23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took His garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also His tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” So the soldiers did these things, 25 but standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
In John chapter 5, Jesus healed a lame man at the Pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath, which quite naturally, incurred the wrath of the Pharisees, so Jesus then accused them of not believing in the Old Testament prophesies which point directly to Him.
“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?” (John 5:39-47)
The Pharisees simply refused to accept that Jesus is the Son of God, the Messiah the Old Testament prophets spoke about, and because of their hatred for Him, they had Him executed.
After the resurrection on the third day, the risen Christ met with two of His disciples as they returned home with heavy hearts to their hometown Emmaus. Jesus was dead, and all of their hopes and dreams had come to nothing.
“While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. But their eyes were kept from recognising Him. And He said to them, ‘What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk?’ And they stood still, looking sad. Then one of them, named Cleopas, answered Him, ‘Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days?’ And He said to them, ‘What things?’ And they said to Him, ‘Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered Him up to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. But we had hoped that He was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all this, it is now the third day since these things happened.’” (Luke 24:15-21)
They went on to say there were some reports that Jesus had risen from the dead, but they had decided to just go home and forget the whole thing.
Luke continues in verses 25-27, “He said to them, ‘O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into His glory?’ And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, He interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself.”
God, in His sovereignty, has not included the teaching Jesus gave to Cleopas and his friend in the pages of the Bible, but that must have been an incredible Bible study as Jesus revealed how the Old Testament prophecies spoke about Him.
In our text this morning we read about how the Roman soldiers divided Jesus’ clothing as He hung on the cross. This was standard practice whenever the Romans crucified people, but what they would not have known was that they were fulfilling an ancient prophecy of David in Psalm 22:18. “They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”
John wrote in 19:23-24, “When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took His garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also His tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, so they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.’ This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, ‘They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.’”
It was quite common for Roman soldiers who performed an execution to take the victim’s clothing. The average Jewish man in the 1st century wore five articles of clothing: a loincloth, a tunic, sandals, a turban or scarf, and an outer robe. Each crucifixion team consisted of 4 soldiers, which meant they each received one item of clothing, and the outer garment was usually torn into 4 parts, but we’re told that Jesus’ robe was “seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom,” so they decided to cast lots for it. Most English translations say that Jesus’ tunic or outer garment was the item of clothing the soldiers gambled for, while the NIV translation uses the undergarment. The tunic or robe is a more accurate translation.
This may seem like a minor detail, but not when we consider God’s words to Moses as he was given detailed instructions of the priestly garments his brother Aaron, the high priest, was to wear. “You shall make the robe of the ephod all of blue. It shall have an opening for the head in the middle of it, with a woven binding around the opening, like the opening in a garment, so that it may not tear.” (Exodus 28:31-32)
Aaron was the first high priest anointed in the Old Testament, and he was a shadow or a type of the Great High Priest, who gave His life on the cross for us. Hebrews 4:14-16 says, “Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathise with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
The commentator Kenneth Gangel wrote, “With his emphasis on Biblical fulfillment, John intended us to see even this common division of an executed man’s clothing as a detail of interest to God. It was of such interest to God that He had foretold it in the Old Testament Scriptures. It is as the great High Priest offering the perfect sacrifice that Jesus is dying; and it is stated in the Jewish law that the robe of the priest’s ephod shall be woven in such a way that it cannot be torn.”
The Roman soldiers were just going about their duty, completely oblivious to the reality that just as Pilate had unknowingly written the truth about Jesus when he placed the sign proclaiming Jesus as the King of the Jews on the cross, they were fulfilling the ancient prophecy of David in Psalm 22 who suffered humiliation for God’s people.
Something else which is often overlooked is that in order to increase the public humiliation of those crucified by the Romans, their victims hung on the cross naked, and Jesus was no exception, proven by the fact that the soldiers cast lots for His single, remaining item of clothing.
This takes us all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve, before the shame of their sin, were naked, as Genesis 2:25 tells us. “The man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.” The Romans stripped their enemies and victims to shame them, and Jesus’ nakedness in death was one way in which He bore the shame of our sin. The shame of nakedness is part of the curse for our sin. After Adam and Eve fell into sin, their nakedness shamed them, so they made futile attempts to hide this shame with fig leaves.
