Some restaurants require that their guests wear a jacket in order to be seated. I heard of a restaurant in California that keeps a few different sized-jackets in its cloakroom, to provide jackets for those guests who are sloppy dressers. The restaurant does not want to lower its standard and the same time it has mercy on the sloppy folks.
This is what happened on the cross. Sloppy dressers are not allowed in for the heavenly banquet. But, who among us is anything but sloppy? For most of us our morality is unkempt and we are untidy with truth. We are careless with handling people and our moral clothing is complete disarray.
Though the standard for being seated at the banquet of God is high, His love for His children is infinitely higher. Therefore God offers us a gift - a seamless robe.
Scriptures does not say much about Christ's garments. We know what his cousin, John the Baptist, and the religious leaders wore.
A reference to what Christ wore is noteworthy. "They divided clothes among them. They also took His robe, but it was seamless - woven one piece from the top. So they said: 'Let us not tear it but throw a dice to see who gets it'" (John 19: 23-24).
Christ must have cherished His robe. It was a Jewish tradition that the mother makes such a robe and presents it to her son as a gift when he left home. Had Mary done this for Jesus? We do not know. But we know that the robe He wore was seamless and woven from top to bottom.
This is significant because Scriptures describes our behavior as clothes we wear. Peter urged us to be clothed with humility (1 Peter 5:5). David spoke of evil people who clothes themselves with cursing (Ps 109:18).
Garments symbolize character and the character of Christ was seamless as His robe- uninterrupted perfection. Jesus was not led by His own mind, but by the mind of the Father. He said: "The Son of Man can do nothing on his own, but only what He sees the Father is doing, for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise" (John 5:19).
Christ's character was woven from heaven to earth; from the thoughts of the Father to the actions of the Son; from the tears of the Father to the compassion of the Son; from the words of the Father to the response of the Son. It was all seamless.
But when Jesus was crucified, He took off his seamless robe of perfection and put on a different robe - the robe of indignity. Stripped right in front of his mother, his friends and all the people who were there, Christ wore the indignity of nakedness. For a few hours filled with pain, the religious leaders were victors and Christ appeared to be the loser before his accusers. He wore he indignity of failure.
Worst of all, Christ wore the indignity of sin. "He himself bore our sins on his body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness" (1 Peter 2:24).
On the cross, Christ's garment is made up of our sins - the sins of all humanity. Christ experienced the indignity and the disgrace of the worse criminal, even though He was not guilty. He had not committed any sin, thus He did not deserve to be be sentenced.
It was not enough for Christ to prepare and reserve a seat for us at the heavenly banquet. He also provided us with the clothing we need to enter, sit down and feast.
Christ gave us His seamless robe of holiness to wear so that we could become properly dressed, in order to participate in the feast of all times.
This is what happened on the cross. Sloppy dressers are not allowed in for the heavenly banquet. But, who among us is anything but sloppy? For most of us our morality is unkempt and we are untidy with truth. We are careless with handling people and our moral clothing is complete disarray.
Though the standard for being seated at the banquet of God is high, His love for His children is infinitely higher. Therefore God offers us a gift - a seamless robe.
Scriptures does not say much about Christ's garments. We know what his cousin, John the Baptist, and the religious leaders wore.
A reference to what Christ wore is noteworthy. "They divided clothes among them. They also took His robe, but it was seamless - woven one piece from the top. So they said: 'Let us not tear it but throw a dice to see who gets it'" (John 19: 23-24).
Christ must have cherished His robe. It was a Jewish tradition that the mother makes such a robe and presents it to her son as a gift when he left home. Had Mary done this for Jesus? We do not know. But we know that the robe He wore was seamless and woven from top to bottom.
This is significant because Scriptures describes our behavior as clothes we wear. Peter urged us to be clothed with humility (1 Peter 5:5). David spoke of evil people who clothes themselves with cursing (Ps 109:18).
Garments symbolize character and the character of Christ was seamless as His robe- uninterrupted perfection. Jesus was not led by His own mind, but by the mind of the Father. He said: "The Son of Man can do nothing on his own, but only what He sees the Father is doing, for whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise" (John 5:19).
Christ's character was woven from heaven to earth; from the thoughts of the Father to the actions of the Son; from the tears of the Father to the compassion of the Son; from the words of the Father to the response of the Son. It was all seamless.
But when Jesus was crucified, He took off his seamless robe of perfection and put on a different robe - the robe of indignity. Stripped right in front of his mother, his friends and all the people who were there, Christ wore the indignity of nakedness. For a few hours filled with pain, the religious leaders were victors and Christ appeared to be the loser before his accusers. He wore he indignity of failure.
Worst of all, Christ wore the indignity of sin. "He himself bore our sins on his body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness" (1 Peter 2:24).
On the cross, Christ's garment is made up of our sins - the sins of all humanity. Christ experienced the indignity and the disgrace of the worse criminal, even though He was not guilty. He had not committed any sin, thus He did not deserve to be be sentenced.
It was not enough for Christ to prepare and reserve a seat for us at the heavenly banquet. He also provided us with the clothing we need to enter, sit down and feast.
Christ gave us His seamless robe of holiness to wear so that we could become properly dressed, in order to participate in the feast of all times.
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