The Divine Gardener -- Tim Phillips
"I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride" ~ Song of Solomon 5:1
Since the beginning of this year, I've been going through the book of Revelation during our church's Sunday evening service. In preparing one of the lessons, I came across this very interesting illustration in Joel Beeke's commentary on Revelation (Dr. Beeke is scheduled to be one of the speakers at this year's Family Bible Conference):
Christ knows what is going on today in your church from Sunday to Sunday. He knows what is going on in your heart, in your mind, and in your life. He loves each church and is concerned about her.
Sometimes we get the wrong idea about Christ. We think of our Lord walking among the candlesticks of the churches as a kind of policeman, whose flashing lights signal you to pull over to the side of the road. As the officer walks around your car, he is not impressed that you polished it that morning or have installed new headlights. He is looking for faults, for infractions of the law. That is his job.
Our Lord is not like that policeman. He is a gardener who walks around the flower beds He has planted to appreciate their rich color, texture, and growth. If you are a gardener, it is wonderful to enjoy the fruits of your labors. But occasionally you spot something -- mildew, insects, or shriveling leaves -- that indicates a problem that must be dealt with. That is how we should think of Christ amid His churches. He walks among them, not as a policeman or fault-finder, but as a gardener rejoicing in the fruits of His labors.1
The Scriptures contain numerous references to this image of bearing fruit in the Lord's garden. In Jesus' Parable of the Sower, it is the good soil that produces the bumper crop (Matthew 13:8, 23). We ae to bear the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). In Isaiah's Song of the Vineyard, the expectation was the production of good grapes, but the sad reality was that only worthless ones were produced instead (Isaiah 5:1-7). C.H. Spurgeon writes, "The heart of the believer is Christ's garden. He bought it with His precious blood, and he enters it and claims it as His own. ...The rarest, richest, choicest lilies and roses ought to bloom in the place which Jesus calls His own. The garden is a place of growth. The saints are not to remain undeveloped, always mere buds and blossoms. We should grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Growth should be rapid where Jesus is the Husbandman, and the Holy Spirit the dew from above."2
For several years now, I have planted a vegetable garden next to our house. The easiest vegetables to grow, by far, are tomatoes (or are those fruits?). My kids and I love to eat grape tomatoes and cherry tomatoes ripe off the vine, and it is a joy to see those beginning to grow and mature each year. I have not been nearly as successful with other vegetables. The pepper plants usually produce only few peppers each year. Last year, I tried growing zucchini, which resulted in large plants with zero squash on them!
What about you, dear Christian? What about you, dear Church? Are you producing spiritual fruit in the Lord's garden? Remember, He is no policeman, but He is the Divine Gardener. Who better to go to when the fruit is not growing as it should? He is the one who provides the fertile soil and who sends the rain upon it. Perhaps you have weeds that threaten to choke out His plants? Who better to ask to remove them, to pull them up by the roots, than the Gardener Himself? We cannot be content with limited fruit and towering weeds any longer. Let us go to the Lord this very day and ask Him to produce an abundant crop of spiritual fruit in our lives and in our churches, that He would be glorified and well-pleased as He inspects His garden. May He find the good grapes there.
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1 Joel Beeke, Revelation (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books, 2016), 62-63.
2 Charles Haddon Spurgeon, Morning and Evening (accessed June 18, 2020).