Supposing Him to Be the Gardener

Last updated on: April 7, 2021 at 11:51 pm by johnturner

Supposing Him to Be the Gardener 2021-04-07T23:51:17-04:00 johnturner

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This is a lightly revised post from last summer, placed where it belongs, at Eastertide.

One of my newly favorite Easter season texts is Rudyard Kipling’s concise and poignant short story, “The Gardener.” If you’ve never read it, it doesn’t take long, but perhaps refresh your memory of John 21 first.

“The Gardener” narrates the grief and anguish of an Englishwoman named Helen Turrell, who for years has pretended that her out-of-wedlock son, christened Michael, is really her nephew. The secrecy surrounding his birth muddies their relationship. Michael is only allowed to call Helen “Mummy” at bedtime.

Michael enlists during the early months of the Great War, and after a few safe postings, finds himself at Ypres. With economy, Kipling narrates his death: “just after Michael had written Helen that there was nothing special doing and therefore no need to worry, a shell-splinter dropping out of a wet dawn killed him at once.” A wall collapses on his corpse, which leaves him unaccounted for, missing.

It is Helen’s relationship with the dead Michael rather than the living that is the marrow of this story, however. After the armistice, Michael’s corpse is found and interred in a military cemetery. Helen goes to visit.

When she reaches Hagenzeele Third Military Cemetery, she looks out at the “merciless sea of black crosses” of its twenty-one thousand dead. Even with the information she has received about the location of Michael’s grave, she struggles to find it. She sees a man, “evidently a gardener, for he was firming a young plant in the soft earth.” He rises up when she approaches him: “Who are you looking for?”

“Lieutenant Michael Turrell – my nephew”, said Helen slowly and word for word, as she had many thousands of times in her life.

The man lifted his eyes and looked at her with infinite compassion before he turned from the fresh-sown grass toward the naked black crosses.

“Come with me”, he said, “and I will show you where your son lies.”

When Helen left the Cemetery she turned for a last look. In the distance she saw the man bending over his young plants; and she went away, supposing him to be the gardener.

Fra Angelico, Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not), ca. 1445

The passage draws on the account of the resurrection in John’s Gospel. After Mary Magdalene discovers that the stone has been rolled away from Jesus’s tomb, she runs to tell the disciples. Peter and the disciple “whom Jesus loved” race to the tomb and find linen wrappings and a cloth, but no corpse. After the disciples return home, Mary remains, “weeping outside the tomb.” She sees two angels and then Jesus, but she doesn’t recognize him at first. He asks her whom she is looking for. “Supposing him to be the gardener,” she asks him where he has taken Jesus’s corpse. When Jesus calls her by name, she finally recognizes him.

Many contemporary readers of Kipling’s story would have recognized the allusions, and they probably would have connected Helen Turrell’s secrets with the supposed past sins of Mary Magdalene. The Gospel of John does not mention Mary Magdalene until its account of the crucifixion, but for centuries Christians had conflated her with the “sinful” woman who anoints Jesus in the Gospel of Luke. The “gardener” in Kipling’s story is at least a type of Christ, signaled at first by the gardener’s “infinite compassion,” a phrase commonly applied to Christ or God.

The economy of Kipling’s ending is also poignant. In the Gospel of John, Mary is filled with joy after her encounter with the risen Jesus. “I have seen the Lord,” she reports to the disciples. Readers do not know how Helen reacts to her encounters with either the gardener or her son’s grave. She looks back one more time and then simply leaves. Does her trip to the cemetery fill her with long-sought solace? Forgiveness? Can one feel better about oneself, God, or the world when seeing endless rows of graves? We do not know.

The story becomes far more poignant with read in the context of Kipling’s own biography. As the novelist Scott Spencer explains, Kipling’s own son, John, was turned down when he volunteered for the war because of poor eyesight. The novelist intervened to reverse the decision. The result was John Kipling’s death. He was killed in action even more quickly than Michael Turrell. Unlike Michael, his body was never recovered. There was no grave for Rudyard Kipling to visit. In Kipling’s “Epitaphs of the War,” he wrote: “If any question why we died / tell them, because our fathers lied.” Surely Kipling longed for someone to look at him with “infinite compassion.”

Kipling’s jingoism and support for imperialism contribute to literary scholars assessing him without much compassion at all. Regardless, “The Gardener” is a beautifully crafted story. Some scholars disparage the ending, but it’s a thoughtful and understated engagement with the Gospel of John, a reminder that when we seek Jesus, we will find him, if not in the ways we expect.

