(Note: This blog entry is based on the text for “Did Jesus Wear a Hat?”, originally shared on November 18, 2021. It was the 167th video for our YouTube Channel, Streams of Living Water (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCB7KnYS1bpHKaL2OseQWCnw), co-produced with my wife, Rev. Sally Welch.)
We did a couple of videos a little over a year ago on what Jesus most
likely wore (spoiler alert: his clothing was kind of an embarrassment) and what
Jesus most likely looked like (fun fact: Jesus most likely cut his hair and
beard with a knife), but I couldn’t find any info on whether or not Jesus wore
a hat. I got a little farther this time.
Many
occupations have their own distinctive head gear, and there are many head
coverings that we choose for ourselves. One of Shakespeare’s characters said
that “clothes make the man (note: or the woman)”. What does our head
covering say about us?
For example:
[Lifeguard Hat]
(without
a headband) “I like to garden.” / Or, (with a headband) “I’m a lifeguard.”
[Outdoors Hat]
“Rain
Doesn’t Stop Me.”
[Earflaps Cap]
“I used to live somewhere that gets cold.”
[High faux Fur Cap]
“I used to live somewhere cold and am secure in my masculinity.”
[Animal faux Skin Cap]
“I used to live somewhere cold and am not secure in my masculinity.”
[Bucket Cap]
“I miss Gilligan’s Island.”
[Stocking Cap]
“Hipster”
[Red Surgeon’s Cap]
“Heart Surgeon”
[Brain Cap]
“Brain Surgeon?”
[Mickey Mouse Ears]
“I’m a pastor / who went to Disneyland.”
[Turkey Hat]
“I’m
overly excited for Thanksgiving.”
[Viking Hat]
“I’m
descended from Vikings.” (BTW, Vikings didn’t put horns on their helmets, but the
costume departments for operas did.)
[Cheesehead]
Bishops wear a distinctive head covering. The miter. When I was a dean,
I proposed that our bishop make the cheesehead the dean’s distinctive head
covering. He said “No”, so “Packers Fan.”
[Three hats]
“I believe in the Holy Trinity.”
[Clown Hat]
“I
am a fool for Christ, 1 Corinthians 4:10.”
Did Jesus wear a hat?
We don’t know if Jesus wore a head covering, though it seems logical
given the Mediterranean climate of Israel, which is much like Southern
California’s.
He
probably did not wear a head covering when he prayed. Paul teaches, in 1
Corinthians 11:1-16, as an imitator of Christ, that men are not to pray or
prophesy with their heads covered, but that women are. Why’s that? Seems pretty
weird.
It’s because men covered their heads out of shame for their sin, in
those days, and Jesus died to take away that sin. With regard to women, it was
also believed that to not cover things that were normally covered was the same
as revealing “nakedness”. Men did not wear the hair on their heads long in
those days, only women. So, for a woman to not wear a head covering it was the
same as shaving her head (which would have been a disgrace, not a fashion
choice). In fact, Paul says that a woman “ought to have a symbol of
authority on her head” (in verse 10) and says, in verses 11-12,
11 Nevertheless, in the Lord woman is
not independent of man or man independent of woman. 12 For
just as woman came from man, so man comes through woman; but all things come from
God.
For ordinary life in
those days, men probably wore something like a modern keffiyeh, a large square of cloth, probably
woolen back then, which is folded diagonally and placed on the head with the
fold over the forehead. It is often held in place with a circled cord.
Jesus might have worn something like that, though there is no Biblical
record, because that seems to be what most men wore on their heads in those
days. Rich people wore a type of turban then, but that wouldn’t have been
Jesus.
The one head
covering that Jesus most certainly wore, and the most important head covering
in the history of the world, was a crown of thorns.
I made one out of pyracantha.
Its thorns stuck me through the leather gloves I used to make it.
In John 19:1-3,
during Jesus’ trial, we read,
Then Pilate took Jesus and had him flogged. 2 And
the soldiers wove a crown of thorns and put it on his head, and they dressed
him in a purple robe. 3 They kept coming up to him,
saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and striking him on the face.
Jesus was tortured
and mocked before he was crucified.
The flogging alone could
have resulted in death, and often did for other prisoners.
The thorns would
have cut into his head. Have you ever been cut on your scalp? It bleeds like
crazy, right? Add it to the flogging and the crucifixion, and the loss of blood
would have made Jesus so weak that he wouldn’t have been able to lift his rib
cage in order to breathe on the cross.
His immediate cause
of death was asphyxiation.
Jesus gave his life.
His blood set us free from sin, death, and the power of the devil and all the
forces that defy God. He wore a crown of thorns so that we might be able to put
on Jesus.
Think of how we
might be able to avoid the polarization that now plagues us if we put on Christ
and made no provision for our lives without Christ, as Paul said in Romans 13:11-14,
11 Besides this, you know what time it is, how it is
now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now
than when we became believers; 12 the night is far
gone, the day is near. Let us then lay aside the works of darkness and put on
the armor of light; 13 let us live honorably as in
the day, not in reveling and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness,
not in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, put on
the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its
desires.
Put on Jesus and let
him be your covering every day. Open your heart to the one true living God and
receive that gift today. Put on Christ.
Jesus was fully
human being as well as fully God, the second person of the Trinity. Jesus wore
a crown of thorns. What does that head covering say about him? As Jesus says,
in John 3:16,
“For God so loved the world that he gave his only
Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal
life.
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