Shame, Shit and Jesus: Difference between revisions

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-This article provides a short summary of human excrament in the Bible.  It starts with a look at Jerusalem's dunghill, then a prophet's call to eat manure, a curse on dishonest priests, and ends with the suffering servant.
+This article provides a short summary of human excrement in the Bible.  It starts with a look at Jerusalem's dunghill, then a prophet's call to eat manure, a curse on dishonest priests, and ends with the suffering of Jesus Christ.
 [[Image:Hinnom.JPG|right|thumb|300px|This valley is called "Hinnom" in Hebrew and "Gehenna" in Greek.  Gehenna is often translated as "Hell" in English.]]
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 The prophet Malachi outlines a curse for priests that deceive, and do not give glory to the name of the LORD.  These priests are told that God will ''“corrupt your seed, and spread dung upon your faces, even the dung of your solemn feasts; and one shall take you away with it.”''  One of the reasons God is not happy with these priests is because they say, ''“everyone who doeth evil is good in the sight of the LORD”.''
-While God called Ezekiel to eat dung, he cursed the priests to wear it.  The prophet Isaiah calls our own righteousness ''"filthy rags”''.  Today, you might call your own righteousness “toilet paper”.  So when we try to remain clean through our own obedience to the law, we are only proudly covering ourselves in these filthy rags before we present ourselves to the Lord and to his people.
+While God called Ezekiel to eat dung, he cursed the priests to wear it.  The prophet Isaiah calls our own righteousness ''"filthy rags”''.  Today, you might call your own righteousness “toilet paper”.  So when we try to remain clean through our own obedience to the law, we are only proudly covering ourselves in our own filth when we present ourselves to the Lord and to his people.
 ==The Roman Soldier and the Wine==
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 So was the soldier with the wine being kind?  Is he the one exception to the rule of judgement, when he extends a drink to the beaten savior?
-The answer is that the soldier was humiliating Jesus.  Sponge on a stick is the Roman equivalent of toilet paper, which they would place in a disinfecting liquid (like vinegar or cheap wine) between uses.  That is why the wine was in a bowl (not a cup or bottle), and why the soldier had a sponge on the hill in the first place.
+The answer is that the soldier was humiliating Jesus.  A sponge on a stick is the Roman equivalent of toilet paper, which they would place in a disinfecting liquid like vinegar or cheap wine between uses.  That is why the wine was in a bowl, and why the soldier had a sponge on the hill in the first place.
-“To fulfill the scripture”, Jesus took the curse intended for the priests on himself.  The Roman soldier spread dung on his face – he added human dung to the recipe of the bread of life that God sent from heaven.  And with that, Jesus became Jerusalem’s Dung Gate.  He took all of our evil, iniquity, and sorrow into himself, as well as the judgment and curse for that evil.  Looking down from Golgotha, Jesus would have seen Jerusalem, and perhaps the Hinnom Valley in the distance.  Jesus’ last experience was to taste the dunghill - hell on earth.  Then he cried “It is finished”, as he took your shame to hell in his own embrace.
+“To fulfill the scripture”, Jesus took the curse intended for the priests on himself.  When the Roman soldier spread his own dung on Jesus' face, he added human dung to the recipe of the bread of life that God sent from heaven.  And with that, Jesus became Jerusalem’s Dung Gate.  He took all of our evil, iniquity, and sorrow into himself, as well as the judgment and curse for that evil.  Looking down from Golgotha, Jesus would have seen Jerusalem, and perhaps the Hinnom Valley in the distance.  Jesus’ last experience was to taste the dunghill - hell on earth.  Then he cried “It is finished”, and with his last breath took your shame to hell in his own embrace.
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-God loves you, a lot.  If you have ever experienced shame: Jesus came down to your level.  If you have ever caused shame: Jesus said, ''“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”''  That is the righteousness of God in Christ.  Let’s admit that it is by Grace we are saved through Faith in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  We are not saved by our own works – we only tarnish God’s good plan when we add our own self-righteousness into the recipe.  When we focus on our own works, we end up “eating and drinking damnation…not discerning the Lord’s body”.
+God loves you, a lot.  If you have ever experienced shame: Jesus came down to your level.  If you have ever caused shame: Jesus said, ''“Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”''  That is the righteousness of God in Christ.  Let’s admit that it is by this grace we are saved through faith in the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  We are not saved by our own works – we only tarnish God’s good plan when we add our own self-righteousness to the recipe.  When we focus on our own works, we end up “eating and drinking damnation…not discerning the Lord’s body”.
 Let’s step aside, and gaze afresh at the breadth of Jesus’ sacrifice, and his complete power to save and heal our bodies and our souls.  By removing ourselves from the equation, we give God the glory he deserves, for he will not share his glory with another.