St. John’s account of the final events leading to Jesus’ death begins in the garden where Jesus is arrested. It is a place where Jesus often gathered with His disciples. From a setting of peace and tranquility it becomes a place of betrayal, confusion and violence. The narrative ends in another garden, now one of sadness, where the dead body of Jesus is laid in a new tomb.
At the beginning of his Gospel, St. John repeats the opening words of Genesis, “in the beginning.” It is as if, in painting these gardens into the canvas of his picture of Jesus’ betrayal, suffering and death, he takes us back to the origins of sin. Whereas the first man and woman in the garden of Eden chose to do what they knew was wrong and thereby lost control of their God-given gift of free will, Jesus gave himself totally to the will of His Father and remained steadfast to the end.