Despising the Shame

Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews 12:2).

The gospel has once again come alive through the Scriptures, particularly in that middle phrase, "despising the shame." "Despising"—kataphroneo—to conclude against, literally to think little of or dismiss as insignificant after evaluation. "The shame"—aischuges—humiliation, embarrassment.

It is not that Jesus ignored the shame; not at all. He fully bore the shame, evaluated it, and set it aside as powerless over Him.

Why is this important? The cross was invented and perfected as a torturous humiliation. We have cleaned up the cross because of the supreme goodness of the Christ who embraced the awful cross and broke its power. Just a few minutes ago I saw someone selling beautifully decorated crosses for Good Friday—aside from the fact that this gets too close to using religion to make a buck—a cross would never have been thought of as beautiful in the ancient world. The cross was designed to embarrass cruelly and sadistically all who hung upon it—naked, brutal, public, strung out, cursed. But Jesus despised the shame that His enemies attempted to hurl upon Him by using this excruciating humiliation.

Consider the theology of that single aspect of the Lord’s redeeming work on the cross. The lectionary readings for this past Wednesday of Holy Week help demonstrate most helpfully in this part how Jesus took our sin but did not become sinful Himself in the process. He bore our sin but did not Himself become a sinner. It is a very important point; one that I cannot remember ever meditating upon before this week because of Hebrews 12:2.

Isaiah 50:5-7—"I was not disobedient, nor did I turn my back. I gave my back to those who strike Me, and my cheeks to those who pluck out the beard; I did not cover My face from humiliation and spitting. For the Lord GOD helps me, therefore I am not disgraced; therefore I have set My face like flint, and I know that I will not be ashamed."

Psalm 70:2-3—Let those he ashamed and humiliated who seek my life; let those be turned back and dishonored who delight in my hurt. Let those be turned back because of the their shame, who say, 'Aha! Aha!'"

Jesus bore our sin to such a degree that He became sin on our behalf, but He despised the shame (the intended effect) of the cross. He became our sin, but He did not become a sinner. Huge! He was shamed by others, but He Himself was not ashamed of what He was doing (Isaiah 50:7). In fact, He ricocheted back upon His torturers the shame that they attempted to fling upon Him (Psalm 70:2-3).

The cross was ugly; but its ugliness, even though it rained completely and without dilution upon the Son of Man, did not make the Son of Man ugly in His identity. He evaluated the intended effect that they wanted to use to shame Him, but He set it aside as insignificant. He bore our sin but did not become a sinner. He was shamed from the outside; He was not ashamed, though, on the inside. He drew the line on the power of sin and broke it at the cross.

Psychologists observe a similar distinction, but the base idea is primarily a scriptural one—guilt deals with what I did; shame deals with who I am. Guilt is the fault of doing; shame is fault of being. Guilt says, “I did wrong”; shame says, “I am wrong.” Guilt hides from others; shame covers self.

We can see this dynamic in the narrative of the original sin in the original Garden in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, they hid among the trees, and they covered themselves with the fig leaves—two aspects of rebellion. They sinned and immediately sensed their guilt before God, so they hid among the very trees they were entrusted to cultivate, which God had created. And they also died spiritual immediately and sensed their shame internally, so they sewed fig leaves together (a far more complicated task!) to cover their nakedness, which before was not a humiliation (naked and unashamed, Genesis 2:25) at all but an intimacy they had with each other, with God, and with the universe.

The power of sin and death is shame and guilt; I am a sinner and I commit sin. Ok, here is the beauty of the Lord’s redemption. He took upon Himself our sin—both the guilt from our activity of sin and the shame from our identity of sin—to the cross. All of it on His individual back at one point in history.

I can almost hear in my imagination the demonic accusation hurled at Jesus as He hung there on the cross—“You are contaminated, you are infected, you are diseased, you are stained. No one can take all of man’s sin without becoming defiled.” But no! Jesus bore our sin, but did not become a sinner. He endured the cross despising the shame. Sin can go this far--to the cross--and no farther. Jesus swallowed our sin, but sin did not swallow Jesus in His core identity. "He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Ok, now the application. Back to Hebrews 12. How can we endure agony? By fixing our eyes upon Jesus’ perfect, purposeful, and pure perseverance--our faithful looking to Christ alone actually empowers us to persevere in our struggle. See how Jesus’ perseverance through the cross "set before Him" unlocks the corresponding phrase in verse 1, “let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin that so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us."

How do we lay these aside? In the same way Jesus "despised the shame." He knew the truth of who He was and the limits of sin and the power of the cross. He said to the shame, "I have evaluated you and set you aside. You rose up to the cross and no farther. I dismiss you as defeated." Therefore, we can and must in Christ say to our sin identity and our sinful actions, our shame and our guilt, even though darkness flings upon us accusation and hellish discouragement, "No!" "I set you aside—guilt and shame—in the power of Christ. You have no hold on me anymore. Shame and guilt used to identify me, but Jesus broke your power at the cross. I evaluate your boundaries in light of Christ's cross and dismiss you as little. I have sinned, and even continue to sin, but the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has transformed me from a child of wrath into child of God."

I do not have to hide anymore from God or others. I do not have to cover myself. I can drop off these encumbrances and sins and run with endurance the race set before me. Hallelujah, what a Savior!