Shame
Sermon
It is said that one thing which distinguishes human beings from the great apes and other animals, is our vast range of sophisticated emotions. This is not to say that animals -- especially the primates -- are incapable of feeling emotion, but it is to say that our emotions are hugely more complex and more deeply felt than those of the animal kingdom. Although a chimpanzee mother who has lost her baby will show clear signs of mourning for a while, she is less likely to show the all-consuming and enduring despair which a human mother will show.
One emotion which is felt very deeply by human beings but which is less apparent in other animals and non-existent in many, is guilt. We human beings can feel guilty about anything. Sometimes our feelings of guilt are authentic because we have done something wrong, but at other times they are inauthentic because we've done nothing wrong but are governed by past experiences.
For instance, some people brought up in a Christian family might feel guilty about crossing their fingers, but there can't be anything inherently wrong in the act of crossing fingers. The guilt is associated with moral beliefs which have been taught since childhood. A family which frowns upon the crossing of fingers is likely to produce children who grow up to feel guilty if they cross their fingers.
Guilt is closely associated with shame. Part of "How a Child Learns" (a children's charter from the seventies) states that "If a child lives with shame, she learns to feel guilty." Shame has been one way of controlling children within families and schools, but it can also be used as a bullying tactic and it is then likely to produce inauthentic guilt.
Shame is a painful and degrading emotion which may relate to wrongdoing but which can also be felt by those who are completely innocent. People who are wrongly accused of a crime may feel guilty and ashamed even though they are innocent, and some may even confess to a crime they haven't committed.
Although Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday was victorious, it had overtones which pointed to the suffering to come. He entered through the East gate, the gate through which it was prophesied that the Messiah would enter, and so laid himself open to charges of blasphemy. And he said himself that all prophets must lose their life in Jerusalem. It was unthinkable that a great prophet could die anywhere else. So perhaps there were mild hints that Jesus might have been actively seeking martyrdom.
When Jesus was finally arrested he was tried for a crime which he had not committed and he was subjected to brutal and degrading treatment. In Jewish eyes he ended his life not as a great Messiah figure but as a criminal, executed by the state. Jesus was made to feel shame, even though he was innocent and had done nothing wrong.
Small wonder then, that the early Christians identified Jesus with the figure of the Suffering Servant in the third of Isaiah's four "Servant Songs", although Isaiah himself was probably referring to Israel and her sufferings in exile in Babylon. Chapters 40-55 of Isaiah were probably written by a much later disciple of the original Isaiah, around 540 BC. Already two generations had been born in exile in Babylon so there was a very real danger that they would by now have taken on the culture and the ways of the Babylonians, but the time had come for God to call them home to Jerusalem.
Through the figure of the servant, Isaiah reminds the Hebrews of their sufferings and particularly of their shame. But the servant willingly receives even the gravest insult of plucking out the hairs of his beard, and submits to those who beat him and who spit upon him.
But the servant then displays great dignity, courage and fortitude for he says, "The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?"
It is very difficult to believe in yourself when other people are constantly denigrating you, as all victims of bullying know. But a staunch belief in God can enable an equally staunch belief in yourself, as Jesus showed during his arrest and execution.
Jesus showed that suffering, especially unjust suffering at the hands of others, need not result in shame. Jesus showed that public humiliation and disgrace need not result in personal guilt. Jesus showed that those who are jeered at and ridiculed and hurt by others can still hold their heads high and he showed that suffering need not have the last word.
As Christians we are called upon to be servants. We are also inevitably called to suffering, although some suffer more than others. But above all we are called by God, who knows our names and everything about us and still loves us. And if God himself loves us and justifies us whilst knowing everything there is to know about us, then we can know that we need never again feel the shame of inauthentic guilt heaped upon us by other people.
Like Jesus, we too can hold our heads high and eventually enjoy resurrection, for Christianity is about fullness of life, a life to be enjoyed and thoroughly lived. So let us put any shame behind us and stand tall alongside Jesus.
One emotion which is felt very deeply by human beings but which is less apparent in other animals and non-existent in many, is guilt. We human beings can feel guilty about anything. Sometimes our feelings of guilt are authentic because we have done something wrong, but at other times they are inauthentic because we've done nothing wrong but are governed by past experiences.
For instance, some people brought up in a Christian family might feel guilty about crossing their fingers, but there can't be anything inherently wrong in the act of crossing fingers. The guilt is associated with moral beliefs which have been taught since childhood. A family which frowns upon the crossing of fingers is likely to produce children who grow up to feel guilty if they cross their fingers.
Guilt is closely associated with shame. Part of "How a Child Learns" (a children's charter from the seventies) states that "If a child lives with shame, she learns to feel guilty." Shame has been one way of controlling children within families and schools, but it can also be used as a bullying tactic and it is then likely to produce inauthentic guilt.
Shame is a painful and degrading emotion which may relate to wrongdoing but which can also be felt by those who are completely innocent. People who are wrongly accused of a crime may feel guilty and ashamed even though they are innocent, and some may even confess to a crime they haven't committed.
Although Jesus' entry into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday was victorious, it had overtones which pointed to the suffering to come. He entered through the East gate, the gate through which it was prophesied that the Messiah would enter, and so laid himself open to charges of blasphemy. And he said himself that all prophets must lose their life in Jerusalem. It was unthinkable that a great prophet could die anywhere else. So perhaps there were mild hints that Jesus might have been actively seeking martyrdom.
When Jesus was finally arrested he was tried for a crime which he had not committed and he was subjected to brutal and degrading treatment. In Jewish eyes he ended his life not as a great Messiah figure but as a criminal, executed by the state. Jesus was made to feel shame, even though he was innocent and had done nothing wrong.
Small wonder then, that the early Christians identified Jesus with the figure of the Suffering Servant in the third of Isaiah's four "Servant Songs", although Isaiah himself was probably referring to Israel and her sufferings in exile in Babylon. Chapters 40-55 of Isaiah were probably written by a much later disciple of the original Isaiah, around 540 BC. Already two generations had been born in exile in Babylon so there was a very real danger that they would by now have taken on the culture and the ways of the Babylonians, but the time had come for God to call them home to Jerusalem.
Through the figure of the servant, Isaiah reminds the Hebrews of their sufferings and particularly of their shame. But the servant willingly receives even the gravest insult of plucking out the hairs of his beard, and submits to those who beat him and who spit upon him.
But the servant then displays great dignity, courage and fortitude for he says, "The Lord God helps me; therefore I have not been disgraced; therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know that I shall not be put to shame; he who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who are my adversaries? Let them confront me. It is the Lord God who helps me; who will declare me guilty?"
It is very difficult to believe in yourself when other people are constantly denigrating you, as all victims of bullying know. But a staunch belief in God can enable an equally staunch belief in yourself, as Jesus showed during his arrest and execution.
Jesus showed that suffering, especially unjust suffering at the hands of others, need not result in shame. Jesus showed that public humiliation and disgrace need not result in personal guilt. Jesus showed that those who are jeered at and ridiculed and hurt by others can still hold their heads high and he showed that suffering need not have the last word.
As Christians we are called upon to be servants. We are also inevitably called to suffering, although some suffer more than others. But above all we are called by God, who knows our names and everything about us and still loves us. And if God himself loves us and justifies us whilst knowing everything there is to know about us, then we can know that we need never again feel the shame of inauthentic guilt heaped upon us by other people.
Like Jesus, we too can hold our heads high and eventually enjoy resurrection, for Christianity is about fullness of life, a life to be enjoyed and thoroughly lived. So let us put any shame behind us and stand tall alongside Jesus.
