They crucified Him, and divided up His garments among themselves
Mark 15:24
And they crucified Him, and divided up His garments among themselves, casting lots for them to decide who should take what.
Psalm 22:18
They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.
In the end, Jesus didn’t have much.
When Jesus was arrested, He was away from home on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Mark suggests that He did not stay in the city but departed each evening, possibly returning early in His last week to the home of His friends in Bethany, some two miles away (Mark 11:11).
On the evening of Holy Thursday He was likely wearing only the clothing He had brought with Him: an inner tunic (chiton), the garment worn next to the skin, an outer tunic of heavier material and similar construction, and then perhaps a cloak or robe like a folded blanket that assured additional warmth for a traveler who intended to spend the night outdoors.
After the Roman soldiers mocked Jesus, dragged him the half mile to Golgotha and then completed the horrific torture of crucifixion, they bartered and gambled over His clothing, an episode documented in all four gospels (Matthew 27:35, Luke 23:34, John 19:24).
John was a witness to Jesus’ crucifixion and perhaps lamented that He or Jesus’ mother Mary were denied Jesus’ last belongings. Perhaps the disciple watched with dismay as the legionnaires divided His outer tunic into four pieces then rolled dice for His inner tunic. Even though blood-stained, the tunic could be laundered and would be valuable because it was “seamless, woven in one piece” (John 19:23,24).
All four gospel writers recognized this episode as a fulfillment of Psalm 22, David’s song of anguish. Quoting from the Septuagint Greek Old Testament, they each used the same word to describe the division of Jesus’ mantle or outer tunic, “diamerizō” or to “divide/distribute among” (Psalm 22:18).
Luke used the term to describe the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost a month or so after the Resurrection: “And there appeared to them tongues like fire distributing themselves (diamerizō), and they rested on each one of them, and they were filled with the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:3,4). And when Luke described how the early church manifested the power of the Holy Spirit through their love for one another he used the same word again: “And they began selling their property and possessions and were dividing them up with all, (diamerizō), as anyone might have need” (Acts 2:45).
His followers may have grieved the loss of Jesus’ clothing and the cruelty of the soldiers who not only tortured their Lord but also heartlessly denied them His possessions.
But the Lord left us with an even greater possession in the gift of the Holy Spirit, His own presence which empowers us to follow Him: to love God, to care for others and to do good work in His Name.
