“Why must they all be naked?” I thought. Dispatch gave out a call involving a large, muscular man standing naked in a busy roadway threatening motorists. He was covered in his own blood and suffering a drug-induced mental health crisis. Law enforcement responded to remove him from the road, restrain him, and get him the needed help—no easy task.

Later, there was a similar call of a psychotic naked man trying to break down the entrance door of an occupied daycare. Psychosis is often accompanied by superhuman strength. Cops responded to stop the man from getting through the door and harming the children. The difficulty of restraining a naked psychotic suspect covered in sweat or blood cannot be overstated.

There is something very unnatural about being naked in public. We wear clothes for a reason. The result of man’s original sin was an awareness of nakedness and shame. Public nudity was no longer natural. It is something to be covered. 

In the beginning, God provided animal skins to cover man’s nakedness. Sadly, it required the death of an animal. God shed blood to cover the result of man’s sin. It foreshadowed a similar event yet to come.

On the cross, the Lord suffered the shame of nakedness. Most modern crucifixion depictions show the Lord with a loin cloth or covering. The Romans weren’t so sensitive. They used the shame of a nude execution for maximum psychological effect on the watching public. Jesus was most likely crucified naked. “But for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame.” (Hebrews 12:2)

In the garden, God covered the shame exposed by man’s sin. On the cross, He endured the shame of nakedness to cover us with the righteousness of God. 

“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,” (Isaiah 61:10)