A Carton of Eggs - A Die

 

 

Matthew 27:35: When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots.

 

When I was growing up, my mother (an Anglican by marriage but a Baptist by birth and temperament) forbade the playing of cards on Sunday.
Restrictions around games of chance in many Protestant denominations no doubt have their beginnings in the distasteful scene of Roman soldiers casting lots at the foot of the cross to divide up Jesus’ clothing.

Not that the Roman ruling classes, any more than 20th century Baptists, were keen on gambling.

Caesar Augustus, Emperor of Rome during Jesus’ time, noticed his subjects’ growing interest in gambling (with its related social ills) and restricted it to the mid-December harvest festival of Saturnalia. However, evidence from early writings and archeology suggests that gambling, sanctioned or not, was a popular Roman pastime across all social classes.

 

Certainly the soldiers at the foot of the cross weren’t worried about restrictions on gambling. One of the few bright spots in a soldier’s sojourn at a terrible crucifixion like the one at Golgotha would have been the chance to take home the clothing, no matter how simple, of the condemned man.

But the descriptions in the Gospels make it clear that Jesus was no ordinary criminal. The soldiers at the base of the cross divided his inner garments among themselves, but his robe was of high quality, woven as a seamless garment, unusual at the time. So they decided to throw lots for it rather than tear such a valuable garment into four pieces.

The man who won the robe was accustomed to the plain, even tattered, clothing of thieves and other criminals sentenced to death in Jerusalem. He must have wondered why the condemned man who suffered on the cross above him had worn such a precious garment.

Heartened by his win, the centurion found the seeds of doubt about Jesus’ guilt and a sense of taking part in something extraordinary beginning to grow in his mind.
That wasn’t the end of the centurion’s story.

When Jesus died, says scripture, the curtain of the temple was torn in half and an earthquake shook Jerusalem.

The centurion and his comrades were terrified and said, “Truly this man was God’s Son!”
In gambling for Jesus’ robe, the centurion won not only a fine piece of clothing that symbolized the purity and continuity of Jesus’ message but also the realization that this preacher, so loved by his followers, was much more than he appeared to be.

Prayer:   

God in heaven, walk with us through these difficult times, bring peace to our world and give us the newfound faith of the centurion as we await the life-affirming promise of Easter.  Amen.

                                                                        ---- Claire McIlveen