Sometimes we are on the receiving end of a shame-inducing sin, committed by someone else. We may have been swindled, or abused, or raped. Whatever the sin, it’s left us with a sense of deep mortification, self-loathing, and unworthiness.
This is written as an intimate meditation, between ourselves and Jesus.
On the cross, Jesus didn’t just suffer and die so that sinners could be forgiven. His death was not only suffering on behalf of the perpetrators. He entered into the suffering of the victims.
He was sinless, yet He felt the full weight of shame for the sins of every person who has ever been, and will ever be, born on this wretched planet.
The sinless suffering the shame of the sinful.
You’re not just compassionate or sympathetic, Jesus. You have entered in. You have entered into the shame of…
Every little one who has ever been beaten and told the beatings are his fault.
Every little girl and boy who’s had their sexuality attacked by an adult.
Every child who’s cowered in a mental corner at the thought of someone finding out about the mentally ill or alcohol-abusing parent, who’s ever been terrified of being taken away by the government, of finally being discovered and acknowledged as defective—simply because of their parentage, of circumstances set in motion from before they were even born.
Jesus, You entered into all of it.
Not only did You bear the sins away from the perpetrators.
You shouldered and bore the undeserved shame away from their victims.
You know.
You know what it’s like to feel this way.
And in Your knowing, my burden is lifted. You never intended me to carry this without You.
“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
— Jesus, Matthew 11:28–30
As the old hymn says, “Burdens are lifted at Calvary.”
In opening our shame to Him, we more fully experience “the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings.” [1] We recognize that Isaiah’s words, “Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried” [2] are about more than the griefs and burdens of our sins. They’re about the griefs and burdens imposed upon us by the sins of others.
Remember Paul’s words to the Corinthian church:
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.
—2 Corinthians 4:8–10
Paul’s words become about much more than surviving persecution for our faith. They become a joyful declaration of thriving—of identifying with and standing alongside our Saviour in even His shame. And of discarding the shame that oppresses us in favour of the abundant life [3] that He has always intended for us.
He is our proof. We are not defective simply because we’ve been the recipients of a shame-inducing sin committed by someone else.
We are not defective because He is not defective.
He is sinless and perfect. And He remained so even on the cross when He had done nothing wrong.
He is both the Door and the Key to our freedom. Through Him, we step through the door from shame into grace.
NOTES
[1] Philippians 3:10, NASB 1995.
[2] Isaiah 53:4, NASB 1995.
[3] See John 10:10.
