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This sermon was adapted from only one point of a three-point sermon by Spurgeon, “the Prince of Preachers.” May it bless you!

I have always wondered why most moder preachers don’t talk about the suffering of Christ on the Sundays leading up to Easter. They go right on with their expositions and self-help talks right up to Easter Sunday. Then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, they talk about Jesus rising from the grave!

Dr. Michael Horton pointed out that many evangelical pastors don’t even preach on Jesus’ resurrection at Easter! He told about a liberal theologian visiting a large evangelical church. He thought he would hear the Gospel. Instead he heard a sermon on “how Jesus gives us strength to overcome our obstacles.” Then Dr. Horton told of a liberal Methodist theologian who went to another “Bible believing” church where “the sermon was something about how Jesus overcame his setbacks and so can we.” The Methodist professor went away saying that the experience confirmed his thought that Bible-believers are as likely as liberals to talk about “pop psychology, politics, or moralism instead of the gospel” (Michael Horton, Ph.D., Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church, Baker Books, 2008, pp. 29, 30).

Today there is very little preaching on the suffering and death of Christ. The main reason is that preachers think everyone who comes to their church is a Christian already – and therefore doesn’t need to hear about Christ’s passion. That is the same error the German churches fell into in the early nineteenth century. Lewis O. Brastow said that the preaching in Germany in that period went wrong by thinking that everyone attending their churches were saved. Dr. Brastow said, “A baptized congregation is assumed to be a Christian congregation and should be addressed as such...this may in part explain the relative ineffectiveness of German preaching” (Representative Modern Preachers, Macmillan, 1904, p. 11). Most Baptist preachers today assume that their members are already Christians, so there is no need to preach on the suffering and death of Christ. I am sure this has produced the very weak verse-by-verse style of preaching in our churches.

I also think that saved people need to hear of Christ’s suffering. The Apostle Peter said,

“Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps” (I Peter 2:21).

Many people in our churches are not willing to undergo any suffering today. They do not even come to a Sunday evening service or a midweek prayer meeting. One reason has to be the fact that they have not been reminded of Christ’s great suffering – which the Apostle Peter said was “an example, that ye should follow his steps.” One man complained to me that he has to drive forty minutes each way to attend his church. I told him that this would do him good. After all, Christ “suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps.” We can only become strong disciples by going through suffering for Christ, as we are told in Romans 5:3-5. This leads us back to our text, which tells us about the suffering and shame Christ went through to save us,

“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” (Hebrews 12:2).

I am lifting out those words, “despising the shame” this evening. The Greek word translated “despising” means “not to regard” or “not to value.” Ellicott tells us, “The literal meaning is very forcible, endured a cross, despising shame; the shame of such a death being set over against the joy that lay before him” (Charles John Ellicott, editor, Ellicott’s Commentary on the Whole Bible, vol. VIII, Zondervan Publishing House, n.d., p. 336; note on Hebrews 12:2).

It is my purpose this evening to show you Jesus suffering in shame. What a terrible thing that Jesus should go through so much shame in the day that He suffered to save us! Joseph Hart understood this. He said,

See how patient Jesus stands,
   Insulted in this awful place!
Sinners have bound the Almighty hands,
   And spit in their Creator’s face.
(“His Passion” by Joseph Hart, 1712-1768; altered by the Pastor).

For our good, and for our salvation, Jesus was put to shame in four ways.

I. First, think of the shameful accusations against Jesus.

He knew no sin. He had done no wrong. Even Pilate, the Roman governor who had Him crucified, said so. Pilate told His accusers, “I find no fault in this man” (Luke 23:4). “I find in him no fault at all” (John 18:38). Yet Jesus was charged with sin of the worst kind. He was condemned by the Sanhedrin with the sin of blasphemy. Could He blaspheme God? He who cried out to God as He sweat a bloody sweat, “Father... not my will, but thine, be done” (Luke 22:42). No, Jesus never blasphemed His Father, God. And it is because it was so against His character that He felt the shameful sting of this accusation.

