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If this bank holiday were not called Easter Monday, it would probably be called Garden Monday. This is the weekend when gardens that open to the public draw the first big crowds of the year, and when gardening centres see people begin stocking up to transform their own gardens into a riot of colour after the bleakness of winter. And it’s entirely appropriate that Easter should be celebrated in this way, for Easter is a story of gardens. It begins with the first garden in the Bible, the garden of Eden, recorded in the Genesis story of creation. There Adam, the first man, the first gardener if you like, enjoyed a life of plenty, but he and Eve were thrown out of this place of abundance into a wilderness. The early paradise was lost. Then comes the account of Jesus’ crucifixion, which begins in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was a peaceful place of olive groves, but became a place of wickedness, where Jesus is identified by Judas and then arrested and taken away. The scene is set for him to be tried by Pontius Pilate, and his torture and death. But the narrative does not end there. In the place where Jesus was buried, after his death on the cross, was a garden and in the garden a tomb. The following morning after Jesus has been placed in this tomb, his women followers, among them Mary Magdalene, make their way to this garden. John’s Gospel records that they meet a man they think is the gardener. And in a way, he is: the gospels record that this is in fact Jesus, risen from the dead. Various theologians have said that this signifies Jesus is the second Adam. Unlike the first Adam, he is not thrown out of the garden but makes it his own. Christ will be the one who reaps the harvest, by calling people to follow him. He cultivates their souls. But I think there is another message here. This first sighting of Jesus after his resurrection in a garden puts him centre stage in the midst of creation. Pope Francis has called creation “our common home”, and has warned that people have distorted the harmony between the God the creator, creation and humanity by trying to dominate the earth. Instead he urges a rethink, to be responsible stewards of this common home. So while Christ may cultivate souls, it is people’s role to cultivate, that is care, for creation. It is entirely appropriate then, after the dead of winter, that Christians celebrate Christ’s rising at springtime, as the earth comes back to life and they honour Jesus the gardener with their own gardening.