Where does the Bible talk about gardens?

• Genesis 2:8-9, garden full of trees (God planted a garden in Eden)
• Genesis 2:15-17, Garden of Eden (God commands Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil)
• Genesis 3:6, forbidden fruit in the garden (Eve and Adam ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil)
• Genesis 3:24, leaving the Garden of Eden (God drove Adam and Eve from the garden)
• Psalm 36:8-9, garden of abundance (feasting on the abundance of God's house and drinking from the river of God's delights)
• Psalm 137:1, riverside garden in Babylon (the exiles sat by the rivers of Babylon and wept, remembering Zion)
• Isaiah 58:11, nourished like a garden (God will water you like a garden, like a spring of water)
• Amos 4:9, gardens destroyed (God laid waste their gardens and vineyards)
• Mark 14:32-36, garden as the site of prayer (Jesus prays in Gethsemane)
• John 19:41-42, Jesus' burial garden (the tomb where Jesus was laid was in a garden)
• John 20:15-16, garden as the site of Jesus' resurrection (Mary thought the gardener was asking her why she was weeping, but it was Jesus)
• Revelation 22:1-2, garden in the new Jerusalem (John saw the river of the water of life flowing through the middle of the street of the city, with fruit-bearing trees on each side of the river, whose leaves are for the healing of the nations) 

   

Sermon ideas about gardens

What can a sermon on gardens say about the Bible's gardens? Gardens in the Bible are irrigated and fertile places. Good things grow in them, including fruit, vegetables, and herbs. Sometimes the Hebrew word we translate as garden might just as well be translated as orchard. So a Middle Eastern olive orchard is a garden, featuring trees with both flowers and fruit. 

Biblical gardens generate food, but they are also delightful places to dwell. They are centers of outdoor living, good for strolling, lounging, banqueting, or shading oneself from the Middle Eastern sun. They are also quiet, restful places to bury family members. Because of these benefits, flourishing gardens become symbols of the thriving of God's people (Isaiah 58:11), and devastated gardens become the symbol of God's people under judgment (Amos 4:9). 

Christians commonly describe the narrative arc of the Bible as the linked sequence of its four epic movements: creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. This standard account is classic and firm. But our sermons and liturgies might just as well describe the narrative arc of the Bible as the story of four gardens. 

Garden of Eden 

In the Garden of Eden, God gave his brand-new human beings acres of delight. God had formed a man from the dust of the ground, breathing life into him, setting him in a flourishing garden. The garden is a wonder, with rhododendron blossoms the size of softballs and peonies pink and fragrant enough to break your heart. 

But the garden of delight turns into the garden of heartbreak when Adam and Eve step out of the embrace of God and try to find power and happiness on their own. Guilty, threadbare, and vulnerable, they start the history of human shame whose only antidote is the grace of God. In their shame, Adam and Eve began the history of weeping for lost glory as they are banished. In this history, the Israelites exiled to Babylon sat down by the rivers of Babylon and wept when they remembered Zion. 

Garden of Gethsemane 

The Garden of Gethsemane, widely thought to have been an olive orchard at the foot of the Mount of Olives, was the scene of Jesus' pre-crucifixion agony. He wrestles with the will of his father and with the horror of drinking the cup of suffering in front of him. Jesus knew what a Roman crucifixion looked and sounded like. He naturally dreaded it. But he still drank the cup down to its dregs because there was no other way to save the people he and his father loved. 

Garden of the resurrection 

According to John 19, Jesus' crucified body was laid in a new tomb in a garden. So this garden became the scene of the central event of the Christian religion and of human history: "The third day he rose again from the dead." This was not the resurrection of the disciples' faith, or of hope in the women at the tomb, or of tulips in spring, but the coming back to life of a horribly dead Jesus. The news of this event has straightened Christian spines for all these centuries: the Lord is risen. If sin first showed up in a garden, how fitting that resurrection should too! 

Garden in the city 

A sermon with a garden theme can show that the narrative arc of redemptive history begins in Eden, runs through Gethsemane and the resurrection garden, and then ends in the garden of the city of God. It's a city because it contains cultural treasures of the ages, including urban architectural treasures. But it's also a gloriously watered garden with trees whose leaves are for the healing of the nations. 

The story of four gardens ends with the city of God descending to us and, once more, God dwelling with people in a garden of delight. 

Excerpts about gardens 

Following are sample excerpts from Zeteosearch.org sermon resources about gardens: 

• "Every time we walk in a garden I think we ought to recollect the garden where the Saviour walked, and the sorrows that befell him there. Did he select a garden, I wonder, because we are all so fond of such places, thus linking our seasons of recreation with the most solemn mementoes of himself?" Scripture Meditation or Sermon by Charles H. Spurgeon from The Spurgeon Center for Biblical Preaching   

• "In the garden, Jesus asks his disciples, particularly Peter, James and John, to pray with him, to "keep watch." Jesus makes himself vulnerable, expresses his need for companionship and support. And unfortunately, his disciples let him down." Discussion Questions, Scripture Meditation or Sermon by Keri Wyatt Kent from Theology of Work  

• "God of gardens, 
  you are the great Cultivator,
  growing faith for the ages. 
  You aren't picky about the size of the harvest. 
  You rejoice in the vast prairie field, 
  one crop from horizon to horizon, 
  just as you rejoice in the tiny plant 
  breaking through the inner city cement crack."
  Poetry by Carol Penner from Leading in Worship