Borrowed, Buried, Behold

Borrowed...

There’s a lot of things we can borrow.

We can borrow a book from the library; we can borrow a car from enterprise; we can borrow a room from Days Inn; we can borrow money from a bank; You can go to AutoZone and borrow any tool you need to fix your car; or Home Depot will let you borrow tools to do a job around your house.

Sometimes we can borrow things from friends. A couple weeks ago Matt borrowed my trailer to move something; I have borrowed many tools from Shane; a few of you all have borrowed the church van. Others have borrowed tables and chair from the church...

But you know what no one borrows…A TOMB.

I have done many, many funerals during my ministry. I have stood by many, many, gravesides and every time we have lowered someone into the grave there has not been a single time that we did so thinking that anyone else would occupy that space…because no one; no one borrows a tomb.

Except for Jesus.

The First Part of the Story...

So, the first part of the story is found in Matt 27:57-61

Matthew 27:57–61 (ESV)

When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus. He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him. And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away. Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.

Once Jesus died Joseph =came to get the body and prepare it for burial. The Bible tells us in John’s account of the burial that they prepared him to the exact custom of the Jews. They then placed him in a tomb that belonged to Joseph.

I’m betting that they were not expecting the second part of this story. 75lbs of myrrh and aloes, a new tomb with a giant stone in front.

I’m betting that when they rolled that stone in front of the tomb that day, they never thought that they would see their friend again…at least not on this Earth.

Many thought the story of Jesus had ended on that night. That when the stone rolled in front of the tomb the period had been placed on the end of the story of Jesus- but they could not have been more wrong.

The first part of the story is centered around Jesus and his death on a cross. But more than that, it is about Jesus’ sacrifice and atoning work on the cross. 2 Corinthians 5:21 puts it this way “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

Friends, the cross is the perfect symbol for the atonement and forgiveness of our sins. "The cross is a fitting symbol of the atonement, for it represents the intersecting of two attributes or facets of God’s nature. Here it is that the love of God meets the holiness of God. The holiness requires payment of the penalty, and the love provides that payment."

The Next Part of the Story

When I was in high school my buddies and I used to love to play pranks on each other. One of our favorites was if one of our friends left their keys in their car there was a pretty good chance their car would not be where they parked it when they came for it. It was always hilarious to see the looks on their faces as we watched from an unseen place.

The shock, the unbelief, the terror that they experienced all as we laughed at their expense- but that is nothing like showing up to a graveside and finding out your loved one is gone!

The thing is, Jesus had told them the he was merely borrowing the tomb no less than three times in the Gospels. Just in the Gospel of Matthew we read three times that Jesus told them he was going to be killed and raised again on the third day:

Matthew 16:21 “From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised.”

Matthew 17:22-23 “As they were gathering in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” And they were greatly distressed.”

Matthew 20:17-19 “And as Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, he took the twelve disciples aside, and on the way he said to them, “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. And the Son of Man will be delivered over to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn him to death and deliver him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and flogged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.””

The second part of the story is as shocking as the first part was traumatizing. The second part of the story is about defeating sin and death. In the first part of the story Jesus becomes sin; but the second part of the story sin has been dealt with.

John 11:25-26 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?””

Jesus tells us that not only is he going to resurrect, but he is resurrection itself. He holds the power of life and by raising from the grave he has triumphed over death. Resurrection is not just what Jesus did---Resurrection is WHO HE IS.

Jesus said that he was life. In other words, there is so much life in our Jesus that death could not possibly hold him.

When Jesus walked out of the tomb on that Easter Sunday yes, it was a miracle, yes it was a fulfillment of prophecy, and yes it was a mighty work of the Holy Spirit- but it was also a declaration- a declaration of who our God is and who we have living inside of us!

But notice, I said this was the next part of the story, not the last part. Because there is more to come.

The Last Part of the Story

Did you know that right now in Scottsdale Arizona there are 203 bodies that cryogenic frozen waiting to be born again? That’s right; in a facility called Alcor Life Extension Foundation. For $200,000 you can reserve your pod and when you die you can be frozen with the hope that one day medical science will be advanced enough to revive you, cure whatever killed you, and allow you to continue your life.

In fact, the Alcor website goes as far as to say:

Eventually a time will come when human suspended animation will be perfected. In other words, it will be possible to routinely turn people “off” and “on” for medical time travel, space travel and other purposes. As progress continues, it will then become possible to recover people who had been preserved at earlier times, when methods were less perfect, so greater degrees of injury resulted.

So these people are so desperate to live again that they pay $200,000 with nothing more than a hope that it might be possible one day to come back to life...

Has anyone told them about Jesus? Because you can live forever with no need for a $200k pricetag, and no need to trust that one day medical science might get it right. You can put your hope in Jesus and have this promise- we will live forever! Listen to the words of 1 Thess 4:14-17

1 Thessalonians 4:14–17 (ESV)

For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord.