The Shame of the Cross
January 12, 2026
Can you imagine the Passover and that oldest boy going out and checking if that blood’s still there, you know, and that Passover, the death angel just passed over because that blood’s still there. Praise the Lord, the blood’s there. And great, great song. Hebrews chapter number 12, if you would please, Hebrews chapter number 12 in God’s Word. And Lord’s Suffer Night is always sweet and special.
I wonder, I was thinking here a little bit earlier, just sitting up here on the platform, I wonder if one day when we get to heaven, if we’ll go back and view the cross and our Savior shedding. I mean, the real thing, I don’t know. But can you imagine that? And we want to do a little bit of that tonight the best we can.
I ask the Lord to take us back and just to view the cross and our Savior that shed his blood and gave his body for us. And, man, praise the Lord, we don’t have a God that is mean. He’s not a mean God. He’s not a God that’s a million miles away where they don’t care about us. He’s not a God that just pushed a button and forgave us, but he’s a God that sent his only begotten Son down, and God in flesh, and he went to an old record cross for you and I, and that’s love. And his love is manifested through that, First John tells us. And praise the Lord for his blood and his body that he gave for us. We try to focus on one thing at the Lord’s Supper. Just kind of keep the redundancy down a little bit, if you would. So we try to focus on different things. We’re going to go tonight on just one word about the crucifixion of the cross. We’re going to read it here.
In Hebrews chapter number 12, verse number two. Verse number two. Let’s stand if you would, please. Hebrews 12 and verse number two. You’re there tonight, amen? Amen. Good deal. Verse number two: “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.”
We spent one Lord’s Supper just focusing on the cross. Did a lot of different things. But notice this: despising the shame. Let’s just, for a bit tonight, think about the shame that our Savior went through for you. I won’t do a good job of describing it all, but I want, when we go through these things, talking about the shame that he went through, I want you to think about him going through that shame for you. Now, I want you to think about putting everybody outside of your mind. And I want you to think about Jesus going through the shame for you. He went through the shame of it. Let’s finish that: Remember the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God? Just for a bit tonight, let’s just focus on the shame that Jesus went through for you. Would you do that?
Thank you so much for standing.
Let me just read another verse for you, not just Hebrews. Psalm 69:7: “For thy sake I have borne reproach; shame hath covered my face.” I want you just think about Jesus going through shame. Don’t raise your hand. But has anyone here ever been arrested? I’ve seen those hands. Praise the Lord, if you never have been. Praise the Lord. May come one day in America, you are arrested for preaching the gospel. I don’t know. A lot of preachers have been arrested for passing out tracts temporarily. It’s happened. But I remember visiting someone in the jail, and they said, “I’m glad that they arrested me when I was at work. I didn’t want my family to see it.” There’s a shame in being arrested. I said, “I’m glad my kids didn’t see it. I’m glad my family didn’t see it.” The shame.
Look, if you would, please, over in Luke 22. Just talking about the shame of the cross, the crucifixion that our Savior went through. Jesus had just left the garden and he was over by the brook and the little stream, if you would, and if you listen closely you can hear the clanging of the soldiers coming to Jesus. They’re coming; they got their swords and their spears, and there’s a group of them, a band of them.
I want you to notice what it says. Luke 22, would you look in verse number 52? Luke 22, verse number 52: “Then said Jesus unto the chief priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders, which were come to him, Be ye come out as against a thief with swords and staves? When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Then took they him, and led him, and brought him unto the high priest’s house. I just want you to think about when Jesus was arrested. It’s the shame of it.
I mean, the sinless Son of God that never had a dirty thought cross his mind, a mean thought, a foul word—he never said the wrong thing—and yet he got arrested. And they’re treating him like a thief, like a criminal. Can you imagine the angels watching in disbelief? Can you kind of hear the demons cheering because God in flesh is arrested? And just tonight, the shame of that. Jesus went through the shame of being arrested, and he went through the shame for you. All the shame that’s associated with the cross and crucifixion. It should have been my shame. He was paying for my sin. Just the shame of being arrested.
