Jesus spoke of those who would be ashamed of Him (cf. Mk.8:38). Why would we be ashamed of Him? Why are people ashamed of others? Sometimes it’s lowly circumstances. When I was a lad my dad drove an old ’39 Chev and from my perspective I thought it was great, but a sister of mine would bob down when we passed people as she didn’t like being seen in it. It can be ‘looks’. I remember a schoolfriend who was ashamed of his parents because they were ‘old’ (he was a change-of-life baby). Parents have kept children hidden from view because of some deformity.
I read of a man who was falsely charged and convicted of a crime and sent to prison. Knowing he was innocent, his wife worked at poor-paying jobs, sometimes two or three at a time, to get enough money to hire a high-flying barrister who eventually won an appeal and her husband was released. But the years of toil had taken their toll on her looks and her health and the husband was ashamed of her. He left her for another, younger, woman!
Behaviour can cause shame. Parents can be ashamed of the black sheep of the family. But why would you be ashamed of Jesus? It is true there was a lowliness in His circumstances (cf. John 1:46; 7:15). It is perhaps true that His looks were not striking (cf. Isa. 53:14; 53:2), but can you be ashamed of His behaviour? He never sinned. Thomas Chubb was an English deist – that is, he believed in God but did not believe in a revelation from God. Yet of Christ he said In Christ we have an example of a quiet and peaceable spirit; of a becoming modesty and sobriety; just, honest, upright, sincere; and above all, of a most gracious and benevolent temper and behaviour. One who did no wrong, no injury to any man; in whose mouth was no guile; who went about doing good… The Jewish philosopher Spinoza said that Christ was the temple of God, because in Him God has most fully revealed Himself. Thomas Carlyle wrote that He is our divinest symbol. Higher has the human thought not yet reached…. Napolean said I know men and I tell you that Jesus Christ is not a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between Christ and the founders of empires and the gods of other religions. That resemblance does not exist. There is between Christianity and whatever other religions the distance of infinity. You speak of Caesar, of Alexander, of their conquests, and of the enthusiasm which they enkindled in the hearts of their soldiers; but can you conceive of a dead man making requests, with an army faithful, entirely devoted to his memory? My armies have forgotten me even while living, as the Carthaginian army forgot Hannibal. Such is our power! A single battle lost crushes us, and adversity scatters our friends. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and myself founded empires. But on what did we rest the creations of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ alone founded his empire upon love; and, at this hour, millions would die for him.
One’s own problems can cause shame. There were those in the time of Christ who believed in Him but were too ashamed to acknowledge Him because of their love of the acceptance of others (cf. John 5:44; 12:42). Are we dishonest with the truth? Do we obey what truth we know? The road to the knowledge of the truth is sometimes long. How do we walk it? An unbeliever ought to walk by the truth he sees. If he sees but one aspect of truth he ought to walk by that. If he is not serious enough about truth to act on that one principle he does know, then it shows he does not have the right mind-set – an honest mind (John 3:19-21).
Others are ashamed of the words of Jesus. You cannot separate Jesus from His words – He and His words belong together, and if He didn’t come talking what would we have in Jesus? (John 6:63; Matt.7:24-27) How many acknowledge Jesus as a major figure in the world’s history, but do not obey His words? Even a fool is counted wise if he keeps his mouth shut, and opening the mouth can result in one putting his foot in it. Jesus wasn’t silent and He opened His mouth but there is no doctrine that we ought to be ashamed of, and no teaching of His that a preacher ought to be ashamed to preach on (Rom. 1:16).
