- Now after this Nahash the king of the Ammonites died, and his son reigned in his place. 2 And David said, “I will deal kindly with Hanun the son of Nahash, for his father dealt kindly with me.” So David sent messengers to console him concerning his father. And David’s servants came to the land of the Ammonites to Hanun to console him. 3 But the princes of the Ammonites said to Hanun, “Do you think, because David has sent comforters to you, that he is honoring your father? Have not his servants come to you to search and to overthrow and to spy out the land?” 4 So Hanun took David’s servants and shaved them and cut off their garments in the middle, at their hips, and sent them away; 5 and they departed. When David was told concerning the men, he sent messengers to meet them, for the men were greatly ashamed. And the king said, “Remain at Jericho until your beards have grown and then return” (1 Chron. 19:1-5)
King Hanun of the Ammonites sent a humiliating shot at King David by disgracing his men. He cut their tunics in half and shaved their beards. They were sent home naked and beardless. The idea illustrated for us so vividly here is that of nakedness and shame.
What do you know of shame? What do you know of humiliation? What do you know of disgrace? What do you know of being exposed? How do you deal with such shame and humiliation and nakedness? These men waited it out in Jericho. Maybe you wait it out in your house.
We deal with our shame in all sorts of ways. We try to remove it by catharsis. My psychology of abnormal behavior textbook says that the majority of men who become child molesters and domestic abusers were once abused themselves. They remove their shame by inflicting shame on others. If they can shame others, then theirs doesn’t seem quite as profound. If everyone has shame, then no one has shame. That’s the idea.
Different folks, who aren’t quite so heinous, go watch a nice romping horror movie. The blood flows, the bodies hit the floor, and they walk out of the movie theater without a scratch. Catharsis accomplished.
Others pile shame on shame so that the first shame doesn’t look so big. Call it the Miley complex. If you can take control of shameful acts and call them publicity, then what is there really to be ashamed of. Just make it a point that your next move will be your worst. People will forget about the past and just wonder what’s coming next.
Others just put lipstick on the pig that is their life. If you can make a nice living, live in a nice home, wear nice clothes, send your kids to nice schools. If you can perhaps do a few things right, then those bad things won’t seem so bad in comparison. But it actually just makes them stand out all the more. We all end up naked at the end of the day. Even if we hide in the dark.
That old saint Job said we’re born naked and we leave the world naked. Speaking of being born naked…
Hundreds of years after the incident of David’s messengers and the King of the Ammonites, a child was born in Bethlehem. God Almighty decided to reveal himself that day – as a naked baby. He was born, like all babies, naked and beardless. But he grew, and so did his beard. Until one day someone decided to pluck it out:
- I gave my back to those who strike, and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard; I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting (Isaiah 50:6).
He had no shame. He was sinless. He had nothing to hide. But shame was heaped up on him from the outside, and he chose not to hide from it. He exposed himself to the scoffing, to the spitting, to the beard-plucking.
- Bearing shame and scoffing rude, in my place condemned he stood.
When Jesus Christ went to the cross, two soldiers played a card game to decide who would get his garment. They weren’t going to cut in half like the Ammonites of old. They were going to take the whole thing. And so, he hung on that cross naked.
- Sealed my pardon with his blood. Hallelujah! What a Savior.
What do you do with shame? Take it down that road from Bethlehem to Calvary. And ultimately to the empty tomb. Only there will you ever find real catharsis – by atonement. He died that shameful death that our shame might be dealt with.
Shame is real. I feel it. You feel it. God felt it on Calvary. He took, he takes, our shame so seriously that the cross happened. And you think he doesn’t care? Take it to him, lay it on him, it’s already been laid on him. He takes shamed and exposed men and women and he covers them up in his righteousness and love.Find in him one who bears it for you, that you might find forgiveness, relief, and release.
