Jesus Is Stripped Of His Garments

Stations of the Cross #10

^{Mark 15:16} Then the soldiers led him into the courtyard of the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole cohort. ¹⁷ And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and after twisting some thorns into a crown they put it on him. ¹⁸ And they began saluting him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” ¹⁹ They struck his head with a reed, spat upon him, and knelt down in homage to him. ²⁰ After mocking him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him.

Artists almost always give Jesus a loin cloth: mercifully seeking to give Jesus back a little of the dignity stolen from him. But we know it was not so. Romans crucified people naked. The whole aim was maximum humiliation, maximum dehumanisation, and therefore maximum deterrent.

They allowed Jews to be dressed on the way to Golgotha out of respect for the holy city, but the crucifixion took place outside the city. No respect of any sort was offered there.

There is usually a sexual element to torture. Think of the awful stories that came out of Guantanamo Bay, or other such places. Sometimes there is rape. Frequently, there is the exposure of naked bodies to public view.

We don’t know if Jesus was raped, but we do know he was stripped and exposed to a whole cohort (500 soldiers) and then to the public. That, in itself, is a form of sexual abuse.

Sisters and brothers, if you have been sexually abused, know that Jesus understands. Jesus was not made unclean by the abuse. He remained pure and innocent. It is the abusers, and the ones who orchestrated and ordered the abuse, that are unclean. Jesus is clean. You are clean.

So let’s pray:

You who gave us clothing,
As soon as we knew nakedness and shame;
Did you know, even then,
That all our shameful nakedness 
Would now return to you?
Did you who breathed 
Humanity into our naked bodies know
That now your body would be dehumanised?
So, let it be made known
By all who give and take abuse:
That then as now,
As still today,
All sin is in the hands that strip,
The eyes that leer,
The body that forces its will;
While your clean and perfect Spirit 
Is in the body that’s abused,
And humanity in the one objectified. Amen.

With love from Rev Margaret

Image photographed and artistically rendered by Lindsay Gardiner