THE SHAME, HUMILIATION AND REPROACH OF THE CROSS

Matthew 27:27-56

I. WE TEND TO THINK OF THE CRUCIFIXION OF JESUS IN TERMS OF PHYSICAL PAIN, BUT THE SCRIPTURES PLACE A MUCH GREATER EMPHASIS UPON REPROACH AND HUMILIATION.

A. Shame is the opposite of honor.

1. Shame, like beauty, is in the eyes of the beholder. What is considered shameful to some people might be honorable to others.

2. Judgment Day will be a day of shame and honor. Some people will be completely exposed (naked) in their sin before the eyes of a perfectly holy and just God (Revelation 16:15). And by grace, others will be clothed in the righteous garments of Jesus (Isaiah 61:10).

B. Usually when we think of the death of Jesus, we think in terms of physical pain. But the Gospel writers focus on shame, reproach and humiliation (Romans 1:16; Hebrews 12:2; 13:13).

1. Jesus is exposed publicly before all Jerusalem. He is publicly mocked and jeered.

2. Jesus is also completely exposed before God, not for His sin but for ours.

II. THE PURPOSE OF JESUS’ EARTHLY LIFE WAS THE SHAME, HUMILIATION & REPROACH OF THE CROSS.

A. Jesus was born to die the shameful death of the cross (Matthew 1:20-21; John 12:27).

The Roman philosopher and writer Seneca (ca. 4 BC–AD 65) argued, that it was better to commit suicide than face such extreme and drawn-out suffering as death by crucifixion. To press his argument he said,

Can anyone be found who would prefer wasting away in pain dying limb by limb, or letting out his life drop by drop, rather than expiring once for all? Can any man be found willing to be fastened to the accursed tree, long sickly, already deformed, swelling with ugly weals on shoulders and chest, and drawing the breath of life amid long-drawn-out agony? He would have many excuses for dying even before mounting the cross. (Gerald G. O’Collins “Crucifixion” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary edited by D.N. Freedman)

B. Jesus chose the shame of the cross before the foundation of the world (Psalm 40 with Hebrews 10:5-7; Hebrews 13:20).

C. Shame, humiliation and reproach were experienced by Jesus throughout His life.

1. The kiss of betrayal.

2. The disciples’ fleeing when Jesus was arrested.

3. Peter’s denial.

4. Jesus suffered shame not only as an individual, but He would have suffered because the accusations made against Him had ramifications for His household.

a. In biblical times, what you did as an individual reflected upon your family.

b. Jesus was a disgrace to Joseph’s name. He was a disgrace to Mary. He was a disgrace to His brothers. Is it any wonder that when Jesus began His ministry, His family came to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of His mind” (Mark 3:21)?

c. Jesus was accused by the religious leaders of being a glutton and a drunkard (Proverbs 28:7).

5. Shame and honor are a part of the fifth commandment (Exodus 20:12).

ü Could it be my young friends, that what you are doing to honor your friends and live up to their expectations is breaking the fifth commandment?

ü Are you more concerned about being honored by your friends than bringing honor to your father and mother?

III. THE PHYSICAL PAIN AND SUFFERING JESUS ENDURED IS FOUND IN MOVIES AND HYMNS BUT IS NOT EMPHASIZED IN THE GOSPELS.

A. Usually we imagine that the thorns were pushed into the head of Jesus causing it to bleed (cf. “O Sacred Head, Sore Wounded”). But none of the Gospels actually mention this. What the Gospels do emphasize about the crown of thorns is mockery (Matthew 27:29).

B. Mel Gibson’s R-rated Passion of Christ goes into R-rated detail about the beatings, scourging and physical anguish of the cross. But it is likely that Jesus was crucified completely naked (Matthew 27:35 with Psalm 22:16-18).

1. According to many scholars, Romans crucified their victims naked.

2. “The goal of Roman crucifixion was not just to kill the criminal, but also to mutilate and dishonour the body of the condemned.”

3. The nakedness of Jesus reminds us of the first Adam.

a. After Adam and Eve sinned they hid themselves from the presence of God, sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings (Genesis 3:7).

b. At the cross, it seems as if Jesus, the Second Adam, stood naked and ashamed in our place without any covering.

“The victims of crucifixion were naked, but it was an artistic convention in the West, and mandated by the sixteenth-century Council of Trent, to show Jesus wearing a loincloth (said to be among the relics preserved in the cathedral in Aachen), thus avoiding the indignity of nakedness” (Clarke, The Gospel of Matthew and its Readers, 230).

C. Jesus was crucified in-between two robbers. This was a grand slam for the chief priests:

Matthew 27:38

At that time two robbers’ were crucified with Him, one on the right and one on the left.

Matthew 21:13

And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a robbers’ den.”

D. In Matthew 26:65, Jesus was condemned by the high priest for blasphemy. At the cross, Jesus is blasphemed by those passing by, along with the chief priests, scribes and elders (Matthew 27:39-44).

IV. THE GOAL OF OUR LIVES SHOULD BE TO CHOOSE THE SHAME, HUMILIATION AND REPROACH OF OUR LORD (Habakkuk 2:15-16; Daniel 12:2; 2 Timothy 1:8).

A. Shame is something we naturally want to avoid at all costs but we can’t avoid it.

B. We must choose between one of the two types of shame: the shame of the world, or God.

Philippians 3:18-19
18 For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ,
19 whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things.

Matthew mentions “those who passed by.” This is yet another aspect of the humiliation our Lord endured. Crucifixions were done in public places for the purpose of maximum degradation. The first century Roman rhetorician Quintilian (35-95 AD) said,

“Whenever we crucify the guilty, the most crowded roads are chosen, where the most people can see and be moved by this fear. For penalties relate not so much to retribution as to their exemplary effect” (Decl. 274). (quoted in Gerald G. O’Collins “Crucifixion” in The Anchor Bible Dictionary edited by D.N. Freedman)

1. The shame and reproach the world will make us feel for following Jesus (see Hebrews 12:1-3; 13:13).

Acts 5:40-41
… after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and then released them.
41 So they went on their way from the presence of the Council, rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for His name.

2 Timothy 1:8
Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God,

2. If we choose to be honored now by the world then God will be ashamed of us on the Day of Judgment (cf. Habakkuk 2:15-16).

Luke 9:23-26
23 And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.
24 “For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.
25 “For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself?
26 “For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.

Daniel 12:2
“Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.

QUESTIONS FOR SABBATH DISCUSSION & MEDITATION

Pray that God would enable you and give you the desire to be conformed to His Word as read and preached today.

Why might it be that we tend to think of the cross in terms of physical pain instead of shame since the Gospel writers all emphasize shame? Why is it that some people are more prone to thinking about the nakedness of Jesus as obscene (e.g. it is not depicted in movies, most crucifixes or most Christian “art”) and not the physical cruelty leveled against Him?

What is shame? What is the opposite of shame?

Why can shame motivate us to dishonor God?

Is your sense of personal shame greater than your sense of the glory and honor of God?

Explain how the focus of Jesus’ life was the cross. How did Jesus suffer shame, humiliation and reproach throughout His life?