The Scripture and Shame
As an addict in recovery, the topic of shame comes up frequently. Most of the time people consider it to be a bad thing that should be avoided at any cost.
But I am also a Bible-believing Christian, and the idea of
shame becomes problematic. Because the Bible is one of the most shame-filled
books you can read.
Here is what the Bible says in Romans 3:10-13, “As it is
written, There is none righteous, no, not one:
There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They
are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is
none that doeth good, no, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher; with
their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their
lips." It goes on, but you get the
idea, "We are all dirty, rotten, no-good sinners!"
Scripture makes it clear that we are born sinners and have a
sin nature, we are corrupt to the core. We cannot possibly approach God's
holiness on our own.
When the prophet Isaiah had a vision of the holiness of God,
here is what he said, "Woe is me, for I am undone; because I am a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine
eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." (Isaiah 6:5) The light of
God's holiness revealed how dirty he was, how unclean and unworthy he was, and
his heart sunk into shame.
It is easy to get stuck here, believing we are unworthy to
come to God, to think, "I will never be good enough. I will never measure
up, so why even try?" So, we run
away from God like Jonah. Or we try to hide behind bushes and fig leaves like
Adam and Eve, and we allow that shame to pull us away from God.
One of the most powerful stories that Jesus told was of the
Prodigal Son. The story goes that there was a young man who went to his father
and asked for his inheritance. Apparently, he was dissatisfied with his home life,
and he wanted to strike out on his own. So instead of waiting for his father to
pass away to collect his inheritance, he demanded it early. His father gave it
to him, and Jesus said he travelled to a far country and wasted his inheritance
"with riotous living."
He ran out of money, a famine struck, and he ended up on a
farm feeding pigs. He was so hungry that he considered eating the slop he was
feeding them. Let's pick up the narrative in Luke 15:
"17. And when he came to himself, he said, How many
hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with
hunger!
18. I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him,
Father, I have sinned against heaven and before thee,
19. And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as
one of thy hired servants.
20. And he arose and came to his father. But when he was yet
a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on
his neck, and kissed him.
21. And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against
heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
22. But the father said to his servants, Bring forth the
best robe, and put it on him; and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his
feet:
23. And bring hither the fatted calf, and kill it; and let
us eat, and be merry:
24. For this my son was dead and is alive again; he was lost
and is found. And they began to be merry."
Did you pick up on the Prodigal Son's shame? "I am no
more worthy to be called thy son," he said to his father. If there was
ever a shame message, that is it!
This is one of the central messages of the Bible, that we
are not worthy to be God's children. We cannot deserve heaven. We cannot earn
or work our way into eternal life. We can never be good enough for God.
That is a huge, shame-filled pill to swallow!
But that is not where the story ends. We see the father in
the story, a picture of our Heavenly Father, anxiously waiting for his long-lost
son to return. When the father sees his son in the distance he runs and
embraces him. The son was no longer worthy of the father's love, but the father
loved him anyway. If anything, his love grew while he had gone astray and he
lavished generous gifts on his wayward son when he returned, the best robe, the
ring, and the fatted calf.
While Scripture is heavy with shame it is even more so
bright with glory!
The Bible also tells us that "God demonstrated his love
toward us, in that, while were yet sinners, Christ died for us." (Romans
5:8) We were in open rebellion against God, actively fighting and opposing him,
and Jesus Christ still descended from heaven in order to pour out his life's
blood to pay the price for our sins so that we could be reconciled to God. He
loves us dearly, even with all our blemishes, stains and faults. It is our
brokenness that moves his heart to bring us healing and wholeness. With
overwhelming grace, he wins our hearts and transforms us from enemies into
beloved sons and daughters.
We most certainly are unworthy of God's great love, but he
still finds something worthy in us. We can never deserve Christ's great
sacrifice for us, but he still lavishes us with all the riches in glory. We
were sinners, but God changes us into saints. We were corrupt, but through the
blood of Christ we are made pure.
He freely blesses us with eternal life, he fills us with his
Holy Spirit and gives us peace, love and joy. He liberates us from every sin
and addiction, he gives us power to walk in truth and righteousness. He makes
us into sons and daughters, joint-heirs with Christ. We are forever unified
with Christ, and nothing can separate us from his love. All this we cannot
merit on our own, but Jesus Christ, out of an overabundance of love and grace,
freely pours it out on us.
The power of shame is broken when we come to believe that no
matter how sinful we are, no matter how corrupt and unclean, we are accepted
and beloved. God has no greater delight than to know us and to be known by us. Jesus
Christ died for the opportunity. He wants to bring us into paradise, see us
robed in righteousness, crowned with glory and honor and abide with him for
ever and ever.
After Adam and Eve had eaten of the Forbidden Fruit, they
heard the voice of God walking in the Garden. They saw their sin and nakedness
in the light of his holiness, and they felt shame for the first time. They had
a choice in that moment, to either turn to God, repent, and restore that
relationship, or turn away. They decided to turn away and hide behind bushes
and fig leaves. They allowed that shame to push them into hiding, to turn away
from God.
We have the same choice when we experience shame. We can
respond like the Prodigal Son, repent and return to the loving arms of our
Heavenly Father. Or we can respond like Adam and Eve and try to hide from God
and cover our shame, and pretend like it doesn't exist, or it isn't really a
problem.
If we repent and turn to God, he will accept us, embrace us
and fill us with his love. In the arms of our Heavenly Father our shame
dissolves into glory.
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*Rembrandt's final word is given in his monumental painting of the Return of the Prodigal Son. Here he interprets the Christian idea of mercy with an extraordinary solemnity, as though this were his spiritual testament to the world. It goes beyond the works of all other Baroque artists in the evocation of religious mood and human sympathy. The aged artist's power of realism is not diminished, but increased by psychological insight and spiritual awareness. Expressive lighting and colouring and the magic suggestiveness of his technique, together with a selective simplicity of setting, help us to feel the full impact of the event.
The main group of the father and the Prodigal Son stands out in light against an enormous dark surface. Particularly vivid are the ragged garment of the son, and the old man's sleeves, which are ochre tinged with golden olive; the ochre colour combined with an intense scarlet red in the father's cloak forms an unforgettable colouristic harmony. The observer is roused to a feeling of some extraordinary event. The son, ruined and repellent, with his bald head and the appearance of an outcast, returns to his father's house after long wanderings and many vicissitudes. He has wasted his heritage in foreign lands and has sunk to the condition of a swineherd. His old father, dressed in rich garments, as are the assistant figures, has hurried to meet him before the door and receives the long-lost son with the utmost fatherly love.
The occurrence is devoid of any momentary violent emotion, but is raised to a solemn calm that lends to the figures some of the qualities of statues and gives the emotions of a lasting character, no longer subject to the changes of time. Unforgettable is the image of the repentant sinner leaning against his father's breast and the old father bending over his son. The father's features tell of a goodness sublime and august; so do his outstretched hands, not free from the stiffness of old age. The whole represents a symbol of all homecoming, of the darkness of human existence illuminated by tenderness, of weary and sinful mankind taking refuge in the shelter of God's mercy.
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