Why would we be ashamed of his words.? It might be because they are out of step with current philosophical and cultural values. The words of Jesus seem so remote, decidedly ‘old fashioned’ and fit for earlier times, not now. The words of Jesus seem so hard and fast and even condemnatory, when modern man wants “smooth things” as did the ancient Israelites. But H.G. Wells, one of the most prominent atheists of the 20th century, was fascinated with the teacher from Nazareth. He said A historian like myself finds the picture centering irresistibly around the life and character of this simple, lovable man…the permanent place of power which he occupies is His by virtue of the new and simple and profound doctrine which he brought – the universal loving Fatherhood of God and the coming Kingdom of Heaven. It is one of the most revolutionary doctrines that has ever stirred and changed human thought…..The world began to be a different world from the day that doctrine was preached. Jean Jacque Rousseau, one of the influential writers of the 18th century, was not a believer in the inspiration of the Bible or the divinity of Christ and yet he said, I confess to you that the majesty of the scriptures strikes me with admiration, as the purity of the gospel has its influence on my heart. Peruse the works of our philosophers, with all their pomp of diction: how mean, how contemptible are they, compared with the Scripture! Is it possible that a book, at once so simple and sublime, should be merely the work of man? Is it possible that the sacred personage, whose history it contains, should be Himself a mere man? Do we find that he assumed the tone of an enthusiast or ambitious sectary? What sweetness, what purity in his manners! What an affecting gracefulness in his delivery! What sublimity in his maxims! What profound discourses in his discourses! What presence of mind in his replies! How great the command over his passions! Where is the man, where the philosopher, who could so live and so die, without weakness, and without ostentation? ……….. George Bernard Shaw was definitely not a Christian, yet he said, Though we crucified Jesus on a stick, he somehow managed to get hold of the right end of it…..if we were better men we might try his plan…..I am no more a Christian than Pilate was…and yet….I see no way out of the world’s misery but the way which would have been founded by Christ’s will……
How does shame manifest itself? A popular way is the shrinking from open discipleship. Why be ashamed of the only One who can save us? On the day He returns men will be ashamed of the shame they had of Christ in life. Shame is manifested in modifying the gospel to make it more palatable. Someone said, There would be no one so unwelcome to come and reside in this world as our Saviour, while the world is in the state it is in now. Jesus talks about dying to self – how unwelcome is that!?
We started of in Mark 8:38. Note the context in v.37 – what will a man give in exchange for his soul? Will he come before the Lord on that day with all his worldly possessions? No. Will he come before the Lord with thousands of rams and rivers of oil? No. Will he ever come before the Lord having gained the entire world? Some have tried, but nobody has ever attained it – it is impossible. Alexander the Great conquered the then known world as far as India where his troops began to murmur. He built boats and sailed down the Indus River where he saw the Indian Ocean with tears in his eyes, for there he reflected that his victories were over and there were no more worlds to conquer. But look at a map and you see he conquered very little of the world. Napolean conquered Italy, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal. He wanted Russia and England, believed they would be his eventually, and set his sights on India. But the tide turned against him and he failed in Spain, retreated from Russia, defeated at Leipzig, and then there was Waterloo. No man has ever gained the world. But suppose he did. How long would he have it? One man was planning to build greater barns but he was told, Tonight your soul is required of you, so whose will these things be? And if we could gain the whole world how could we ever enjoy it? Where would we store it all that it might be safe and not stolen from us when our back was turned? How could we eat off more than one fork or spoon at a time? How could we sleep in more than one bed at a time? How could we drive in more than one car at a time? As Jesus said, What would it profit us? A man’s life does not consist in the abundance of things he possesses.
What will avail anything on that day? Only the life given in service to Jesus. The life is bought at the expense of the life. Once a life is forfeited, it is forfeited forever – there is no possibility of returning to reclaim it. in Heb. 12:23 the church is described as the church of the firstborn ones. The firstborn belong to the Lord, and under Moses’ law an offering was made for them (Ex. 13:2,15; 22:29 Num. 3:12,13 Luke 2:22-24). This sprang out of the events when the death of the firstborn in Egypt saved Israel and the death of God’s firstborn saves us.
To be ashamed of Jesus in the midst of an evil generation is one thing, but to have Him ashamed of me in the presence of the Father and the holy angels is another thing entirely. Those that are ashamed of Christ in this world where He is despised, will be ashamed of in that world where he is eternally adored. If we are not prepared to share in His disgrace now, we will not share with Him in glory then.
I want a Saviour who will own me before the Father, so I must own Him before the world. Many want to run with the pack, feel safe with the crowd, and conform to the world. Sad. He that trusts in Him shall not be ashamed.