The Secret Garden
(Isa.66:18-21; Heb.12:5-7; 11-13; Lk.13:22-30)
In the late 1800s, when the author Frances Hodgson Burnett (1849-1924) lived at Maytham Hall in England, a red robin led her to a hidden walled garden.
It inspired her to write her famous children’s novel, The Secret Garden. Set in 1901, it’s the story of a spoiled, lonely and recently orphaned young girl named Mary Lennox. Mary is sent to live at her uncle’s mysterious estate in Yorkshire.
There she hears whispers of a secret garden that’s locked, hidden and long forgotten. Mary becomes very curious, and starts looking for it. First she finds the key, and then she finds a door hidden behind a wall of ivy.
She enters that garden to find it choked by weeds, but it’s not dead. It’s waiting to be reborn. And as she starts caring for it, something else starts to blossom: her heart. Mary reaches out to her unhappy cousin Colin, who is crippled by fear and self-pity. She invites him to join her and he, too, starts to heal.
What was once hidden becomes a place of friendship, laughter and new life.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus speaks of a ‘narrow door’ that leads to life. He says we must ‘try our best’ to enter it, not because God wants to make it hard for us, but because this doorway requires something small and simple: our humility.
You cannot fit through that door carrying any sense of pride, ego or entitlement.
We often think of salvation as a wide, comfortable path. But Jesus is making it clear: if we want to follow him, we must change. It’s not enough to say, ‘I knew about you, Lord.’ We must truly know Jesus through our hearts, through our life choices and through our daily acts of love and mercy.
In The Secret Garden, both Mary and Colin are initially inward-looking, angry and resistant to change. They avoid the ‘narrow door’ of vulnerability, responsibility and love. But once they enter and engage with that secret garden, everything changes. Why?
It’s because that garden is hard work. It demands attention and it doesn’t flatter them. But in returning every day to dig, prune and tend it, they discover a joy that gives them new life.
And so it is with us. Jesus’ ‘narrow door’ is not a trap; it’s the threshold to our new life, but we have to work at it.
In Luke’s Gospel, someone asks Jesus, ‘Will many be saved?’ But Jesus doesn’t answer. Why? Because it’s essentially irrelevant.
There are better questions to ask, like: Am I willing to change to fit through that narrow door?
Am I willing to forgive, to let go of the resentment that poisons my soul?
Will I drop the distractions that block me from truly loving God and my family?
Am I humble enough to accept help and to apologise when I’m wrong?
And like Mary in The Secret Garden, will I reach out to those who are forgotten and unloved?
This secret garden is a fine metaphor for the Kingdom of God. It’s a very special place where the sick are healed, dead things bloom again, and joy returns.
Unfortunately, it’s hidden and forgotten by too many people today. They’ve forgotten it because they believe it’s no longer important. ‘We’re going to heaven anyway,’ they think, ‘so why should we bother?’
Or they might think ‘we’re good people, so heaven must surely be ours.’
Jesus is trying to shake us out of this complacency. In John 10:9, Jesus tells us that he is the door, and today he says this door is narrow and not everyone will enter it.
People will come from east and west, from north and south, Jesus says. In other words, people will come from everywhere and even some of the most unlikely souls will be welcomed into God’s Kingdom.
But note this: many others who assume they are safe may be left out, especially if they refuse to change. As Jesus says: ‘the last will be first, and the first will be last.’
This, then, is our message for today: If you want to enter God’s secret garden through that narrow door, then you must approach it honestly, humbly and be prepared to change.
And the key to this door can be found in our bold ‘yes’ to God’s call.
Beyond that threshold lies our personal transformation and unimaginable beauty and joy.
But first we must do our very best to enter that narrow doorway. [i]
[i] The Secret Garden Movie – https://archive.org/details/the-secret-garden-1993-dv-drip-720x-576-ac-3-2ch-eng-rhoo-d