The Shame of Easter

On Facebook, others’ perceptions of us are both public and relatively permanent. People tag you, people talk about you. And if no one comments, that can be just as much a source of shame. Kara Powell, Fuller Youth Institute

  

Social media and the internet have made it possible for you to live in fame or infamy indefinitely. If something exceptional happens, a picture or video of it can go viral. You can become famous instantly.

Likewise, embarrassing or humiliating moments can be broadcast to all of the world before you ever know it.

Your failures become your identity and your shame.

Our solution to shame is to seek fame. Fame is fleeting. God’s solution to our shame is to bestow His honor and glory on our lives.

Christ endured the shame of the cross and offers us His glory. The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one. (John 17:22)

We often think of the pain Jesus went through to pay for our sins on the cross. Jesus could have died a lot of different ways. But God chose for Him to die on a cross.

The cross was not only painful but this form of capital punishment was a public humiliation. The cross was designed to maximize a victim’s shame - being whipped along the way to the place of the cross, stripped of every article of clothing, exposure to the elements while hanging naked on the cross, and the mocking of others.

Jesus Christ not only endured the pain of the cross but also the shame of the cross.

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

Jesus Christ went through the shame of the cross, so that we won't have to.

The one who believes in Him will never be put to shame. (Romans 9:33) 

[More on this topic in future posts.]