One common element in both forms of execution is public
humiliation. The condemned person not only pays the ultimate price for his
crimes, but is demeaned and shamed in the process.
Not all shame includes death, of course, but all shame is
terribly diminishing. Some people say that guilt is feeling bad about something
you did, but shame is feeling bad about who you are. Not just “I’ve done bad
things,” but “I am a bad person.”
In colonial times people convicted of adultery had to wear the
“scarlet letter.” Or they might be sentenced to time in the stocks for having
stolen. Even today public shame may be part of a judicial sentence. I saw
a picture of a man outside a Walmart store, wearing a sign: “I am a thief. I
stole from Walmart.”
In the Old Testament, people hoped and
prayed that they would make it through life without being put to shame, the
ultimate failure.
- O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. (Ps. 25:2)
- O LORD, let me not be put to shame, for I call upon you; let the wicked be put to shame; let them go silently to Sheol. (Ps. 31:17)
- In you, O LORD, do I take refuge; let me never be put to shame! (Ps. 71:1)
I started thinking about shame because of our
Savior’s endurance on the cross: who for the joy that
was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame (Hebrews 12:2).
So why was there shame for Christ? His enemies, a malevolent
coalition of government and religion, cheated and lied and won—or so it seemed.
He was stripped naked, beaten nearly to death, and treated as human garbage
before His family and friends.
But the shame of the cross was more than that. He became sin
who knew no sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). In some way we cannot fully fathom, Jesus became sin to the Father. The moral filth of
all the redeemed was heaped upon Christ and judged to be His.
Imagine a day when people’s worst faults, darkest
obsessions, ugliest fantasies, wickedest choices, foulest sins, and nastiest
secrets will be laid bare for everyone to see. Every rationalization and
pretense and explanation will be swept aside, and the naked, guilty, terrible,
unalterable, tragic truth will be revealed. In that day people will be ashamed,
publicly and eternally.
But that shame will not be borne by any who belong to Jesus. He already
carried it for us.
For the Scripture says, “Everyone who
believes in him will not be put to shame.” Romans 10:11
