THINK TOGETHER.
Have you ever felt humiliated?
READ TOGETHER.
Matthew 27:27-31. 27Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor’s headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before him. 28And they stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head and put a reed in his right hand. And kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 30And they spit on him and took the reed and struck him on the head. 31And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes on him and led him away to crucify him.
Do you know what it means to be humiliated? To be humiliated is to be mad fun of, to be mocked, to be belittled. You have probably been humiliated by someone, or you have humiliated someone (maybe a sibling or a classmate).
On the night that Jesus was crucified, they didn’t just hurt him physically, they humiliated him in front of everyone. They dressed him up like a king, not because they believed he was one, but because they were making fun of the fact that Jesus had said that he was the King of the Jews. Matthew says that the Roman soldiers stripped Jesus and put a scarlet robe on him. They gave him a crown made out of thorns and mocked him. They spit on him and punched him.
All of this was done to make Jesus feel ashamed. It was meant to embarrass him and make him look silly and stupid to everyone. This is called shame. Shame happens when we feel like we are not worth anything, or that we are not good enough or unloved. What the Roman soldiers did to Jesus was meant to make him feel the worst kind of shame.
The New Testament book of Hebrews says this about Jesus’ crucifixion:
Hebrews 12:2. [We look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus went to the cross shamefully, but he didn’t have to. Jesus could have avoided arrest. He could have walked away from the soldiers. He could have called 10,000 angels to come down and destroy those soldiers that night. But he didn’t. Instead he despised the shame. How? Because of the joy set before him. That joy was us. You and me. Jesus was humiliated, mocked, spit on, punched, and worse, all for us. All for the joy of being able to save us and be with us forever.
When you feel ashamed, never forget that Jesus took all our shame and humiliation with him on to the cross. He despised it, and turned it all into the joy of being with him instead.
Because of Jesus all our shame is covered by the cross.
With Jesus we never have to feel ashamed for who we are because we are his joy.
DO SOMETHING TOGETHER
Draw a picture of a time you felt embarrasses or ashamed. What did you do that caused you to feel this way? How is what we DO different from who we ARE? Who does Jesus say we are?
PRAY TOGETHER
Father, through Jesus you have taken away all my shame and humiliation. Fill me with you joy! Amen.
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