Shame and the Whipping Boy

What is Shame?

Shame has been defined as “a spiritual consequence of sin”.  Oxford defines shame as “the feelings of sadness, embarrassment, and guilt that you have when you know that something you have done is wrong or stupid.” None of them quite plumb the depths of the biblical definition.  Irrespective, it is always viewed as unpleasant, and the world’s definition often focuses on one’s self-perception and self-worth. 

Do you see the theological problem of Jesus’ having experienced shame as low self-worth or the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior?

Less so, a spiritual consequence of sin because He could experience that consequence … of our sin, not His own … but then, is that really *experiencing* shame?  Or just receiving someone else’s punishment?

But He was pierced for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on Him,
and by His wounds we are healed.
(Isaiah 53:5)

You may have heard the strange phrase “whipping boy.”  Do you know where that comes from?

“It seems an odd notion to us now that a royal court would have kept a child for the purpose of beating him when the crown prince did wrong. That’s just what did happen though. Whipping Boy was an established position at the English court during the Tudor and Stuart monarchies of the 15th and 16th centuries.”    The saying ‘Whipping boy’ – meaning and origin. (phrases.org.uk) 

Did the crown prince receive the ability never to do wrong again by the whipping boy being whipped?  Would punishment still come to the whipping boy if the crown prince failed and did wrong again?  As any actual “moral agency” or intrinsic power over behavior resided within the crown prince, the whipping boy didn’t stand a chance of escaping another beating.

Now, let’s turn to what it means to experience something.

While the crown prince may have suffered the emotions of seeing someone whom he cared about being whipped, did the crown prince suffer in the same way (e.g., personally, individually, emotionally, or physically) as that of the “whipping boy” who felt every blow in his entire being?

Do you see where I’m headed?

We’ll get there but for now let’s just agree that Jesus was no mere whipping boy, punished instead of us.  Read Romans 3:20-26 (verses 20-22 below).

Romans 3:20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.  21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify.  22 This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe.