The Terrible Cost of Christ’s Covering
The scriptures prove that the details of Christ’s crucifixion were known from the beginning (Psalm 22). Jesus, who could control all things, deliberately accepted all the cruelties of crucifixion. He did so because in each phase of that crucifixion there was powerful and everlasting meaning, though its cost to him was terrible.
The Romans added cruelties to crucifixion. They stripped their victims bare, then hung them in the most public of places to
be shamed and mocked. Let us examine the likelihood that our salvation, wrought by Jesus Christ, included this most
humiliating experience. And let us learn why this was so important to our salvation, and most importantly, how it should
change us.
The Witness of Corrie ten Boom.
Corrie ten Boom wrote of her terrors in a concentration camp. Mortification by public medical exams was high on her list.
She was forced to strip, wait, then slowly pass before mocking guards. Humiliation was a major goal, and she was denied
even the protection of her own arms.
As she faced this bitter ordeal on yet another morning, she was jolted by the thought Jesus had experienced this very thing. She knew artists portrayed Him crucified with at least a minimal amount of covering. She suddenly felt, strongly,
this reverence came from the hearts of the artists, not the Romans. She did not know the facts of Roman crucifixion, yet she came to feel their reality through the Spirit. (1)
The Witness of Tomas Kofed
Tomas Kofod played Jesus Christ in the film “Testaments.” Kofod had so identified with the Savior, he wept during breaks in filming the crucifixion. The director, Kieth Merrill, was intrigued and asked Kofod what he had learned as he vicariously
suffered as Christ. Kofod replied that beyond all the pain, he had newly sensed His deep humiliation. He reiterated how he had been mocked and spit upon. But then, overcome with emotion, he added that he strongly felt they had stripped Him completely and that He was forced to endure that absolute maximum of humiliation and shame. (2)
Kofod and ten Boom had reached, through very unusual circumstances, this same stark impression. Both had particular reason to reflect on the terrible things Christ endured. This last awakening caused a new, deeper sense of grief for His sufferings.
Every follower of Christ would be naturally shocked that one Divine, so noble and so pure, had to be so mortified. But when we look at the evidences, it would appear that Jesus Christ, for His own wise purposes, let this be an essential part of the great plan of salvation. In fact, it is likely because He was so noble and pure He could endure it. For He, of all
men, had no hidden shame to cause fear of exposure.
A Vital Part of Our Salvation
Adam and Eve, though naked, felt neither fear nor shame in God’s presence, until they transgressed. Then they tried to
conceal their nakedness and hide, no longer daring to appear in the presence of such Holy beings. Manifesting their mercy, the Father and Son provided a covering --- “coats of skin.”
This was no casual act.
Consider that this covering required the sacrifice of a living creature. That creature was not only slain, but its skin stripped
from its body. This ancient event taught of the sacrifice of Jesus the Christ.
Looking anew at what Jesus suffered, we should recognize He was likely stripped for His scourging. Only such nakedness would allow the full extent of the scourging, to be “beaten from the upper back to the lower extremities of legs.” (3)
Because sharp pieces of metal and bone were attached to the leather straps which scourged him, Jesus’ skin would have been torn and opened repeatedly, exposing over and over again the underlying flesh.
Through the horrible event of scourging, not only His clothing, but much of the Savior’s covering skin was stripped
away. Note the Hebrew word for atonement means “a covering.” Now we can understand in fuller measure how “by his
stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5). It was more than His taking upon Himself any lashes meant for us. By allowing the
stripping of both His garments and even His flesh, He was providing both as a covering for us.
Jesus endured the mortification of nakedness beyond the eyes of those scourgers. As said, crucified victims were
hung stripped in the most public of places so that the many could mock His shame.
The foreshadowing story through Adam and Eve is that we will all feel shame for sins when facing God. But because of Jesus’ fully offered covering, our nakedness can be covered, and we may dare to stand before God in peace --- if we have accepted Christ's covering, through faith in His atonement and through our repentance.
After the Lord deliberately established this truth through Adam and Eve, He continually reinforced and heightened its significance, as through Boaz and Ruth.
Many Biblical interpreters recognize Boaz served as a pattern for Jesus Christ --- as a “bridegroom.” Ruth desired to be wed to Boaz. To do so, Ruth first uncovered his feet; then pleaded he cover her! “… spread therefore thy skirt over
thine handmaid …” (Ruth 3:9). The covering of Boaz teaches of the greater covering of Christ, the true bridegroom. (4)Ruth’s story adds the marvelous truth that we can not only be covered, but brought into His household as an intimate because of it.
Again, teaching through prophecy and warning, the Lord stresses the absolute need for His covering. He warned once betrothed but now apostate Israel that unless they repent, He would remove the covering of His skirts, that the world may see Israel’s guilt (Nahum 3:5).
The Lord also taught another aspect of these truths in the ritual of The Day of Atonement.
The holiest place in the temple signified God’s presence and was separated from men by a veil. That veil symbolized the great barrier between a Holy God and unworthy men. Only the high priest was allowed entrance, once a year, to sprinkle sacrificed blood from a goat on the mercy seat, for forgiveness of Israel’s sins.
