April 23, 2025 The Garden Gospel Messsage
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
The Garden Gospel Message
Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.
John 19:40-42
The choir sang a LOT this past Easter Sunday. Between the bold, brassy “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” and the famous “Hallelujah Chorus”, there was a quiet choral anthem – “My Master From a Garden Rose” by Eleanor Daley – that was easy to miss, but filled with spiritual depth. The text, originally by Gordon Young, is as follows:
My Master in a garden lay,
Perfumed with spices rare,
For tender hands had laid Him there
To rest amid the roses.
’Twas on a cross they laid Him bare
And pierced His hands with nails
That we poor men might live again
And be with Him in glory. Alleluia.
My Master from a garden rose
To go for us to heaven,
And He will come and take us there
To be with Him forever.
There’s something deeply quiet about a garden following grief. There’s a stillness and emptiness that is broken only by birdsong and the rustling of leaves. But it’s here, in that hush, where the greatest miracle of our faith took place.
The song begins not with the triumphant trumpet blasts of a brass quintet on Easter morning, but with reverent tenderness:
My Master in a garden lay, / Perfumed with spices rare…
It’s a reminder that before resurrection came rest. That Jesus, wrapped in linen and love, was laid in a stone tomb, surrounded by the hush of a garden. Tender hands, still clammy in the midst of grief, did what they could in the face of such a tragedy, and then waited. But the story doesn’t end in the stillness.
My Master from a garden rose / To go for us to heaven…
In this single line, the text lifts us from the burial setting to glory. The word rose serves a double meaning, reflecting both Christ rising from the dead, but also a beautiful flower breaking through the soil of sorrow with something beautiful. Hopeful.
And why did He rise? To go for us to heaven.
It’s a reminder that Jesus rose for a purpose – to go to heaven and make a place for us, despite our brokenness. It’s about His ascension, but it points toward ours as well.
This Easter faith—this garden gospel—calls us to recognize that even in seasons of sorrow, resurrection is already blooming beneath the surface.
And one day, as the song closes, He will come and take us there / To be with Him forever.
Reflect: In what areas of your life do you feel like you’re still in the garden tomb—waiting, grieving, or uncertain?How does the quiet, gentle image of resurrection in this poem speak to your own experience of hope?
Listening Activity: Listen to the My Master From a Garden Rose again on the PUMC Facebook post (starts at 44 minutes in https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1BWhHynFJa/) or see it performed by the Georgia Boy’s Choir here: https://youtu.be/-tMJE-PhimQ?si=kpgW7yaU25TrQFA7
- As you listen, pay attention to how the music reflects the story being told – how does the sound help you feel the shift from sorrow to hope?
- Where does the music get louder? Is there significance to that? Can you hear the notes climb higher as the choir sings “to be with Him”?
As you listen, pay attention to how the music reflects the story being told – how does the sound help you feel the shift from sorrow to hope?
Where does the music get louder? Is there significance to that? Can you hear the notes climb higher as the choir sings “to be with Him”?
Pray: Gracious God, Your Son rose from the quiet of the garden, bringing life from death and hope from sorrow. Help me to trust that even in the silent places, You are at work. Let my life bloom in Your presence, both now and forever. Amen.
With faith, hope, and love,
Eric Smith