|
A Reflection from
the Good Friday 3 Hour Devotion
Good Friday, March 2008 Gambling in the presence of pain |
| Good Friday Refection: "And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to see what each would get." Of all the many strange scenes of Good Friday, this is one of the strangest spectacles. Soldiers gambling for his clothes as he writhed in pain. Whilst the Son of God hung, bleeding for the salvation of the world, for the sins of all, the sins of greed and apathy were being enacted right in front of him. It provides a vivid image of the truth St Paul expresses in writing to the Romans: Christ died for us while we were still sinners. It is also a picture which shows much about the state of our world today. Let's spend a few minutes with this image. First, the background. Condemned men were usually led to execution in the middle of a square of four soldiers. They were stripped of their clothes, sometimes leaving the loin cloth, sometimes not. Their clothes became the property of the soldiers. Jewish men wore five articles - shoes, turban, girdle, inner garment and cloak. So five articles and four soldiers. They needed to decide who would get the fifth garment. It was the cloak, the long outer garment which was the most valued, but it was useless if torn. So they drew lots for it. Then the soldiers sat down to keep guard until the end should come, maybe continuing to play dice to kill time. So whilst the Lord of Glory hung helpless in front of them, a group nearby were trading for his only possessions. The simple lifestyle that Jesus led meant that his clothes were probably the only material possessions he left. His real parting gift had been left to His disciples: "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you." But the soldiers, at this point anyway, knew nothing of that parting gift. Although 1 of them observed a strange peace within Jesus and commented on the way he had died. "Truly this man was God's son." Maybe that soldier became a believer and received that parting gift of peace for himself. But the others seemed oblivious of what was happening in their watch. The picture that we have - of the soldiers throwing dice whilst their three victims were nailed to wood nearby - speaks to me of two things. 1) The pain of people's apathy today. I find it painful to see the way the world carries on almost as normal today. Most people appear indifferent to the significance of today. They carry on trading (shops are open all over the place). They carry on working, though some have no choice. Many firms choose Monday and Tuesday as the holidays, because today is a better trading day. The soldiers had more excuse than we do today. We are not ignorant, we know it was the Son of God hanging there. A recent poll suggests that most people in this country still think that Jesus was the Son of God and rose again on Easter Day. But the majority are not interested in the cost of following the Son of God. His words about dying to ourselves to allow His life to be born in us goes too far for many. They will observe (and maybe admire) from a distance. Yet Easter Day draws in more to worship than normal. It remains 1 of the best attended Sundays of the year. And we rejoice in that. But I'm not sure how possible it is to experience the deep joy of the Resurrection without first having pondered the Crucifixion, or to experience the relief at the end of Lent without observing it in some way. Christ calls his followers to walk the way of the Cross, to allow His Spirit to put to death in us all that mars the image of the Creator in us. That is the way to new life. So today, as in Jerusalem then, many continue to throw dice, to trade, to make money and to be self-serving rather Christ-seeking. This is still part of the pain of Good Friday. 2) The second thing that this scene speaks to me about is more hopeful. It is simply that even though humankind does not cooperate with God, even though there is apathy and sinfulness, God still accomplishes his purpose. Some of the Gospel writers take more trouble than Mark to show us just how perfectly the Scriptures are fulfilled in the Passion. There is the cloak, the long shirt that they drew lots for. It was not torn. The High Priest tore his garments when he heard what he thought were words of blasphemy, his claim to Messiahship. The garment removed from Jesus was not torn - it doesn't need to be - He is the true High Priest and his claim to be the anointed One is valid. Then we have the gambling itself. From that ancient Hebrew Psalm that we read earlier. Psalm 22 and vs. 17 & 18:
|