Next they accused Him of treason. They said that He was a traitor, who was against the Roman emperor. They said He stirred up the people and told them He was a king. Of course He was completely innocent. When the people tried to force Him to be their king, He left them and went to the wilderness to pray. He told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36). He would never lead a rebellion against the government. Yet they accused Him of it.

II. Second, think of the shameful mockery Jesus endured.

He also went through shameful mocking. He was stripped naked by the soldiers. His body was stripped naked twice. Although artists paint Him with a loincloth on the Cross, He was actually stark naked. He had nothing to hide His naked body from staring eyes and mocking mouths of the wicked crowd. They gambled for His cloak while He had nothing to cover the shame of His nakedness on the Cross.

They also mocked His nature as the Son of God. They said, “If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross” (Matthew 27:40). They screamed at Him,

“He trusted in God; let him deliver him now, if he will have him: for he said, I am the Son of God. The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth” (Matthew 27:43-44).

He said nothing as they mocked Him so shamefully – for He “endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2).

Again, they mocked Him and laughed at Him shamefully as the king of Israel. He was their king, but they despised Him, laughed at Him, and put Him to shame. He was King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He could have called down thousands of avenging angels to destroy them all. He could have cried out and the ground beneath their feet would have opened, and they would have been swallowed up “alive into the pit” with Korah, who spoke against Moses, as they spoke against the Christ (Numbers 16:33). He could have called down fire from heaven and burned them alive, as Elijah did to King Ahab’s soldiers (II Kings 1:9-10). “Yet he opened not his mouth” in His own defense (Isaiah 53:7).

They even mocked Him shamefully as a prophet. They blindfolded Him. Then they beat Him in the face with their fists, and said, “Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee?” (Matthew 26:68). We love the prophets now. Isaiah thrills our hearts with his clear prophecies of Christ, and his deep insights on the salvation of our souls. How sorrowful we should feel to think of Jesus the prophet, blindfolded and beaten, mocked and insulted in the palace of the high priest!

But He also suffered mockery as our priest. Jesus had come into the world to be our priest and to offer a sacrifice. But they mocked His priesthood too. All salvation was in the hands of the priests. Now they say to Him, “If thou be Christ, save thyself and us.” He was the great High Priest. He was the Paschal Lamb. He was the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. How horrifying that He should suffer their heartless mockery! Yet He endured the cross, “despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2).

III. Third, think of the shameful scourging and crucifixion that He suffered.

He was mocked even more by being scourged. Many of the early church fathers give a horrible description of Christ’s scourging. Whether what they said was based on fact we cannot say. But His scourging must have been awful, because the prophet said,

“But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5).

It had to be a terrible scourging across His back – because the prophet called it “wounding,” “bruising,” “chastisement,” and “stripes.” And every time the lash lacerated His back with heavy blows, the torturer laughed a hellish laugh. Every time His Blood spurted out of fresh wounds, and the flesh was torn off of the ribs, there was shameful jeering and mockery and laughing to make His pain more terrible. Yet for our good, and for our salvation, He despised the shame!

And then He came to the Cross. They nailed Him to it. In their Satanic fury they continued to mock and laugh at His sufferings! The high priests and scribes sat and watched Him writhing on the Cross. I can imagine them saying, “He will never again be thronged by the multitudes!” “Ha, ha, ha, those hands that touched lepers and healed them, and that raised the dead, will never do it again!” They mocked Him. And finally, when He said, “I thirst,” they gave Him sour vinegar to drink – mocking even His parched mouth and swollen tongue!

See how patient Jesus stands,
   Insulted in this awful place!
Sinners have bound the Almighty hands,
   And spit in their Creator’s face.

With thorns His temple gored and gashed,
   Send streams of blood from every part;
His back with heavy scourges lashed,
   But sharper scourges tear His heart.

