Jesus Restores the Garden of Eden in Holy Week

The whole point of Christ's death on Good Friday and resurrection on Easter was the establishment of the Kingdom of God, the New Eden, on Earth.

From Aleteia

By Tom Hoopes

The whole project of Jesus’ redemption is the re-Edenization of the world. Consider how many parallels are found in the Gospels.

The Gospel of Matthew is all about the Kingdom of God -- from Jesus’ first public words (“The Kingdom of heaven is at hand!”) to his execution as Jesus, King of the Jews.

We have each memorized Jesus’ very own description of what his kingdom is like in the Lord’s Prayer. “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we pray, asking for a return to the Garden of Eden, where only good prevails, our daily bread is taken care of, and we are forgiven, returned to innocence. 

We lived in this kingdom, but we gave it away to the devil, and the whole project of Jesus’ redemption is the re-Edenization of the world. It surprised me,  in my Extraordinary Story podcast, how specifically Jesus restores the Garden of Eden during the week of his death.

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First, Eden was a Garden, and so is Holy Week.

It is astonishing how often plants come up in the last week of Christ’s life. 

After entering Jerusalem as a king, one of the first things Jesus does is curse a fig tree, symbolically killing the tree that led to the Fall in the first place.  Then he compares himself to wheat that has to die to become bread, and a vine that we all become part of — just before taking on the form of bread and wine. 

This is simultaneously the most symbolic and most literal re-Edenizing of the world: Jesus himself becomes the Tree of Life for us on the cross.

Second, Eden was a marital love story; so is Holy Week.

The first human words recorded in the Bible are Adam’s love song to Eve in Eden, “at last this is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh.”

Then, among the last words of Jesus, the Second Adam, are parables about marriage. There is the parable of the Wedding Banquet, the question of marriage after the resurrection, and the parable of the Ten Virgins waiting for the bridegroom.

Throughout the Old Testament, God has said that he delights in us and wants to marry his people, and compares his plight to Hosea, who married a promiscuous woman. 

Now, through the mystery of the cross, we see him taking us as his spouse.

Third, God gave us work in Eden, and transforms it in Holy Week.

Genesis tells us that God put mankind in the Garden of Eden “to till it and keep it,” but sin made labor difficult.

That means the redemption of work is critical to the re-Edenization of the world. And, sure enough, Jesus tells a number of stories about labor after his entry into Jerusalem: There is the parable of the Two Sons and their work, the parable of the Tenants, along with the parable of the Talents.

Each of these stories compares fidelity to God with labor for God, like in Eden.

Fourth, God gave us dominion in Eden, and shows us the way to wield it in Holy Week.

At the creation of Adam and Eve in Genesis,  God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion.”  He made us rulers on earth, but we made a mess of this as well. So Jesus, in his last week on earth, reviews temporal power as well.

It is in Holy Week that Jesus says, “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.” He also excoriates bad rulers in the Seven Woes of the Pharisees, and warns that earthly powers will turn against Christ’s followers.

But he also gives us the secret to power: The two great commandments, the spiritual power of the Son of David — and the great vision of Christ the King on his throne rewarding those who served him in their neighbor and punishing those who didn’t.

Finally, Jesus re-opens Eden on the cross.

After the Fall, the gates of Eden were closed to us, and the Tree of Life was kept away from us. 

But as the Church prays on Holy Thursday, “You made your cross the tree of life; grant its fruit to those reborn into baptism.”

We see Jesus re-open the gates of Eden to his kingdom when the repentant thief prays, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom,” and Jesus replies, “Amen, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” 

So re-enter Eden this Holy Week — and help begin to rebuild it on earth.

God wants to restore us to his Garden, because he delights in us and longs to be close to us, and he will give us the grace to begin to re-Edenize the world as we wait.