Recently in a town near my place one Christian pastor, who was the headmaster of a mission school was paraded barefoot and stark naked under beatings, through the town streets. His offence was that he tried to instill discipline in his school suspending lax teachers. They latter joined the Hindu fanatics, in political power there, to punish him thus. The timid police looked on silently. Apart from jeers, blows and spittle, his naked feet were blistered on the noonday hot pitch road, so that he had to jump every step. At last when the Christians approached the District Magistrate, he forced the police to rescue him and put in jail to protect. I visited him in jail and he told me that during the ordeal he constantly prayed and felt the presence of Jesus with him. The school was closed and those culprits lost their good jobs. It was a suicidal action for the teachers. Incidentally this place was not far from Baripada, where Pastor Steins, the missionary to the lepers was later burned to death with his children.
This naked parade is very common here India and it sometimes happened in so called Christian countries too. During communist persecution also often the Christians were tortured naked. A true Christian’s fate is always persecution because obeying Jesus he is always alone against the worldly suicidal multitude, who follows the suicidal ruler of the world, the devil. Jews thus disobeyed Jesus to commit suicidal attack on Romans. Now the world including the so-called Christian nations is doing it in A- bomb race meant to wipe out each other. True Christianity is not so easy like religions of rituals, liturgy and litany. Those Christian practicing only them are doomed. A disciple of Jesus tries to emulate his prophetic role of warning people. The people consider him an anathema but they are unable to shut him down. They hate him as a prophet of Doom. Off course God does not doom anyone. We create our own doom disobeying His commandments of soul-integrating love.
For the average sincere Christian the Good Samaritan model is best. He has to bear much load of love. People usually don’t persecute him, rather praise him. But when people rush to self-destruction around, a Christ follower has to warn people assuming the prophetic role. As in Nazi Germany and communist countries the Christians had to warn people against fascism and communism braving persecution. My initial 40 years of Christian life I spent in Good Samaritan role. But now God inspires me to assume the prophetic role of warning people against false ideologies and falsehood in institutional Christianity too in the increasing shadow of A-bomb.
Now, we come to consider what the nakedness of Jesus on the cross is. There are many types of nakedness. The original nakedness of Adam and Eve was blessedness indeed as there was no perversion to hide. We must hide the perversions of all our desires, especially in our flesh-polluted love called sex. So also we hide our weakness by the power of money and weapons, lack of wisdom by educational qualifications, lack of love by infatuation, etc. In paradise sex is pure and completely spiritual where children are brought forth in the union of spiritual love between two souls. Flesh is absent there. In this world too, a penitent soul united with Jesus brings forth spiritual children in such love by converting sinners. But when Adam and Eve, becoming self centered proud, sought devil for their selfish gain, devil obsessed them by the animal order and sex. He wanted to use them to acquire power to be powerful like God. He was blind to see that the root of God’s power is love-unity.
So he imparted them knowledge in their immature state. That perverted their all senses specially the sex. So we hide our animal like sex parts and activities as we tend to hide ill-gotten gains, disfigurements, as these are incompatible with our high origin souls. This sex-shame is the sure sign of a living soul. Animals don’t hide, as they have no soul, only animas. I have discussed it before. Children don’t feel shame as long as their sexuality is dormant. In mad people also souls are dead so also they don’t feel the shame. So this shame of procreative parts and actions is a natural sign of worldly healthy souls. But only the repentant among them are heaven worthy by becoming free from blind sex-passions. So the unrepentant nudists are cranks and perverted.
On the other hand the naked Jesus in the cross shows us the path to the heavenly riches. This nakedness was like the previous blessed nakedness of Adam. There is a spiritual saying in India quoting God “If one yarns for me I destroy his all. If he still persists I make him the slave of my servants.” Yes! Destroying the worldly things is a most necessary step to be worthy of serving all as Christ is. Heavenly riches and worldly treasures are incompatible with each other.
God’s love is far above our degrading pleasures. He is not the patron of our body and its sensuality as a government is not the patron of Jails and the handcuffs. True, government has built the jails to save the society and the criminals as God has built our sensual bodies to reform us. But both would be most pleased if the jails and our carnal bodies became superfluous. The truth is that, the jails do not reform the criminal. At most they dampen and defuse their ferocity. They don’t teach repentance and atonement which only can reform. Only Jesus and his true disciples can do that. Usually no criminals accept the suffering of the jail in repentance except the Christians who are deeply attached to Jesus, a very small minority. Even outside the jail a Christian knows and accepts the world ruled by passions and devils, as right punishment. He begins to see that God is not the cause of it but our rejection of Him. All the worldly wealth, money, power, prestige, property, erudition are really the handcuffs and fetters which limits our freedom in God, the humble love. As we are habituated and bound to them for a long time the parting process is most painful. So majority avoids it and backslides under persecution.
As one progress in Christian spirit he begins to realize the terrible suicidal path worldly riches guide us to, wrath, hate, vengeance, envy, and greed. The people and the states develop organization like jails, judiciary, police, army and weapons to acquire and protect worldly riches by crooked politics and violence. The latest weapons of mass destruction will surely destroy the world.
The blessings of the spiritual riches, love, peace, wisdom, perseverance, and patience need no such protection and aggression. But the people are blind to these real riches. Sometimes I wonder how amazingly blind the worldly people, to the imminent soul destroying atomic holocaust are. They promptly dismiss our warnings as impossible and scold us as incorrigible pessimists as they did to all the prophets. Even recently India and Pakistan was on the verge of atomic war. Had not the entire world tried to stop them it would happened. But the accelerating culture of violence and hatred throughout the world is bound to break all restraints soon.
The naked Jesus on the cross shows us the path to the heavenly riches. Jesus lost everything at the end. He lost all dignity, followers, clothes and even his body. But then God given heavenly riches filled him and he then shared them with those who still clung to him, however weakly. In India many times Christians are paraded stark naked through the streets under torture. But being loosely connected with Christ a few break down and fail. Testing and examinations are most essential for promotion. No one can progress without them. So we must prepare ourselves with all our strength to be ready for every testing. The example of martyrs who successfully passed the exams is our best guide. As for myself I always remember and pray to the Christians who died in Gulags, jails, concentration camps and missions. They are our priceless examples and living guide as Christ is alive in them. We have adopted three of these blessed martyrs as the patron of our society. The communion of saints helps us to triumph over the tests.
When suffering People usually blame God or others. But when I suffer I know that I deserve it as a murderous sinner. I have murdered people too, not by weapons but by my intention and guile, no less offence. When I came to acknowledge that I came to feel the power of divine forgiveness. Then Jesus assures me of his presence when the world disinherits and stripes me. If I can stand the testing time on the cross naked, then Heavenly Father will again cloth me in heavenly apparel and adorn me with blessed riches. This message of hope, Christ and Christ-followers proclaim throughout the ages to the world’s lost people.
An excerpt from my book "Christ, my refuge from Jehadists' swords"