The cross! The cross! When we hear those words today it does not give us thoughts of shame. But in the time of Christ the cross was looked on as the most terrible and frightening of all punishments. This horrifying method of crucifixion was reserved only for the worst criminals, reserved only for – a slave who murdered his master, a traitor, the worst of criminals. The cross made death both horrible and deeply painful. Crucifixion was for villains – a murderer, an assassin, an insurrectionist. It was a very long, and very painful way to die. Of all the instruments of torture in the pagan, Roman world, none was as cruel as crucifixion. We are not able to fully understand how shameful it was to die on a cross. But the Jews knew it and the Romans knew it. And Christ knew what a shameful thing it was to be stripped naked and nailed to a cross. And the crucifixion of Jesus was even worse than others. He had to carry His own cross through the streets. He was crucified between two thieves, which meant that He was as bad as a common criminal. This made His death even more shameful. But He despised the shame and endured the cross – for our salvation, and as our example!

IV. Fourth, let us come even closer to the cross of Jesus, and see even more of its shame.

The cross! The cross! Sorrow fills our hearts at the very thought of it! The rough wood is laid upon the ground. Christ is thrown on His back. Four soldiers grab His hands and feet and drive nails through the flesh. He begins to bleed. He is lifted up into the air. The end of the cross is dashed into the hole they dug for it. His arms are dislocated. Every bone is pulled out of joint by the violent thud. He hangs there in naked shame, looked upon by the great crowd that was gathered. The burning sun shines hot upon His flesh. A fever begins to burn in His body. His tongue dries up and sticks to the roof of His mouth. The pain is so excruciating that it is almost unbearable.

Worse than all that, He had lost the thing that gives martyrs their strength. He had lost the presence of God. Now the Father is making Him a propitiation for our sins. Now the Father is “pleased...to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: [he hath made] his soul an offering for sin” (Isaiah 53:10). Here is Jesus – abandoned by God and forsaken by His friends!

Nailed naked to the accursed wood,
   Exposed to earth and heaven above,
A spectacle of wounds and blood,
   A sad display of injured love.

Hark! How his dreadful cries affright
   Affected angels, while they view;
His friends forsook Him in the night,
   And now His God forsakes Him too!

Here is Jesus alone. His Disciples have run away in fear. God has punished Him and turned away. Jesus is left alone to be trodden in the wine press, and to dip His vesture in His own Blood! For our good and for our salvation, He is bruised, crushed, destroyed, His soul made sorrowful even unto death.

In olden times men and women wept when Jesus was described like this. Sometimes they even cried out loud in the services. But we can only read of this in history books today. Your generation, having viewed thousands upon thousands of murders on television, cannot shed a single tear. Your generation, drenched in the blood of fifty-five million aborted babies, cannot even give out a sigh of grief, for your generation is devoid of natural affection and can only give an empty stare! If yours were a normal generation, you would feel great agony in your heart that Jesus went through all this to save your soul.

Please think, my friends, that Jesus went through all this pain and all this shame for you, for your salvation and as your example. He endured the cross, despising the shame for you.

“While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him” (Romans 5:8-9).

Please stand and sing the last song on your song sheet.

When I survey the wondrous cross,
   On which the Prince of glory died,
My richest gain I count but loss,
   And pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
   Save in the death of Christ, my God;
All the vain things that charm me most,
   I sacrifice them to His blood.

See, from His head, His hands, His feet,
   Sorrow and love flow mingled down;
Did e’er such love and sorrow meet,
   Or thorns compose so rich a crown?

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
   That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
   Demands my soul, my life, my all.
(“When I Survey the Wondrous Cross” by Dr. Isaac Watts, 1674-1748).

(END OF SERMON)
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Scripture Read Before the Sermon by Mr. Abel Prudhomme: Matthew 26:59-68.
Solo Sung Before the Sermon by Mr. Benjamin Kincaid Griffith:
“His Passion” (by Joseph Hart, 1712-1768).