Welcome! Last week we began our new
series on Shame and Honor. We discussed the idea that one can characterize
cultures by the degree to which they exhibit guilt-innocence characteristics,
fear-power characteristics, and shame-honor characteristics. We learned that
our culture leans strongly towards guilt and innocence, whereas many cultures
around the world, especially in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, lean towards
shame and honor. We learned that the cultures in which the Bible was written,
both in Old Testament and in New Testament times, were themselves primarily
shame-honor cultures, and thus it is of value for us to better understand this
kind of culture so that we better understand not only the Bible, but the very
heart of God. I also explained that becoming better acquainted with this kind
of culture can equip us to be better able to share the good news of the gospel
with people who live in this culture – including many people here in America. Last
week we also developed the ideas of shame and honor as two ends of a spectrum;
to be high in honor is to be low in shame, and vice versa. We talked about the
fall of Adam and Eve in Genesis as the beginning of our story of shame; when we
disobey God, we bring shame to ourselves, but not only to ourselves, but also
to God who made us.
My goal specifically for last week was
to open your eyes to this new way of thinking (new for most of us), thinking in
a shame-honor mindset. I closed with a powerful passage from Isaiah that speaks
of how God will ultimately remove our shame forever and treat us with
incredible, undeserved honor.
I want to mention one more thing from
last week: We talked about two kinds of honor: ascribed honor, which is honor
granted on respect of a person’s family, kinship, name, and “unearned” title,
and achieved honor, which is the granting of respect based on various kinds of
accomplishment. You have ascribed honor for who you are, and you obtain
achieved honor for what you do. In Jesus we see both kinds of honor; with your
new “honor-shame” eyes, let’s look at the opening to the book of Hebrews:
In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at
many times and in various ways, but in these last days He has spoken to us by his Son, whom He
appointed heir of all things, and through whom also He made the universe.
The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact
representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. After He
had provided purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the
Majesty in heaven. So He became as much superior to the
angels as the name He has inherited is superior to theirs. – Hebr. 1:1-4
How are you new eyes working? This is
powerful stuff! Where in the passage do we see Jesus’ ascribed honor? Well,
Jesus is God’s Son, which is a family connection. As Son, whatever glory is due
to the Father is also due to the Son. In fact, the passage says that the Son is
the radiance of God’s glory, a
beautiful image and a title for Jesus. It also says Jesus is God’s appointed heir of all things. These are
all things that Jesus did not earn; they are based on who He is, on His
position, on His family.
What about Jesus’ achieved honor? Well,
it says it was through Him that God made the universe – so that is something
Jesus did. He also is the sustainer of the universe, the one that holds it
together, and then the passage goes on to say that He provided purification for
sins – that is, He died on the cross for us, so that we could be purified, made
again honorable. The passage even goes on to say that His achieved honor (by
what He did) is as infinitely above the (wonderful) actions of the angels as is
His ascribed honor (as God’s Son) is above theirs (which is already higher than
that of man – man is “a little lower than the angels”).
Today I want to focus on the concept of “face.”
Face is a foreign concept to most westerners, and it is hard to define. Some
words associated with face are dignity, prestige, and reputation. The concept
is fairly important in most shame-honor cultures, but some talk about it openly
whereas others do not. In Asia, especially China and surrounding countries, it
seems to be most out in the open. There is a saying in China that men can’t
live without face like trees can’t live without bark. If you think about how bark
is an outer covering that is essential to protect the life of a tree, in a
similar way face is an outer covering of a person that protects their honor. To
put it in a slightly more western way, we could say that your face protects
your heart.
The following actions “give” some face:
Giving complements often and freely, praising someone in front of their elders
or superiors, giving high marks on an evaluation, giving a nice gift, inviting
someone to a fancy meal and paying for it. In contrast, the following actions
take away a person’s face: Revealing a person’s lack of knowledge or ability,
calling out someone on a lie, not showing proper deference to an elder or
superior, turning down an invitation (better to say maybe), openly criticizing,
challenging, or disagreeing with someone, especially if the person’s superiors
are present, and being openly and publicly angry at someone – the latter causes
you to lose face as well.
