Despising the Shame
Have you ever heard how Jesus went to the cross and took the shame? Have you heard how Jesus bared the shame of ridicule and mockery that was so fervently heaped upon His head in a crown of thorns and on His back with the lashing of the centurion’s whip? Were you ever told how Jesus hung on the cross and bore the shame of those who laughed and mocked Him, spat on Him and even cursed Him as He died in innocence?
Well, if your understanding is that Jesus carried the cross in shame, bearing shame unto His death on our behalf, you’re wrong. Sorry to be so blunt, but there is a distinct difference between what Jesus did and bearing shame. The writer of Hebrews puts it like this, “ … looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame …” Jesus did not carry shame on the cross. He despised it.
To despise is to “feel contempt or a deep repugnance for” whatever is the focus of your despising. Digging deeper into the definition - to hold in contempt is to feel that a thing is “beneath consideration, worthless or deserving of scorn”. Some say that our sin and shame was nailed to the cross that day when our Savior died. I would agree that our sin was certainly there on the cross. It had to be. But our shame was not. Our shame was despised by the One who took our sins, and this was done for good reason.
Think about this, if Pilate would have had Jesus’ head cut off we would have been just as saved through that sacrifice as we are from our Lord’s death on the cross. The cross was used in order to fulfill prophecy. For that matter, Jesus was whipped and beaten to fulfill prophecy (Check out Isaiah 53). What the Roman soldiers did to Him was specifically done to complete what God had said, so that we may know He is indeed the Christ. Of course, those soldiers were intent on shaming Jesus. The Jewish leaders who offered up God’s holy Lamb to slaughter were certainly interested in shaming Him. They needed to shame Him so that no one would believe in this man.
But Jesus did not carry that shame. He would not carry it; for it did not take Jesus being shamed to save us. It took his death. God is not to be put to shame by man. The Creator will not be declared worthless by the creation. If Jesus were to accept the shame of the cross and the derision of those who carried out prophecy, it would have been an acknowledgement of man’s right to hold God in contempt. No. That would not be just.
So Jesus despised the shame. He literally looked the shame of this ignominious death in the face and gave it the spiritual “bird”, if there is such a thing. WOW! Jesus is so awesome! Imagine all of the powers of the world and every demon in hell, with that vile Lucifer in the lead, coming against you, to inflict the greatest possible damage on you, crushing you, attempting to put you to shame and wipe your name from the face of the earth. What would you do?
Well, when Jesus faced exactly those foes, He stood up, kept silent, took the beating and the cross to fulfill scripture and died to save us. He did this while facing the shame being thrown at Him and all the while never considering it worthy of consideration. In the end, He never took on our shame. He took on our sin and carried it to its death when He stood victorious over it and the death that tried to swallow Him. But, Jesus never let the shame be part of His sacrifice.
I wonder what would have happened if Jesus Christ, the Son of God and God Himself, would have considered the shame we humans tried to put on Him. Would the cross have happened? Would God have gone through with the sacrifice if He had made room for consideration of the shame a sinful people attempted to put on Him?
We thank the Lord Jesus for dying on the cross and rising again, for becoming our salvation and the way for us to holiness and righteousness before God. Indeed we should. But I think we should also thank Him for despising the shame. For holding the shame of this world and even our own shame in contempt in order that a Righteous God might fulfill His eternal purposes to the Glory of His Name.