William Congdon’s 1960 painting “Crucifix no. 2”
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him…
Mathew 27:27 - 28
The Roman guards had decided to have some fun with Jesus - the so called king of the Jews, however they only knew one power who could be called something near that, and that was the Emperor Tiberius. This rag tag Judean with no army, no followers, utterly alone and barely able to stand; dripping with blood, his back and other parts of his bare skin mangled from the Cat-0-Nine whipping he received - this couldn’t be a King!
They removed those red-caked clothes and dressed him in purple before placing that terrible thornied crown into his skull. They paid homage; only to reinforce their power and his weakness. In moments like these, something happens when a group of men (or women) come together to do harm, it first goes up like a scent in the air that invades and intoxicates their senses - violence triggering frenzies that take over the rational mind. But this scene is not a frenzy, it is calculated to denigrate and shame.
This is but one small part of the Paschal torture, with the crucifixion taking up most of our attention, it can almost be missed, but it is always worth noting any of the words of sacred scripture, for God who inspired them has a purpose for each. In the bible clothing is used in allegorical and symbolic terms; the one most pertinent to Easter lies with St Paul who told us in Galatians 3.27 that once baptised we are ‘clothed in Christ’. Or uses terms reminiscent of clothing, such as in Colossians 3 where he exhorts us to ‘put on the new self’ - which of course is the new identity Christ gives us. I put this in the positive sense, but in the negative sense, which I do not mean disagreeably; the stripping of Jesus represents the kénōsis or self-emptying He allowed in that glories mystery of the hypostatic union - the incarnation of God as man into the world of human suffering.
Robed In Christ
However we to must go through a kind of undressing and re-robing if we are to assume our place in Christ. So what does this, our very own self-emptying look like? Isaiah prophesied (IS 61:10) and St Paul confirmed we are to be clothed in the likeness of God in righteousness and holiness. (Galatians 3:24). St Paul continues to explain to the Ephesians in chapter 4 of his letter what this looks like:
‘You were taught to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and deluded by its lusts, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds 24 and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness’.
St Paul the ever practical pastor then gives us examples to outwork in our lives:
25 So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbours, for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not make room for the devil. 28 Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labour and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. 29 Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. 31 Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, 32 and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you.
So where do we start? It seems a tricky list for us to complete? How can we ever be truly be clothed in Christ? Pierre Cardinal Berulle, founder of what became known as the ‘French School of Spirituality’ in the 16th Century exhorts us to remember that he [Jesus] is the source, perfection and beatification of our being and we are to adore him, adhere to him and aspire toward him in our interior dispositions.
To add to that, another one of Berulle’s disciples told us how we can aspire to these interior dispositions - through and by the fact we are baptized in Christ.
The scene before us in Mathew then offers us a picture into a deeper union with God in Christ, by revealing the lengths in which God sought to bring us to Him and the demand that we too empty ourselves before Him which in the end is an act of grace bestowed on us from our Lord.
By Eric Hanna
Happy Easter from all at the Coracle.