Little did they know that hundreds of years before it had been written by God's Prophet: "They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots."
Those four soldiers, whom Pilate had ordered to crucify the Lord of glory, and who had heard our dear Lord say, when they had nailed Him to the Cross, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do!"—those four soldiers, did not take any heed of the matchless love of those words of forgiveness. They were only thinking about dividing His clothes.
They had crucified Jesus, the Saviour of the world, and two malefactors with Him, one on the right hand and the other on the left, and Jesus in the midst.
And now the people who were watching, saw the four soldiers carry away His raiment to a little distance, to divide it between themselves.
When they found that His coat, or under-robe, was seamless, and woven in one piece, they cast lots for that, so that it should not be torn or divided, as God had said, so long ago.
In this picture we do not see the Cross on which our dear Lord was crucified, but it must have been very near to the men.
There was a piece of parchment nailed on the Cross; and though Pilate had said, "I find no fault in Him," yet when he sat down to write his accusation on the parchment, he was obliged to put something; and he wrote, in Hebrew, and in Greek, and in Latin, "JESUS OF NAZARETH—THE KING OF THE JEWS."
This writing was read by many people, because the place where Jesus was crucified was near to Jerusalem, and many were passing backwards and forwards at this Passover time.
The cruel Jews, who had urged Pilate to crucify Jesus, wanted him to take the writing down from the Cross.
They said, "Do not say that He is the King of the Jews! But say that He said He was!"