December 1

The Sacred Garments

And they crucified Him. They also divided His garments by casting lots to decide what each of them would take. — Mark 15:24 BSB

We love to think of the garments that our Savior wore. Perhaps they had been made by His mother’s hands or by the women who followed Him from Galilee, ministering to Him. These were the same garments that the sick had touched in faith, receiving healing. We treasure the belongings of loved ones after they are gone. How sacred they become! It would pain us to see them divided among strangers or treated with disrespect. A unique reverence clings to everything Jesus touched, and it grieves us to imagine those rough soldiers dividing His garments as spoil. How much worse it is to picture them gambling at the foot of the cross while our Lord hung in agony!

Why was Jesus stripped of His garments? Was there no meaning in this, beyond the custom of the day? Surely it was a symbol of how He would clothe us in righteousness, covering our spiritual nakedness. A story tells of a mother who, caught in a storm, wrapped her child in her own clothing, laid the child in a rock’s cleft, and perished in the cold. The next morning, shepherds found the baby safe and warm, while the mother lay nearby, frozen to death. Did not Jesus do the same for us? He stripped off His raiment and hung naked on the cross so that we might stand clothed in righteousness on the day of judgment.