And even here, in the shame of the fall into human sin, God showed grace to Adam and Eve. “The Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them.” (Genesis 3:21) In order to make clothing out of animal skins, an animal had to die. This was the first ever blood sacrifice, and just as at Calvary, it was made to cover the shame of sin. On the cross of Christ we have the final, perfect blood sacrifice, which removes the shame of sin forever.
This is yet another reason why we rejoice in the cross of Christ.
Jesus said in John 3:19-20, “The light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed.” Why do we, in our sinful state, hate and avoid the light of Christ and prefer the darkness? Because we are ashamed of our sin.
We have all done and said things of which we are deeply ashamed - things we would undo or un-say in an instant if it were possible, but Jesus bore that shame in His body as He suffered and died for the sins of the world, for my sins, and for yours. You see, He bore not only the guilt of our sin, but the shame too.
Because Jesus bore our shame, we come to God unashamed. This helps us to understand what it means to bear the righteousness of Jesus, imputed to us as our sin and shame is imputed to Him. We looked at 2 Corinthians 5:21 last week: “For our sake He made Him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.” John Calvin wrote, “Christ was stripped of His garments, that He might clothe us with righteousness; His naked body was exposed to the insults of men, that we may appear in glory before the judgment seat of God.”
Through faith in Christ, our sin is placed on Him as He hangs on the cross, and our spiritual nakedness is clothed in the white robes of His righteousness. This is what makes it possible for us to stand unashamed before a holy God.
As Charles Wesley wrote in his wonderful hymn, “No condemnation now I dread; Jesus, and all in Him, is mine! Alive in Him, my living Head, and clothed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal throne, and claim the crown, through Christ my own.”
On the cross, Jesus took the punishment we deserved for our sin. He did not deserve to die, but He willingly took our place and experienced death for us. As 1 Peter 3:18 says, Jesus’ atoning death was a substitution, “the righteous for the unrighteous.” This is what is known as the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. On the cross, Jesus was substituted for the sinner, and because He died, God has accepted Jesus’ payment for our sins.
Sin is the violation of God’s law, and as the Lord said in Ezekiel 18:4, “the soul who sins shall die.” We are all guilty. We have all sinned, and the penalty of our sins is the second death, eternal banishment from the presence of God, but by faith in Jesus Christ, we are set free from that penalty. Someone once said that if you are only born once, you will die twice, but if you are born twice, you will only die once. It is only through the second birth that we move from eternal death to eternal life, and this is only possible through faith in Jesus Christ.
Physical death comes to us all, but the resurrection life is through Jesus and no other.
Although Jesus was sinless, He was executed as a criminal. He had no sin to pay for, so His death pays for ours.
Paul explains it like this in Colossians 2:13-14, “You, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This He set aside, nailing it to the cross.”
For us to be saved, Jesus had to take our place and die for our sin as our substitute. His blood was shed as a sacrifice, because as Hebrews 9:22 says, “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” Many years before, the prophet Isaiah wrote, “Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was pierced for our transgressions; He was crushed for our iniquities; upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with His wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned - every one - to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.” (Isaiah 53:4-6)
As we saw last week, none of the Gospel writers spend much time talking about the physical suffering of Christ, preferring instead to stress the spiritual torment He underwent as He suffered and died for us, and it is also on the cross where we see His compassion and concern for others. The two most obvious examples are the salvation He promised to the repentant thief crucified with Him, and His brief prayer in Luke 23:34, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
John also records the compassion and concern He had for Mary.
“Standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw His mother and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, ‘Woman, behold, your son!’ Then He said to the disciple, ‘Behold, your mother!’ And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.” (John 19:25-27)
Some 30 years earlier, in accordance with Jewish law, Joseph and Mary presented Jesus at the temple, where Simeon said to Mary, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.” (Luke 2:34-35)
Now, as Mary stood at the cross, we can only imagine the anguish and the pain as a sword pierced her soul. And as Jesus suffered and died, He committed His mother into the care of the apostle John, but this was far more significant than merely asking John to take care of His grieving mother, as important as that was.
In John 2, when Jesus turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana, Mary said to Jesus that the guests had run out of wine, and Jesus’ reply to her in verse 4 was, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” You might remember when we looked at this miracle earlier in our series that the way Jesus addressed His mother here was important. John MacArthur writes, “The term is not necessarily impolite, but it does have the effect of distancing Jesus from His mother and her request. Jesus’ tone was not rude, but abrupt. The thrust of Jesus’ comment was that He had entered into the purpose for His mission on earth, so that He subordinated all activities to the fulfillment of that mission. Mary had to recognise Him not so much as a son that she raised but as the promised Messiah and Son of God.”
