One of the biggest inhibitors to Christians spreading the good news of Jesus is fear that people will look down on us; or worst still, make a humiliating comment about our faith in front of others. Let’s be honest, no one wants to be ‘shamed’ in front of others. Yet the enormous problem for the Christian is that Jesus said in Luke 9:26:
‘If anyone is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes in his glory’
So how do we deal with our crippling fear of being ‘shamed’ in front of others? We look to Jesus of course. Hebrews 12:2 says Jesus scorned (thought nothing of) the ‘shame’ of the cross. Crucifixion was the most shameful way to die in ancient times. One would be paraded through the streets, then stripped naked, then lifted up for all to look at and ridicule. Yet that was nothing compared to the shame of having the Father look upon Jesus as the most wicked of sinners.
The incredible thing about Jesus though is he did all this willingly (thought nothing of it), because it meant he could save us from our sins. Jesus left his infinite honour in heaven to experience infinite shame here on earth. And he did all that for us; to rescue us from the infinite shame of being rejected by the Father.
When we see Jesus suffering infinite shame for us, it should melt our hearts and make our love for him grow. And as we love Jesus more dearly, we will WANT to follow him more nearly. In this instance, it means looking forward to being looked down on by others; because we get to tell them of the Jesus was looked down on for me.
Brendan McLaughlin
