Setting Things Right!

Setting Things Right: The Cross of Jesus
23 March 2008

Question: why was the crucifixion and the resurrection necessary? Because we cannot fix ourselves.
I. We are broken and in need of repair. [shame]
Gen. 3:7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

From sin to shame…
a. Shame is an emotion: …we are NOT what we are supposed to be. If allowed to soak in, it dyes the soul a dull gray.
Andrew Zantingh www.firsthamilton.ca
I am unworthy and unacceptable, I am inferior and inadequate.
I am seriously flawed, a fake and phony. I feel naked and ugly and vulnerable.

b. Shame leads me to compare myself with others.
i. Comparison with others leads me to feel shame.
ii. Shame is a never-ending cycle.
Lewis Smedes: “Compulsive Comparers.” Feelings of shame cause us to compare ourselves with others—to see how we measure up.

1. Positive comparison leads me to PRIDE.
If we compare ourselves with unsuccessful or insignificant people—it has a way of alleviating our shame for a moment. Bolstering some pride.

2. Negative comparison leads me to a sense of FAILURE.

If we compare ourselves with successful and significant people—it has a way of making us feel like failures. Everyone else’s sun darkens our day.

Conclusion: Indeed---People are Big factors in our shame---inevitably we compare ourselves to others (at times---compulsively so).

c. Our culture of shame impacts me.
i. Intrinsically—no one told Adam & Eve to hide.
ii. Extrinsically—I have no other model, so…
A world—according to Rom 12—is constantly seeking to
conform us to its ideal—its likeness
“squeeze us into its mold”—its mold of what it means to be acceptable
iii. Spiritually—this needs an Easter sermon!
There is the unhealthy shame that is shared in shame-based religions.

II. We have long tried to repair ourselves, long before there were self-help sections in our bookshops.
a. All our religious creations are attempts to attend to our shame.
Andrew Zantingh:
Based on prescribed ways to deal with our worthlessness---ways to become perfect—and therefore worthy of acceptance through personal effort.

b. Religions of all stripes and ethnic roots have given us steps to fix ourselves.
i. The five pillars of Islam
ii. The eight-fold path of Hinduism
iii. The ten commandments of Judaism.
iv. Even Christianity, have all been reduced to a set of rules.
v. Rules break us and highlight our shame.

And so, all religions have failed to remove the shame, have in fact ADDED to our sense of shame and despair; nothing has been repaired.
c. More recently, secularism has made a run at self-repair: the proposed solution has to do with…
i. Self-improvement by denying the validity of mind-draining religion.
ii. Self-improvement by attempting a secular morality.
iii. Atheism—we are alone, we do our best to pass on our genes.

III. Each of these efforts, religious and secular, has met with failure.
This is an ancient problem and from the beginning, the solution comes from God.

Gen. 3:8 ¶ Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the orchard.
Gen. 3:9 But the LORD God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?”
Gen. 3:10 The man replied, “I heard you moving about in the orchard, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.”
Gen. 3:11 And the LORD God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Did you eat from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
Gen. 3:12 The man said, “The woman whom you gave me, she gave me some fruit from the tree and I ate it.”
Gen. 3:13 So the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman replied, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.”
It was an orchard, but we only know of two trees within the orchard: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
A. Shame moves us to blame someone else, because we are not honest enough to face who we are and what we’ve done.
“the woman whom you gave me…”

B. If something goes wrong, it can’t be my fault, because I can’t endure any more shame.
“the serpent whom you created…”

C. The sin which causes guilt and shame is directly addressed by God.

Gen. 3:14 ¶ So the LORD God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this,
“Cursed are you above all the livestock
and all the wild animals!
You will crawl on your belly
and you will eat dust
all the days of your life.
Gen. 3:15 ¶ And I will put enmity
between you and the woman,

D. There will be future generations.

E. The shame will be passed on to those generations.

and between your offspring and hers;
he will crush your head,
and you will strike his heel.”

Something wonderful is hidden here, in the details
F. God promises that Eve will have offspring that will crush the head of the serpent.

From an orchard dominated by TWO CENTRAL TREES, God promised that the cunning serpent would be dealt with by the woman’s offspring; that her son would crush his heritage. God reveals mercy and grace at the very point of failure.

What is grace?
God’s grace involves:
1) pardon---forgiveness from the wrong---God’s answer to guilt.
2) acceptance---being re-united with God and our true selves, accepted, held, affirmed and loved. God’s answer to shame.

OT Judaism was grace-based. While Israel was captive in Egypt:
* He gave them freedom when He led them out of Egypt.
* He gave them the law: The ideal way to know how live without guilt and shame in their relationship.
* He gave them the sacrificial system: The way he gave for imperfect people (he knew would fail) to remain forgiven and accepted.
Which points to the final sacrifice, which we celebrated Friday.

Jesus came—full of God’s grace and truth—meeting shame with grace:
Jesus was criticized for meeting and eating with sinners.

Grace-based faith finds hope in helplessness.
a. You must know that you are a sinner, and cannot help yourself.
b. Presumes a good God, who forgives.
c. Requires a payment for forgiveness.
i. We all understand that forgiveness is never free, not trivial.
ii. We all understand that someone pays.
1. We “forgive” a debt, means that we absorb the cost.
2. We “forgive” an offense, we accept the pain caused by the offense.
3. When God forgives, he takes onto himself the pain caused by our offense; somebody pays!

The problem of evil is fully resolved at the Cross.

How? All the wrong, the shame that came from eating from the Wrong Tree was placed on the shoulders of Eve’s son, Jesus, who hung on Another Tree. The weight of that shame, that evil, that guilt crushed him.
The One who deserved life died for all who deserved Death, so that we cannot deserve life, could share in HIS life.
Once it had done its work, Jesus overcame death, he was raised from the dead.

Today, it looks like Satan has crushed Jesus, hanging and dieing on the Cross.
That was Friday, this is Sunday.
We celebrate his Victory over sin and death, guilt and shame, by his resurrection from the dead.
He is alive today, giving us
pardon---forgiveness from wrong
acceptance---being re-united with God and our true selves, accepted, held, affirmed and loved.

The answer to our guilt and shame is grounded in the Resurrection of Christ, if you will personally respond in faith, claim it as your own.


Pathway: From sin to shame…
From shame to Guilt…
From guilt to the Cross…
From the Cross to freedom

PRAY WITH ME/PRAY AFTERWARDS