Robe Sunday

Montana Bible College Dean of Students & Discipleship Carter Knight composed a series of short devotionals for Holy Week. We hope they encourage you and help prepare your heart for worshiping our risen Savior!

They brought the donkey and the colt; then they laid their robes on them, and He sat on them. A very large crowd spread their robes on the road. 

- Matthew 21:7-8a (HCSB)

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they took his garments and divided them into four parts, one part for each soldier; also his tunic. But the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom so they said to one another, “Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it to see whose it shall be.” This was to fulfill the Scripture which says, “They divided my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” 

- John 19:23-24

Much has been said of the palm branches which were waved and laid before Jesus as he entered Jerusalem upon a humble donkey. This Sunday is even called Palm Sunday. However, let us now consider the robes which were taken off and laid down before Jesus.

The palm branches were taken from a tree of creation, but the robes were taken from Jesus’ object of redemption. Soon, Jesus would be nailed to a tree in order to clothe humans with righteousness.

There was one other time when Israelites laid down their outer garments before a newly recognized king. This was done by Israelite army officers for Jehu in 2 Kings 9:13. Shortly after their symbolic act of total submission and royal honor, Jehu sheds the blood of the idolatrous king Ahab's family, including his wicked wife Jezebel. It may be that those who welcomed Jesus by laying down their robes conveyed an expectation that he would act similar to Jehu's violent vengeance towards their idolatrous Roman occupiers. Yet unlike Jehu on his swift chariot, Jesus approached slowly and lowly. He was mounted upon a humble donkey, hardly a beast of warfare.

Indeed, an opposite tactic was in Christ's mind. As the anointed King of kings, the One upon whom the Holy Spirit of grace rests and remains, he intended to receive and absorb violence in his own body. Yes, he came to die even for unworthy servants like us, wicked as Ahab and Jezebel. Christ came to bear the vengeance of God due to our idolatrous and blasphemous sins.

This role reversal of the anointed King is precisely what we need. For after his initial zeal to obey God, Jehu soon became complacent with the golden calf worship which was falsely conducted in Yahweh’s name. Furthermore, Hosea 1:4 condemns Jehu's propensity for excessive bloodshed. In stark contrast, later in Passion week and on the night in which King Jesus was betrayed, he raised the Passover cup and announced, “This is my blood, shed for the forgiveness of sins.”

This is the kind of King whose everlasting kindness is worthy of total submission and royal honor. Ironically, it is Jesus’ willingness to allow his own blood to be shed that truly abolishes false worship and establishes his kingdom forever. So, lay down the outer garment of your loyalty in honor of this King whose loyal love far exceeds that of his servants. For he was willingly stripped not only of his outer garment but of his life's inner tunic, woven as it was in one seamless fabric of untorn and unfrayed integrity, in order to clothe you in his royal robe of righteousness.^[1]

^[1] Isaiah 61:10