“Later Joseph of Arimathea asked Pilate for the body of Jesus. Now Joseph was a disciple of Jesus, but secretly because he feared the Jewish leaders. With Pilate’s permission, he came and took the body away. He was accompanied by Nicodemus, the man who earlier had visited Jesus at night. Nicodemus brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about seventy-five pounds. Taking Jesus’ body, the two of them wrapped it, with the spices, in strips of linen. This was in accordance with Jewish burial customs. 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 19:38-42

Dear Jesus, At first you borrowed a manger. Then you borrowed a house. After that, you borrowed a boat from which to preach. You borrowed a donkey to ride into Jerusalem and then an upper room to have your Lord’s Supper. At last you even borrowed a grave. You own everything and yet you borrowed it all from people to whom you had lent it. All this you borrowed so that I might borrow your righteousness. Thank you for borrowing so I might live in peace and hope all my days. Give me the same kind of abandonment that loves people instead of things and makes their restoration the goal of my interactions with them. And accept my offerings for you just as you did Joseph’s and Nicodemus’ as the proclamation of my faith that you the greatest thing that ever happened to this planet. Amen.

He borrowed everything that we might borrow his righteousness.