November 14, 2023
Taking Everything You Ever Had
(Some information may be too graphic for small children)
“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 19:24 (NASB)
I remember years ago; I was looking for a known drug addict. He had a warrant for his arrest. I had a pretty good idea of the area where I could find him. He couldn’t go far. He didn’t have any money and his family had disowned him. I left a business card with a known drug house where I thought he might be staying at night. No, they didn’t trash my card. We had a long relationship of trust between us. He called the next day. He said he didn’t have any money and was starving. I told him I still had to serve the warrant. He agreed he would meet me the next morning. When I arrived at the house, he stepped out and said, “I haven’t eaten in days.” He was in bad shape. Knowing I might get in trouble, I took a risk. I drove him to the local KFC drive-through and bought him a meal with him in the back seat. No one could see him as my windows were black-out tint. After I got the order, I stopped on a side road and gave him the meal. He ate it on the way to jail. He left nothing but the chicken bones. I knew it was the right thing to do. He told me a drug dealer sold him a quarter of a Snicker’s bar, for his last ten cents two days before. It was so sad someone would watch his suffering, and still take every dime he had (literally) knowing his condition. Everything he had was now gone…
“So they said to one another, ‘Let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be’;” Hughes says this so well, “… it is easy to surmise what happened. First, each soldier chose one of the less expensive articles. Realizing it would be foolish to divide the robe, they then gambled for its sole possession. Unwittingly they were fulfilling the prophecy of Psalm 22:18: ‘They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.’ They were cold-blooded men. It is bad enough to take a dead man’s belongings, but they were gambling over them while he, in his dying moments, gazed on. The four Roman soldiers were an unwitting picture of a world without God, a capsulization of the world’s neglect of Christ’s atoning death. This is sometimes calculated, sometimes unthinking, like when a professional baseball player said to his coach, after the coach had lost his temper, ‘Coach, you need to walk with Jesus.’ The coach replied, ‘I’d rather walk with the bases loaded.’”[1] John tells us they said, “Let us not tear it,” They were not worried about Jesus hanging there on the cross, they only looked at the material value of the cloak. They were going to maximize their profit on a man who hadn’t even died yet. What a cruel and inhumane thing to do, but people today are still like this.
Some years later, I ran into the addict again. I would like to say he beat his addiction, but he didn’t. He confided in me that if he had been out one more day, he would have resorted to robbing someone or shoplifting. He couldn’t go any longer without something to eat. As I reflect on that trip to the jail that day, I remember looking in the rear-view mirror and seeing a smile on his face. He said, “Thanks, Officer Pope. I can’t believe you would do something like this.” I told him, “You did what I asked you to do today. You have my respect.” My boss never found out about the food. I was willing to take the risk of the write-up. It was the right thing to do.
[1] Hughes, R. K. (1999). (p. 444). Crossway Books.