Dividing His Clothes

Old Testament prophecy fulfilled by Jesus.

Soldiers would cast lots for His clothes.

David’s prophetic words in Psalm 22:18 say:

“They divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.”

About a thousand years later, that is exactly what happened to David’s descendant, Jesus.

The apostle John wrote in detail how David’s words were fulfilled on the day Jesus was crucified. John gives us an intimate look at the conversation between the Roman soldiers who were on crucifixion duty that day.

John wrote:

“The soldiers therefore, when they had crucified Jesus, took his outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier and also the tunic; now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. They said therefore to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be’; that the Scripture might be fulfilled, ‘THEY DIVIDED MY OUTER GARMENTS AMONG THEM, AND FOR MY CLOTHING THEY CAST LOTS.’” John 19:23-24.

An important piece of clothing for Jewish men was a prayer shawl. God told Moses they were to wear garment with fringes on the four corners with a thread of blue that would remind them of God’s commandments (Numbers 15:37-41). In Jesus’s day, prayers shawls didn’t look like prayers shawls today. Then it would have been large pieces of fabric more like a poncho that had a place for their head to go through-with fringes on the four corners. During Jesus’s day, the tunic that was seamless referenced in John, would have been His prayer shawl.

It seems strange to us today for soldiers to want garments of prisoners they were executing. But we must remember how hard fabric of any kind was to make or to get. No fabric would be wasted.

When the soldiers saw the prayer shawl of Jesus was woven as one solid garment-they didn’t want to cut it up. So they cast lots to see which one of them would take it.

There must have been four soldiers because they cut His outer garment into four pieces. Then one of them won the prayer shawl of Jesus.

Let that sink in. The very clothes off the back of the Messiah were divided among His executioners.

I can’t help but wonder . . . what did the soldier who got the prayer shawl do with it? Did he cover up with it on cold nights? Did he remember Jesus praying for God to forgive them?

Carla Killough McClafferty