Luke 9:26 “Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”
Fat-shaming. You’ve no doubt heard of it. It’s when people are mocked or ridiculed because of being overweight. The purpose is to humiliate them for carrying extra pounds. Although it has become more prevalent in our weight-conscious society, there’s another kind of shaming that is also on the rise. I call it truth-shaming.
Truth-shaming occurs when people belittle those who speak the truth…especially those who profess there is only one truth. Truth-shamers declare no one has the right to claim the existence of only one truth. They see truth as fluid. I have my truth. You have your truth. They classify those who believe in one truth as naïve at best, dangerous to society at worst. They cast an ominous shadow over our culture.
Don’t let truth-shaming pull you down. No one endured more truth-shaming than he who is the Truth. Jesus was accused of blasphemy, of casting out demons by the power of Satan, of being a sinful rebel-rouser. He was spit on, mocked, and subjected to the degradation of the cross. But do you know how he dealt with all the shame being hurled his way?
He scorned it! (Hebrews 12:2).
We can too. The author of Hebrews says we are to consider how Jesus handled the shame, lest we lose heart. It’s not easy to be the butt of late-night comedians’ jokes or the targets of social pressure. It’s hard to be labeled as haters, when we love, as insensitive when we respect the dignity of all people, as fools when we possess the wisdom of the ages. But as followers of truth, we must have the courage to stand firm, keeping our hope on what lies ahead, just like Jesus did “for the joy set before him.”
Jesus warned if we are ashamed of him in this life, he will be ashamed of us in the next. That’s a warning I want to heed, and I imagine you do too. Let’s keep fixing our eyes on the author of our faith rather than the scorn of the truth-shamers. There’s a whole cloud of witnesses counting on us not to fold.
So is Jesus.