Midrash: Jesus in the Garden

(Part 2 of 2)

The anti-Christ will do the same thing. He's going to pretend to care for the poor and thus manipulate people into thinking he's a wonderful humanitarian. Notice, too, that if you tell the truth about Mother Theresa, even most Christians will be outraged that you would dare say that about that great 'saint of God'. You may only be quoting her, but she is beyond reproach in their eyes. The anti-Christ is going to make Mother Theresa look like a combination of Jezebel and Ma Barker . . . terrible, horrible.

In the garden once more, at Gethsemane, we have Satan in his mode as deceiver. Who else is in the garden? Let us look at this in the synoptics very briefly. Turn to Mark 14, verse 51. "When they came to arrest Jesus, a certain young man was following Him, wearing nothing but a linen sheet." Here we have a man who, when they come to arrest Jesus, runs away naked. He is a type of the people who at the time of persecution will backslide. They run away without the garment of salvation in an attempt to save their necks. Many will fall away.

The problem with persecution is that it is the ones who do not need the persecution who get it first and worst. The others, however, when it does come, will fall away.

Remember that Jesus said, "Many will fall away and betray one another." The Christians who are going to fall away and betray you tomorrow are the ones who listen to Copeland and Hagen today. If someone is being told the lie that "God wants you rich, you don't have to suffer, you're a king's kid", only to find themselves suffering, what hope have they of keeping their faith? Their faith, sadly, was never real to begin with. I'm a Pentecostal, but the distortion of Pentecostalism is as apostate as is the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, or the liberal Protestants . It's all from the devil. It's all Satan's deception.

To return to our cast of characters, we now have God, we have Satan, and we have the naked man in the garden. "Whom do you seek?" "Jesus, the Nazarene." "I am He." Then we read that it happens again: "Whom do you seek?" "Jesus the Nazarene." "I told you that I am He." Three times, Jesus says "I am." "If therefore you seek me, let these go their way." - this is a corporate solidarity; 'corporate solidarity' is the theological term for describing where one person represents a larger group of people. There are many corporate solidarities in John's Gospel.

I'll give you two examples of corporate solidarity: Bar Abbas in Aramaic means "Son of the Father." He was the equivalent of a modern terrorist. I live in England, and I go to Northern Ireland frequently, where you have the IRA and the UVF; the Protestant and Catholic terrorists. These people are basically gangsters who are perpetrating what amounts to organized crime in the name of a political religious cause. Both the Protestants and the Catholics do it. They are basically gangsters, religious hypocrites of the most atrocious description. That is fairly equivalent to what Bar Abbas was like.

'Whom shall I give you?', Pilate asks the people. 'This terrorist or Rabbi Yeshua?' Do you want this murderer, or do you want this Rabbi who brought the little girl back to life? Who made the blind see, the lame walk, and the deaf hear, who healed the lepers, who taught people about love, peace and truth?

"Give us Barabbas", they demand. Barabbas is a picture of us all: the just for the unjust. Bar Abbas, Son of the Father. We become sons of the Father because Jesus went to the cross in our place. All four Gospels put the Gospel in the forum of a juridical proceeding - Jesus was put on trial in our place. Barabbas. John Wimber, however, said "We're going to take the Gospel out of the judicial forum." John Wimber had a message from Hell. All four Gospels put the Gospel into a juridical forum; you cannot know God as loving Father until you know Him as a righteous judge.

Another corporate solidarity is one of the apostles: We have the colloquialism even in English, a 'Doubting Thomas'. He wasn't the only apostle who doubted, but he did, saying "I won't believe until I see the pierce marks." In Zechariah 12:10, when Jesus comes back, the Jews will "look upon Him whom they have pierced, and mourn as one mourns for an only son, weeping bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn." This is when unbelieving Israel will believe: when they see the pierce-marks. Thomas is a corporate solidarity; he's a picture of his fellow Jews.

There is another corporate solidarity: "Whom do you seek?" "Jesus." " I am He. Let these go." Who are 'these'? Peter, James, and John, who represent you and me. "Whom do you seek?" "Jesus." "I am He; let these go." "Well, what about Jacob Prasch? You know, that guy who worked his way through his way through college selling cocaine?" "Let him go. I'm the one you're looking for; take me." "But he was the campus radical who firebombed a police car!" "Yeah, I know who he was, and I know what he did. I saw him under the fig tree. Let him go." "Well, what about the homosexual?" "Let him go. Take me; I'm the one you're looking for." "What about the pimp? Let him go. I'm the one you're looking for." "What about the prostitute?" "Let her go. I'm the one you're looking for, let these go." "Let them go? They're criminals!" "I know who they are, but you're looking for me. Let these go, take me, let these go." "Who are you?" "I am the I Am. This is my game. I'm the one who walks in the garden. I made these rules. We're playing my game, by my rules: Let these go, and take me."
That's the Gospel. They did as He said, and let them go. And it happened in a garden.

