“And they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe,” (Matt. 27:28).
After the chief priests and pharisees have their fill of persecuting and torturing the Son of God, he is taken to the governor’s palace and turned over to Pilate and his soldiers. Here he meets with the second act of that tragic interlude that was begun against him in the high priest’s hall. Once again, he is beaten, insulted, mocked, and spit on, continuing to fulfill Isaiah’s prophesy, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief,” (Isa. 53:3). Next, he is stripped of his clothes and donned with a scarlet robe.
Because the Roman soldiers clearly intended to mock Jesus as “King of the Jews,” they made him up to look like a king. Kings wore crowns made from precious jewels and metals; they gave Jesus a crown made from thorns. Kings wielded a scepter made of expensive materials; they gave Jesus a scepter made of reeds. And as the color of royalty was typically purple or dark red, they clothed Jesus in a scarlet robe. Finally, they completed the scene by bowing their knee and hailing him as King (Matt. 27:29-30).
After they tire of abusing him, Christ’s persecutors remove the robe from his back (Matt. 27:31) so that all he carries from this place are his shoulders that have been shredded with whips, his temples now pierced with thorns, and his limbs and torso that are covered in bruises. These persecutions are not only representative of the payment he suffered for our sin, but they also depict what those who belong to Christ suffer in the world. He himself said that “in the world you shall have persecution,” (John 16:33). Like Christ from Pilate’s palace, we can carry nothing out that we did not bring in except the wounds and lashes of cares, fears, and sorrows, and the pricking thorns of guilt, remorse, and grief.
The One who clothes the lilies of the field beyond the richest luster of Solomon’s greatest glory (Luke 12:27) is stripped of his clothes before this crowd of despising onlookers. This is the same Christ whose garment, when touched at its hem, miraculously healed the woman who had suffered a blood disease for twelve long years (Matt. 9:20-22), and the same Son of God whose shoes John the Baptist did not feel worthy to loosen (John 1:27).
Moreover, this is the same Lord with whose righteousness we are clothed when we put our faith and trust in him as Savior. As Isaiah 61:10 reports, “I will rejoice greatly in the Lord, my soul will exult in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness.”
Contemplations:
- O my blessed Lord and Savior, the God of glory, you became for me a man of reproach (Isa. 53). Lord, how obstinately do men try to abuse your mercies and dismiss your blessings? Man had no sooner put off innocence, but he put on shame, which you yourself covered with garments you made for him from fig leaves.
- O Lord, you are that Lily of the valley (Song 2:1), not only white in innocence, but glorious too in your own inexplicable luster. Cover me, Lord, in the scarlet robe of your passion and death and my shame of sin with your cloak of righteousness, that I may find entrance and be welcomed at your marriage feast of glory.
Further References for Matthew 27:28:
John 19:2; Luke 23:11, 36; Mark 15:17.