Let’s go over, if you will, to Lamentations. Lamentations chapter number three, and it’s the Old Testament prophecy of Jesus. Lamentations three. And look in verse number 30, if you would. That’s Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations. Lamentations three. And would you look in verse number 30? Lamentations 3:30: “He giveth his cheek to him that smith him. He is filled full with reproach.”
Now, just for a minute, let’s talk about the shame of being beaten. How many, whether it was, you went to catch the ball and you missed it, hit you in the eyeball, or you ran into the doorknob, or, you know, you read it—it was somebody recently, I can’t—I don’t know if I want to remember—but somebody, the door was closed, it was dark, and they ran into the door, you know, one of the bedroom doors, they thought it was open, type of thing. Whatever it was, but how many’s ever had a black eye and you gotta go to school or work the next day? Man, it’s just embarrassing to have a black eye. How many have had nose surgery and you got those black eyes? It looked like you got beat up, you know? How many has ever went with your wife or someone or a kid that’s got a black eye and everybody gives you a dirty look everywhere you go? There’s a little bit of a shame, if you will, of just being beaten up. And Jesus was beaten beyond recognition. Isaiah says, you looked at it and you’re like, who or what is that? Just beaten to a pulp.
And the shame, can you just kind of grasp a little bit what our Savior went through? That night they arrested him, took him over there—the high priest, Anderson Kaffas, sort of wasn’t right, but one was the father-in-law, and they kind of did it together, wasn’t supposed to be like that. But Jesus was tortured all night long; that’s when they buffeted him. Typically, the way they buffeted, they would put a bag over their face, and they would just pound them in the face with their fist. And can you imagine just the black eyes, bloody and swollen and puffy, and just ashamed of it? Can you imagine our Savior, you know, as they took the back off and our Savior’s face was just beaten? A little shame to that, and he did that for us.
He talks about over in Hebrews, despising the shame. He knew the shame of the cross, and he went through all that shame for you and I. Here’s an interesting one. I’ll just read it: Isaiah 50, verse number six: “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that pluck off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.”
This to me is, I mean, like, man, if somebody gets hurt, but this is worse, you know. Have you ever seen anyone have a spitting fight? I’ve seen two guys who are supposed to be fighting, and they’re just mad, and they just spit on each other. They’re just spitting. Forget all that. Just hit each other, man. It’s just disgusting, man. You know, I mean, just spitting on one another, you know? And it’s just… wow. You know, I mean, if you’re going to hit him, man, come on, do something. But think about Jesus. The Bible said right there, they spit on him. And you’re talking about the shame of someone spitting, and just the spittle dripping down off your face—that’s just disgusting. And yet Jesus went through that for you, for me, to pay for my sin and my shame. And so I can stand redeemed. So I can stand as perfect before God Almighty. So I can stand forgiven, and no mark against me, and Calvary covered all. So I can stand like that. Christ went through the shame. Shame. He’s despising the shame. They plucked his beard out. Just a humiliation. The shame of it. And Jesus took the shame for you and for I.
Let me read for you another passage. I’m just reading some of these Old Testament prophecies of the coming Messiah. Let me read for you Psalm 69, verse number 19.
Somebody’s home. Brother Robert’s getting into that tune right there, you know. I don’t know if the radio picked up that or not. You know what? That would be all right if it doesn’t. Psalm 69:19: “Thou hast known my reproach and my shame and my dishonor; mine adversaries are all before thee.” Just over all the shame of the cross.
By the way, fully on the Jehovah Witness that say he was on a stake. He was on the cross, my friend. And they nailed him to that old rugged cross. You know, we don’t know everything about it. There are so many different speculations about it, but they have found—at one point, they said it was really the only bone and a knell of a crucifixion they had found. Of course, it wasn’t Jesus; he’s resurrected, but it was a bone with a nail through it that they think was from a crucifixion during that time period. It’s very interesting. It’s not through what we often think of, you know, a nail just through this part. It’s actually through the ankle. And I think a lot of times the victims would have their feet on each side of the cross, and they would nail those nails through their ankles.
We don’t know. There’s so much, you know. Some say they had wooden washers, you know, so the hands wouldn’t—somebody couldn’t pull them off the cross or whatnot. But I’m just saying, can you imagine the shame of being nailed to a cross? I mean, one aspect, so many aspects of it, your mind can go thinking you don’t want to contemplate, which is a good thing. But they nail one hand down. You can’t fight with that hand anymore. Then they nail the other, and then your feet. And you can’t fight back. You’re just, you’re just crippled. You’re stuck. You’re there.
