Lent 40. Jesus: Naked
Reflecting during Lent on the qualities of Jesus that make him our model as well as our Savior and Lord. (My most difficult post this year.)
--- JESUS WAS NAKED ---
As I listen to John's gospel (Chapter 19), I hear how the soldiers stripped Jesus and divided his clothing. I've read the passage many times but today, it strikes me like a blow.
Jesus was stripped naked in a modest culture. Exposed. Shamed as he hung above the crowd, in a way that we cannot imagine.
He bore the shame that I have felt. That you may feel. That we all have experienced. Our humiliation displayed for everyone to see, mock, and shake their heads at.
In front of his mother. In front of her friends and his.
He hung on the cross, naked for us, bearing every time we have been shamed and humiliated. He did this. For us.
When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them, with the undergarment remaining. This garment was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom.
“Let’s not tear it,” they said to one another. “Let’s decide by lot who will get it.”
This happened that the scripture might be fulfilled that said,
“They divided my clothes among them
So this is what the soldiers did.
Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.
This is brutal. It is shaming. It is awful beyond imagination. Endured for us.
And still, even then, Jesus takes care of his family and his friends. He gives his mother security and his beloved friend work to sustain him. He brings healing relationships in the middle of his own pain:
When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to her, “Woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.”
From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. (John 19:23-27)
SELF-ASSESSMENT: Jesus carried my shame - along with my sins - on the cross. What indignity or mortification have I tried to hide? What if that disgrace - that embarrassment - were exposed? Do I forgive myself, acknowledging that Christ covered all my sin and scandal by dying on the cross for me?
How do I respond when I am shamed? When those I love are humiliated or scorned? Do I remain loving, building relationships with those around me, as Jesus did?
