Getting into the details...

“They Divided My Garments”

(John 19:23-24, Preaching: Pastor Stephen Magee, August 1, 2010)

23 When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, 24 so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says,

“They divided my garments among them,

and for my clothing they cast lots.”

So the soldiers did these things,...

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus... (23-24)

As we move ahead in John 19 to the details of the death of our Redeemer, we pause to note a couple of facts concerning His clothing. This would seem to be insignificant, giving everything that is taking place here, if it were not for the simple fact that these very details were recorded about 1000 years earlier in what may be the most amazing psalm in the Bible, Psalm 22.

This mystery of Psalm 22 is a difficult one for the person who has no place for a God who knows and plans the future and who has the power to bring about His plans down to very minute details. Who wrote this psalm, and what did he think he was describing? When Jews sang or read this song over the course of the centuries that followed its authorship, what did they think they were singing about? The details included are specific, and they defied any credible explanation until they actually happened. Add to this, that some of the people who are key to these details are not devout Jews who want to make it look like Jesus is the Messiah. They do not decide to “fulfill” Psalm 22 by making it happen. They are Jews who are not at all interested in Jesus being seen as the Messiah, and soldiers who have no interest in honoring the man they are crucifying, and no reason to know anything about Psalm 22.

Just think about a few of the facts contained in this psalm, looking at verses 16-18:

16 A company of evildoers encircles me; they have pierced my hands and feet —

17 I can count all my bones— they stare and gloat over me;

18 they divide my garments among them,and for my clothing they cast lots.

Christ, Himself insists that we view His death through the lens of this psalm, since from the cross He cries out its opening words, “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” The psalm not only describes in subtle language a man dying from crucifixion, it also speaks of a man who God lays in the dust of death, but who God then hears as that Man cries out to Him, and who then is given life again. Most importantly the psalm gives details of what this crucified One would accomplish, bringing the praise of the nations to God, including those who had already died, and those who had not yet been born. King David, any other king, or any other person on the face of the earth, could never have fulfilled this psalm. This psalm can only be about Jesus Christ.

There were many Jews and Gentiles who were there at the cross. Only one Man understood what God had planned, and what Christ would accomplish according to the words of this ancient Hebrew song: the Victim, the Man on the cross, Jesus. No one else had a clue what they were really doing. They had no reason to want to make Jesus appear to be the hero of Psalm 22.

Certainly the four soldiers did not know the real significance of their actions. They took His garments. That's part of what they received as those who did this work. He was left with nothing. They took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They were able to divide the outer garment, apparently along the seams. But they were left with the tunic, the garment nearest the skin, which was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom, and they did not want to ruin it, so they cast lots for it – some method of randomly determining who would get that one piece.

This was to fulfill the Scripture... (24)

It was only then that one of the little mysteries of Psalm 22 came to light, when the event described 1000 years before in the psalm actually happened. The psalm had seemed to teach two irreconcilable things about the clothing of this victim who would be treated so badly, but who would somehow bring the eternal praise of all the nations to Almighty God. First 22:18 said that some unspecified people “divided my garments among them,” suggesting that there was something for everyone. But then it said “and for my clothing they cast lots,” suggesting that one person got everything according to the luck of the draw.

Now, that mystery was solved, but only as the soldiers unknowingly did what the Lord had tucked away a millennium before in David's psalm. The outer garment was divided into four parts without the destruction of the total value. Each man had a fourth of the value. But the other garment could not be divided that way without reducing the value for everyone. Therefore they cast lots for that undergarment, and the Scripture was fulfilled.

So the soldiers did these things (24)

The men did what they did, as far as they knew their own minds, for economic considerations. They were not Jewish scribes. They were soldiers trying to do what made sense. But do you see how God brought all of this about so that we would see that long before a baby was even born to Mary in Bethlehem, the Lord already knew what would happen to that Man's clothes on the day when He came to die for our sins.

People do what they do for their own reasons. They make their choices according to what seems best to them at any moment based on whatever logic they may or may not be able to express. But God, who gave us the Scriptures, works out even the smallest details of His holy will. Jesus suffered. He was stripped of even basic human dignity. He would soon die. Yet His cry would be heard. He would be the King of the nations, and He would praise the Name of His Father in the heavenly assembly together with an innumerable host of people purchased by His blood.

Application: Think about these additional words from Psalm 22:19 “Come quickly to my aid.” Was there ever a man who needed God more than Jesus on that cross? If He was to fulfill Psalm 22, He not only had to do the suffering part, “they have pierced my hands and my feet,” He also had to find some way to do the victory part, v. 21, “You have rescued me,” and v. 27, “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before You.” When you have lost everything, so that someone else takes from you even the garment next to your body, where do you find the power to do anything good? How do you save the world when you are naked and dying on a cross?

So Psalm 22:19 says, “Come quickly to my aid.” There is something very moving in those words. Do you feel them? Can you relate to them today. “Come quickly to my aid.” God heard the cry of His Son, and God the Father, God the eternal Son who cannot die, and God the Holy Spirit, picked up again the life that Jesus laid down for you and me. He knows how to come to your aid. God knows and plans the future, down to the details. And He will bring them about.

1. What did the soldiers do with the garments of Jesus?

2. What were their reasons for their actions?

3. What was God doing in these same events?

4. What is the significance of this detail in the account of the death of Jesus?