Shame, before Christ

In the next seven chapters Welch now looks at how shame can be traced through three historical periods: before Jesus Christ, during Jesus' life on earth, and after Jesus' resurrection.  In the first era he says shame begins as nakedness, followed by rejection and completed by contamination, with all three in contrast to God's holiness, making shame even more shameful.  Ultimately however this contrast is intended to remind us of our need for covering, acceptance and cleansing that only God can give.

Naked without Shame

Welch tells us that the Bible is all about shame.

God identifies it.
God experienced it.
You are not alone.

Gen 2:25 describes Adam and Eve, both naked and not ashamed.  BUT THAT CHANGED.  Shame came into the picture:(  But watch out, every step we take into God's story will bring a little more hope, sometimes gently -- feeling understood, other times so amazing it'll take our breath away.  (p. 41)

The thing is though, Scripture is about shame from the beginning to the end and we have to figure out the texts to consider, and there are MANY of them, which should give us hope!  In summary it is the GOSPEL, when we receive things we don't deserve!!.  Welch adds a comment here, "if what follows doesn't sound like good news to you, you are not really hearing the story.  On the other hand, if it sounds too good to be true, you are hearing correctly.  Your heart and mind just need to catch up to its reality.  YOU WON'T FIND THIS HOPE ANYWHERE ELSE (my emphasis)."

In the beginning there was no shame.  People walked around with no shame, nude, with no concerns about their bodies, no concerns about what they had done, they feared no critical judgments because their bodies were flawless, they had done nothing wrong, no one was critical or condescending.  Sounds wonderful!!!

We have to start there, according to Welch, because it's important to know that shame shouldn't be part of the human condition, so shame is like a thief, a robber, who shouldn't be there!!

The problem is though, that if I feel like I am shame, how do I get rid of myself, cleanse myself of me?????  Scripture tells us that we have something absolutely amazing - better than Eden after the death and resurrection of Jesus.  Scripture takes awhile to get to the details but "better" is definitely there!!

I pray that everyone may have the beginning of some hope at this point.