Opening Prayer: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Risen Lord Jesus, in the dim light of dawn You conquered the darkness of death. Open our eyes to see that You are alive, call us by name Lord, and fill our hearts with the joy of resurrection. Turn our fears into faith, our tears into testimony, that we may proclaim, “I have seen the Lord!” In Your holy and powerful name, we pray, Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Scripture Reading:<\/strong> John 20:1-18<\/p>\n\n\n\n Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, \u201cThey have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don\u2019t know where they have put him!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 <\/sup>Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus\u2019 head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. <\/sup>(They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb <\/sup>and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus\u2019 body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They asked her, \u201cWoman, why are you crying?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey have taken my Lord away,\u201d she said, \u201cand I don\u2019t know where they have put him.\u201d At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He asked her, \u201cWoman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thinking he was the gardener, she said, \u201cSir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus said to her, \u201cMary.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, \u201cRabboni!\u201d (which means \u201cTeacher\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus said, \u201cDo not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, \u2018I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: \u201cI have seen the Lord!\u201d And she told them that he had said these things to her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reflection: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n When I was young, and I heard this passage I always thought it strange that Mary would mistake Jesus for the gardener. But I think my mind was clouded by paintings and images of the risen Christ standing at the entrance of the empty to, radiant light bursting out from Jesus. Beautiful artwork for sure, but with that in my mind, or course it would be weird to think the neon shinning Jesus was the gardener.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But in history, Jesus presence I would guess, was more subtle, thus it wouldn\u2019t be unreasonable to think that Jesus was the gardener, on his duty taking a moment to care for Joseph of Arimathea family tomb, on his daily duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As I reimagine this moment in history, neon glue exchange for a Jesus walking on the soil, maybe inspecting the garden plants and flowers, bringing life and order to garden which surrounds this place of death and mourning, clarity ruptures into this passage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Mary\u2019s moment mistaken identity, speak not to who Jesus is not, rather the reality of who Jesus is \u2013 and this take us back to the beginning. In Genesis God creates human, in a garden, and humanity was meant to commune with God and care for the garden. We were to be the gardeners for the king\u2019s estate. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And gardening is a wonderful experience, it involves bringing order to chaos, sewing seeds into rich soils, separating the weeds from the flowers, and pruning the barren limbs so life can flourish, it is about giving life giving water, and ensuring exposure to the sun. In fact, much of the life of a gardener is a metaphor to the life of the faithful, and an active symbol of what Jesus does in our lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But sadly, humanity let death into the garden, with their rebellion and sin, and what was meant to be a beautiful communion of creation, became a tomb of death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Luckily for us, we have a God that confronts that tomb, who enters into it, and over comes the death we let in. And through God\u2019s eternal way, truth and life, that tomb becomes once again a garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n God is the ultimate gardener. His goal was always to tend to the world he created, and we were to work along side him, and by his grace we are welcomed to join him once again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And like to Mary, Jesus calls to you, his voice invites you to realize that the one who will tend to your life, who will ensure you blossom, is the God who from the very beginning wanted to till the soils of the earth with you, who wanted to walk in the garden of beauty and splendor with you. Homework: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Spend some time in a garden, one of your own making, or one created by another, or take a walk in the wood, and find time to appreciate the glory of God’s work and renewal of life. <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you need help on this reflective journey email: minister@mountainviewunited.ca<\/p>\n\n\n\n Closing Prayer:<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n He is indeed Risen, let your new life in His be ever blessed, and ever blessing. Happy Easter! AMEN!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meme of the Week: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thank you for joining us this week. If you have any thoughts, feelings, or prayers, feel free to leave them in the comment section below. Please be respectful of others’ posts and make room for all those joining us.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Easter Sunday – Jesus the Gardener Abridged Worship Provided By: Rev. Jacob Shaw (Please note that this is not a verbatim account of our Sunday morning worship, but rather a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sunday-message"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainviewunited.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainviewunited.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainviewunited.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainviewunited.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainviewunited.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2865"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mountainviewunited.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2872,"href":"https:\/\/mountainviewunited.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2865\/revisions\/2872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mountainviewunited.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainviewunited.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mountainviewunited.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Spend not another second in the grim reality of the dark tomb, for that tomb is empty, for God calls upon us all to come alive through his Son. Thanks be to God. Amen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mountainviewunited.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-4-1024x997.png\")
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