Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also, His coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said therefore among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be: that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted My raiment among them, and for My vesture they did cast lots. These things therefore the soldiers did. John 19:23, 24 KJV

Then the soldiers, 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. So they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be”; this was to fulfill the Scripture: “THEY DIVIDED MY OUTER GARMENTS AMONG THEM, AND FOR MY CLOTHING THEY CAST LOTS.” John 19:23-24 NASB

John tells us of the seamless garment of the Lord Jesus. Being the work of some devoted sister or perhaps His mother, Mary, it was of such value and beauty, that the soldiers decided not to divide it but to gamble for the rights to the tunic.

At least three thoughts are lined with the garment:

The Accuracy of Prophecy

The first and perhaps most obvious of the lessons from these verses is the complete and accurate fulfillment of prophecy. “… and cast lots upon My vesture” (Ps 22:18). These words were penned by the psalmist perhaps 1,000 years or more before the event. Yet the prophecy was among the many fulfilled that fateful date, April 3, AD 33. Its beauty and its value incited the greed of evil men who opted to gamble for the chance to have all or nothing of the garment for self.

Little did the woman who wove that garment realize that in her devotion, she was providing a means for prophecy to be fulfilled, attesting to His deity and the value of His suffering.

The Depths of our Perversity

There is something tragically insightful in the scene envisioned by our minds. The Lord of all creation is hanging, nailed to a cross – while at its base, indifferent and callous men are occupied with what they can gain from the booty of the day! While Jeremiah’s lament concerns the indifference to men as they passed by and viewed the desolation of Jerusalem, in spirit they certainly applied that day at Calvary: “Is it nothing to you … “(Lam 1:12).

To soldiers on duty at “skull hill” that April day, His suffering was nothing. It did not even register a “1” on their emotional Richter scale: His grief and our greed contrasted by the event.

The Picture of His Purity

Four millennia earlier, a guilty couple robed themselves in garments sewn together. They had a garment of many seams. The garment of their own making testified to their sin and shame. In contrast, this “Last Adam” had garment devoid of any seams. His seamless garment was emblematic of His purity. His life was one consistent whole. There was no compartmentalizing of His life. He was the same in every season of life; He was the same with every situation and every encounter. He was the same privately as publicly; the same in the home as in the synagogue. No “patching” of his life was ever needed.

Seamless, spotless, selfless – He moved through life as the only normal man Who ever lived. Here was a Man as God intended men to be.

Consider:

Think of other acts of devotion to Christ whose ramifications went far beyond anything the doer of the deed could ever have envisioned.