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During his earthly ministry the enemies of Jesus were continually trying to shame him. Though he was totally innocent of any sin, they were always accusing him of some sin or another. The Bible says that in that day anyone who was hung from a cross was cursed. It was the worst disgrace that the enemies of Jesus could come up with to try to shame him.
Yet, listen to this truth from Hebrews 12:2b: For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
He endured the cross because that was the only way to pay for our sins. But he scorned the shame. Do you know what scorn means? It means to feel or express contempt or derision for something. Jesus had contempt for shame—he refused to take it on. The cross was considered an instrument of shame, true, but Jesus scorned that shame. He endured the suffering of the cross but refused the shame. His cross was not a cross of shame, it was a cross of redemption, of salvation.
What do we often do? We run from the suffering, whatever that may be, trying to avoid any kind of pain, but we take on the shame, embracing it as though it were truth. Shame is always a lie, because shame attacks who we are. No matter what we’ve done, regardless of what is in our past, it does not change our value as people created and loved by God. Shame is a lie that says we have little or no worth, so we should always reject it, no matter how it feels, because it is not truth.
Jesus scorned shame and we should too. Your shame is rooted in something that you did or something that was done to you or in some lies about yourself that you have believed. It is helpful if you can find that place where shame began to accumulate in your life and then ask Jesus to heal that wound. Then the battle is in your mind—you must learn to reject the thoughts of shame, replace them with the truth of God’s Word, and learn to live in the freedom that Jesus offers you.