Our Clothes at Jesus’ Feet
When Jesus entered Jerusalem as a king entering in peace, riding upon a donkey, the people were overjoyed!
Finally, their salvation had come! Finally, God had listened to the prayers of the nation! Finally, the invaders would be driven out and the land would be theirs. Now they would live in peace and prosperity. Finally, God would keep his promises!
The gospel of Luke tells us how they brought him a “colt,” meaning a young donkey:
They brought it to Jesus, threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it. As he went along, people spread their cloaks on the road (Luke 19:35–36.)
The Gospel of John tells us that the crowd,
…took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
“Blessed is the king of Israel!” (John 12:12–13.)
Hosanna is often translated “Please save us.” For the people that day, it was an acknowledgement of Jesus as the Saviour and a plea for him to save them.
This ties in with the people throwing their cloaks on the road for Jesus to step on.
Our Clothes Represent Who We Are; Our Character
In the Bible, our clothes represent who we are, and specifically our goodness or otherwise. Another thing to remember is that having anything of yours touch anyone’s foot or shoe was the sign of greatest humility.
Although they didn’t know it, by throwing their cloaks at Jesus’ feet, the people were acting out an important lesson about how we are saved. The Bible tells us that,
…all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment… (Isa 64:6).
In this acted-out spiritual lesson, the people were admitting that their own perceived goodness and good works didn’t even make it up to Jesus’s feet in honour. In that culture to allow someone’s feet to touch any part of you, was considered a great dishonour, and that included your clothes.
By throwing their clothes under Jesus’ feet, they were effectively throwing their own righteousness into the dust, and exalting the righteousness of Jesus. For when we give up on our own righteousness, God will give us Christ’s.
Within a week, Jesus would surrender his clothes to those who were killing him. The Bible tells us that,
When the soldiers crucified Jesus, they took his clothes, dividing them into four shares, one for each of them (John 19:23).
This was again a continuation of the parable of salvation. Jesus did in fact give his perfect character to all those who surrendered their own works as a means of righteousness. He did it at the Cross. He was naked that you might be clothed with his perfection.
This lesson is taught to us throughout the Bible. The apostle Paul uses the language of getting dressed every morning when he tells us that we should “put on the Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom. 13:14). How does that happen? The Bible gives us an example in Zechariah 3:4:
And the angel said to those who were standing before him, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” And to him he said, “Behold, I have taken your iniquity away from you, and I will clothe you with pure vestments” (Zech. 3:4).
We Should Also Throw Our Clothes at Jesus’ Feet
When God has done that for us, we can say,
I will greatly rejoice in the LORD; my soul shall exult in my God, for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation; he has covered me with the robe of righteousness (Isa. 61:10)
We should all do as the crowds did that day when Jesus entered Jerusalem. We should all acclaim Jesus as our king and call upon him as our Saviour. And we should also throw our clothes at Jesus’ feet. We may not do that symbolically, but we will do it in reality. We will cease to depend on our own perceived goodness in an attempt to deserve Jesus’ blessings, but instead we will depend on his goodness and mercy alone.
Article supplied with thanks to Dr Eliezer Gonzalez.
About the Author: Dr Eli Gonzalez is the Senior Pastor of Good News Unlimited and the presenter of the Unlimited radio spots, and The Big Question. Sign up to his free online course called Becoming a Follower of Jesus to learn about Jesus and His message.