And now, as His hour has come, as He hangs on the cross, Jesus addresses His mother as “woman” again, and He does so to tell her of her need to relate to Him not so much as a mother, but as a member of the fallen human race who by putting her faith in Him, Mary would be saved, just like every other sinner.
Mary, contrary to the false teachings of the Roman Catholic religion, was a sinner just like us, who needed the mercy of God. Why else would she have prayed in Luke 1:46-47, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.”
J. C. Ryle comments: “Henceforth she must daily remember, that her first aim must be to live the life of faith as a believing woman, like all other Christian women. Her blessedness did not consist in being related to Christ according to the flesh, but in believing and keeping Christ’s Word.”
We know from all four Gospels that Mary had other children after the birth of Jesus, so this raises an important question: Why did Jesus commend Mary into John’s care, rather than one of His half-brothers, as was the custom in those days? Part of the answer is in John 7. “After this Jesus went about in Galilee. He would not go about in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. Now the Jews’ Feast of Booths was at hand. So His brothers said to Him, ‘Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world.’ For not even His brothers believed in Him.” (John 7:1-5)
The reason Jesus commended His mother into John’s care, rather than one of His own brothers, was that John was a believer in Him, and they were not. With the exception of Jude, we don’t know if the others came to faith later on after the resurrection, but they had not put their faith in Him at this point.
What is the significance of this? Jesus is showing us that as important and as wonderful as our earthly families are, the relationships we have with our spiritual brothers and sisters in Christ are in many ways, even more important.
Jesus’ brothers had yet to receive Him as Saviour, so He committed Mary not into their care, but into the care of a spiritual brother. On the cross, Jesus brought together a new family by His atoning blood, and as we come to faith in Him, we are part of that same family.
Many of you have been to foreign countries where you might not be able to speak the languages of the locals, but if you’ve ever been to a worship service there, you will have made an immediate connection with other believers, even if you can’t understand one another. It’s hard to explain, but that spiritual connection is very real, and the reason is that those people are your brothers and sisters in Christ.
This also helps us to understand the words of Jesus in Luke 14:26. “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
This is one of those verses in the Bible which really challenge us, mainly because it has been so misunderstood down the years. The Reformation Study Bible commentary says, “Jesus calls His followers to love their enemies. Clearly, then, He is not demanding that we hate our family members in the conventional sense of hatred. Rather, through this shocking hyperbole, He teaches that being His disciple means loving Him so unreservedly that all other loves seem to be hatred by comparison.”
And that love for Christ is to be extended to our spiritual family.
Jesus was faithful and obedient to His Father in fulfilling the prophecies of Scripture to the letter. He offered His life as a common criminal, enduring the shame of the cross as Hebrews 12:2 reminds us so that God’s eternal plan of salvation could be fulfilled. He was faithful to His mother, providing for her needs even while He suffered on the cross.
And He was faithful to us as He bore our shame and guilt, giving to us His righteousness which we need to stand before God. The cross brings the message of the whole Bible into focus, because it is in and through the cross that God has delivered on His promise to offer salvation through the gift of His own Son. This is the only way we can be saved.
If you have yet to confess Jesus as Lord, you need to know that time is running out. The opportunity to repent and turn to Christ will not last. As Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:20, “We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
Don’t make the same mistake as the Jewish leaders who trusted in their own righteousness and rejected the one who was able to save them. We cannot save ourselves.
Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to the Scriptures alone, to the glory of God alone.
Homegroup Study Notes
Read John 19:23-25 and Psalm 22:18
What is the significance of Jesus fulfilling so many Old Testament prophecies?
It was a Roman tradition for the soldiers to divide the clothes of the condemned man among themselves. Why was Jesus’ robe or tunic not torn, as was the usual practice? (See Exodus 28:31-32)
How does Aaron, the first high priest, represent Jesus, our Great High Priest?
Read John 19:25-27
We know that Joseph and Mary had other children after the birth of Jesus (see John 7:1-5).
Why did Jesus commend His mother into the care of John, instead of one of her own children, and what does this teach us about the role of the church in our lives as brothers and sisters in Christ?
How does this help us to understand Luke 14:26?
What does this verse really mean?