When the Lord appeared to Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb after His resurrection, she supposed Him to be "the gardener" (John 20:15). It has been suggested that many people have the same wrong conception of Him. They think that Christ came to this earth to make this world a pleasant place to live in, that He is "the gardener." Man thinks that Christ is improving the world. Paradise was on earth once, but man forfeited it by sin, and now paradise is in heaven. That poor, guilty sinner hanging on a cross beside the Lord of glory went straight from this world of sin to the paradise of God (Luke 23:40-43). No, Jesus is not the gardener--at least, not in this age. Some day this earth will bloom again, the desert blossoming as the rose; but it will be for Israel and for the Gentile nations. To Christians, this world is only a wilderness, and our hearts long for the "Paradise of God" (Revelation 2:7).
