²[Fix] our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

The more we learn about the price Jesus paid for our salvation, the better we understand and appreciate His love for us. This knowledge leads us into deeper worship and helps us to respond to what the apostle Paul prayed for:

…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. (Eph. 3:17–19)

The His love can be seen in how He endured shame on the cross. Few of us, if any, would readily embrace the experience of shame; even Jesus hated the thought of it—our text says He “despised” it. On the one hand, the term “shame” in Greek carries a surface meaning related to lack of modesty. Jesus was about to be crucified utterly naked, as was customary in such Roman executions. Depraved human minds designed this kind of death to be a public spectacle in every way imaginable. Jesus was paraded through the crowded streets and executed in a very public place, on the side of a well-traveled, major roadway. Today, a bus station operates in a commercially busy area of Jerusalem, at the base of the very hill where Jesus was crucified two millennia ago. So also, Jesus was barbarously murdered in a high-visibility for maximum exposure.

The Romans customarily crucified criminals and insurrectionists who rebelled against their authority. They would force the victims into submission in their final energy of life by the humiliation of carrying the instrument of their execution, the cross, to the place of death. Yes, the cross represented shame, and Jesus despised it.

The shame expands to include dishonor; the crowds mocked Jesus on the cross (Matt. 27:39-44). The prophet Isaiah put it this way:

 He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. (Isa. 53:3)

Further, and most importantly, He despised the shame that sin brings. We have a phrase today, “being caught with your hand in the cookie jar,” to convey the feeling of shame when our sin is patently obvious. There is no hiding it, our guilt is exposed. Jesus, too, felt the shame of guilt, but not for His own sin, for He did not sin. Rather, He experienced the shame of the entirety of humanity. He took it all on Himself, in our place, in our stead.

Why did Jesus do it? The answer is that He saw through the cross experience and into eternity. In the end, He would be victorious and once again be seated at His Father’s right hand, as our passage says. Interestingly, some translations use the term “scorn” instead of “despised.” Both capture the same idea and are active responses to His crucifixion. Jesus did not passively accept the cross and the shame it represented; He scorned it, He despised it. But, that shame would not deter Him, so great was the joy that motivated Him.

Lord, I am overjoyed that the shame of my sin did not deter You. You are an amazing Savior to willingly and joyfully embrace the cross for my sake. I worship You!