2775.

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