Letter to the Hebrews: Jesus and the end of shame
When things go badly for you, are you more inclined towards a response of guilt, or one of shame? You may not have thought about that quite so starkly before. But which way you lean has been profoundly shaped by the culture you inhabit, your family background, your life experience and perhaps your personality.
In the so-called West, it’s been said that we are in the process of moving from a guilt culture to a shame culture [1], where public humiliation is often seen as more valid and necessary than punishment or reparation whenever someone is deemed to have transgressed in some way. Of course the Bible addresses both of these, and as Christian disciples (wherever we are in the world) we are able to speak and sing of being freed from both guilt and shame in Christ.
But either way, many of us will have personally experienced a tangible sense of shame for being a Christian. Perhaps you’ve been frozen out of friendship groups because you expressed an opinion that some in the group found offensive. Perhaps you’ve been overlooked at work because you wouldn’t go along with a sinful workplace culture. Perhaps you’ve been pilloried on social media for sticking your head above the parapet on an issue of gospel ethics. Or perhaps – hardest of all – you’ve been shunned or sidelined by your own family, because your Christian lifestyle is a rebuke to the religion or morality of your own flesh and blood.
The author of the letter to the Hebrews in the Bible knew that his recipients were acutely feeling that sense of shame. They had become Christians from a Jewish background and were (probably) living in pagan Rome, making them strangers both to their society and to their own families. The result doesn’t seem to have been a serious level of persecution – although in the past their church had faced that and stood firm (10:32-34) – but rather a low-level sense of alienation and peculiarity. Add that to the daily battle of being a Christian – fighting temptation, bearing with one another, dealing in a godly way with suffering – and it’s perhaps no surprise that some of the church members had started to drift away from Jesus. Some of them had stopped turning up at church so regularly. Some of them had started to doubt even the very basics of their faith. Some of them were wondering whether their old Jewish way of life wasn’t a legitimate way to worship God after all.
The resulting letter is a masterpiece of both biblical and pastoral theology. The author mixes stern warning with gentle encouragement, all with one goal – to give his hearers a bigger view of Jesus. Jesus is greater than everything that came before him, even the God-given structures of the old covenant; and so by definition he’s greater than anything the world has to offer. To turn their back on Jesus, even for Judaism, is to incur God’s wrath for failing to honour his risen and reigning Son. But if they turn to Jesus, they will find all they need: a better messenger than the angels, a better prophet than Moses, a better leader than Joshua, a better priest than the Levites, a better sacrifice, a better covenant, a better hope… and a better end to their shame.
Yes, if they turned back to their old way of life, they may well find tensions with their families would be eased. They might even find they sat a bit more comfortably in their wider society. At least they could stop talking about a crucified Saviour – the most shameful and disgraceful idea possible to both Jews and Greeks (1 Corinthians 1:21-24). But the author points to another, better way to end their shame:
For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, “I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”
Hebrews 2:10–12 (ESV)
The cross might seem shameful to the world; but to God it is ‘fitting’. It is the perfect means – the only means – that guilty and shameful sinners could be brought back to relationship with the Father. Those who trust in the cross of Christ are ‘sanctified’ – made holy, acceptable to God, pleasing to him through their union with Jesus. His death stands for our death, his righteousness covers our guilt, his holiness cleanses our souls deep down to our very consciences (Hebrews 9:14). Those who belong to Jesus are completely free from guilt and shame before God; and any sense of shame they feel from their neighbours will one day be completely removed when Jesus is vindicated in the sight of all (Hebrews 13:10-14).
And right now, Jesus is ‘not ashamed’ to call the Hebrew Christians brothers and sisters (2:11). Those who are united with Jesus are united to the ‘same source’ – they can both together call God Father. Jesus is not just our Lord and Saviour – he is our older brother; and he is honoured to have you in his family. If you are struggling with a sense of shame today – be it from your friends, your workmates, your society, or even your family – and you’re feeling the temptation to give up, please remember this.
He is so proud of you.
Footnotes
- In a guilt culture, wrongdoing is defined as transgression of a (written or unwritten) law; wrongdoers are told they ought to feel a sense of internal guilt for what they’ve done; and if they want to make things right, they should make reparations, and/or be punished for their transgression.
In a shame culture, wrongdoing is defined as failing to meet the expectations of a community; wrongdoers are made to feel an external sense of shame from others for what they’ve done; and if they want to make things right, they should engage in a display of public humility and submission to the community expectations that they failed to uphold. ↩︎