Daily Devotion for Tuesday 29th July 2025

St John 19: 16 – 25

So they took Jesus; and carrying the cross by himself, he went out to what is called The Place of the Skull, which in Hebrew is called Golgotha. There they crucified him, and with him two others, one on either side, with Jesus between them.  Pilate also had an inscription written and put on the cross. It read, ‘Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.’  Many of the Jews read this inscription, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek.  Then the chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, ‘Do not write, “The King of the Jews”, but, “This man said, I am King of the Jews.”’  Pilate answered, ‘What I have written I have written.’  When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his clothes and divided them into four parts, one for each soldier. They also took his tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from the top.  So they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see who will get it.’ This was to fulfil what the scripture says,

‘They divided my clothes among themselves, and for my clothing they cast lots.’

And that is what the soldiers did.

Reflection

Set aside all that we know about how this story ends: at this point in the narrative it must look to all the world as if Jesus is being simply discarded. 

And even as the condemned man is counted worthless, there’s an interest taken in the few things he leaves behind. The four soldiers on duty care nothing for him; but they’ll have his clothes.

Surely the most meagre human life matters more than even the finest garments we weave or wear? The body is more than clothing, as someone once said. Yet I wonder how easy it is to slip into such perversions of value. None of us might take the shirt off a dying man’s back; but society’s present enchantment with “fast fashion” does confront us with questions about what we prioritise – and about what, and whom, we discard.

Research suggests consumers regard low-priced garments as effectively disposable, getting rid of them after fewer than eight wears. Despite growth in the market for pre-worn clothing online and through charity shops, still over half the garments produced will end up in landfill or incineration. On the production side reports of unsafe, low-paid sweat-shop conditions persist; whilst greenhouse gas emissions from textile production stand at 1.2billion tons per year, higher than emissions from all international flights and maritime voyages combined. 

Everyone loves a bargain; but we risk cheapening much more than the clothes on the rack.

Meanwhile John has a particular purpose for telling us about the disposal of Jesus’ garments. The scripture he cites is a verse from Psalm 22, from which also is drawn the cry “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” which we find on Jesus’ lips in Matthew’s and Mark’s accounts. In each case the inference is that this is no random brutality, but a moment of revelation fulfilled in Jesus.

As for us: what scriptures will be fulfilled in the pattern of our choices today? And what will they reveal?

Prayer

Life emptied of all meaning,
drained out in bleak distress,
can share in broken silence
my deepest emptiness:

and love that freely entered
the pit of life’s despair
can name our hidden darkness
and suffer with us there.

Lord, if you now are risen,
help all who long for light
to hold the hand of promise
and walk into the night.

(From Brian Wren’s hymn “Here hangs a man discarded”, Rejoice & Sing 225)