Life began in a garden, and so did death. Death died on a rock overlooking a garden, and new life was granted to all who believe that the tomb in the garden is empty.
If you pilgrim to Israel, you probably come because you want to see the places where Jesus lived, where He walked, and where He taught. You will see many beautiful and fascinating sites—Dan, En Gedi, Joppa, Masada, Qumran, Gideon’s Spring, David’s tomb, Beth-shan, and Megiddo—but the places that touch on the life of Jesus hold the deepest meaning. The garden tomb is one such place.
Many believe the garden tomb is the burial and resurrection site of Jesus. It probably isn’t. The tomb itself suggests an Old Testament date, rather than the new tomb the Gospels require (see Matthew 27:60). Still, the beautiful surroundings of the garden tomb lend themselves to meditation on the profound power of Christ’s resurrection, something impossible to do at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which is probably the actual site of Jesus’s crucifixion and burial.
In the solitude of the garden tomb you can stop and pray. It is a moving backdrop for the Lord’s Supper, when those who follow the resurrected Christ celebrate His victory over death.
In a garden very similar to the garden tomb, on the first day of the week two thousand years ago in the quietness of the morning, Mary and other women came and found the large stone used to seal the tomb rolled away. (Mark 16:4). Over the next few weeks, one by one, Jesus’s disciples learned that their Lord had been raised form the dead, delivered from the darkness of that cold tomb into a dawn of a new and glorious life.
Their witness to seeing the resurrected Christ and the empty tomb continue to convince people today that the Savior lives. Though we do not see Him with our eyes or touch Him with our hands, we still fall down on our knees and cry out to Jesus the words of Thomas, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). He is risen indeed!
