Ashamed

On entering a new section of the words of Jesus, the Challenger Deep, there are new challenges to understanding the deep mind of Christ. (The text is Matt.16:27-28; Mark 8:38-9:1; Luke 9:26-27.) We will get into some of these in future blogs, but today, I want to address Mark and Luke's introductory statements about being ashamed of Jesus and His words.

The word ashamed comes from two words meaning to disfigure or dishonor, and upon. So literally it would mean to to put a disfiguring face upon Jesus and His words. The word is used in several similar contexts. In Romans 1:16 Paul says he is not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for salvation. Why would one want to display the gospel as something disfigured when it is the means by which we are saved? The opposite view is found in Romans 6:21 when Paul talks of the things we used to do when unsaved that we are now ashamed of, and in which there was no benefit. (Remember Jesus has just talked about the benefit of exchanging our soul for the world.) Paul tells Timothy not to be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord nor of Paul the gospel's prisoner (2 Tim.1:8). When someone is imprisoned for the gospel it appears that the world is stronger and more beautiful than what comes with the gospel. Another twist is given in Hebrews 2:11 when we are assured that Jesus is not ashamed to call us brothers. In other words he doesn't mind being seen with disfigured people who He has made holy. Along with this, God is not ashamed to be called the God of the faithful (Heb.11:16). Now let's add another bit of information to this thought process. Mark adds the context of being unashamed of Jesus, i.e. in this adulterous and sinful generation. The word adulterous means to be unfaithful, diluted, or corrupted, i.e. disfigured. The word sinful means to miss the mark.

So we live in a disfigured world filled with what one author calls beautiful evil, and we are confronted by true beauty, Jesus and His words. But, we are so accustomed to seeing the so-called beauty of the world that Jesus looks plain and ugly to us. He is not attractive. His image was marred or disfigured beyond human recognition (Isa.52:14; 53:2,3). Most actually hide their faces from the most beautiful person whoever lived, and stare daily into the face of sheer ugliness. How warped we are turning good to evil, and evil to good. But, what did Jesus do with the shame heaped on Him by a jealous, ugly world (Sound like the Cinderella story)? Heb.12:1-2 He despised the shame sitting down at the right hand of God where He was glorified and declare King of kings. Paul understood this and exalted the beautiful crucified Christ in his body (2 Cor.10:8; Phil.1:20). Peter urged that our suffering as a Christian, which is being disfigured by the world just as Christ was disfigured on the cross, is nothing to be ashamed of but an opportunity to glorify God. John adds that the one who abides in Christ will not shrink from Him in shame when He returns but will recognize the beauty of Jesus (1 John 2:28).

Isn't it the way of the world to want to be surrounded by cool, beautiful people, like us? We tend not to want to spend much time with the uncool, those we don't have much in common with, those who don't appear to be "with it." When we step into the company of Jesus by accepting His challenge to come follow Him, we are made to be in company with all the other very uncool people who would follow the most uncool person in history, Jesus. And, what of His words. Not cool today. They are too true, too restrictive, too against the culture. Believe it or not they even say marriage is between a man and woman. How less cool can you get, and many Christians are turning their heads in shame to be associated with such words and with such a Jesus! So what do we do? Either get over it and recognize the truly beautiful from what is truly ugly, or give Jesus a make-over, recreated in our beautiful image, so we do not have to be ashamed of calling ourselves Christians.