Purple Robe

I find the season of Lent to be the most meaningful time of the year. Every feeling leading up to the intensity of the Cross seems to hit more raw, real, and vulnerable. The images we encounter in Lent are filled with profound richness. Lenten emotions are honest and the colors are vivid. I even possess a newfound love for the color purple. You may recall Jesus wearing purple during the Passion scene. We hear that “the soldiers put a purple robe on Jesus, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, “Hail, king of the Jews!” (Mark 15:16-18). Using a purple robe is how those who crucified Jesus mocked him.

At that time in history, purple fabric was extremely rare and reserved only for royalty. The purple dye was made from snails only found in the Mediterranean Sea. It took 10,000 snails to make one ounce of dye, so imagine how many snails it took to make an entire robe. Only royalty, with all their riches, could afford to wear purple. In fact, it was forbidden for common people to wear purple until the 16th century. The “King of Jews” identifier is meant to invite laughter and ridicule. It’s as though the joke is… “some king you have here.”

The point of drawing attention to the mocking soldiers is not to judge them, but to see ourselves in them. It does no good to think we are better than the mockery of the soldiers and to pretend our robes of sin don’t exist. No, we indeed place our purple robes on people all the time. We place robes of judgment on those we deem unworthy. We place robes of cruelty on people who cannot afford housing and healthcare. We place robes of indifference on those who cannot shake addiction. We place robes of exclusion on those who we view as different. Too often, we mistreat people who we do not understand.

For me, at its core, the season of Lent is about honesty. We name our sin in order to be set free from it. Sin that is left in the shadows only compounds, it festers, and grows. We confess our sin as a prerequisite for our forgiveness. As Martin Luther once said, “Either sin is with you, lying on your shoulders, or it is lying on Christ, the Lamb of God. Now if it is lying on your back, you are lost; but if it is resting on Christ, you are free, and you will be saved.”

What sin are you holding on to? Bitterness, anger, lust, resentment, discontentment, jealousy, guilt – let it go. What purple cloak are you waiting and ready to cast onto others? Lent is about turning inward. Preparing for the Cross is about doing exactly what those soldiers did, placing our sin upon Christ. When we confront ourselves, God will be there always willing to forgive. Indeed, “nothing can ever separate us from the love of Christ. (Romans 8:35)

Forgiven and set free,

Pastor Lucas