God's Honour for Our ShameSýnishorn

Have you ever felt shame?

Most of us have, although the feeling can be hard to describe. To some, it can be the feeling of being too much, not enough, broken or being wrong, or unclean.

We feel shame for our weaknesses, failures, and the secret things we can’t speak out loud. Shame can make us feel like we are rejected, disqualified, broken, or unworthy. This feeling is imposed on us by others, but also something we feel when we believe we just can’t fit in or have failed.

Rather than acknowledging that we have done a bad thing that could be forgiven, shame tells us we are bad. It can be difficult to know what to do with our shame!

A woman in the Bible shows us what shame looked like in her life (John 4:1-29). She walked to a well to draw water alone. She seemed distrustful and without hope.

As we read her story, we discover it is a story that Jesus already knew. Today, we might label a woman with five previous marriages, but in the first century Israel and Samaria, women couldn’t initiate divorce. She may have been partly at fault for where she was in life, but it’s just as likely that she faced rejection for things beyond her control. She may have been trafficked, traded, used, and abandoned. Her choices were limited, and she did what she could to survive. Not only this, but she was a woman, a Samaritan, maybe even childless—all sources of shame at that time.

She didn’t have a solution for these things. They were daily struggles, just like her daily thirst. But Jesus had something unlimited to offer her.

Jesus, who knew the secrets of her heart, chose to trust her with His secret.

He tells her that He is the Rescuer that her people have been waiting for. He has come to remove sin completely, even for her! She is the very first to hear of His true identity and has the double honour of taking this message to her people.

Why wouldn’t Jesus have chosen someone with power, popularity, and a picture-perfect life for such an important job? Because this is why Jesus came.

To give the shamed honour, the unloved a home, the forgotten a name, the discarded a purpose. To solve our sin problem but also our shame problem. That’s how powerful the work of Jesus is!

Read Romans 10:10-12 slowly. Do you see what it says? The rescue that Jesus offers us, which is ours through faith in Jesus, results in shame being shattered. We will explore this more in the coming days.

Pray and ask God to show you how shame affects the world and that you would understand the rescue Jesus offers.