“Running this race is not glorious. It doesn’t result in honors and accolades when one is done. Instead, everyone is screaming the whole time ‘You’re going the wrong way!’ and ‘You’re wasting your life!’ And this is all true. From the eyes of the unbelievers. And this is why for the Christian it is not enough to practice. Not enough to become excellent. Not enough to endure. One must disregard shame, just as Jesus did. And in so doing find the ‘joy’ set before us.”
– Dr. Brian Gamel
“… who for the sake of the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame…” (Hebrews 12:2).
I am pondering Holy Week, especially Good Friday and the Resurrection. I am thinking about the cross and its implication to my life and perhaps yours.
Athlete or not, those of faith are in an endurance race that sometimes, often perhaps, gets hard. And the world seems to get all excited to make our race more and more difficult. The world tries to shame us.
So, how did Jesus endure the cross and the shame associated with it? Can the answer give us encouragement in our own faith race? 100%!
I like Dr. Brian Gamel’s treatment of the cross and shame so much that I simply wish to share his full notes on this topic with us. May this read and the resulting encouragement be fuel for our faith race!
So, we begin. Take it away, Doc Gamel!
The author of Hebrews tells us that we are to keep our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith. There are several things immediately revealing about this instruction:
The author uses the simple name “Jesus” highlighting the human from Nazareth. Jesus is a model because Jesus was human, was like us. He ran the same race as we do. And this brings us to our next point.
Jesus is called the pioneer of our faith; he goes before us, scopes out the path, prepares it for us. He is not just someone who has gone before us, he is the one who has mapped out the course in its entirety.
Thus, Jesus is also the perfecter of our faith. This word means something likes someone who fulfills in every way possible, as though one were filling up a bottle to the very top with no water at all left. Jesus has not only run before us, and not only the one who was run first before all others, but he has run as completely and fully as possible.
If all that we added to the previous section was that Jesus was a prior, first, best runner we still would not have added much to the generic image of the runner in Stoic terms, except that now our moral transformation is linked with Jesus specifically. However, it is precisely because it is linked specifically with Jesus that the imagery is used in new ways.
Earlier we looked at some imagery used by Christians who attempting to explicate the meaning of Hebrews 12. Most of those images included only verse 1 or perhaps a part of verse 2. To be fair it is hard to include too much text over an image before it becomes unreadable. But the central aspect of this passage comes right after that. It’s not just that Jesus is the one who runs before us as pioneer or the one who runs completely as perfecter. It is the way that Jesus runs that matters. How does Jesus run his race?
“… who for the sake of the joy set before him endured the cross, despising its shame…” (Hebrews 12:2).
In order to understand this language, we need to discuss two facets of the ancient world that are somewhat alien to us.
First, the society of ancient Rome was what anthropologists call an honor/shame culture. In this type of culture one’s worth is linked to one’s status as seen by others. You have value and social significance because other people esteem you. If you violate the norms of society then you lose your personal value and worth.[1] Today we(in the West) don’t live in an honor/shame culture. We live in a dignity culture. This is why we have sayings like “sticks and stones may break my bones but words shall never harm me.” This derives from a sense that even though words may hurt, my sense of myself is not dependent on others. I have worth – dignity – even if others won’t ascribe it to me. In an honor/shame culture, the words of others (or at least some significant others) is what gives me worth and grounds me.
Secondly, in light of this, we need to understand that the crucifixion of Jesus was played out in this honor/shame setting. If you read the Gospels carefully you will notice that they do not mention very much at all about the physical suffering of Jesus. Take the Gospel of Mark for example. The only references to the torture of Jesus are in passing. In 15:15, as an aside, it says that “after flogging Jesus, [Pilate] handed him over to be crucified.” And in 15:24 it simply says, “And they crucified him…”. This phrase isn’t even the main part of the sentence, which is mostly devoted to how the soldiers divide his clothes.[2]
Instead, the Gospels focus on the shaming of Jesus. Again, let us look at Mark. The soldiers dress Jesus up in purple and put a crown of thorns on his head. But the mention of the crown isn’t to highlight his torment but his mockery: “‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ They struck his head with a reed, spat on him, and knelt down in homage to him. After mocking him, they stripped him…” (15:18-19). His clothes are divided by dice (15:24), he is mocked by a sign as being a king (15:25), passersby “derided him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days…” (15:29), his religious enemies mock him, urging him to reveal his true power and save himself (15:31), and when Jesus finally laments his isolation the soldiers mock his cry as a call for Elijah to come save him (15:35). Even those crucified with Jesus – even the other condemned men – “taunted him” (15:32).
This was the point of crucifixion. It hurt. A lot. It was torture. It’s where we get the word“ excruciating” from to describe an awful pain. But the main purpose of crucifixion was to mock, humiliate, and shame people. To render them without any status or honor at all. In our culture being sexually assaulted is one of the worst offenses we consider a person may commit against another. For the ancients it was crucifixion. It was so awful that we know so little about it because respectable, educated Romans wouldn’t write about it. It was too shameful even to talk about. Being crucified is what happened to no bodies. Like slaves.[3]
And here is where the author of Hebrews adds innovation to the idea of a race. Training for a run is noble. Exercising, preparing, practicing – these are the hallmarks of an athlete. Being an athlete is an honorable activity. But the Christian is to keep her eyes on Jesus, who “despised” the shame of the cross. “Disregarded” it some translations read. The actual wording of Hebrews literally means “look away to” Jesus, away from everything else and only on him. And when we do that what do we find? We find Jesus enduring shame and humiliation. Being spit on. Mocked. Abused. Taunted. Made nothing in front of everyone and anyone. To run this race is to, like Jesus, endure shame. To accept the dishonor that others attach to you.
The author admonishes his readers to “consider him who endured such hostility against himself from sinners, so that you may not grow weary or lose heart” (12:3). They are tempted. Tempted to return back to their former way of life. Tempted to succumb to the shaming and seek their significance and value again in how their friends see them. Their families. Their peers. They are to see their humiliation at the hands of others like Jesus saw his: as a token of honor in the eyes of God, whose estimation alone matters.
Running this race is not glorious. It doesn’t result in honors and accolades when one is done. Instead, everyone is screaming the whole time “You’re going the wrong way!” and “You’re wasting your life!” And this is all true. From the eyes of the unbelievers. And this is why for the Christian it is not enough to practice. Not enough to become excellent. Not enough to endure. One must disregard shame, just as Jesus did. And in so doing find the “joy” set before us.
Dr. Brian Gamel. Professor of New Testament at Baylor University. Contributor to the Faith Sports Institute at Baylor University. Note: There are theological positions that Dr. Gamel holds that I counter. But I lean in or run with him on his treatment of this topic.
[1] For a modern example of this see this short reflection. http://honorshame.com/the-5-unwritten-rules-of-honor-shame-cultures/
[2] When Christians search their Bibles for examples of the tortures of Jesus, they are often surprised to find so few details. Movies like “The Passion of the Christ” are replete with examples of those horrors, but those are drawn from the later Stations of the Cross reflection on the passion rather than the Scriptures themselves. In fact, some of the most iconic images we have, like driving nails into the hands of Jesus, are nowhere mentioned in the New Testament at all.(https://www.thegregorian.org/2012/passion-of-the-christ-stations-of-the-cross)
Compare this with the very detailed language used in 4 Maccabees to describe the torture of the seven brothers before the king Antiochus. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=4%20Maccabees%209&version=NRSVUE
[3] This is why Paul writes that Jesus “emptied himself, taking the form of a slave… and became obedient to death – even death on a cross” (Phil 2:7-8). The connection between slavery and crucifixion is clear here as well.