STATION 10: JESUS IS STRIPPED OF HIS CLOTHING

When the soldiers had crucified Jesus, they divided his clothes among the four of them. They also took his robe, but it was seamless, woven in one piece from top to bottom. So they said, “Rather than tearing it apart, let’s throw dice for it.” This fulfilled the Scripture that says, “They divided my garments among themselves and threw dice for my clothing.” So that is what they did.
— John 19:23-24 (New Living Translation)

Station 10

As if the beating, the mockery,
the humiliation weren’t enough—
now they take his clothing too.
Everything is stripped away.

He stands exposed,
wounded and vulnerable before the crowd.

This is the God we follow—
not cloaked in majesty,
but naked in suffering.

The soldiers cast lots for his robe,
as if this is just another job,
another execution,
another way to profit from someone else’s pain.

And still, Jesus does not turn away.
He endures the shame,
the stripping,
the scorn—
so that nothing might stand
between us and the love of God.

We try to cover our vulnerability.
We hide our wounds, our past, our fears.
But here is Jesus, laid bare.
So that we might know:
we are not alone in our nakedness.
We are not unloved in our exposure.

And that nothing can take from us
the dignity God gives.

Let us pray.

Jesus, you stood without covering, exposed before the world, and still — your love did not waver.

We confess how often we hide ourselves. How we protect our image while others are stripped of dignity and safety.

We pray for those whose humanity is reduced to statistics — the unhoused, the trafficked, the incarcerated, the ridiculed.

Clothe them, O Christ, in mercy. And teach us to see not shame, but sacredness.

Strip us, too — of pride, of judgment, of whatever keeps us from being fully yours.

And let us stand beside you, not in fear, but in holy love.

Amen.