Jesus knows what it’s like to be assaulted. He’s been there, done that. But the gospel is about more than just simply Jesus’ solidarity with your struggle, it’s also about his offering you healing in the midst of it. As Justin Holcomb writes, “The cross is God’s solidarity with and compassion for the assaulted, and the resurrection is the promise that he can heal and redeem your suffering” (Rid of My Disgrace, 61). The gospel offers healing to victims of sexual assault.
It is common for victims to express feelings of guilt and shame, of brokenness and even dirtiness. Many respond to such feelings by simply telling victims, “Stop feeling that way, it’s not your fault.” And of course that is 100% true. But for many, it’s not as simple as just turning off these feelings of false guilt. They need real hope and real help in changing how they feel. Again Justin and Lindsey help us understand the dynamic relationship between our emotions and our reality. They write:
Emotions are based on cognitive assessment and belief; they are not simply experienced…Rather, emotions are based on and require beliefs, standards, and judgments. Emotions result from an individual’s evaluation of an event, situation, or object, and they reveal whether that individual sees some aspect of the world threatening or welcoming, pleasant or painful, regrettable or a solace, and so on…What this means for victims of sexual assault is that your emotions are important and valid…They reveal what you believe about God, yourself, your experience of sexual assault, others, and the world. What you believe has a huge connection to how you respond to disgrace, violence, denial, shame, guilt, fear, anxiety, bitterness, despair, and so on. (43-44)
You cannot ignore emotions, then. Rather, we must seek to apply the grace of the gospel to them. Though it is true that the feelings of guilt a victim experiences do not reflect the reality of their responsibility, nonetheless they do reflect the beliefs of the individual. We, therefore, need to help them connect with new beliefs. And this is where the gospel is so applicable.
The gospel teaches us that Jesus took a shame that was not his own in order to free us from the guilt and shame that we experience for our sins and the sins committed against us. The Holcombs identify shame as “internalized disgrace” (90) and say that generally three ideas accompany it: feeling exposed, feeling unclean, and being rejected. The Bible connects all three of these images to Jesus as away of not simply identifying his solidarity with us, but of offering him as a sacrifice in our stead. Jesus removes these things from us in his death.
On the cross Jesus dies in the most shameful way. He is naked, he is beaten, and he is crucified outside the city gates. There are multiple ideas being communicated here but one theme the authors of the New Testament connect with Jesus is the Old Testament theme of The Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement refers to the annual sacrifice offered by the priests on behalf of the whole nation of Israel. There were two key pieces to the ceremony. The first was a goat sacrificed as a substitute for sinners who deserved to die a violent and bloody death for their many sins. And though sexual assault is not a sin committed by victims (they are not responsible for what happened to them, contrary to popular cultural opinions), nonetheless they do have sins that they must answer for. Jesus deals with these sins on the cross as that substitute. He bears the wrath of God in their stead. The second goat used on the Day of Atonement, however, was a scape goat. The priest would take this animal and place his hands on it and confess the sins of the nation of Israel, the process symbolized the transfer of guilt and shame from the nation to the people. Then the animal was taken outside the city to a remote place and let loose. It communicated the idea that the sins of the nation had been removed from them. In his death Jesus accomplishes this more perfectly than any animal ever could.
In his death, outside the city, experiencing rejection and taking on our sins, Jesus becomes both the sacrificial goat and the scapegoat. The Bible talks about Jesus’ experiencing our shame. In Hebrews 12:2 we read the following:
looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
Jesus, though he deserved joy, endured the cross and despised its shame. Despised means to “care nothing for, disregard, be unafraid of, or consider something not important enough to be concerned with when evaluated against something else” (97). How could Jesus despise the shame of the cross? What happened to him was a horrific act of violence! The Holcombs answer in this way:
Cognitively, then, Jesus made an evaluation – an interpretation – based on his belief and trust in God and his delight in that joy before him; he was not controlled by the shame he endured. (97)
There was a higher court of opinion where Jesus saw himself vindicated, where his hope resided, and where there was no shame for him. That was the throne room of God, that was at the right-hand of God on high. It’s the same court where your identity rests if you a Christian.
You are not identified by what happened to you, you are not captive to your shame, you are found in Christ Jesus. You are beloved by God. And Jesus’ death all your shame, that which you deserved and that which was never yours to begin with, have been removed and dealt with. David A. DeSilva writes:
While in the public court of opinion, Jesus took the most disgraceful seat – on a cross – in God’s court of reputation, Jesus was worthy of the highest honor. Jesus’ own attitude toward the negative evaluation of the outside world was a pattern for believers who wished to follow him and share in his honor and victory: Because they have such a hope for honor from the higher court of opinion, namely, God’s, the author may exhort them to disregard the opinion of unbelievers, who serve a lower court…For the same Christ who suffered reproach but despised the shame will come a second time in judgment of those who reproach him and continue to dishonor and disgrace his sisters and brothers. (“Despising Shame: A Cultural-Anthropological Investigation in the Epistle to the Hebrews”)
We can reject shame because we know there is a higher opinion of us in a higher court.
This is not to suggest that victims should not report assault, or should not seek justice here on earth. Underreporting is a serious problem, and a culture that tends to blame victims of sexual assault more than supporting them only encourages it. Seek justice now, but in the process of healing look beyond your feelings of shame to the cross where Jesus dealt with. And look even further beyond that to the throne room of God where you are declared righteous in Christ. Justin and Lindsey Holcomb add that the death and resurrection of Jesus are essentially the “shaming of shame.” They write:
The cross initially looks like the ultimate victory of shame. But the victory of shame and disgrace is short-lived because the resurrection interrupts the celebration of evil and triumphs over shame by introducing hope. Disgrace has been made a shameful spectacle. It is triumphed over by the redemption of God’s humiliation. Jesus endured the shame of the cross but also scorned it. He shamed shame and revealed God’s love for, not rejection of, you. At the cross Jesus triumphed over all of your enemies and put them to open shame. Jesus won the victory and leads a triumphal process. (100)
The cross is the shaming of shame.
The gospel offers real healing to us because not only does Jesus identify with the experience of shame and guilt, and a shame and guilt that he was not responsible for, but beyond that Jesus takes them away from his children. He is the sacrifice for you sins, and the scapegoat that removes all feelings of filth and shame and guilt from you. You are not identified by what happened to you if you are a Christian. You are identified, friends, with Jesus.
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