Station 10: Jesus is stripped of his clothing

… 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… [John 19.23-25a; Matthew 35b; Mark 15.24b; Luke 23.34b;]

Jesus’s last vestige of dignity is taken from him and he is stripped of his clothes, which are shared out among the soldiers. This is the ultimate vulnerability of the defenceless. We live in a world where there is pressure to conform to an image, as for example, being ‘beach body ready’, or to portray oneself in photographs and words how we feel we have to be, not the way we are. Corporations are keen to commercialise these feelings. Our bodies are part of the gift God gave us; we are made in God’s image. How we mirror back that image to God is the work of Christ within us.

Prayer:

God of all grace, may Jesus be visible in the nakedness of my body for others to read.

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