Tenth Station – Jesus is Stripped of His Garments

Matthew 27:27-31

When I was stripped of all of my robes, it hurt because some of them were plastered to my body with caked blood.  But it didn’t hurt my ego.  By this time, I had nothing to cling to.  I was emptied of all self-concerns…

I want you to know and learn to live the truth symbolized by the ripping off of my clothes.  My human life was an emptying of myself so I could be filled by my Father.  Your life must be a journey to reach the same goal — a new you filled with my grace and my peace.

Clothes are very personal.  You would instinctively resist having them ripped from you.  Yet clothes are a part of your outer self, and a symbol of that outer, superficial self rather than your spirit.

The more you cling to your superficial self, the more you wrap layers of clothing around you that will one day need to be stripped off.  Your death will be the end of your ego, and all other empires you have been building during your lifetime.  If you have died daily to yourself, the stripping of your humanity at death will not hurt so much.  You may, like me, not even clutch as your clothes — as well as your superficial self — are stripped from you.