Title: Those Who Shame Off of Egypt
Content □ Shame
We just watched a video about the British disabled female Allison rapper being called 'The Living Venus'. Allison Rapper was born with a deformity with no arms and short legs, but always looks bright and says "I'm happy with my life". But are you happy?
Even if you had the same disability as Allison Rapper, would you be able to say "I'm happy with my life" like Allison Rapper? Many people will probably say that they are not happy because of the shame of being disabled. Shame often overwhelms us and robs us of our happiness.
So what is shame?
Shame is a negative emotional state felt when the ego is damaged.
But, according to scholars, only humans feel shame. One of the things that distinguishes man from beasts is shame. Have you ever seen dogs and cats feel shame? Have you ever felt a pang of remorse after your dog ripped off your stockings because you were happy? Did your cat get up on the bed, pee on the futon, and feel ashamed? Occasionally I see a dog walking around with all its hair cut. But, they walk around without any shame. Imagine if a human would walk around naked. Who would think that he is a perfect man? Shame is an emotion that only humans can feel.
However, we sometimes see people who are sexually harassed and murdered, yet feel no shame at all. I see some really blatant people who don't feel shame at all in situations where they should be ashamed.
Seen this way, not all shame is bad. Some shames are beneficial to humans. So Marie Powers put it this way in her book Shame.
“Just shame and healthy shame become a ‘signal light to the soul’ for repenting of one’s mistakes and restoring relationships, but wrong shame becomes a ‘prison’ that destroys not only others but also relationships with oneself.”
That's right. While healthy shame makes us aware of our limitations and humbles us before God, harmful shame is a key factor in all kinds of mental illness, including obsessive compulsive disorder, perfectionism, inferiority complex, and personality disorder.
But have you ever felt shame in your life? Have you ever been humiliated by someone in your life? If you look at the Bible, there was an indescribable shame even for those who were held in God's hand and used preciously.
Not only that, but when King Saul was jealous of him and wanted to kill him, he crossed the border of faith and fled to the Philistines. Thinking it was the safest place, he fled to the Philistines, but the Philistine king's servants recognized him. When his identity is exposed, David begins to drool and go crazy in order to survive the desperate situation. However, the king is deceived by his madness and passes the hazard of death. But think about it. How shameful is it that David, who was even anointed as the future king of Israel, and David, who defeated the Philistine general Goliath, act mad in front of the king of an enemy country?
These two events were shameful events that I wanted to erase from David's life.
There was shame in the life of Abraham, the father of faith. If you believed the word of promise and entered the land of Canaan, you should have trusted God until the end, but when the famine struck, you went down to the south to solve the problem of living and eating. But Sarah is so pretty that people will kill her and take her, so she makes her call her sister instead of her wife. This means that you may be taken by someone else, but I have to live without dying. Think about it. How shameful and shameful is that? In this way, even the people of God had shame.
□ The Shameful Samaritan Woman
But today's text introduces another man who lived his life in shame. That person is a Samaritan woman. We often refer to this woman as the woman at the well in Samaria. Because Jesus met the woman at a well in the city of Sychar in Samaria. Jesus had come a long way to meet the Samaritan woman. He didn't stop by just passing by, but he came to meet the woman on purpose. The time when Jesus arrived at the well in the city of Suga, Samaria was 12 o'clock, 6 o'clock in our country time. It is not a short distance from Judea to Suga in Samaria. It's at least a 4 hour walk. But the Lord had come a long way to meet this woman.
Then, who is this Samaritan woman whom Jesus met on a long journey? Let's look at verse 18.
“You have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband; you are true” (verse 18).
This woman had five husbands, but the man she lives with now is not a perfect husband. In a word, it is a pillar west room. Of course, given the circumstances of the time, this woman must have been abandoned by men, not men. However, considering that she has lived with five husbands, it is true that she has led a promiscuous life. So she was a shameful woman who was always pointed at by people. Would you have come to draw water at noon in the middle of the day when people don't come to draw water? However, this woman met Jesus, the Messiah, at a well in the city of Suga.
Jesus, who was talking about living water, revealed that he was the Messiah. Shall we all look at verse 26 together?
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am he who speaks to you’” (verse 26).
Jesus said that I am the Messiah the prophets foretold and awaited. “I am he” This sinful woman, a shameful woman, met the Lord, the Messiah. This woman, who lived in shame with the blemishes of her life, came to draw water and met Jesus.
□ “Come see a man who told me all the things I did”
So, what was the first thing this woman did when she met Jesus, the Messiah? Let's look at verse 29 together.
“Come and see a man who told me all that I have done, is this not the Christ?” (verse 29).
The woman who met Jesus was the first to leave her water jar and run into the town. And he began to preach Jesus. But, not only did Jesus preach, he said, “Come and see a man who told me all the things I did.
What is all that I have done?
Having five husbands. I changed my husband five times. How shameful and shameful is that? But this woman is no longer ashamed of her shameful past, saying, “Come to the man who told me all you have done to me.”
Wasn't this the woman who came to draw water at noon to avoid the villagers not so long ago? Aren't you the woman who, not so long ago, hid her head from raising her head because of shame and guilt for all the things she had done in the past? Aren't you a woman who, until recently, was obsessed with fear that someone would touch the wounds of her painful past?
But this woman left her water jar and ran into the town and started to cry herself in front of the people. “Come and see the man who has told me all the things I have done.” He boldly mentions his past and begins to cry. He runs to the people who pointed his finger at him and begins to speak boldly about Jesus. “You don’t know what kind of woman I am, but I met the Messiah, who knows everything about my past. Come quickly.”
How can people be so different? In just a few minutes... how can a person be so different? It is because she met Jesus. It is because the moment they met Jesus, all their shame was removed. It is because by meeting Jesus, we are freed from all guilt and all shame and shame are removed.
□ Why is meeting Jesus free from shame and shame?
Then why does believing in Jesus give us freedom from shame and all shame?
Because Jesus was shamed, ridiculed, and despised in my place.
Therefore, meeting Jesus will set you free from all shame and shame. Believing in Jesus does not only set us free from the law of sin and death. We are also freed from the shame and shame that result from sin.
1. Shame and shame are the consequences of sin
Every sin that man commits has a penalty for sin. Then what is the penalty for that sin? Death. Pain. It's a figure. So, on the cross, Jesus bore all kinds of pain, shame, and death.
Not only death, but shame and shame are the consequences of sin.
When did we humans first feel shame and shame?
It is from the fall of Adam and Eve. Before the fall of man, shame and shame did not exist. However, from the moment Adam and Eve broke the word of God and ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they felt shame and shame.
“Then their eyes were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made skirts for themselves” (Genesis 3:7).
Adam and Eve's eyes were opened, and when they saw their nakedness, they became ashamed and began to cover their shame with a skirt of fig leaves. It was the first shame and shame that man experienced after he had sinned. Later, out of shame as well as fear, I hid among the trees in the garden.
2. All of Adam's descendants have feelings to hide their shame.
By the way, all of Adam's descendants have feelings to hide their shame.
After Adam and Eve, every human being has feelings of shame that everyone tries to hide. So even today, we humans, descendants of Adam, are trying to hide their shame by all means and methods. We are investing a lot of time and material to cover and decorate these things: shame for remorse, shame for education, shame for ignorance and poverty.
3. Human shame cannot be completely obscured by fig leaves.
But definitely remember. The shame of man's sins and transgressions cannot be completely covered by fig leaves. So God brought Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden.