The Cross and Clothes

This episode contains portions from the following programs:

"Time Is Short"

"His Name Is King"

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Dannah Gresh: When Jesus entered Jerusalem on a donkey that day, He knew He was headed to His death . . . but still He went. 

Reader:

When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem. (Luke 9:51)

Dannah: He wept as He approached it.

Reader:

“Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” (Luke 19:42–44)

Dannah: There were crowds. There was excitement . . . on the surface.

Reader:

But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. (John 2:25)

Dannah: Welcome, friend! You’re listening to Revive Our Hearts Weekend. I’m your host, Dannah Gresh.

This weekend Christians around the world are observing Palm Sunday, when Jesus rode into Jerusalem, not proudly on a powerful war horse, but humbly, on a donkey. 

All four gospels talk about it. Let me read Mark’s account. These are the opening verses of Mark chapter 11. 

Now when they drew near to Jerusalem, to Bethphage and Bethany, at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples and said to them, "Go into the village in front of you, and immediately as you enter it you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever sat. Untie it and bring it." . . .

And they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it, and he sat on it. And many spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut from the fields. And those who went before and those who followed were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest!” (Mark 11: 1–2, 7–10)

There’s so much that we could unpack from that passage: The fulfillment of prophecy . . . The humility of our King . . . The fickle crowd who, the apostle John tells us, wanted to see not only Jesus, but also the recently-back-from-the-dead-guy, Lazarus.

The week leading up to Jesus’ death on the cross was full of memorable, poignant moments. Here’s an interesting angle on it. Clothes. That’s right, clothes. “What do clothes have to do with Holy Week?” you ask.

Well, we’ve already read about the crowd welcoming Jesus into the city. They put their cloaks down on the road. The mom in me cringes a little at the thought of a donkey carrying a man walking on top of people’s cloaks on that dirty street. Maybe they put the palm branches down first. Still. 

But that was a God-honoring use of clothing. Erin Davis reflected on another scene, probably from the night before, when Lazarus’s sister Mary shared something expensive and beautiful with Jesus. It wasn’t clothing. It was perfume. Here’s Erin.

Erin Davis: At the beginning of John 12 we find two mini-dramas within the larger drama of Christ moving towards His death. Let me read John 12:1–3.

Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at the table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of perfume.

What a sweet story. Again, we see the human timeline meticulously recorded in Scripture. We know from this verse it was six days before the Passover, and Mary, who is a woman whose brother, Lazarus, had been raised from the dead by Jesus. She poured out a gift: expensive perfume. She poured it out over Him as an expression of her gratitude. I want you to hold that picture of Mary giving Jesus her best in your mind.

Pick it up at verse 4, and we get another little story inside the big story. 

But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples (he who was about to betray him) said, "Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?" He said this not because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, "Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me." (vv. 4–8)

There’s plenty we could talk about here—Judas, mostly. But let’s zero in on the time reference. Did you hear it in verse 8? “For the poor you will always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

Then, hours later, after he said the poor are always going to be with them, he said, “The light isn’t going to be with you for much longer.” There’s contrast there. Two realities about time.

Then Jesus told them, "You are going to have the light for just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. Whoever walks in the dark does not know where they are going. Believe in the light while you have the light so that you may become children of light." When He finished speaking, Jesus left and hid himself from them. (John 12:35–36)

You know what only lasts a little while? Our lives. If we’re lucky, we get eight or nine decades, which means I am at least halfway through. 

I want you to go back to that snapshot of Mary that I told you to hold in your mind. Remember, she poured out her expensive perfume. People watched her, and they laughed at her. They thought she should have used her time and energy and resources differently. But I look at that and I think, Mary had attended the funeral of her brother. Mary understood the weight of the words “in a little while,” and she was going to pour out her perfume on the feet of Jesus when she had the opportunity. 

It is a picture of the life I want to live: poured-out, not waiting, not knowing when He’s going to take me, but pouring myself out for Him now. 

Now, Mary didn’t know, even though Jesus had been trying to tell them, but Mary didn’t know that Jesus’s death was less than a week away. But she knew, “I need to make this moment count.” While she had the light, she believed in the light, and she became a daughter of the light. Her life exemplified the words that Jesus would speak later on that same day, and I want my life to exemplify the words that Jesus said that same day. “While you have the light, believe the light, that you may become sons of light.”

This “in a little while” here in John 12 reminds me of the famous poem, “One and Only Life” by C.T. Studd. I’ll close with the most famous line: 

Only one life, ’twill soon be past;
Only what’s done for Christ will last. 

In other words, live for Jesus. You only get a little while.

Dannah: Thank you, Erin Davis. That was a great reminder. I've always loved that story how Mary anointed Jesus with that costly perfume. I'm reminded that it was a sacrifice, and act of worship. Mary sacrificed her own needs, her desires, her comfort, out of her love for Christ. I think that attitude about Jesus applies to absolutely everything in life—every square inch of living belongs to Him alone. And that includes your clothing choices, my friend. Your choice to glorify God, even in how your dress, is saying, "I want to pour my life out for You, Jesus."

