Lent Garden

The Lent Garden is an invitation to engage visually with the story of Lent. It will change each week as we make our way towards Holy Week and ultimately Easter. Be sure to check in each time you visit to see what has changed.

If you miss a week, you can check back here to see a record of the journey we are on.

1. Ash Wednesday

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

From Matthew 6: 1 – 6, 16 – 21

2. Jesus’ Temptation

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.  After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.  The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

From Matthew 4: 1 – 11

3. The Transfiguration

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!”

From Matthew 17: 1 – 9

4. The Samaritan Woman at the Well

So Jesus came to a town in Samaria. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired from the journey, sat down by the well. Jesus said to the Samaritan woman who came to draw water, “Will you give me a drink?”

Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”                     

From John 4: 5 – 42

5. Jesus heals a man born blind

Jesus saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”

“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.

While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.

From John 9: 1 – 41

6. The Raising of Lazarus

On his arrival in Bethany, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. Being less than two miles from Jerusalem, many Jews had come to Martha and Mary to comfort them in the loss of their brother. 

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said. Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet wrapped with strips of linen, and a cloth around his face.

Jesus said to them, “Take off the grave clothes and let him go.”

From John 11 : 1 – 45

7. Jesus comes to Jerusalem as King

 Jesus sent two disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and at once you will find a donkey tied there, with her colt by her. Untie them and bring them to me. They brought the donkey and the colt and placed their cloaks on them for Jesus to sit on. A very large crowd spread their cloaks on the road, while others cut branches from the trees and spread them on the road. The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted,

“Hosanna to the Son of David!”

“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”

“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”

From Matthew 21 : 1 – 11

8. Maundy Thursday

The evening meal was in progress, and Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, was to betray Jesus. Jesus got up from the meal, wrapped a towel around his waist. He poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel.

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

From John 13 : 1 – 17, 31b – 35

9. Jesus is betrayed and arrested

After supper, Jesus goes to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. Judas arrives with soldiers and betrays Him with a kiss. Jesus is arrested.

Jesus is taken before the Jewish high priest, Caiaphas. He is accused of blasphemy for claiming to be the Son of God. 

Jesus was brought before the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. Pilate questions Him but finds no guilt. However, pressured by the crowd, he orders Jesus to be crucified.

Roman soldiers flog Jesus, place a crown of thorns on his head, and mock Him as “King of the Jews” and they led him away to be crucified. A passerby, Simon of Cyrene was forced to carry the cross to a place called Golgotha.

After hours of suffering, He speaks His final words and dies.

From John 18 : 1 – 19, 42 and Matthew 27 :11 – 54

10. The Empty Tomb

Early on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.  She turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 

From John 20: 1 – 17