Let us continue looking at the garden: Turn, please, to chapter 19 of John. Once more, we are in the garden in verse 39. "Nicodemus came also who had come to him by night bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes about 100 pounds in weight." Myrrh in the Bible was used for one thing: anointing a corpse for burial. When Jesus was born, they brought gold because He would be a king, they brought incense because He would be a priest, but they brought myrrh because he would die. Remember the church at Smyrna, that Jesus told them "Satan will put you in prison for ten days, and kill some of you?" Myrrh, or smyrna in Greek.

"And, so they took the body of Jesus and bound it in linen wrapping with the spices, as was the burial custom of the Jews. Now, in the place where He was crucified, there was a garden." It had to be in a garden, same as Genesis, same as Gethsemane. "In the place He was crucified, there was a garden. And, in the garden, a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. Therefore, on account of the Jewish day of preparation, because the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there." Jesus was buried in a garden. The previous day, the Saturday, they were reading Ha Shir Hashirim. To this day in the synagogue on that Saturday of Ha Matzot, Passover week, you read Megilla, known to you as the Song of Solomon. Turn with me to the Song of Solomon, please, chapter 4, verse 6.

"Until the cool of the day, when the shadow flees away, I will go to the mountain of myrrh and to the hill of frankincense." The bridegroom was anointed for burial, to die for the bride; to bring the acceptable sacrifice. Solomon's romance with the Shulammite is a metaphor of Christ's romance with the church. He is anointed for burial, to die for His bride. That is what was being read in the Synagogue.

Now look at Chapter 5 in the Song of Solomon: "I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I've gathered my myrrh along with my balsam." To put it another way, "Come on in. Come on in to the garden." That is what is being read in the synagogue on the Saturday.

The next day, the Sunday, the first day of the week, is what we call in Hebrew yom Rishon. That yom Rrishon, however, was a unique yom Rishon, a unique Sunday in the Jewish calendar. It is the Hebrew feast of First Fruits.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 15:20. The resurrection chapter, and what do we read? "But now the Messiah has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep." Notice 'asleep'. "He will bruise you in the head. You'll only bruise him in the heel." When you go to sleep, you wake up again. As we always point out, the Bible never speaks of the death of a believer as death, but as sleep. Lazarus is asleep. The little girl is asleep; Talitha Tekumi, she's asleep. Paul says 'do not be overly grieved for the brethren who are asleep.' Unsaved people die; believers go to sleep. There is much we can say about this: There are two reasons that the Bible describes the death of a believer as sleep. The first is obviously the resurrection; you wake up again. When you go to sleep, the next thing you are aware of is when you awake. The next thing believers who fall asleep will be aware of in time is the Resurrection. But something else happens when you go to sleep: Your consciousness enters a different sphere, where things that make no sense in our waking hours add up. When you're dreaming, you can dream of dead people alive again, and talk to them. In a dream, you can see past events in the present, and future events in the present. Past, present and future become the same. There is a chronology, but there's no time. We have two Greek words for time, chronos and cairos. In eternity you only have chronos, not cairos. In other words, eternity is not a clock that keeps going, but no clock at all. It is chronos, chronology, an order of events, but there is no time.

In a dream you can see past events happening again: You can see George Washington crossing the Delaware. You can see anything. You can see something is going to happen, you can dream about your coming vacation to California or whatever. You can dream about things that haven't happened yet. You can see dead people alive, or what happened in Revelation. The lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. He saw the 24 elders on the throne; he saw future events that didn't happen yet happening in the here and now. When you go to sleep you dream, physiologists know we all dream. They know from encephalograms and alpha brain waves among other things, we all dream.

Your consciousness enters a different sphere where things that would make no sense in the waking hours, they make sense, that's what happens when you die. So, the question becomes, well, does your soul go to sleep, or do you go to be with the Lord? Relative to us, you're in your grave. Relative to eternity, it's already happening. Says in Ephesians, we're already seating with Christ in the Heavenly places. You cannot apply time to eternity. That's one of the first places the Calvinists go wrong, they try to apply time to eternity. Is there eternal security? Yes. Because in eternity, it's already happening, but eternal security in the Bible does not mean once saved, always saved. To us, it's a variable. There is eternal security, but not in the way the Calvinists think there is. They muddle everything on that. Calvinism is based on humanism. It is humanism. It's crazy.

They go to sleep. Christ is the first fruits of those who are asleep. This is the messianic fulfillment of the Hebrew Feast of First Fruits. What would happen on this Sunday, yom Rishon, of First Fruits? That Sunday of Passover Week? That Saturday they had read the Song of Solomon and in the synagogues to this day they still read it. The Sunday when it was still dark, before dawn, the high priest would have to go into the Kidron Valley, descend into the it from the temple. He'd go into the Kidron Valley and he would wait, while it was still dark for the first pin of light to come up on back of the Mount of Olives. When he saw the first pin of sunlight, he would ceremonially harvest the first stalks of grain of the spring harvest coming up in the Kidron Valley, ceremonially harvest them. That would be called the First Fruit.