There have been all kinds of ways of executing prisoners, whether it be on our modern-day electric chair, lethal injection, or a firing squad, and all these, or even decapitating. Muslims do that a lot, you know. But the most cruel is the cross. And they hang in front of everyone for hours and hours on the cross. They say, we don’t know, but they say typically the crosses weren’t real tall. They were a little bit lower so the crowd could get a good view of them. They could view them just a little above them, and sometimes so they could really cool them and spit on them. But I mean, imagine Jesus on the cross and the shame. His mom was there watching it. His enemies were there for sure. I mean, just the shame of being nailed to an old, rugged cross. And he went through that. He went there for you.
I mean, just think about it. He says over in Hebrews 12:2, he said, despising the shame. By the way, no wonder the wrath of God abideth on those that don’t want to trust in Jesus to be their Savior—no wonder. After he gave his Son to go through all that shame, and they didn’t want to accept him as their Savior, no wonder that God said, “No, you’re cast down the outer daughter. He’s the work iniquity. I never knew you.” No wonder he does that when he watched his Son go through that, and they reject Jesus as their Savior. I mean, he went through that shame for you and I. They made fun of him. They ridiculed him. Here’s another part of the cross that’s really amazing. Let me just read it for you. Matthew 27:28. And this is a brief period of the crucifixion. And they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe.
Just the shame of someone just—I was speaking with someone earlier, and they had to have some stitches and whatnot. And man, isn’t it humiliating when you go to the hospital or the doctor and modesty is out the window, you know? And those stinking robes they have, they’re not right. I tell you what, I mean, hey, whoever invented them ought to be in a saint asylum somewhere or something. I’ll tell you for sure, you know. Crazy. You know, the older you get, the more I—man, I don’t want to go to no doctor, no hospital, nothing now, you know. I’ll die before I want to go through all that, you know, but it’s awful. But, not trying to be rude, but they strip Jesus. You’re talking about the shame, the shame of it, and he went through the shame of that for you. Friend, I want you to think about him going through that for you because he loves you. Wow, what love. He hung on that cross for three hours. The shame of the cross should have been mine.
Just a couple more things. We’re going to move on. We’ve got Lord’s Supper just a minute. Look over in Isaiah 53. Isaiah 53. We focused on this the last Lord’s Supper, so we won’t spend a lot of time on it, but just briefly touch on it. Isaiah 53 is a great, great chapter about the suffering that our Savior went through for us, and it’s a wonderful chapter. I want you just look at one verse: verse number three. Isaiah 53, verse number three: Speaking of our Savior, Jesus, “He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.”
Just the shame of the rejection of the cross. Man, that’s just… You ever play sports and, you know, whatever it may be, basketball or whatnot, first guys that hit the threes or the two captains of the pick-up teams, whatnot, and you don’t get picked? And you kind of feel rejected, man, you know? I mean, much worse than that: the rejection. They came out. Pilate really wanted to kind of release him—he wouldn’t be mad enough to stand up to him—but he wanted to release him. He said, “Hey, this is a day I got to release a prisoner to you, and how about I release to you Jesus, and the one you called the Messiah?” And they said, “No, no, no, no! Release Barabbas unto us!” “Well, what should I do with Jesus?” Now imagine Jesus.
And they’re in the court out there. You know, they wouldn’t go in because that day the Jewish people and the Passover’s coming. And so Pilate will go out there and he said, “Hey, well, who do you want me to release to you?” And Barabbas said, “What do you want me to do with Jesus? I find no fault in him.” And imagine Jesus hearing the maybe hundreds, maybe thousands of his own countrymen start chanting, “Crucify!” Just that deafening noise coming: “Crucify! Crucify! Crucify!” Imagine how you would feel when your own American brothers, if you would, are crying out, “Crucify! Crucify! Crucify!” Just the shame of rejection. And he went through that for you.
Out of love. They made fun of him. Psalm 22:7: “All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out their lip, they shake their heads, saying, ‘He trusted on the Lord, that he would deliver him; let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.’” Wow.
