Christ the Shame Bearer

Being very new to the idea of doing theology by blogging, I have been spending some time thinking about the best way to organise things. I caught myself still in book mode; I was laying the foundations for an argument and therefore produced a blog on the use of anthropological models in biblical studies which just would not work. It was too long for a blog and got far too technical. So, moving away from book mode, I've decided to start at the end and work out where I want to go after that. One of my big questions in all this is: can we talk about Christ the shame bearer? There was a point where I thought I had come up with this idea but, of course, I then found it being used by others; but do we really have the foundation to use this as an image of salvation? Arguments against first and then a few for.

There is a danger that we will impose 21 century concerns onto ancient texts. We are fascinated by psychology and must not read that into the concerns of the biblical writers. Stephen Pattison has pointed out that one of the biggest problems with talking about Jesus bearing shame is that we do not have access to his inner thoughts; the gospel writers make no attempt to tell us how he felt about anything. There is also the issue of 'so what'. Even if we can show that Jesus experienced shame, how does that help the person struggling with shame today?

This is where I do think the anthropological models might help us. For what does seem clear is that Jesus was brought up in a culture which taught him that he could only respect himself if others respected him first. The group oriented person internalises the attitude and regard of others. He then died in a manner designed to inflict the maximum possible humiliation; the Romans built shame into crucifixion by ensuring that it involved nakedness, mocking and public exposure. I suspect it is also significant that one of the great concerns of the biblical texts is whether the disciple will be ashamed of Jesus. And I think that we can also see that Jesus was gentle and gracious with shamed people.

And all of this matters because it does seem to me to be a powerful thing for the shamed person to know that Jesus is in the place of shame with them. It is easy, when struggling with a profound sense of deficiency in yourself, to project your self contempt onto God. Shame is a profoundly lonely experience which can teach people to dread the presence of God (God will just see straight through me and highlight everything that is wrong). But if God has lived through shame, shared our vulnerability then maybe shame itself can be redeemed.