Now all four Gospels tell us Jesus rose at sunrise. As I've often pointed out, the rising of the s-u-n is a metaphor in biblical philology for the rising of the S-o-n. Even the Old Testament in Isaiah, arise and shine for your light has come. The glory of the risen Lord is brighter than the sun, etc. All four Gospels say the resurrection was just at the very crack of dawn, while it was still dark. The very hour, of the very day of the year when the high priest was bringing the first fruit into the temple, harvesting the first fruit, Jesus had arose as the first fruit of the resurrection.

n a garden, so, let's see what happens now in the garden. Man falls in the garden, the curse in placed on man in the garden, but then in the garden, that same God takes our sin and is arrested for it. Then in a garden, He's crucified for it. In the place He was crucified, there was a garden. He's crucified in our place in the garden. But then something else happens in the garden.

John, Chapter 20:1. Now the first day of the week, yom Rishon, its the Hebrew Feast of First Fruits, Mary Magdalene, Mary Magdala--she came from Magdol in Galilee, which would have meant it was a place where there was a tower, came early to the tomb while it was still dark. Same as the high priest had to go into the garden when it was still dark, she saw the stone already taken away from the tomb, so she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, and said to them, "They've taken away the Lord out of the tomb. We don't know where they've laid Him." Notice, the bad news in the garden came to a woman first. The curse came upon a woman first. The bad news came on a woman first. So the good news had to come to a woman first, you understand why it had to be a woman? It couldn't be a man; it had to be a woman. The curse came on a woman first, so the good news had to come to the woman first. The bad news came to a woman first so the good news had to come to a woman first.

Peter, therefore, went, and the other disciples, and they were going to the tomb. And the two were running together and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first. And stooping in and looking in, he saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn't go in. Simon Peter therefore also came following him and entered the tomb, and he beheld the linen wrappings lying there. And the face cloth, which had been on his head, not lying with the linen wrappings, but rolled up in a place by itself. Now, this is a culture nuance. Carpenters in biblical times in the ancient Near East, when they were given a commission to build something, or to complete something, they would hang a cloth. At the end of the day, they would use the cloth to remove perspiration. But the end of the day, when the work was finished, you take the cloth, or napkin, and fold it and leave it.

So, the other disciple who had come to the tomb, entered then also. And he saw and believed. For as yet, they did not understand that the Scripture, that He must rise again from the dead. So the disciples went away again to their homes. But Mary, who was standing outside the tomb weeping; and so as she wept, she stooped and looked into the tomb. And beheld two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. Now, again, these two angels correspond to the two cherubs on the Arc of the Covenant, but I'm not going to go into that, now, you can get the tapes if you're interested. And they said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping?" And she said to them, ABecause they've taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have laid Him." When she said this, she turned around and beheld Jesus standing there and didn't know it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, "Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?" Supposing Him to be the gardener. Now, what was the gardener saying the previous day in the Song of Solomon? Come into my garden my beloved. You see, in Genesis, the angel said, get out of here. Get out of the garden, you can't come in anymore. But once He took our sin in the garden and was raised from the dead, now the angel says, come on in. Come on in. He is risen! Come on in.

Women are more sensitive. They get it first. Men are bit thick in the head. So the story continues. She tries to tell the apostles. Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to him, "Sir, if you've carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him and I will take Him away." But Jesus said to her, "Mary." And she turned to Him in Hebrew, which would have actually been the Hebrew dialect of Aramaic, Rabboni, (which means my Teacher). Jesus said to her, "Stop clinging to me. For I have not ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren and say to them, >I ascend to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God." In John's Gospel, previously, Jesus referred to the Father as His Father, in the possessive personal possessive. Once He took our sin and rose from the dead, now He is our Father.

Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples--women get it first. You see, I'm convinced of this issue. Eight out of ten times when a husband and wife get saved, it's the wife who gets saved first. Mary Magdalene came announcing to the disciples, AI've seen the Lord," and that He had said these things to her. When therefore it was evening on that day, the first day of the week (the Jews count days sundown to sundown) when the doors were shut, the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, (shalom alechem,) peace be with you. Now, when it says fear of the Jews, it doesn't mean people were Jewish. They were all Jewish. Jesus was Jewish. They were all Jewish. Mary was Jewish, the apostles were Jewish. What you got here is a translation issue of the Greek word yudeioi it means the Judeans. The religious establishment in and around Jerusalem and the people they controlled. It doesn't mean ethnic Jews, because they're all Jews. It meant the religious establishment in and around Jerusalem, the Sanhedrin and those who they controlled. And He says, APeace be with you.@ I've explained this various times here at Believers in Grace, but we have people here who have not heard it before.

