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 and cast lots for my garment.”

So this is what the soldiers did. John 19:23-24

I find it sickening to think that when the soldier crucified Jesus it was just another day at the office for them. It seems hard to believe that this could be the case for anyone. And yet their behaviour shows it to be so. They appear to be completely unaffected by his suffering.

While Jesus was in excruciating agony on the cross, the soldiers were gambling below.

That crucifixion could ever be this ‘normalised’ for anyone leaves me speechless. It makes me wonder about the unspeakable things that go on around me that someone, somewhere has managed to normalise.

What might I or people of my generation look back on in years to come and think “Wow. How could we have possibly thought that that was OK? Why did we not make it stop?”

Because crucifixion should never be normalised. Violence should never be normalised. Abusing another human being in any way at all should never be normalised.

And anyone that does so has lost touch with their humanity. Much like, unfortunately, the soldiers below the cross appear to have done.

They tussled over the undergarment of a naked man on a cross.

Yes, Jesus was totally humiliated on the cross as well as being in agonising pain. Growing up watching the Jesus movie I found it profound and always find myself emotionally impacted when he is crucified. But the Jesus movie keeps it family friendly and Jesus isn’t completely unclothed.

But he would have been on the cross. He would have been utterly humiliated.

Could the soldiers have abused Jesus any more than they did? It seems hard to believe it would be possible to do any worse than what they did.

The Son of Man suffered beyond comparison when he went to the cross. He did that for you and me.

And he did it so that God’s word could be proven true. Every word fulfilled.

When I finally meet Jesus face to face, I don’t know what I’ll say. Thinking about this passage now, I think I’ll probably just cry. If it’s not irreverent to say, I feel that God suffered too much.

It brings to mind the last line of each verse in the hymn, Man of Sorrows. Here’s my favourite verse:

Bearing shame and scoffing rude,
in my place condemned he stood,
sealed my pardon with his blood:
Hallelujah, what a Savior!

Yours rejoicing,

Alison