Now, face is a lot more complicated than
this, because the rules of face depend heavily on the relative honor status of
you and the other person. For example, it is often inappropriate for you to
invite a respected elder to a fancy meal, because it is seen as though you are
trying to take away his honor and keep it for your own. Honor is often seen as
a zero-sum-game; that is, it is often believed that there is only so much honor
to go around. In a way, you see this kind of thinking in our culture wherever
you see jealousy. I think of Saul’s jealousy over David when the women sang
about Saul killing his thousands but David killing his ten thousands. On the
flip side of this, the song was an especially dishonoring song to sing about
one’s king!
I have come to realize that face issues
come up when I have discussed research with some of my graduate students in my
office. I have learned that, after I have explained some difficult concept, it
is pointless to ask whether they understand, because they will always say yes.
Why? Because they don’t want to take away my face. If they tell me they don’t understand, they think it will reflect on my
ability as a professor. This is doubly important because I am above them in
relative honor status as their research advisor and as an elder, someone
significantly older than them. I have
found I need to use indirect
questions to get the answers I want. For example, I can give a choice – shall
we talk more about this topic or shall we move on to the next one, what would
you like? I can almost see their face-calculators running in their heads as
they think about this – if the result of the calculation is that either answer
is equal in face, then they will give their honest answer. In Asian culture, my
experience is that indirect communication is common and essential.
Face, like honor in general, is also
often thought of as a shared characteristic among groups. That is, when an
individual loses face, depending on what is involved, how public it is, etc.,
to some degree their entire family loses face, or their entire company loses
face, or even in extreme cases, their entire country loses face. In China a few
years ago there was a rapid succession of incidents of people being found out
who were doing abhorrent things in their food production such as using
cardboard, rat meat, etc. Because this made news all over the world, China saw
it as losing the face of their whole country, and they made new laws and
punished those involved severely. On the flip side, when China hosted the
Olympics, they spared no expense and had what was in my opinion an amazing
opening ceremony because they saw it as a unique opportunity to gain face
around the world. In contrast, when something very bad happens, an
honor-shame-driven country may resort to censorship to try to minimize the loss
of face. This happened a few years ago when in China when an enormous explosion
occurred at a dock where large amounts of fertilizer had been stored – a fire
set off the explosion, and many people died. It turns out that the materials
should not have been stored there; this was a violation of safety and other
policies. China’s punishment for those most responsible was a delayed death sentence. This is more
common in China than a “regular” death sentence. The idea behind it is that the
convicted person has a specified number of years (often two) to try to do good
works (while behind bars) to restore their face to some degree. What can they
do? Good behavior, writing statements of apology, spending their money (or
their family’s money) on good causes, etc. When the time is up, a judge or
panel decides whether the person has done enough. If they decide yes, the
sentence is reduced to life in prison; if no, then the death sentence is
carried out. As you can see, everything is oriented around face. This is quite
different from the American penal system.
In an honor-shame culture, who you know
can be more important than what you know. Who you know and who knows you is an
important component of face. Another important component is the history of your
actions. In a small relational community, especially, dishonorable actions,
even if what we in the west would call minor, can do lasting damage to your
face. Like the closely related concept of honor, face is partly ascribed and
partly acquired. So is lack of face. If you come from a poor or disreputable
family, you have less face to start off with.
Does the Bible talk about face?
Absolutely! The following is Jesus talking, Matthew 6 (the Sermon on the Mount):
Be careful not to practice your righteousness in
front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from
your Father in heaven. – Matt. 6:1
What is the principle
here? Face! When you practice your righteousness in front of others, you are
using a worldly way of building your own face. You do things that people around
you see, and they are impressed. This is the very definition of building face.
Jesus says that this should not be
your motivation for practicing righteousness, because if you do so, the
fleeting reward of a bit of face in this life will be all you get. Jesus goes
on with specific examples. From verse 2:
So when you give to the needy, do not announce
it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to
be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in
full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your
right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father,
who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. – Matt. 6:2-4
Now, I think it is safe
to say that most of us do not do this. But it does go on in our society. You
can go to Clemson and see walkways with people’s names on them. Our entire
department has been renamed after a living donor. You can go to a classical
music concert and in the program, you see the names of individual donors and
the level of donations they give, silver patrons, gold patrons, platinum patrons,
and so on. You see this even in Christian contexts. In the past, traditional
churches would put engraved plaques naming special donors on pews and other
things in the church building. Even today, if you give to Christian radio, they
are willing to announce your name on the radio. And other Christian activities
including a recent 5K race also announce their donors and the levels of their
donations. Now I apologize if I am stepping on toes here. This passage is not
saying that it is some major sin to give in public. But it is saying that doing
things for gaining worldly face will, well, only gain you worldly face. There
is a much better thing to aim for! Jesus continues in verses 5-6 by talking
about people who pray out in public to be seen by others, telling people to
pray in a private closet or room, again, forgoing the effort to build your own
face. And in verses 16-18, Jesus talks
about those who make a public show of their fasting, again saying instead to
hide the fact so that nobody knows (and thinks more highly of you as a result).
