Losing The Shame Series

Phillip Griffin tells a story about a man who walks into a restaurant and orders a Coke. As soon as he receives it, he throws it in the waiter's face. The waiter is ready to fight, but the man says, “Oh, I'm so sorry. I have a horrible compulsion. I can't help it. Whenever someone hands me a drink, I throw it in their face. Please, forgive me.” Then the guy says, “I'm working hard to overcome this compulsion. Would you bring me another Coke?”

The waiter says, “Do you promise not to throw it in my face?”

The guy responds, “I'm going to do everything I can not to throw it in your face. I'm working really hard to resist.”

So the waiter says, “Okay, I'll bring you another one.”

Soon the waiter comes back with another Coke, and the guy throws it in the waiter's face. The waiter says, “I thought you said you wouldn't do that.”

The guy apologizes: “Oh, this compulsion is so strong. I promise you that I will check myself into an in-patient clinic to get some help. Forgive me. I'm so sorry.”

The guy felt genuine guilt and sorrow, so he checks himself into a clinic, and for one month he gets intense psychotherapy to deal with his compulsion. When he gets out of the clinic, he goes back to the same restaurant, and he walks in and says, “I'm cured. Give me a drink.”

The waiter says, “Wait a minute. I had to change my shirt last time you were here. Are you sure you're cured?”

The guy says, “I know I'm cured. I promise.”

The waiter says, “Okay, if you're cured, I'll bring you a Coke.” And so the waiter brings him a Coke. The guy looks at it and throws it right in the waiter's face. The waiter says, “I thought you said you were cured.”

The guy says, “I am cured. I still have the compulsion, but I don't feel guilty about it anymore” (Phillip Griffin, “Broken and Repentant,” www.PreachingToday.com).

That’s the sorry state of our own culture today. Many still have the compulsion to sin. They just don’t feel guilty about it anymore. They have pushed the shame aside as they continue down the path to their own destruction.

That was Judah’s condition as the Babylonians laid siege to the city of Jerusalem and was about to destroy it nearly 600 years before Christ. God was judging them for their sin, but they had no shame about it.

So, what does God say to a culture and to a people who have lost the shame and guilt of their sin? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Ezekiel 16, Ezekiel 16, where God addresses such a people back then and today.

Ezekiel 16:1-5 Again the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born (ESV).

Originally, Jerusalem was a despised Canaanite city until David made it his capital city about a thousand years before Christ. Until then, the surrounding nations treated her like an unwanted child.

You see, after a baby was born in Bible days, the midwife cut the umbilical cord. Then she washed the vernix and blood off the newborn and rubbed it with salt to dry and firm the skin. After that, she wrapped the infant in cloth for warmth and covering.

However, when Jerusalem was born, no one looked on her with pity or had compassion enough to do any of these things for her. In fact, they threw her out into the open field to die like they did to unwanted and deformed children in the ancient world (Charles Dyer, BKC, Victor Books, 1985). Then God came along.

Ezekiel 16:6-8 “And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I said to you in your blood, ‘Live!’ I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare. “When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine (ESV).