Previous Post

April 7, 2021

The Savage My Kinsman: Wheaton Wrestles with the Language of Mission

Next Post

April 9, 2021 Survival and Resistance in Evangelical America

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category abolitionism Abortion Abraham Joshua Heschel Abraham Kuyper Abraham Lincoln Academia Activism Adam Renberg Advent Adventist africa African American Religion Agnes Howard Albert Camus American History American Religious History American Revolution American West Anabaptists Ancient History Andrea Turpin Andrei Tarkovsky Anglicanism Annales Ansley Lillian Quiros anti-Catholicism Antisemitism Anxious Bench apologetics Apparitions Arash Azizi Archaeology archives art Artificial Intelligence Asia Asian Americans Augustine Authors Bad Bunny Baptism Baptists Barack Obama Battle of Hastings Benjamin Franklin Bernard-Henri Levy Beth Allison Barr Beth Moore Bethany Mannon Bible Bill Cunningham Billy Graham Black Music Bob Dylan Body Boenhoffer Books Breastfeeding Bruce Springsteen C.S. Lewis Calvinism Cancel Culture Capitalism Carmelites Catholicism Cedric Robinson Cesar Chavez Charismaticism charity Charles Dickens Charles Lindbergh Che Guevara Chicago Children Chinese Christianity Chris Gehrz Christ Christian death Christian Higher Education Christian life Christian Nation Christian Nationalism Christianity Today Christmas Church life Church Practice cinema Civil Religion Civil Rights Movement Civil War civility Classics Climate Change Cold War Colonial Mexico colonialism Comer Communism community complementarianism Conference on Faith and History Congregationalism Conspiracies Conspiracy Conversion Narratives Coronavirus Costa Rica Council of Nicaea Covid-19 Creation Critical Race Theory Crusades Culture culture wars Daniel K. Williams David Barton David Swartz Death Ways death with dignity DEI democracy Democratic Party Devotion Digital Age Diplomacy discipleship diversity Donald Trump Drama Dua Lipa Early Church early modern Early modern Catholicism Easter Eastern Christianity economic exploitation Education elections Elie Wiesel Elizabeth II Elizabeth Taylor emotions Empire Engineering England enslavement Entertainment Episcopal Church Erica Ramirez eschatology Eurocentrism Evangelicalism Evangelicals Exegesis Family Feminism Film Flannery O'Connor folk music Food Foreign Policy founding fathers Franciscans Franciscus Junius fundamentalism Funerals G.K. Chesterton Gender Genocide genre geography George W. Bush George Washington George Whitefield Global Christianity Global church Grief Guadalupe guest post Guest Post gun control gun violence Gustavo Gutierrez Hamid Dabashi Harold John Ockenga Harvest Hate Hawaiian Christianity Healing health care Heather Cox Richardson Hell Heresy Hermeneutics Higher Education Hinduism Hippocratic oath Historical Fiction Historical Methodology Historical Profession Historical Profession Historical Theology Historical Thinking historiography Holidays Holocaust horror movies Human rights Humanitarian Work humanities Hummingbirds Hungary hymns Imago Dei Immigration Injustice Interviews Iran Islam Islamophobia Israel Ivan's Childhood Jacob Randolph James Bratt Janine Giordano Drake Japanese history Japanese Literature Jean Paul Sartre Jesse Miranda Jesus Jesus Christ Jimmy Carter Joan Baez Joan Didion Joanne Freeman João B. Chaves Joao Chaves Joey Cochran John Calvin John Fea John Tillotson John Turner Johnny Cash Jonathan Edwards Jonathan Tran Joseph Smith Josh Howerton Journalism Jr. Judaism Jürgen Moltmann Just War Justice Justin Brierley Karl Barth Katelyn Beaty koi ponds Kris Kristofferson Kristin Kobes Du Mez Latin American Religious History Latino Americans Lectio Divina Leisure Lent Leonard Cohen liberal arts liberalism Liberation Theology Linda Ronstadt Lisa Clark Diller Literature Lou Reed Lynchings Lynneth Miller Renberg Mainline Protestantism Malcolm Foley Marilyn Monroe Maritime history Mark Noll Marriage Martin Luther Martin Luther King Martyrdom Marxism Mary Masih Alinejad mass shootings material culture medieval Christianity Medieval Ethiopia Melissa Borja memory Mennonites Mental Health Mental Illness Methodism Mexican Americans Mexicans Mike Madrid Miles Mullin Min Jin Lee Miscarriage Missionaries Mister Rogers Mitt Romney modernity Monasticism Mormonism Motherhood Mothers of the Church Moving Music Musicals Nadya Williams Nahua Christianity Native Americans Natsume Sōseki New Contributor New England New Year New York Nico Non-Violent Protest Orthodoxy pacifism Paleo Evangelicals Palestinians Parenting Patti Smith Paul Kingsnorth Pedro Calderón de la Barca Pentecostalism Philip Jenkins Phillis Wheatley physician-assisted suicide pilgrimage Pilgrims pluralism Plutocracy Poetry Politics Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV post-modernism prayer preaching Presbyterians prosperity gospel Protest Public history Publishing Puritans purity culture Quakers race Race Massacres Racial Capitalism racial reconciliation racialization Racism Raha Bahloulipour Re-Enchantment reading Reformation Refugees religion and the university religion and war Religious Freedom Religious Nones Religious Pluralism Religious Symbols religious violence Republican Party Revival Rita Coolidge Ritual Roger Williams Roman Catholic church Royalty Russell Moore same-sex marriage Sarah Irving-Stonebraker Scandinavia Science Science and Technology Scopes trial Scriptural Interpretation secularism Selena Quintanilla seminary Seventh-Day Adventists sexual morality Sexuality Sikhs Silence slaveholders theology Slavery Slavoj Zizek social justice Social Media Southern Baptist Convention Southern Religion Spain Spiritual Autobiography Spiritual but not religious Spiritual Discipline Sports Stanley Hauerwas Suffering Summer Camps Sunday Night Odds and Ends Supernatural Supreme Court Syriac Christianity Tal Howard Taylor Swift Teaching Technology Television Thanksgiving The Beatles The Mission theater TheoBros Theology Thomas Dixon Thomas Jefferson Thomas Kidd Thomas Merton Tim Gloege Tim Walz Tom Holland Tourism tradition Tragedy Translation Transnationalism Travel Trump Ukraine Uncategorized Unitarians United Methodist Church US History Vanessa Chan Velvet Underground Verónica A. Gutiérrez Veronica Gutierrez Vikings Violence Virgin Mary Virtue Virtue ethics Visions Voting War WCTU Wendell Berry Westminster Assembly White Evangelicalism Wildfires Winnie the Pooh Witches women Women in Ministry Women's and Gender Studies Work Worship writing Yasunari Kawabata Zena Hitz

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

What does Romans say about those who are led by the Spirit of God?

Select your answer to see how you score.

They are the children of God (or sons of God) They will not sin They will have eternal life They are saved