Can we extend this principle to
other “good” activities? I think so. As a general principle, we should do good
things in as private a way as possible. This is not to say that we shouldn’t
seek or accept promotions or take on activities just because they lead to some
positive recognition. It does mean that we shouldn’t do them for the reason of building our
reputation or face. Although not the primary application of this passage, I do
think verses 19-21 also speak to the issue of face:
Do not
store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and
where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven,
where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and
steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will
be also. – Matt. 6:19-21
Face is a kind of treasure on earth. The
early Greek and Roman philosophers considered it the greatest treasure. And so I do think this passage applies to
building one’s face. In fact, I would argue that face is even easier to lose
than monetary treasure! Just ask Roseanne (a few months ago) or the founder of
Papa John’s Pizza (this week).
I want to say something about why even Christians are tempted to build
face here in this life. At a deep level we all crave honor. We want to be well thought of by those
around us. I don’t believe this desire is sin, in and of itself. God made us to
be relational people, and the desire to receive praise is good when behind it
lies a desire to simply do good, to
help others, to make the family or society a little bit better through one’s
own actions. The problem is that we have a flawed view of what “those around
us” really means. We are forgetting about God! God is also a part of our family
and of our church and of our workplace and of our community. And we should
desire above all to hear Him praise
us! We should define our face by what God
says our face is, rather than what other people say. Sometimes the two
overlap, but sometimes they are quite different. This is what Jesus is getting
at here in the Sermon on the Mount.
There are times when the desire for face
is quite destructive. An example is peer pressure at a teenage party. The
teenager knows that if she does something that in other contexts (such as in
the eyes of her parents) would be considered bad, her status will rise among
her peers; that is, she will increase her face. (This of course applies to guys
too!) If the person instead remembered God’s perspective, they would understand
that face from God is infinitely better than face from one’s peers.
I want to next talk about people who have absolutely no face. One of the things we see from Scripture is that Jesus is in the business of restoring face to those who have no hope. He does this through healings, and the healings are more than just fixing the physical ailments; they are a restoration of face.
An example is the following account from
Luke:
As Jesus approached Jericho, a blind man was
sitting by the roadside begging. When he heard the crowd going by, he asked
what was happening. They told him, “Jesus of Nazareth is passing by.” He called
out, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” Those who led the way rebuked him
and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have
mercy on me!” – Luke 18:35-39
This man had lived for
we have no idea how long with his blindness. In that culture, there was no
“social net,” so he had to beg for his subsistence. If you think about it,
begging is by nature a very shameful thing – it is quite public and beggars
were (and are) often subject to ridicule and abuse by bad people who think it
is funny to make fun of them. Many people back then (and even today in some
societies) assumed that for a person to end up in such a situation meant that
there was great sin in his life or in his the lives of his family; that is,
they assumed this was a kind of punishment of some kind. In one of Jesus’
healings, His disciples even ask who sinned, the man or his parents, to have
caused the particular malady the person had. Jesus answered that neither had.
The social status or
face of a blind or otherwise infirm beggar was so low that to even associate
with such a person would damage the “face” of the one who did so. It was
acceptable – and even a face-elevating act – to give such a person some change if
done with sufficient public display so that people would notice, but to, say,
bring a meal to the person and eat with them would be an unthinkable action,
resulting in a severe loss of face. Ironically, such an action would elevate
the face of the beggar for that time – again, face was generally seen as a
zero-sum game at best – but once the person left, the beggar would be basically
back to his old status. Meanwhile, gossip about the other person would spread
and the damage to his reputation would be long-lasting. Returning to our passage:
Jesus stopped and ordered the man to be brought
to him. When he came near, Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for
you?” “Lord, I want to see,” he replied. Jesus said to him, “Receive your
sight; your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and
followed Jesus, praising God. When all the people saw it, they also praised
God. – Luke 18:40-43
This passage demonstrates Jesus’
compassion for the man. He doesn’t care about any loss of face He experiences
in talking with the beggar. And indeed, the miracle is not only a miracle of
healing but a miraculous breaking of the zero-sum game rules of face. Jesus’
status among the people grew with each miracle, but so did the face of those He
healed.
