"For His Vesture They Cast Lots"

 

Matthew 27:35: Then they crucified Him, and divided His garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet: They divided My garments among them, and for My clothing they cast lots.

To say "They crucified Him" speaks volumes. The Jewish leaders had their wishes come true--they could not be blamed for the death of this great miracle working Prophet who claimed He was the Son of God. The crucifixion was a form of capital punishment that only the Romans could legally perform. Yet Matthew and the other Gospel writers have already presented the condemning evidence. The Jewish nation is guilty, and yet so are we all.

As is his custom, Matthew is quick to quote Scriptures from the Old Testament that predicted events associated with the Life of Christ. Psalm 22:18 predicts that the very clothes of the Messiah would be divided among those who crucified Him, and yet there would also be a gambling for his vesture (tunic). John 19:23-24 provides more details than we find here in Matthew 27. The garments were divided in four parts for each of the attending soldiers.

They observed that His tunic was without seam, woven from the top in one piece. That is what prompted the soldiers to gamble for who would get the entire tunic.

All of this just confirms the supernatural nature of the Bible. For David to have written 1000 years ahead of the actual crucifixion that soldiers would gamble over the tunic of the Messiah would be an impossibility. It would be like St. Francis in the 10th century predicting what Pope John XXIII would do to revitalize the dying Catholic Church in 1962 (Vatican II).