A BORROWED TOMB

As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus.  Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body, and Pilate ordered that it be given him.  Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock.   Matthew 27:57-60

Ordinarily I probably wouldn’t use a joke at this holy week, but I think this one so tells the story: 

Joseph told his wife, “Honey you know that burial plot I carved out last week?  I just lent it to somebody.”  “You what!.  “Don’t worry, dear, it’s only for three days!”

My daddy was buried in a borrowed tomb.  My aunt let us have it because daddy hadn’t planned ahead.  You don’t plan to die at 50.  Know what?  His decayed body has not left there.  But one day, “the dead in Christ will rise first.”  (I Thessalonians 4:16). 

If you’ve already died when Jesus comes for his own, you won’t need that tomb anymore.  If you’re still alive, you won’t ever need to buy one, cut one out of a rock or borrow one.  Either way you win if you know that man with the borrowed tomb. 

Blessings.