This sermon is from our first-ever bilingual service. Fr. Luis Diaz had a translated copy and would read that copy after each paragraph. The video above is from the English-only Easter service. The video at the end of the sermon is from the bilingual service.
Introduction
With the resurrection of Jesus Christ, a new world has begun. Let’s be clear. That is the claim the New Testament makes about the first Easter Sunday.
The importance of Easter isn’t just that someone who had died came back to life. If that were the case, there are other stories in the Bible about people who died and then lived again, like Lazarus, who could be celebrated today. Jesus’ resurrection is not the only story in the Bible where someone who died comes back to life. But Jesus’s resurrection is different. When Jesus rose from the dead, something new happened. On that first Easter, the world changed in ways nobody could have predicted.
There are at least two ways to talk about that new world that burst forth from the empty tomb on Easter morning. First, we could speak of this age (the age in which we all live) and the age to come. With Easter, God’s future (the age to come) has come bursting into our present age. Second, we could discuss the first creation and the new creation. That’s the direction that our Gospel reading points us toward this morning.
The New Creation and Its Gardener
The words “new creation” aren’t in the text itself, but the concept is everywhere. Parts of the story of Genesis 1 are being retold in fresh and surprising ways because God is, starting on that first Easter morning, creating a new world.
Notice, for example, that the resurrection takes place “On the first day of the week.”
Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb (John 20:1, ESV).
What was the state of the world at the start of the first day of creation? Genesis 1:2 states that the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep.
When Mary Magdalene arrives at the tomb on the first day of the week, the world is “still dark.” Jesus Christ is risen from the dead, the light of the world shines again, but neither Mary nor Peter nor John can see it yet.
Mary thinks someone has taken the body. Peter and John notice the linen cloths lying there, but:
as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead (John 20:9).
The disciples leave for their homes. Mary stays in the darkness, and she weeps there. That sorrow is where Jesus meets her.
But at first, she still doesn’t recognize him. And John then notes what appears to be a strange detail.
Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away” (John 20:15).
A gardener? John has already mentioned not only that Jesus was arrested in a garden (18:1), but also that he was buried in one (19:41).
Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid (John 19:41).
Let that sink in. The resurrection of Jesus Christ occurred in a garden on the first day of the week, while the world was still in darkness, and in that context, Jesus is mistaken for a gardener.
Who was the one, way back in Genesis, commanded to care for the Garden of Eden? In other words, who was Eden’s gardener?
Adam.
Adam was commanded to tend and work in the garden, but he failed in his vocation. He lost everything. Mary stands in a garden on the first day of a new week of a new creation, looking at the last Adam, and she assumes he is the gardener. She is more correct than she realizes.
John does not rush to correct this misunderstanding because, at the story’s deeper level, it’s not really a mistake. The risen Christ has come as the true caretaker of God’s new creation, as the one who will restore and care for what Adam lost.
And just like in Genesis, God speaks again, not saying “Let there be light,” but simply calling her name, “Mary.” And immediately she recognized Jesus, and then she went and told the disciples, “I have seen the Lord.”
The Gardener’s Voice
In Simply Christian, N. T. Wright writes about “echoes of a voice,” universal human longings that haunt us and point beyond ourselves, like hearing a voice just around the corner that you can’t quite find or finding a broken signpost pointing out into the mist. For all of Holy Week, I’ve been talking about these signposts.
Wright’s point is that all human beings possess a longing that we can’t quite name. We sense that love ought to win, even though hate so often flourishes. We sense that beauty means something, even if we struggle to define it, and even if it ultimately fades. We sense that we were made for community, even though we so often fracture our relationships. We sense that justice should prevail, even though it is so often denied to those who need it most.
These longings come to us like an echo of a voice we have never heard directly, like broken signposts pointing into a mist our eyes cannot quite penetrate.
But what happens when, on Easter morning, the Second Adam walks out of the mist? What occurs when our risen Lord emerges from the darkness of death, comes from around the corner, surprises us, and calls us by name?
