15 Apr Feel the Shame?

Picture Pilate standing next to the bloodied, tattered body of our Lord before the crowd from The Passion of the Christ. Listen to his statement: “I am innocent of this man’s blood. “

I was sitting in this Good Friday service with no responsibility, no upcoming Easter message to present. My sole purpose was to experience the service like everyone else there. And I was. The Holy Spirit rushed Scripture upon Scripture to my mind. He was bruised for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities.

Suddenly, it came. Trickles, then torrents. I was once again immersed in an overwhelming sense of shame over my sin, the sin that put Jesus on that cross. And I wept.

Now the greatest shame of it all: many of us (dare I say most of us?) have not had such a moment since our surrender to Christ. Or at least not since those early days when our souls were so sensitive to spiritual truth and transformation that any sin we committed agonized us as if something hot approached sunburnt skin. We jerked away, wept., ran from it. And now?

I was blessed to feel the shame. I won’t stay there because Sunday’s coming. And my shame will all be taken away. Power will replace it. The power to run, be different, feel joy and peace. But today I was painfully reminded of sharing in the shame so that I can share in the living.

Do you feel the shame?