LOVE NOT SHAME

Jesus’ death on the cross brought into our lives LOVE, no longer Shame!

 

SHAME….

One definition is:

a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior.

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Biblically, where is the earliest instance we hear of “shame?”  Yes, all the way back to the beginning in the book of Genesis when Adam & Eve were in the garden once they ate of the fruit of the tree that God told them NOT to eat from.

Genesis 3:6-10 says:

The woman saw that the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eyes, and the tree was desirable for gaining wisdom. So she took some of its fruit and ate it; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

When they heard the sound of the LORD God walking about in the garden at the breezy time of the day, the man and his wife hid themselves from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.  The LORD God then called to the man and asked him: Where are you? He answered, “I heard you in the garden; but I was afraid, because I was naked, so I hid.”  (NAB)

SHAME….something Adam and Eve realized they felt once they ate the fruit. They were distressed at being naked and even hid from the Lord because they knew they had done wrong. Never again on this earth would they have that unaltered oneness with God.

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Fast forward to the New Testament to the point when Jesus was conceived through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Even Joseph originally struggled with how to deal with shame.

Matthew 1:18-21 says:

Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about. When his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, but before they lived together, she was found with child through the Holy Spirit.

Joseph her husband, since he was a righteous man, yet unwilling to expose her to shame, decided to divorce her quietly. 

Such was his intention when, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary your wife into your home. For it is through the holy Spirit that this child has been conceived in her.

She will bear a son and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.” (NAB)

Joseph, being a righteous man,  did not want to expose Mary to shame though he knew he did not do any wrong. Shame was a very humiliating thing back in the early Biblical days before Christ’s death and resurrection.

Thankfully, the dream made Joseph aware that there would be no shame involved since Mary, through the Holy Spirit, was actually carrying the Savior of the world in her womb which was all part of God’s divine plan!

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Think about this………

Jesus, the very one who came to show us such great love, by physically dying on the cross, suffered one of the most shameful deaths….precisely to show us the greatest love!

 

John 19:1-3 says:

Then Pilate took Jesus and had him scourged. 

And the soldiers wove a crown out of thorns and placed it on his head, and clothed him in a purple cloak,and they came to him and said, “Hail, King of the Jews!”  And they struck him repeatedly.  (NAB)

Jesus was publicly disgraced, being beaten and spit upon, nailed to a cross, and left to die a slow, painful death.  A death by crucifixion was certainly a most humiliating experience!  

Wow…the Savior of the world, the one who saved us from all our sin, Jesus, left all the shame at the cross…for you and me!  JESUS came to bring us LOVE, no longer shame!  Rejoice in that, my friends!

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LOVE…

One definition is:

an intense feeling of deep affection

Jesus is the epitome of LOVE!

 

Photo credit by Mike Trimble under Creative Commons License (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

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Consider this story from John 8:1-22:

 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them.  The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery.  In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

 “No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Did that adulteress woman feel shame from Jesus?  No, I don’t think so….I believe she felt total love from Jesus and changed her life from that day forward!

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How about this story from John 4:15-26:

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

 He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

 “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet.  Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.  You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews.  Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Despite the lifestyle of this Samaritan woman, Jesus did not shame her; rather He showed her love which helped increase her faith.

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And what about this story from Luke 5:12-14:

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.

Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”  (NIV)

Did Jesus make this leper feel any shame in the way he looked?  No, not all! Rather, Jesus healed the man immediately! Doesn’t that show how much love Jesus had for the leper?

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Can you think of any instances in your life when you have personally felt shame?

Was it shame that was personally inflicted or rather due to society’s influence?

If it was personally inflicted due to a sin that you committed and felt bad about, did you recognize your need for repentance quickly and make things right?   Was it still difficult to let go of the shame you felt despite Jesus’ forgiveness that is ours when we repent?

We read many Bible stories where society made people feel shame such as if a woman was barren, someone had leprosy or was blind from birth. Society made the people think that the person or even their parents must have done some terrible sin to end up with those issues. We know that really is not the case yet even to this day society can inflict shame on us even though it is not justified.

Though I know your answers to the above questions may be a bit personal, as always, if you do feel led to share any of your personal experiences with shame and/or Jesus’ love related to that, please feel free to use the comment section below.

Photo courtesy of Art4TheGlryOfGod by Sharon under Creative Commons License (CC BY-ND 2.0)

 

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Have you thought about this?  …..Through the first woman, Eve, SHAME was born and through  Mary, the mother of Jesus,  LOVE was born and came to reign!!

Jesus came to bring us love, no longer shame!  Jesus brings us love, healing, hope, peace and grace!

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This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters. –1 John 3:16  (NIV)

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I will leave you with this song called, I Am, by Crowder, that is a great reminder that Jesus is always ready to release us from our shame and embrace us with His great love!