I wonder whether you’ve ever had a secret rendezvous. It’s the kind of thing that makes you whisper for fear of being found out, or shiver with suppressed excitement. A phone call, an email, or a text message says ‘Meet me tonight at 6. You’re the only person who can help me;’ or ‘I’ve got something I need to tell you;’ or even ‘I just can’t go another day without seeing you.’ You’re breathless, your heart’s pounding, and you’re overcome with impatient curiosity and furtive intrigue.

Easter’s about not just one secret rendezvous, but a whole series, all taking place at the same time. And they all take place in a garden. One book in the Bible has a number of references to secret meetings in a garden. And that book is the Song of Songs. The Song of Songs is about erotic love, about a physical, intimate, passionate embrace between two people whose lovemaking is a kind of worship of God. In the coming together of two lovers, Song of Songs invites us to see that God’s deepest desire is for us, and our deepest desire is for God. There’s a reason why the Song of Songs is particularly significant. Jesus’ death took place at Passover. At each of their five great festivals the Jews read one of the shorter Old Testament books, known as the Scrolls. The scroll they read at Passover is the Song of Songs. And repeatedly the Song of Songs refers to a garden, and represents the garden as a place of secret rendezvous and fertile growth.

In the Middle East, gardens aren’t very common. They’re very special. The climate is dry, the ground is dusty, rain can be rare. In Arabic the word ‘garden’ has a pArcticular resonance. The Arabic word for ‘garden’ is ‘paradise.’ That’s where the whole notion of paradise comes from. Paradise means flowing water in a desert, green shoots in dry ground, lush beauty in the midst of arid wastelands. Easter is a glimpse into paradise, because the Easter story shows us a series of wondrous meetings all taking place in a secret garden one special morning.

Let’s look at the first rendezvous. Easter is the moment when the beginning meets the end. At the start of the Bible there’s a man and a woman in a garden. Adam and Eve. Intimacy and destiny. All of creation focused in this one relationship. And at the end there’s another encounter in a garden. This time it’s God and his bride the church coming down from heaven as the new Jerusalem, in a garden where the leaves on the trees are for the healing of the nations. And now here, on Easter morning, Jesus meets Mary Magdalene, a man meets a woman, in a garden. Beginning meets end, creation meets completion right here in this resurrection garden. Resurrection shows us the last page of the story, how things will be for all time; but it also shows us the first page of the story, by placing a man and a woman in a garden, just like in Genesis. Here, in this garden, in the meeting of this man and woman, the beginning and end of all things meet. The resurrection of Jesus is the end of the beginning and it’s the beginning of the end. It’s the central moment of history. That’s quite a big secret. Whisper it if you dare.

And there’s more. Easter’s the moment where the body meets the soul. We’re used to
controversy between religion and science. We’re used to science saying we’re just fragile physical bodies with predictable behaviours and religion saying we’re really immortal souls with a God-given identity. But the resurrection of Jesus cuts through this debate. Here is Jesus, utterly physical, scarred and defeated by the agony of crucifixion, and now so real before Mary that she clings on to him for all she’s worth. He’s not an intangible soul—he’s the most real and physical thing she’s ever felt and touched. And yet he’s the most holy thing too. Easter is a reaffirmation of Christmas: the resurrection is a reaffirmation of the incarnation. God’s not above and beyond flesh and blood—God’s a reality in flesh and blood, now and for ever. This is the central moment of history, and what we see in Jesus is the resurrection body, fully human, fully physical, fully infused with the spirit of God. The old idea that the body tied us to earth and the soul tied us to God has gone. Here in the risen Lord heaven and earth are united as never before. Here we see the destiny for our bodies and souls: to be remade beyond death as people soaked in humanity and immersed in God. Easter’s the day we glimpse eternity. That’s quite a big secret. Whisper it if you dare.

But there’s even more. Easter’s the moment when the personal meets the social. When we think about dying maybe our deepest fear is not pain, or even oblivion, but being fundamentally eternally alone. Never to wake up seems terrifying. But one day to wake up and be eternally alone seems even worse. Death seems the most isolating experience imaginable. But here in the garden Jesus’ resurrection isn’t something for him alone. He shares it with Mary. He tenderly speaks her name. When we deeply love someone, we’re terrified our bodily limitations, our other commitments, and our impending deaths mean we can’t be truly, intimately, everlastingly as one with them as we yearn to be. But here’s Jesus, once dead now risen, truly, intimately, everlastingly with Mary. And not just with Mary, but with the people he calls the ‘brothers.’ The mystery of love is how we can love one person so much and yet still love others too. Here that mystery’s solved. God in the risen Christ loves us all, but loves each one of us as if we were the only one. And once again the garden’s crucial. Here the garden is telling us that resurrection is not just intimate, not just social, but also cosmic. It’s for all creation. The garden represents the whole non-human creation. Just as Adam and Eve were the focal point for the destiny and fall of all things, so this secret meeting between Jesus and Mary is the focal point for the resurrection of all things. Easter is when the personal meets the social, the social meets the cosmic, and Jesus is all in all. This is a picture of everlasting life with God. That’s another very big secret. Whisper it if you dare.

Here we have a series of meetings in a secret garden. Each meeting is about one and the same thing. And that thing is the best news and the biggest secret in the world: the fulfilment of God’s deep desire for us and the fulfilment of our deep desire for God. These meetings are showing us what’s meant by paradise.

Easter’s about a garden. Easter’s about the coming together of creation and destiny, body and soul, personal and social. Easter fulfils our desire for God and God’s desire for us. And all of this is disclosed in an encounter between a man and a woman in a garden. A gentle presence, a gentle touch, a gentle word. This is eternal life. This is paradise.

Revd Dr Sam Wells
St-Martin-In-the-Fields, London