"The Place"

 "Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new sepulcher, wherein was never man yet laid." (John 19:41 KJV)

  "Unjustly condemned, he was led away. No one cared that he died without descendants, that his life was cut short in midstream. But he was struck down for the rebellion of my people. He had done no wrong and had never deceived anyone. But he was buried like a criminal; he was put in a rich man's grave." (Isaiah 53:8-9 NLT)

 Matthew Henry has this place, "the garden," as belonging to Joseph of Arimathea, which would make perfect sense, as the meeting place where Jesus spent most of His time praying, would have been more private than public, if it was owned by someone, especially a friend. Much of this area, including the place of the crucifixion, was said to be the same place where Abraham was going to sacrifice Issac.

 Charles Spurgeon has it that Joseph was Jesus' best friend, listing the tomb in which Christ was laid, "it is the tomb of your best friend." Moreover, he indicates that the borrowed tomb, which was borrowed, has another spiritual meaning, because our sins, too, are borrowed! And yet, to put it into a greater context, our sins were borrowed by the Lord Jesus Christ, as He had no sins, but took our sins upon himself: "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." (2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV) 

Besides this, would or could you imagine, for just a moment, this tomb which Jesus was buried in, might have been a familiar place to Him, as it was, He really had no home to lay down and sleep at night. ""Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place even to lay his head."" (Luke 9:58 NLT) 

 Whether you believe it or not, but John's Gospel leaves much unspoken, although it is still there, between the lines! In a stranger sort of way, I think that our writing's, both John's and mine, and quite similar. Not that it matters, but there are many more things I could say in many of the postings, but I don't say them, specifically to leave much open for interpretation and exploration.  

 I know it might sound crazy, but this reminds me of something of a vision I had, at least ten years ago. I have shared this before, but it might be more relevant now, that we are taking about borrowed sins. Some relate it to baptism, as we go down into the water burdened and heavy loaded by sin, coming up, out of the water free from sin, as if, floating to the surface.

 Others, show it as a miracle, that can only be performed by the hand of God; to which, only God can free us from the sin we are loaded down by; sins which have been placed upon us, from the time of our birth! Yet, the beauty of the whole truth, is that the deliverance is free! It is ours for the taking, we just need to reach out and grab hold of it...

"One day the group of prophets came to Elisha and told him, "As you can see, this place where we meet with you is too small. Let's go down to the Jordan River, where there are plenty of logs. There we can build a new place for us to meet." "All right," he told them, "go ahead." "Please come with us," someone suggested. "I will," he said. So he went with them. When they arrived at the Jordan, they began cutting down trees. But as one of them was cutting a tree, his ax head fell off into the river. "Oh, sir!" he cried. "It was a borrowed ax!" "Where did it fall?" the man of God asked. When he showed him the place, Elisha cut a stick and threw it into the water at that spot. Then the ax head floated to the surface. "Grab it," Elisha said. And the man reached out and grabbed it." (2 Kings 6:1-7 NLT)