And then the last thing, look over, if you will, in 2 Corinthians, chapter number 5. This is the most shameful part of this thing. It’s over here at 2 Corinthians. Look in chapter number 5, 2 Corinthians chapter 5, a very familiar passage, a great passage. Look at verse number 21. 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.”
Did you hear that? To be sin. For us who knew no sin—it doesn’t say he did no sin; now, he didn’t do any sin—but it says, “who knew no sin,” that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now think about that: He made him to be sin, for to be sin, for to be sin. He became the vile, wicked filth of our lives.
I remember one of the first times I really dealt closely with—I don’t want to be wise about it—but children being molested. And I had to deal with it a little bit. And boy, I tell you what, when I got done, I was in my office, I felt so dirty. Just having to talk about it and deal with it and, you know, all the ramifications of it and the loved ones and all the different things. I just felt like I wanted to go home and take a bath. Just so dirty. And you start getting a little of this thinking dirty details; it just bothers you, you know. And you just feel dirty.
And yet the sinless Son of God that knew no sin—you talk about innocent and perfect. Mine never went wrong. I mean, never had a fault it shouldn’t have had. Never thought mean or judgmental like it shouldn’t be. You know, none of that. I mean, just perfect. He knew no sin. And he became all the dirt and filth of the world. By the way, it’s not just sins by transgression, but it’s iniquity, the sins of our heart, and he took on him the iniquity of us all, Isaiah says. I mean, can you imagine all the demons of hell just coming and just being on Jesus, and just the dirty feelings of it all and the filth of it all, and all the crime, everything humanity from eternity past and now and future, all placed on Jesus there on the cross?
And you can kind of hear the demons just reveling and cheering. And it’s so much so the Father, he had to turn his back on his only begotten Son because he had that sin on him. And Jesus cries out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” And God said, “I don’t even want my Son shining on my only begotten Son who has the sin of humanity.” And it was just dark for three hours. And Jesus was taking our hell on him and our sin and our shame. Wow. Despising the shame. Our deepest, darkest sin, he took it on him. And the shame of it. The shame of it. That’s why he says over there in Hebrews 12:2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Now, did you notice who for the joy that was set before him? I think the biggest joy there is pleasing his heavenly Father. He completed his plan. He completed his will: “Father, not my will, but thine be done,” and he completed it. But not only that, some of that joy is your salvation, and one day you’ll enter in, if you will, those pearly gates, and you’ll be with him. And Jesus says, “I see him coming in; they’ve accepted me.” In fact, he looks forward to it so much he’s already predestinated you because of your decision. But he sees you coming in one day, and you’re with him. And part of that joy is your salvation. No hell for you. Jesus was born at all. He despised that shame. And boy, just tonight we’re trying to grasp the shame that Jesus went through for me. But he saw the joy. Part of that joy is you get to be with him forever.
Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? I asked you to bow your heads. Let’s just spend a little time tonight thanking him, loving him, getting clean before him, reveling, just remembering the shame he went through for us. Hey, you talk about love. Wow, he loves you, he loves you, he loves you. You said, “Man, I’m ready to go to heaven.” I understand, but, you know, he’s ready for you to come to heaven when you’re done. Yes, he’s got chops, but when you’re done, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Let’s all stand if you would please. Let’s just spend some time loving him and thanking him. Father, thank you for giving your Son. Thank you, Jesus, for going through the shame for me. I don’t deserve it. Bless our folks tonight. Make it real to us, Lord. Thank you for being such a loving God. Amazing your love. Thank you for him, Lord. Stir our hearts for you tonight. And Jesus, let me pray. Amen.
Just spend some time loving on him and thanking him. Individuals, he went through the shame. Every part of the things I couldn’t describe, couldn’t do it justice. He went through all the shame for you and I. He took my sin, my shame, things I don’t want anybody to know about. He took it all. The greatest command in all the Bible is to love the Lord your God: heart, mind, soul, and strength. Let’s love him tonight. Thank him tonight. It’s a shame if I’m not grateful for what he’s done.
Original File: 2026-01-12 - Pastor Paul Chisgar ＂The shame of the Cross＂ - Sunday PM 1⧸11⧸2026