Now, here's something you probably never considered. Have you ever thought about how Jesus was clothed in those hours leading up to His crucifixion? Here’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth to talk about how they dressed Jesus up like a king, but they were mocking Him.

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: What’s interesting as you read through the Gospels is how many times Jesus refused the people’s efforts to make Him an earthly king because they had a wrong concept of what kind of king Messiah would be and what His kingdom would be like. So for example, we see in John 6,

Perceiving then that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, Jesus withdrew again to the mountain by himself. (v. 15)

Have you ever seen anybody like this? The people were clamoring, “We want you to be the President. We want you to be the Prime Minister. We want you to be the King.” And he says, “No thank you. I’m not running. This is not an election. This is not a contest. My kingdom isn’t what you think, and I’m not the kind of king you think.” So he withdrew.

In John 18 we see this conversation that Jesus has with Pilate. And Jesus says to Pilate,

My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from this world. (v. 36)

You see, because His kingdom is not of this world, He doesn’t use this world’s methods to accomplish His purposes. He’s an entirely different kind of King.

This Sunday we celebrate Palm Sunday, then we enter Passion Week. At the end of that week, during the trial of Jesus which probably took place late Thursday night, early Friday morning, Jesus was questioned by Pilate. Luke 23 tells us:

Then the whole company of them arose and brought him before Pilate. And they began to accuse him, saying, “We found this man misleading our nation and forbidding us to give tribute to Caesar, [that was a lie] and saying that he himself is Christ [or Messiah], a king.” And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” (vv. 1–3)

Now Jesus didn’t deny that He was the King, but He wasn’t the kind of king they thought they were expecting.

And as the trial of Jesus unfolded, as the passion of Christ unfolded, Jesus was mocked as the King of the Jews. He was rejected as the King of the Jews. Let me read you a few verses from John 19.

The soldiers twisted together a crown [it was a crown of thorns] and put it on his head and arrayed Him in a purple robe.

Crowns and robes belong to kings, right? Purple is the color of royalty. But they were not sincere at all in crowning Him as king.

They came up to him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” [they were mocking Him] and [they] struck him with their hands. . . . Now it was the day of Preparation of the Passover. It was about the sixth hour. He [Pilate] said to the Jews, “Behold your King!” They cried out, “Away with him, away with him, crucify him!” Pilate said to them, “Shall I crucify your King?” The chief priests answered, [the chief religious leaders said] “We have no king but Caesar.” (vv. 3, 14–15) 

Now keep in mind, the Jews hated Caesar. They hated the Romans. They didn’t want to be ruled by the Romans. They wanted to toss out the Romans rule. They wanted to do away with the Romans. Many of the Jews wanted to kill every Roman if that were possible. But here even the religious leaders, and especially the religious leaders, would rather have had Roman rule, than to accept Jesus as their King. “Crucify Him! He says He’s the king. We don’t want Him to rule over us. You’re not the kind of king we want.”

Well, Pilate probably got it better than the religious leaders though he was confused himself. And he declared Christ’s kingship at the cross. John 19:

Pilate also wrote an inscription and put it on the cross. It read, “Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews.” . . . [T]he chief priests of the Jews said to Pilate, “Do not write, ‘The King of the Jews,’ but rather, ‘This man said, I am King of the Jews.’” Pilate answered, “What I have written I have written.” (vv. 19, 21–22)

Pilate got it right, didn’t he? He is the King of the Jews. There on the cross the King of the Jews, the King of the Universe, the King of kings laid down His life for His subjects. 

Dannah: Aren’t you grateful our King did that for us? That’s Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, helping us take a closer look at our King, Jesus . 

Clothes play a big role in the Bible, and at the cross, too. Let me explain.

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Remember back—maybe waaaay back—to some of the disagreements you had with your mom about what you wanted to wear? Or maybe you and your daughter have exchanged words about clothes.

Why is that?

Well, I think the rumble about wardrobes is a small piece of an ongoing war that was waged in antiquity. 

Let’s think about this. Satan slinks in. Adam and Eve sin. They take the fruit. At that moment, sin and shame enter the human race. What do they immediately feel? Shame. “Ack! We’re naked!” 

So they try to cover their nakedness with . . . you got it—clothes! Inadequate, homemade, fig-leaf clothes . . . probably horribly uncomfortable! Can you imagine?

Well, tucked in the midst of Genesis chapter 3 is a Bible verse from which everything else in the Scriptures flows. It’s a battle cry that God issued after Satan lied to Adam and Eve. Here is what God said to the snake in Genesis 3:15.

I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.

