I now live in Austin, the home of the Texas Longhorns. For my birthday as a boy many years ago, I got to see the Longhorns defeat Navy for the National Championship. I have been a fan ever since. Now I’m not “a died in the wool” Longhorn in the minds of real “orangebloods,” but I do know a player or two on the team and avidly follow the Longhorns. So I watched every minute of the football “massacre” at the Cotton Bowl that occurred a little over a week ago. We got “whupped” in every way. No doubt about it! It was a long, hard, and embarrassing afternoon. However, what most grabbed my attention after this terrible loss was the reaction of the fans. “We were humiliated!” was the often-heard remark from fans leaving the stadium.
Humiliated? Na, I don’t think so.
Embarrassed? Definitely!
Angry? Absolutely! Some fans started a web site to fire the coach they were so mad.
Frustrated and incredibly disappointed at four straight years of losses, two of them by huge margins? Oh yeah! Very frustrated and extremely disappointed.
Humiliated? Maybe the coaches and the players felt humiliated, but the fans who are bystanders rooting for big boys playing a big expensive game can’t claim humiliated for their word. At least not in my mind.
You see I work with people who have been really humiliated. They’ve put everything — energy, time, and all their family’s money — into a business, and then lost it all. They feel humiliated. Spouses are abandoned and then told, “I’m trading you in for a newer or better model.” They feel humiliated. Someone finds himself or herself at the wrong end of a moral lapse that becomes public. That person feels humiliated. Others get left at the altar or call off the wedding and have gifts to return, apologies to make, and a future to totally rebuild. These brides and grooms feel humiliated.
You see, "humiliated" is a hard word for our real world. It’s too big for sports contests. It fits church, faith, and life stuff — not games and escapist stuff. The real test of a person’s character is humiliation — ask the apostle Peter about humiliation at the side of a charcoal fire by the seashore or ask Judas about it at the end of a rope. The real test of a church and Christian friendships is humiliation. The real test of the presence of Christ among us is how we handle those who have been truly humiliated. So often, the ability of the humiliated to rise above their own brokenness is directly tied to our graciousness in restoring and affirming them. Even more often, how we as Christian friends and churches handle those among us who have brought humiliation upon themselves and us is the real test of our Christ-likeness.
Jesus didn’t let Peter off the hook after his three denials.* Real love doesn’t let someone precious to God “go to hell in a hand basket” without saying a word of warning. Real love does not let that person get away with sin without facing up to it as sin. Jesus lovingly confronted Peter, and then called him back to ministry three times. Just as Peter denied the Lord three times, so also the Lord called him back to ministry three times. To be a church that really belongs to Christ, we must be a people who take sin seriously, confront each other of that sin, and then restore each other back to ministry — no matter how bad or how deep the humiliation brought on the church or on the sinner!
Jesus didn’t let the woman at the well, a social outcast from her community, live in her humiliation.** While she could not come to the well at the same time as the respectable women in her community, Jesus viewed her as was worthy of his conversation, care, and commission. Jesus’ careful and kind work of restoration proved invaluable, not only to the woman, but also to her whole village. To be part of a church that really has the heart of Jesus, we must each be a people who welcome back sinners who come to Jesus’ for his transforming grace. Even more than that, we must be a church that seeks out those sinners and brings them back if we are to honestly dare to wear the name of Christ.
Real humiliation breaks hearts, destroys lives, squanders futures, demoralizes others, wounds loved ones, and wrecks families. Humiliation is one of Satan’s greatest tools to destroy lives of faith and promise. God’s self-chosen job is to bring forgiveness and cleansing to those whose sin has humiliated them. Our job is to prevent the humiliation that comes with that sin from destroying the life of the sinner and the lives his or her sin has scarred, maimed, and mutilated. To do less, and to be less, is to fall short of our Savior’s example and his call for us to be about his work in the world.
An incredible amount of talk has taken place over the last week about how the Longhorns can repair what is broken and how they can their save their season from utter collapse. Unfortunately, more of that talk takes place in our church foyers than talk about how broken people around us can be repaired and how spiritually humiliated people can receive grace. We can and must do better. Let’s make a commitment that as far as we are concerned, we will!
Dear brothers and sisters, if another Christian is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other's troubles and problems, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself. You are really a nobody. (Galatians 6:1-2 NLT) I am not overstating it when I say that the man who caused all the trouble hurt your entire church more than he hurt me. He was punished enough when most of you were united in your judgment against him. Now it is time to forgive him and comfort him. Otherwise he may become so discouraged that he won't be able to recover. Now show him that you still love him. (2 Corinthians 2:5-8 NLT)*SeeJohn 21:15-23 for the incident discussed here.
**SeeJohn 4:1-26
