Restoring Eve

The pastor of the church I attend, Veritas, posted this reflection on Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb Easter Sunday where she mistakes the risen Jesus for the gardener (read Ryan's post then return to my blog. He says many things insightful).

Here is the irony of it. Mary was wrong but she was also more right that she could ever imagine. Jesus, in his work on the Cross, reverses the consequences of the Fall, sin and death. The risen reality of Christ, overcoming the gravity of the grave. Those two words have to have the same origin (gravity and grave). Jesus is the gardener, one who dies like a seed in His humanity, bringing healing and growth to the barren nations of the world in his Deity. A cosmic gardener. Women traditionally, such as in Mother Nature, correspond analogically to the soil, the earth, the ground.  

Ryan points out that in Jesus's time, a woman's testimony was not valid legally. Jesus is conveying an dignity to women spiritually by appearing to her first. From what I recall, the theological defense of this legal non-validity was that it was Eve who was deceived by the Serpent in the Garden of Eden. So, here is Jesus basically demonstrating that her legal status and dignity has been restored. Mary is the new Eve, undeceived, and God walks and talks with her in the Garden.

A beautiful painting indeed...