I live in England where doctor Samuel Johnson sardonically, yet accurately, in his dictionary, defined peace as a period of preparation and deception between two wars. We think of peace in the Greek sense of being "Irene," like the girl's name, an absence of conflict. That's peace as the world gives you. God's peace is shalom. Now, ultimately, His peace will include an absence of conflict. When Jesus returns, the nations will beat their spears into pruning hooks. Ultimately shalom will include an absence of conflict. But an absence of conflict is not shalom. Shalom comes from the infinitive of the Hebrew verb, leshalem. Leshalem means to pay. It is a synonym in biblical Hebrew for the word le malot, meaning to fill. It's not in the modern Hebrew, but in biblical Hebrew, it's to fill. It's a synonym, to fill. And it's to fulfill. Leshalem, the word shalom comes from leshalem. We get shalom from leshalem, to pay, to fill, and to fulfill. We have shalom because Jesus came to pay the price for our sin, to fill us with His spirit, and to fulfill the law, the torah. We have shalom because the Messiah came to leshalem, to pay the price for our sin, to fill us with his spirit and to fulfill the law. You can be in the biggest conflict of your life and have shalom. Or you can be in a perfectly pristine circumstance and lack it. Yeshua said, "My peace I give to you. Not like the world gives you." "My peace." That's what He said.

Now, the obvious question is this: In the garden we blew it. In the garden Satan conned us and he is conning to this day. In the garden we bought a curse on ourselves. But in the garden God promised redemption. Whether you believe it or not, is irrelevant. It's appointed to man once to die and after this the judgment. If you don't believe what I'm saying today, I guarantee you a time will come when you will believe it. But it will be too late. The only issue is, is it true or false? I can tell you it is true. You'll believe it someday. But it will be too late. Now is the appointed time, today is the day of salvation.

Just like Adam and Eve, you are standing naked before a holy perfect God. And all the fig leaves in the world are not good enough. No amounts of fig leaves are going to save you from the wrath of God. You may be trusting in good works and being what society calls a good person. No matter how good you are, you are not good enough to go to Heaven. No matter how good you are, you're not good enough not to go to Hell. But no matter how bad you are, you are not so bad that God doesn't love you and doesn't want to save you.

See, I had an advantage. I didn't grow up in a Protestant culture. I didn't even know what a Born-Again Christian was. By the time I was sixteen, I was fooling around with heroin. I didn't know. Nobody had to convince me I was a sinner. I already knew that. The devil gets more people into Hell with religion than he does all the dope, all the immorality, all the gambling, all these type sins put together. Fig leaves. Fig leaves populate Hell. So, you're standing naked before your maker and you may be sewing fig leaves together. You're trusting religion. Without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sin.

But somebody came into that garden in your place. Just think of a trial where there's a judge, a prosecutor and a defense attorney. Now, either that judge and that prosecutor and that defense attorney are going to be for you or against you. Suppose you're at this trial where that judge was also your defense attorney. You couldn't lose. Where the prosecutor was Satan, the accuser of the brethren. If that judge is also your defense attorney and the prosecutor is Satan, you can't lose. On the other hand, if that judge is not your defense attorney, but he's your prosecutor, you can't win. But you can win. How? By letting Him take your sin. In the garden He already took it. You just have to accept that He did it. That's the Gospel. He already took it, you just have to accept He did it.

Fig leaves won't do you no good. Sacraments, novenas, religion, that won't do you any good. It's fig leaves. I'm not against good works; we do good works because we've been saved, not to get saved. It happened in the garden. That's your choice. He took your sin. You can turn from sin and ask Him to forgive you. Ask Him to come into your life and give you a new life. He can make you Barabbas. He did this, she did that. Yeah, I know. But now there is the Son of the Father. Take me instead. He saw you under the fig tree. He wants to say to you what He said to His disciples. In fact, He wants to say to you what He said to me. What He said to His disciples, He wants to say to us because He wants us to be His disciples. He said to them, "Peace be unto you." Shalom alechem. You want shalom? No problem. You can have it. You can have shalom because I came to leshalem, in the garden, to pay the price for your sin. To fill you with my spirit, and to fulfill the law of God you could never begin to keep. That's what Jesus said to Mary Magdalene, that's what Jesus said to Peter, James, John. That's what Jesus said to me, it's what Jesus said to Bill Randels, and if you're not born again, it's what He wants to say to you today. Shalom alechem.

If you don't know Him, please don't leave here today without talking to the pastor or myself. If you're not born again, we'll stay here after the service, don't walk out that door until you hear Jesus tell you shalom alechem.
God bless.

by James Jacob Prasch