Why a Borrowed Tomb?

“At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid. Because it was the Jewish day of Preparation and since the tomb was nearby, they laid Jesus there.” John 19:41-42

Throughout His ministry Jesus did not own anything other than the clothes that He wore. He depended upon the generosity of His friends for a place to stay, food to eat and any other physical needs that He and His disciples had. He was an example of what He taught when He said that they were not to worry about material things and that they were to seek the Kingdom of God first and then these things would be added to them. So even in His death He did not have a place to be buried.

The prophet Isaiah had prophesied that Jesus would be buried with the rich and Joseph of Arimathea was such a rich man. He was a supporter of Jesus and he was willing to give up his tomb in the garden so that Jesus could be burred there. The tomb was for he and his family and he was willing to include Jesus with his family.

The common people were buried in the temple plot and that is where Jesus would have been buried if it hadn’t been for the gift of a friend. If He had been buried in the temple the authorities could not have sealed His tomb and they could not have posted the guard over his grave as they did in the garden.

Also in the temple many were coming and going but the garden was a private area where there was not very much traffic. Jesus came out of the tomb that Sunday morning and no one was there to see. When Mary and the other women went to the garden they found that the stone had been rolled away and Jesus was gone. When the told the disciples they ran to the garden and went into the tomb. All of this was not possible in the common grave plot.

Even in His death Jesus showed that He took no thought for the future of His body but He had made provision for His soul. He depended upon others to supply even His burial place but He depended upon His Father for the perseverance of His soul.

I knew a man who instructed his children how to live a godly life. In his later years he developed cancer and he was dying. He told his children that he had taught them how to live and now he was showing them how to die. He put his trust completely in God for his life and he could trust God in his death. Jesus taught us that we should have no fear of death. He conquered death when He came out of the tomb. We know that death is not the end for us so we should not fear death but trust the One who has gone before.