“You can’t park there,” a member said,
“That parking place you took is mine.”
The visitor just smiled and moved
His battered car on down the line.

He stood there in his tattered robe
With sandals on his scarred bare feet.
No one came by to shake his hand
Or show him to an empty seat.

He sat down in the nearest pew.
A member, with unfriendly face,
Then came and told the visitor,
“I guess you know you took my place.”

Then later, in the vestibule,
Some noticed scars around his head
And scars on both his hands and feet
That were all deep and colored red.

When asked where all his scars came from,
On both his feet and hands and face,
He said, “I got them long ago,
The first time that I took your place.”

When a child says, “He took my place!”, it usually has a negative connotation and is in the form of a tattle. If you ask a Christian what, “He took your place” means, it should bring up thoughts of Jesus; but at church it might have an entirely different meaning.
During the not so Civil War, the wealthy could hire someone to take their place in the draft. (I always wondered who took the place of the one that was hired.) Jesus took our place for free, that’s what Christianity is all about. You might remember that next Sunday, when you walk into church and find a visitor sitting where you always sit.