The Bible and clothing.
This goes deep.
It, of course, begins in Eden when we were originally created without any clothing beyond our own bodies.
We were happy like that until our "eyes were opened" - we began to look at each other in a different way and then we felt shame, vulnerability, anxiety and a need to "cover" ourselves.
Atonement is covering - and so the pre-incarnate LORD Jesus made atonement for Adam and Eve to clothe them in the bloody skins of a sacrificed animal.
After the incarnation, Jesus seems again to comment on our concern for clothing in Matthew 6:28-30.
"Why do you worry about clothes?
See how the flowers of the field grow.
They do not labour or spin.
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was DRESSED like one of these.
If that is how God CLOTHES the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more CLOTHE you—you of little faith?"
The fact that Jesus Himself describes grass or flowers as "clothed" with physical forms has been one of those verses that I have needed to chew on a great deal over the years.
The implication seems to be that our physical bodies are the most beautiful, sufficient clothing we could ever need - so why are we so anxious or insecure about adding fabrics and fig-leaves on top of our bodies?
(If Plato said that we are clothed with our bodies, I know what he would mean by it: he would be saying that the "real" human is a disembodied spirit/soul. Today, we tend to say things like "we don't HAVE a body, but we ARE our body": and perhaps that there is no reality or value to any identity beyond the body. Yet, Jesus seems to be very different to both of these traditions...)
It might not be good to call us "naked apes", but we are naturally naked.
Of all creatures we alone are so insecure and ashamed of our natural physical form.
If the ONLY reason we wore clothes was to protect from cold, our relationship with clothes would be very, very different...
But, Jesus is stating that our relationship with clothes is about "splendour" and "worry"... and a lack of faith.
(The idea that clothes protect us from "searing heat" seems to be taken up in Revelation 7, as we will see later)
Mark's gospel has a deep understanding of clothing.
In Mark 14:51-52 a young man (possibly Mark himself?) is stripped naked at the arrest of Jesus.
"A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus. When they seized him, he fled NAKED, leaving his garment behind."
Is this saying something about what is happening to "humanity" in the passion and death of Jesus?
In the youth of humanity, we were naked - and now are cumbered with "clothes" both outwardly in our fashions and uniforms, but also inwardly in our pretence and pride.
Jesus is the second Adam.
All of this "clothing" must be stripped away.
The fig leaves are useless.
We cannot hide from the LORD God any longer.
When the high priest hears Jesus state that He is the Divine Son of Man who is equal to the Ancient of Days, to Whom all power and authority belong, the high priest rips apart his own clothes (Mark 14:63).
Normally in the Bible to tear apart one's clothing like this, would be a sign of deep repentance - followed by sackcloth and ashes... but in this case, it is the very opposite.
Here, his clothing is the clothing of the Levitical high priest and so there is something being said about that very priesthood here.
Matthew Henry - "If Saul’s rending Samuel’s mantle was made to signify the rending of the kingdom from him (1 Sa. 15:27, 28), much more did Caiaphas’s rending his own clothes signify the rending of the priesthood from him.
So the rending of the veil, at Christ’s death, signified the throwing of all open.
Christ’s clothes, even when He was crucified, were kept entire, and not rent: for when the Levitical priesthood was rent in pieces and done away, This Man, because He continues ever, has an unchangeable priesthood."
At His trial Jesus had been mockingly clothed in purple robes.
When Jesus was dead, He was clothed again, but this time in the linen clothes of burial
"Joseph bought some linen cloth, took down the body, wrapped it in the linen, and placed it in a tomb cut out of rock" (Mark 15:46).
Yet, those burial clothes are not needed for very long, because in His resurrection Jesus discards them.
Yet, in Mark 16:5-6 does the naked young man return, now clothed in a white robe?
"As they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side, and they were alarmed.
“Don’t be alarmed,” he said. “You are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who was crucified. He has risen!
Is it the same "young man" or is this now an angel who merely looks like a "young man"?
Whatever the case, the stripped, naked, terrified figure at the arrest of Jesus is replaced with a figure who is confident, free from fear and bearing witness to the resurrected Jesus.
Revelation 7:13-17
"One of the elders asked me, “These in white robes—who are they, and where did they come from?”
I answered, “Sir, you know.”
And he said, “These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Therefore, they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple.
He who sits on the throne will shelter them with His presence.
Never again will they hunger; never again will they thirst.
The sun will not beat down on them,’ nor any scorching heat.
For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their Shepherd.
‘He will lead them to springs of living water.’
‘And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.’ ”