Shame is a very powerful thing. Particularly in eastern cultures there is the concept that honour must be maintained whatever the cost. In extreme cases a person may feel that death is the only way out. The honour of the family name must be upheld. This can mean zealous relatives murdering the offender. It is not unknown in our culture for shame to drive a person to commit suicide.

Shame played a large part in the experience of our Saviour on the cross. While the Gospel writers are sparing in their treatment of how the Lord Jesus felt during his sufferings, the Old Testament writers anticipate in their own troubles the Messiah’s ordeal. In several of the Psalms David sets forth prophetically and in unmistakable detail the experience of the crucified Christ. For example Psalm 22 has as its opening words My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? The so-called ‘passion’ psalms provide a window into the soul of our suffering Saviour.It is Psalm 69 which especially enters into the shamefulness of Christ’s sufferings. Shame or reproach is a recurring theme:

Because for Your sake I have borne reproach;

Shame has covered my face. 

And the reproaches of those who reproach You have fallen on me.

You know my reproach, my shame, and my dishonour;

My adversaries are all before You.

Reproach has broken my heart,

And I am full of heaviness;

I looked for someone to take pity, but there was none;

And for comforters, but I found none. 

(Verses 7, 9-10, 19-20)

Spurgeon says of this psalm that ‘Christ’s footprints all through this sorrowful psalm have been pointed out by the Holy Spirit in the New Testament’.There are three elements in the shame and reproach which the Lord Jesus had to bear:

 1. The shame of fallen humanity

Jesus Christ incurred shame by becoming a member of the fallen human race. He made himself of no reputation (Philippians 2:7). It was not angels he came to help but the seed of Abraham. In all things he had to be made like his brethren (Hebrews 2:17). He took his place in a genealogy (Matthew 1) that contains examples of such flawed human beings as Tamar, who seduced her father-in-law, and Manasseh the king, who introduced the people of Judah to new depths of wickedness and idolatry. Of course Christ was without sin, yet he came in the likeness of sinful flesh (Romans 8:3). We share in John the Baptist’s incredulity that the Son of God presented himself to be baptised in the river Jordan, numbering himself with the transgressors. 2. The shame of crucifixion

Crucifixion was an especially shameful form of execution. Our Lord’s death on the cross was humiliating in a way that we can never fully enter into. He died that way not only because it was the Romans’ preferred method of execution, but also because that kind of death was necessary in order for the Lord Jesus to bear away sin. Calvary had to be an accursed death in the terms of the Old Testament: Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (Deuteronomy 21:23). It was a particularly public kind of death. It was a punishment designed to kill (slowly) but also to degrade and humiliate. The victim’s body was of course exposed and in his helpless position he was subjected to cruel taunts from by-standers. In the case of Jesus there was the extra reason for reproach – that he was supposed to be the Son of God, the Saviour, and couldn’t even save himself. Yet he endured the cross, despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2). For our sakes the Lord submitted himself to this shameful death.3.  The shame of sin

Sin is a disgraceful thing. It produces acute embarrassment in the godly: O Lord righteousness belongs to you, but to us shame of face… because we have sinned against you (Daniel 9:8). Our sins merit everlasting shame and contempt. Jesus was made sin for us, although he knew no sin. The doctrine of justification by faith requires that Jesus Christ was reckoned to be guilty of all our sins and that he must suffer all the consequences. Though I have stolen nothing, I still must restore it (Psalm 69:4b). His was a unique shame, as the sinless Son of God. If I am unfairly blamed for something, I know that although in that case I may have been innocent, it’s the kind of thing, along with many others, that I as a sinner could have done. Jesus was utterly different. We cannot imagine how it felt for one who had lived out perfect holiness for 33 years to bear the guilt incurred by millions of vile sinners. He had never known what it was to be ashamed. There were no words to wish unspoken, no actions to regret. But now in the sight of the angels and a holy God he bears the reproach of one who has wilfully and defiantly sinned every imaginable sin against man and God.Our position in Christ

For the believer therefore our shame because of sin is covered in Christ. Our reproach has been rolled away. Whoever believes in him will never be put to shame (Isaiah 28:16).

Jesus thy blood and righteousness

My beauty are, my glorious dress;

Midst flaming worlds, in these arrayed,

With joy shall I lift up my head.’ The apostles counted it a privilege to suffer shame for Christ’s name (Acts 5:41). So will we – if we realise the shame that he suffered for us.

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