AbeLog

Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the Praetorium and gathered the whole Roman cohort around Him. And they stripped Him, and put a scarlet robe on Him. And after weaving a crown of thorns, they put it on His head, and a reed in His right hand; and they kneeled down before Him, saying. “Hail, King of the Jews!” (Matthew 27:27-29)

Have you been humiliated before? What is the most shameful or embarrassed moment in your life? There are many of embarrassing moments in my life, so much so that I cannot pinpoint the most embarrassed moment. Perhaps, I am the embarrassment. I embarrass my Lord. I embarrass His name. I feel embarrassed whenever people say good about me, especially about my preaching, because I know from deep within, I have not put in good enough effort to prepare that sermon. I am embarrassed when I turn my head to look at a pretty girl in the MRT train when I am supposed to be a pastor, an ambassador for Christ. I struggle with embarrassment, I struggle until I am almost immune to embarrassment.

Jesus was not only embarrassed, but humiliated. He was stripped. Most portrays of Jesus humiliation will leave Him with an undergarment, but the Bible says He was stripped, and to me, stripped means stripped to nakedness. Jesus was naked, I supposed. I am not demeaning or blaspheming Jesus, but I just want us to realize how bad Jesus was being humiliated. He was stripped. And then the Roman soldiers dressed Him up like a “king”. Scarlet robe, crown of thorns and a reed in His right hand; these were symbols of a king, but a defeated king. To add on to Jesus’ humiliation, they kneeled before Him and “proclaimed” Jesus as king of the Jews. This is a total mockery. I wonder what was happening on the other side of eternity; what were the host of angels and God the Father doing and thinking.

Probably, Michael, the archangel, would have gathered all the warring angels in battle order. They were all lined up in formation, ready to charge down from heaven to rescue the Son of God. Maybe, Michael was waiting attentively before the throne of God the Father, for the order and permission to activate the entire host of angels who were on alert red standby. They were all ready; all they needed was a word from the throne, a command from Michael after he received the green signal. But nothing happened. Not a single word from the Father God, not a breath from Him, but Michael could have probably notice that tears were flowing down the cheek of the Father and at the same time, He was emitting a sense of joy of approval of the work of His Son.

I was not there, I don’t really know what could have happened in heaven, and these were only my imagination. But why Jesus, the Son of God who can command the entire host of angels and the Creator of the world, allowed Himself to be embarrassed and humiliated by His creation? I know why; because this is the Way. This is the way for Him to demonstrate His love, this is the way for Him to show us the Way, and this is the only way.

Jesus does not need to suffer, to be humiliated and to be embarrassed, but He did. He did so that when we are embarrassed, we know Jesus understands; when we are humiliate, we know Jesus cares; when we are suffering, we know Jesus had been there and also here for us.

I am embarrassed to admit that I have abandoned Jesus when I am faced with trials and humiliation. I am embarrassed by some of the thoughts and feeling I have when someone irritates me. But I am even more embarrassed to come before Jesus and knowing well that He will forgive all my thoughts and deeds. This is grace. I need to response to such grace. I am really working very hard, disciplining myself with the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to think right, and behave right. I am not there yet, but I am on my way to feel less embarrassed.

If you are not embarrassed at all but the things you do or the words you say or the thoughts you have, good for you. But do a reality check about your relationship with Jesus who had bore all the humiliation and judgment of our sins, so that we can really live a life of being a true disciple.

I bet that Jesus’ disciples were embarrassed by Him for allowing the Roman soldiers to strip Him and humiliate Him. No wonder they were not there, only Jesus was there. But they turned their embarrassment into an unstoppable force for the gospel to spread across the space and time until today.

I am embarrassed, but I will try and train myself to live a life, worthy to be called the disciple of Jesus Christ.

HHS…
Abel…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 10:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized and You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.