Sermon Tone Analysis

How many of you could tell a story about a time when you were seriously embarressed or ashamed?

waiting tables and spilling a drink on someone

waiting tables and spilling a drink on someone

Piano recital

There are the experiences like this when you do something that makes you feel embarrassed… then there are times when someone else does something that makes you feel ashamed.

Kids acting out in public

bring a friend to a social gathering and he or she offends everyone there.

Shame is that feeling associated with (but not limited to) failure, public exposure, disgrace, embarrassment, social rejection, ridicule, and dishonor.

SHAME Feelings associated with (but not limited to) failure, public exposure, disgrace, embarrassment, social rejection, ridicule, and dishonor.

Shame is such a powerful feeling that there are cultures that are considered, “shame based cultures”

In the world there are there different types of cultures: Guilt, Fear, Shame

There are different types of cultures

Shame is that feeling that someone is looking at you and sees you as somehow less than you should be.

Guilt Culture

In a guilt culture your social standing depends on your level of guilt or innocence.

These cultures are obsessed with justice, with keeping people in-check with standards of right and wrong.

From their earliest days children are taught to follow the rules and are told they will be innocent if they obey those rules or guilty if they disobey them.

Adults are kept in-check with endless lists of laws and, when offended, are quick to bring charges against other people in the hope that they will be found guilty.

Every person experiences the desire to avoid guilt and protect innocence.

As you can probably tell, we live in a guilt based culture - we respond to the ideas of right and wrong, guilty and innocent, just and unjust

When we talk about sharing the gospel it seems completely wrong if we don’t include the fact that we are guilty before a holy God.

And it comes from a guilt based society.

because you are guilty your punishment will be the justice of God pored out on you in hell

Unless you repent, believe in Jesus, and trust that he has taken your guilt upon himself and has given you his righteous standing, so you can be viewed as innocent.

This is the story of Barabbas

Fear Culture

In a fear culture your standing depends on your level of fear or power.

These cultures are usually tribal and animistic and they pressure you with the fear of consequences meted out by supernatural spirits.

After Mandee and I were first married we went with her family to Belize for three months to work on a movie.

my father-in-law is a media producer with Pioneers mission

And this was a project that had been praying toward and working on for almost a decade.

So in 2007 we packed and went to Belize to shoot this movie.

I was the boom mic operator.

and mandee was in charge of transportation

The movie is called The Enemy God and it the true story about a shaman from the yanomami tribe in Venezuela.

The movie captures well what a fear based culture is like

animistic, spirit worship, constantly living in fear of evil spirits.

The goal of a shaman is to get the most powerful spirits so that they could protect their people from the attacks of other shamans and evil spirits.

Shame Culture

In a shame culture your standing before other people depends on your level of shame or honor.

It’s like there is an imaginary scale that has shame on one side and honor on the other.

The things you do, the things you say, and the ways you behave can tip the scale in one direction or the other.

If you have been shamed, the way to recover your reputation is to do something that will restore your honor.

In shame based cultures, honor is more important than life itself

EXAMPLE

In 1989 in St. Louis, Missouri, sixteen-year-old Palestina (Tina) Isa was murdered by her Palestinian father with the aid of her mother.

Tina began to listen to American music such as dance, rap, R&B, and rock.

After learning that Tina had taken a part-time job without her parents' permission, and dated a non-Muslim man, her father felt she had become too modernized.

On the day of her murder, her father repeatedly stabbed Tina, while her mother held her down.

This was what is called honor killings - by killing his shameful daughter Tina’s father restored honor to himself and his family.

EXAMPLE

During World War II, many Western persons—many Americans had a hard time understanding why 18-year-old Japanese boys would fly kamikaze runs and dive-bomb planes into our aircraft carriers and destroy their lives.

Well, the reason is because honoring the motherland and the cause of the emperor was more important to them than life and death.

Honor and shame was more important than life and death.

We have a hard time grasping that, but it’s very clear that this document reflects that kind of belief in the importance of honor and avoiding shame, especially in avoiding shame.

During World War II, many Western persons—many Americans had a hard time understanding why 18-year-old Japanese boys would fly kamikaze runs and dive-bomb planes into our aircraft carriers and destroy their lives.

Well, the reason is because honoring the motherland and the cause of the emperor was more important to them than life and death.

Honor and shame was more important than life and death.

We have a hard time grasping that, but it’s very clear that this document reflects that kind of belief in the importance of honor and avoiding shame, especially in avoiding shame.

During World War II, many Western people—many Americans had a hard time understanding why 18-year-old Japanese boys would fly kamikaze runs and dive-bomb planes into our aircraft carriers and destroy their lives.

Well, the reason is because honoring the motherland and the cause of the emperor was more important to them than life and death.

Taking hold of honor, and avoiding shame is the greatest good, even over life itself.

The Shame of the Cross

In the west, we don’t understand shame in this way.

The easiest comparison we have is embarrassment.

It is such a subjective feeling that its often difficult to explain or quantify.

but we know it when we feel it.

Shame is that feeling when you show up to a dinner invitation way over or under dressed.

Shame is that feeling when your parents see your report card and you know your grades are not that good

Shame is that feeling when a check bounces, or your debit card is denied at the store because of insufficient funds.

Shame is that feeling when you present yourself as knowledgable in a particular area only to have your self-confidence smashed by someone else who knows far more than you.

Shame is when stories are told about your past that damage your reputation

Shame is when stories are told about your past that damage your reputation

Shame is when your social circles reject you

Shame is when when your honor is stripped away and you are now viewed with dishonor

Shame is being treated as if you are somehow less than human, that you have no dignity, that you have failed to live up to the standards of society.

Shame is: nakedness and exposure, isolation and being an outcast, contamination and self-disgust.

Yesterday morning I was talking to Jamie, Eric, and Kat about shame in our culture.

And we discussed how shame is something that we don’t want to experience, and when we do, we have figured out ways to not feel the its sting.

We comfort each other out of being ashamed

Our culture pushes the borders of shame back further and further.

We do everything we can not to feel, nor allow others to live with the sickly feelings of shame.

The bible recognizes and addresses all three of these cultures: guilt, fear, and shame.

The bible recognizes and addresses all three of these cultures: guilt, fear, and shame.

Western culture today is largely not an honor and shame culture, but in the hierarchy of ethical values in the ancient Near East and in the Jewish world, honor and shame were right at the top of the value hierarchy, as high up there as even ‘truth’ as opposed to ‘error’ was.

Ancient Near Eastern people would rather die than be publicly shamed, and indeed they were prepared to die for the honor of their kin group or their tribe or their people or their faith.

It’s an honor and shame culture.

And shame had a very prominent place in the Ancient Near East during the time of Jesus.

As we look at Marks account of the crucifixion, we will see that Mark does not back away from the shame of the cross.

The Shame of the Cross

He does not try and excuse it.

He does not try and soften it.

he does not try and justify it.

Rather, he explains it in great detail… So this is what we are going to focus on today.

The Shame of the Cross

There have been many great sermons preached on the this passage that will give you...

The pain-filled details of what Jesus endured

They will explain the physical tole of being beaten and crucified.

They will explain the realities of what crucifixion did to the body from a medical point of view

they will explain the historical aspects of crucifixion, from the size of the nails, to the crown of thorns and the weight of the cross.