This is a verse that theologians refer to as the proto evangelium, which means “the first gospel.” This piece of biblical poetry wields a promise—a promise that was ultimately fulfilled on the cross. 

But there in Genesis chapter 3, God declares a victory that is yet to come. Something He was going to do to fix the sin problem that humanity now has. God talks about the consequences of their sin. And then: more about clothing! A sacrifice was made, and their nakedness was more adequately covered.

Have you thought about this? Your clothing has the potential to declare “the gospel is here.”

You and I have the benefit of looking back on the victory Genesis 3:15 foretold: Jesus’ death and resurrection. 

Isn’t it interesting that as He gave His life for us, as He was taking our sin and shame on Himself, Jesus was stripped of His clothing? Literally. The soldiers were gambling for His clothes while He was dying on the cross. 

What an amazingly sad and yet at the same time beautiful picture. Jesus stripped naked, experiencing the shame of crucifixion, so that we could be dressed in His righteousness. Wow!

What’s more: our dress can still declare “the gospel is here.” In fact, we have these instructions to execute:

Clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. (Rom. 13:14 NLT)

This verse is included in Romans, Paul’s fullest explanation of the good news about Jesus’ death and resurrection. We understand our sin and spiritual nakedness and get right with God through what Christ has done on the cross. We recognize the exchange that happened at Calvary. He took our sin and the Father sacrificed the Lamb of God and dressed us in His righteousness. Our own measly attempts at clothing ourselves don’t work. We need to be dressed by God.

That’s all part of the life-transforming power of the gospel. 

So, our clothes are a picture. They’re telling a much bigger story of how we’ve been dressed by God. Then, we dress like someone whose life has been changed.

Some people have hearts that have become quite hardened to true shame. They experience an inability to be aware of their sin and the need to receive Christ’s rescue. They are shameless.

Rather than being drawn to God in humility and need, they press against Him in rebellion. In Romans 1, Paul writes about these kinds of people and describes how they’re dressed in “dark deeds” (Rom. 13:12 NLT). He claims that “they invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents” (Rom. 1:30 NLT). They are shameless.

Shamelessness has become so normal in society, that dignity is odd when we see it. This causes us to feel so strange when we choose to dress differently than our unbelieving friends. I often find myself bummed out when something that looks lovely on my less curvy friends doesn’t work on my body. It would just be so simple if I didn’t have to care about presenting myself with dignity.

Of course, our daughters aren’t thinking about shamelessness when they want to wear whatever they want. They might say they’re just trying to express themselves.

And now, we’re back at the beginning because this is the very thing—our desire—that led Eve to take a bite of a piece of fruit God had told her not to eat and to experience shame.

Satan’s solution to shame is to numb us until we are shameless. This is no solution at all. It draws us further into a life of sin and its consequences. God’s solution to shame is the gospel—to clothe us in Jesus Christ. “For the Scripture says, ‘Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame’” (Rom. 10:11 ESV).

And now, you see why we fight about what we wear.

So how do you talk to your daughter about being clothed? Your number one priority in discipling your daughter is not to conform her outward appearance to standards of modesty, but to bring her heart to the cross of Jesus in truly authentic manner. Only the Holy Spirit can do this work in her life, but you can support it.

In a survey I conducted when I was writing Lies Girls Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free, I discovered something alarming. Many of our church-going tween girls believe they are Christians, but cannot verbalize how to become one. They think they are Christians because they were born that way, or they go to church, or their mom is a Christian. But the only way to become a Christian is spelled out in Romans chapter 10: 

If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. (vv. 9–10)

Again, only God’s Spirit can bring us to such a surrender. But we can set the stage through understanding the pathway to a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Take some time to have a conversation with your daughter about that today. Find out where she is in her understanding. Do you see the Holy Spirit at work, convicting her of her need for Christ? Teach her to properly respond to her shame by turning to Jesus.

If your daughter has already surrendered her life to Christ, take some time today to celebrate it and remember key points in her spiritual journey. Help her grow in her understanding of the gospel. And together, worship Jesus for enduring nakedness and shame for us so that we could be clothed in Him.
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Our donation-of-any-amount offer this month is the book by Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, Surrender: The Heart God Controls. Listen, if you’ve been fighting a losing spiritual battle, it’s time to give up. Bow the knee. Wave the white flag of surrender. And turn yourself over to the King of kings. Nancy’s book will show you how to do that. 

Request the book Surrender when you make a donation of any size. You can do that at ReviveOurHearts.com/Donate. 

I hope your Holy Week is filled with opportunities to reflect on what God has done for you through Jesus. Next week we’ll talk about His glorious resurrection from the dead, and the amazing implications of that in our lives. Join me for that.

Thanks for listening today. I’m Dannah Gresh. We’ll see you next time for Revive Our Hearts Weekend.

This program is a listener-supported production of Revive Our Hearts in Niles, Michigan, calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.

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