In that moment, the echoes give way to the one whose voice we have finally heard, and the broken signposts give way to the one to whom they had always been pointing. In that moment, we meet the one for whom our hearts have always longed. We recognize him, and like Mary, we go and tell others.
That is Easter: not merely a doctrine to believe, but the living truth behind every longing for community, every ache for justice, every act of selfless love, and every moment of beauty that has ever made you wonder if there is more to the world than it seems. That voice belongs to one man. He was dead, but now he is alive forever, and he is calling you by name.
Sent by the Gardener
Mary recognizes the voice speaking to her, and then Jesus sends her.
“Go to my brothers,” he says (John 20:17). She goes and delivers the first Easter sermon ever preached. It is short, direct, and gets right to the point:
Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord” (John 20:18).
The resurrection sends us out. Easter is not just for standing at the empty tomb and celebrating. As those whom our risen Lord has called by name and as those who have heard his risen voice, we are sent back into a world still listening to echoes and staring at signposts and wondering what they might mean. That “sending out” is our vocation.
Our mission is not to prove our intellectual superiority with clever arguments, nor to condemn the world with our self-righteousness. Rather, we are called to live in such a way that, by our words and deeds, the echoes grow louder and louder until the people around us begin to suspect the voice is real and realize that Jesus is calling them by name, too.
The tomb is empty. The new creation has begun. The gardener is alive, and he is calling you by name.
Go and tell the whole world.
Amen.
Below is a discussion guide for small groups or Sunday school classes based on this week’s Easter sermon, “The Gardener’s Voice.” The questions are designed to start with the text and then explore broader ideas—what John is doing in the story, what it means that Jesus calls us by name, and what it looks like to be sent out like Mary was. If you find it helpful, feel free to share it. It’s available for anyone who wants to use it.
Life Group Discussion Guide
Opening Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, you called Mary by name in the garden, and she recognized you. Quiet us now so that we might hear your voice as we open your Word together. Give us ears to understand what the text is doing and the courage to be sent by what we find. Amen.
Ice Breaker
Is there a moment in your life when something you had long hoped for or sensed was true finally became clear? What was that like?
Discussion Questions
The sermon argues that the resurrection is the beginning of a new creation, not just a resuscitation. What details in John 20 point toward that claim? What would be lost if we read it as only the latter?
John does not correct Mary’s assumption that Jesus is the gardener because, at the story’s deeper level, it is not a mistake. What does it mean that Jesus is the true gardener, the last Adam? What did Adam lose that Jesus has come to restore?
N. T. Wright describes universal human longings for love, beauty, justice, and community as “echoes of a voice” and broken signposts pointing into a mist. Do you find that description accurate to your own experience? Which of those longings do you feel most acutely?
The sermon says that when the risen Christ calls us by name, the echoes give way to the voice itself, and the signposts give way to the one to whom they had always been pointing. What does it mean for those longings to be fulfilled rather than explained?
Mary’s first Easter sermon is brief: “I have seen the Lord.” Why is personal testimony, rather than argument, the form that Easter proclamation takes?
The sermon distinguishes between proving intellectual superiority and living in such a way that the echoes grow louder for the people around us. What does the second posture actually look like in practice?
Easter is described as a sending, not merely a celebration. How does that shift the way you think about what you do with the rest of the week?
Life Application
Identify one person in your life who seems to be listening to echoes, someone who senses that love should win, that beauty means something, that justice matters, but who has not yet heard whose voice is behind those longings. Pray for them by name this week, and ask God for one concrete opportunity, in word or deed, to make the echo a little louder.
Closing Prayer
Risen Lord, you called Mary by name and sent her to tell the world. You call us by name and send us the same way. Give us the courage to go. Make us the kind of people in whose words and lives the echoes grow louder, until the people around us begin to suspect the voice is real. The tomb is empty. The new creation has begun. Send us out to say so. Amen.