11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ 14When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ 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.’ 16Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher)—John 20:11–16.
These verses are from John’s account of the disciple’s discovery of the resurrection of Jesus—John 20:1–18—which has similar elements to but stands apart from the accounts in the Synoptic Gospels. In John’s account Mary Magdalene saw the stone rolled away from the tomb (John 20:1–2) and ran off to tell Peter and John. Mary, Peter, and John then return to the tomb together. The men go inside to further investigate for themselves and find it empty (John 20:3–10). Meanwhile, Mary stands in the garden just outside the tomb, weeping. There, according to John, the Risen Lord makes his first post-resurrection appearance to Mary. We're also told that when Mary first sees Jesus, she doesn't recognize him. She somewhat dismissively, “supposes him to be the gardener.”
I think we tend to overlook this last detail as unimportant. We assume that Mary, distraught with grief, is not able to identify the familiar friend standing in front of her. And maybe it was as simple as that? Considering what she has just lived through, such confusion would be understandable. After all, the last time she saw Jesus was 36 hours ago, when she watched in horror as he was crucified on a Roman cross. His lifeless body was then laid in the nearby tomb on Friday evening until the Sabbath had passed. When she set out before dawn on that Sunday morning, she was going there to give her “rabbouni” a proper burial. She never expected to find the stone rolled away—much less meet someone walking in the garden at that hour!
But could her mistake be understandable on a much more practical level? Like any good storyteller, most of the details John gives us are quite intentionally placed in the narrative. So, if it’s there, we probably should consider why John chose to include it. If Jesus, the teacher—and the Second Person of the Trinity—can so easily be mistaken for a gardener, we might be wise to consider why that should matter to people reading these words over two millennia later.
The choice to have Mary’s encounter with the Risen Lord occur in a garden should harken us back to the original stories of the first encounters between the Creator and his creation in Genesis 2. The setting there is the paradisical Garden of Eden. John presents Jesus as a new Adam, who offers new hope to restore the human race and all of creation to right relationship with the Creator. Seen in that light, Mary’s first perception of Jesus wasn’t entirely wrong. He really is “the Gardener” (or Caretaker) of the New Creation, which begins with his resurrection—the seemingly impossible conquest of Death itself. The implication John makes is clear: where Adam fell short, Jesus Christ will succeed.
I’ve been rereading the Lord of the Rings during Lent. One of my favorite characters in the trilogy is Samwise Gamgee, who, at the beginning of the book, identifies as "just a gardener." In the idyllic world of the Shire that was pretty much who Sam was. Although he was Frodo’s friend—it was always in servant–master relationship, evidenced by Sam’s always referring to his friend as “Mr. Frodo.” Sam is comic relief at the beginning, eavesdropping on the conversation between Gandalf and Frodo that sets the whole Quest to return the Ring of Power to Mount Doom to destroy it in motion. He is a rather reluctant participant in the Fellowship of the Ring. But if Mr, Frodo has to go on this epic journey there's no way Sam was going to stay behind! Wherever Frodo goes, his loyal friend Sam will not be far behind.
Sam travels all the way there—to the crack of Mount Doom—and back again with his dear friend Frodo.
Humble Sam "the gardener" from the Shire undergoes tremendous growth over the course of the three novels—probably the most of any member of the Fellowship. By the time he returns to the his home after Ring is destroyed, Sam is a completely different person than when he left a bit over a year ago. People who knew him well hardly recognize hm when he returns to help "scour" the Shire from the disgraced Saurumon's (a.k.a., "Sharkey") despotic rule.
Even If you aren’t that familiar with Lord of the Rings, you probably know Frodo Baggins is the star of trilogy. He’s the Ring Bearer, the one given the Quest to take the One Ring of Power that the evil Sauron created to the only place in Middle Earth where it can be destroyed. Only Frodo can complete that task; Sam can’t take that burden from him, no matter how much he wishes he could. But Sam is content to follow Frodo faithfully, to “carry him” when he needs help to keep going. At one point near the end of the trilogy, Sam literally carries Frodo up the treacherous slopes of Mount Doom so that his Master can finish his quest. In that moment he embodies what Jesus said in the Upper Room: “No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends”—John 15:13.
It struck me more than once as I reread the climactic scenes of the “Return of the King” during Holy Week that what Peter arrogantly promised Jesus he would do is precisely what humble Sam actually did do for Frodo. The consummate disciple, Sam may waiver but he never betrays, denies, or abandons Frodo.
According to John, Mary initially thinks the Risen Jesus is just the gardener. Likewise, Tolkien intends for us to underestimate Sam when we meet him. However, in both narratives we soon learn that, if our eyes are open, these gardeners have much to teach us. Like Jesus, Sam exemplifies many virtuous traits: e.g., sacrifice, humility, courage, inner strength.
Perhaps the lesson we learn from these two examples is that it is a mistake to assume that “simple folk” (e.g., Hobbits and Jewish carpenters) have no wisdom to impart. Also consider that those who spend lots of time with their hands in the soil may know Creation in ways that it would benefit us all to learn—important wisdom as our world faces a climate crisis and as we begin to emerge from a pandemic. After all, we never know what form the Risen Christ will take.
FOR REFLECTION
· Have you ever formed a first impression of someone or perhaps dismissed someone as not having much to teach you—and then later learned you were wrong? What did you learn from that experience?
· Is there a Sam in your life? Is there someone who can’t carry your burden for you but has helped carry you through a dark time in your life? Are you Sam for someone else?
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