But in the Jerusalem garden, there is no gardener at all, only someone mistaken for a gardener. The garden is just a given. These two stories, I believe, are both meditations on how human beings tend to look at their lives. And although there are only two garden stories found in the scriptures, I'd say there are three ways basically that we can look at our lives. One is pessimism, often called realism.
Eternal optimism is the second view of life.
It's all part of a plan - God's or our unconscious own. The garden story in John is also a meditation on life's conditions. But, as a midrash on the pessimistic, resentful view of Eden, it lets us know right up front that it is offering a third alternative, namely, humility. Suffering, often unjust, is part and parcel with the world. But, the story continues, to spend any precious time on this earth coming up with theological explanations of why this turn of events is the way it is, is dangerously close to hubris.