4/10/2006

Naked on Palm Sunday

Yesterday was Palm Sunday - it's the day where Christians remember the "triumphant" entry of Jesus into Jerusalem - riding on a donkey. I was at Hickory with In His Grip (a drama group that I'm involved with) and was listening to the preacher who made mention of the fact that people put their garments on the road so that the donkey could walk over them - kind of like a red carpet type of thing.

I don't think there was anything real special about the way it was described . . . except that I had a thought that I had never had before.

If the people who lined the streets removed their garments . . . wouldn't that mean they were naked? Or at least in their boxer shorts? I've never really thought of that. Certainly they wouldn't have packed extra clothes? Right?

So were they there, just totally "exposed" to Christ . . . who would later die for what he "saw" in them? Was everything completely unhidden . . . figuratively and literally?

You can read about it in Mark 11:1-11 . . . or any of the Gospels for that matter. In Mark 11, note verse 8. Click on the title of this post to check out the passage at biblegateway.com.

Anyone with insight, please comment.

Grace,

Des

2 comments:

Johnny said...

Hi Desmond,

I'll be happy to comment, now that I have done a fairly thurough study of the subject of Jewish garb in the time of Jesus.

Jews wore two garments, a ha-LUK (tunic) and a ta-LIT (mantle). the under-garment (tunic) was a light robe, such as depicted in many Western movies of Jesus. The ha-LUK was usually made of linen. The over-garment (mantle) was draped over the tunic and it was a heavy wool, rectangular garment, unlike the semi-circle Roman toga.

To wear the tunic alone was considered embarrassing. (Jesus would blush if he were to watch the movies of him running around in his underwear.)

Everyday dress included a ta-LIT, which was a shawl-like covering that was draped over the upper part of a man's body.

They weren't naked, but they were probably were a little embarrassed.

Johnny said...

I mean a "thorough" study.

Guess I need to stop typing a talking on the phone at the same time.

Sorry about the last sentence as well.