Christ fulfilled all the witnesses contained in this ritual. Before Gethsemane, He offered His High Priest’s intercessory prayer (John 17). He prayed for Oneness. In Gethsemane and through scourging and crucifixion, he gave the offerings needed to achieve Oneness. His chief offering was His own Lamb’s blood but made into the more rebellious goat’s blood by taking upon Himself men’s sins. Jesus’ blood was sprinkled on God’s true mercy seat, His heart. Here was Jesus’ offering for
At-one-ment, and for acceptance of His covering for men’s nakedness.
Both offerings were accepted. Just as Jesus finished His offering and yielded up His spirit, “the veil of the temple
was rent in twain from the top to the bottom” (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38). The barrier was torn asunder. Jesus had opened
the way; repentant men could reenter God‘s presence. (5)
But each person can only dare to enter that holy presence if he knows his nakedness has been revoked, and his
sins covered, (the Hebrew meaning of atonement), by Jesus the Christ. Thus the word "Atonement" carries two powerful concepts --- of being covered and of being made One again or reconciled to God. Both were testified to through powerful imagery, and were fulfilled through terrible cost to our Savior!
Do We Really Want to Know this Unpleasant Truth?
We must ask ourselves these questions. If Jesus Christ did bring about our salvation with these great implications, wouldn’t He want us to know, to understand, to acknowledge them? If He had paid so terrible a cost, wouldn’t He want its impact to reach the depths of our hearts, to bring us to humility?
If we deny the reality, are we not denying the deepest love in the heart of the giver? The depths of that love are
revealed through the careful preparations made from the very beginning to witness and to bring all this to pass.
Furthermore, if we deny ourselves this truth, we are denying ourselves part of the most powerful motivators behind the atonement. Jesus Christ had no guilt to expose. Yet He suffered others to strip Him and to be hung publicly before men, thus offering to take upon Himself our humiliation and shame. We then are faced with this awesome reality.
Our Savior hung in shame before men, that men might stand unashamed before God!
Why these Understandings Should Make Profound Difference in our Lives
One particular mission president, in an earnest desire to further the missionary effort in a land where missionary work was
difficult, continually urged all missionaries to make certain they were totally pure. To accomplish this, in part, he frequently
encouraged any who had anything which should have been previously confessed to do so.
Obviously, baring oneself, or confessing one’s sins is a very grievous thing to do. But as a result of the president’s
strong urgings, there were some belated confessions resulting in much clearer consciences and fuller repentance processes.
When one understands the ultimate extremity and meaning of Christ’s sacrifice, that Jesus, though innocent, allowed the full baring of Himself, how could any hesitate to act upon that great gift so costly given, so mercifully and profoundly offered.
Therefore, confession of one’s sins becomes personally imperative.
Another vital impact is found through Peter: “charity shall cover the multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). The basic reference is
another witness of Christ’s act. Who else can “cover the multitude of sins” except Christ, through His great acts of atonement
as explained?
Thus other scriptures calling us to “clothe [ourselves] with charity (D&C 88:125)” now radiate more power. We must clothe ourselves with His atoning charity. But we must also clothe ourselves with a charity like His. That is, to let our charity cover others in our own lesser, but still significant ways. Thus we should become strongly motivated to avoid looking for faults;
to let unflattering gossip die with us; to forgive, thus not keeping uncovered other’s sins.(6) We should become less
judgmental. We are closer to Christ’s covering act if we silently endure unfair judgments, mockery, and misrepresentations rather than exposing others to protect ourselves.
This is certainly the example set by the leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as the church is frequently misrepresented and mocked. Yet they refrain from reviling and council patience and loving meekness of the members. Even more exemplary, while magnanimously ignoring misrepresentations by those who think they are “exposing” the Church, the brethren go purposely forward, seeing that Christ’s “covering” is offered to millions of the naked.
Finally, knowing of Christ’s full offering greatly increases the beauty and power of temple work. There the preciousness of His offered covering is clarified and renewed, in deeply humbling ways. Understanding the fuller measures of that offering makes worship and service there much more real and vital.
The temple offers many beautiful promises, and we should accept them all in hopeful joy. But our thoughts should
linger now more lovingly on that which makes all else possible. We learn that only through Christ’s offered covering can we
again enter God’s presence. And it is only through Him that we can belong --- not only belong, but be truly at-one with Him,
as Jesus prayed and then fulfilled.
-----------------------
End Notes:
1. Corrie ten Boon, The Hiding Place, 1971 (New York: Bantam Books), p. 196.
2. Kieth Merrill, “The Man Who Would Be Jesus,” Meridian Mazazine, May 10, 2000 and reprinted April 27, 2009
3. Kittel, G., ed., Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans Publishing Co.)Vol. IV, p.
517
4. The Israelite bridegroom in traditional weddings symbolically covers the bride with a portion of his clothing.
5. There are scholarly disputes about which of two temple veils were rent. But I am swayed by Edersheim, a Jew himself,
who says of the priests who must have seen the veil, “And they all must have understood, that it meant that God’s
own hand had rent the Veil, and for ever deserted and thrown open that Most Holy Place …” Edersheim even suggests,
referring to Acts 6:7, it may be due to this miraculous sign that many priests later became Christians. See Alfred
Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, ( USA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1993), p. 895.
6. This does not mean, however, covering up gross abuses.