Excerpt from John 18:1–19:42

"They took the body of Jesus and wrapped it with the spices in linen cloths, according to the burial custom of the Jews.  Now there was a garden in the place where he was crucified, and in the garden there was a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid.  And so, because it was the Jewish day of Preparation, and the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there."

Reflection by Quinn G. Caldwell

Beaten.

Mocked.

Imprisoned.

Underestimated.

A savior to millions.

Also a mother, also a scientist, also the first East African woman to earn a Ph.D., also the first African woman to win a Nobel Peace Prize.  Also a Christian.

When Wangari Maathai, of blessed memory, looked around her native Kenya in the 1970s, she saw two things: she saw millions of women with almost no way to support themselves or their families in a patriarchal culture.  And she saw arid death taking over her homeland; decades of poor land management had allowed the desert to advance further and further, swallowing thousands of acres of formerly arable land.  She began paying women to raise and plant tree seedlings.  Many (mostly men) laughed at her at first, saying that what those women put into that dead, arid place would be swallowed by it forever.

But the trees slowly took the dead places and made them green and full of life again.  They grew, the programs grew, the women grew and became the Green Belt Movement.  Now the trees aren't holding the desert back any more; these days, they're driving it back.

They thought they were burying Jesus when they put him in that desert tomb.  They thought he would stay in there forever.  But here's what they learned, what they taught Wangari Maathai, what she taught the ladies of the Green Belt Movement: they weren't burying Jesus that day; they were planting him.  And when he sprang up green and fresh, he took that dead, arid place and filled it with life.

He's been driving the desert back ever since.

Prayer

Lord, show me where the desert is advancing, and give me the grace to plant you there.  Amen.

About the Author Quinn G. Caldwell, a United Church of Christ minister, is the co-author, with Curtis J. Preston, of the Unofficial Handbook of the United Church of Christ, published by The Pilgrim Press.

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