I want to give one more example of a
healing, from Luke 15:
While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was
covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground
and begged Him, “Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean.” Jesus
reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” He said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him. Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer
the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to
them.” Yet the news about Him
spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear Him and to be healed
of their sicknesses. – Luke 15:12-15
There was no lower place of shame, no
more complete loss of face, than to have a disease like leprosy. Due to fear of
transmission to other people, people like this were supposed to walk around
shouting “unclean, unclean” so that others could avoid them. Can you imagine a
more shameful circumstance to endure?
Note that the man fell with his literal
face to the ground. This was the culturally accepted position when greeting
someone in which there was a severe difference in social status or face between
two people. A historian from that era notes that when equals would meet they
would kiss each other in the same way – either on the lips or each on the
other’s cheek – and when there was a difference (but not an extreme difference)
in status the higher status individual would kiss the lower status one,
typically on the forehead. In light of this, think about when Judas kissed
Jesus. There is no indication the kiss was returned; in other words, Judas
symbolically greeted Jesus as if Jesus was the inferior! Now think about Paul’s
repeated instruction in his letters to greet one another with a holy kiss.
Because people were to kiss one another, the implication is to treat each
another as social equals regardless of
what the culture would normally say. Old/young, rich/poor, even Jew/Gentile –
none of it matters in terms of our relationship to one another through Christ!
This is very powerful. But let’s return to the passage.
Again, the miraculous healing not only
restores the man’s physical body but restores his honor as well. Note too that
Jesus touched the man before he was healed, a severe violation of social custom,
but an amazing act of compassion! With respect to face, again, the reputation
of Jesus also grew from the encounter, even more than Jesus had wished for. Why
did He tell people not to talk about Him? Because His time for enduring the
cross had not yet come.
We can read these types of accounts in
the gospels (of which there are many more) and wonder, “What does this have to
do with us?” We cannot heal like Jesus can. Generally, this is true, although I
believe miraculous healings do still occur. But there is no one today who can
miraculously heal whenever they want to, in the way that Jesus was able to do.
That being said, we are called to be His disciples, and through medicine we can help
those at the very bottom of the shame-honor scale. I want to show a video clip
of some people that are quite literally restoring people’s faces. This is a bit
hard to watch in some places, as some of the people are quite disfigured, so if
you have younger children, you might want to think about whether you want them
to see it or not. This is a long clip, but I think it is worth every minute.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVXrD-zgDCw
(I want us to watch the first 10 minutes 20 seconds)
Isn’t that powerful? While it is
literally an incredibly valuable thing these Christians do, it is also a
picture of a deeper spiritual reality involving face. The truth is that we are all called to be in the face-restoring
business. For those of us not in the medical profession, one way we do this is
by sharing the gospel with people. We will talk more and deeper about
shame-honor approaches to the gospel later in this series, but for now, I want
to show one more, short clip that looks at the good news from the point of view
of face.
This second clip mentions three verses
without expanding them out, so I want to present these first. The context of
the first two is that the clip explains that Jesus has increased God’s “face”
by doing what He was sent to do. In the first verse Jesus is speaking to the
Father:
I have brought You glory on earth by finishing the work You gave Me
to do. – John 17:4
And in the second, Paul is
speaking to those he is writing:
For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on
behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be
confirmed and, moreover,
that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written: “Therefore
I will praise You among the Gentiles; I will sing the praises of Your name.” – Romans 15:8-9
And the final verse explains that Jesus
has also increased our face!
I have given them the glory that You gave Me, that they may be one
as We are one. – John 17:22
Transcript of this video:
“Face” depends on relationships and
actions, who we are and what we do.
Who you are: who you know and who knows
you.
Who are you?
Who do you know? Do you know many
“important” people?
Who knows you? Who does NOT give you
“face”?
The human family is torn apart. Who do
YOU avoid or dislike, ignore, neglect, or forget?
We come from a broken human family.
Without this relationship, you have no “face”.
What have you done?
Anything you didn’t want people to see?
Said something you’re ashamed of? Ever
been selfish or treated people wrongly?
Before God, our true Father, we have all
lost face. Except one person.
Only Jesus has true face.
Who is Jesus?
Jesus is king of all nations. Who does he
know? God. He is God’s son.
“…no one knows the Father except the Son
and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.” – Matt. 11:27
What has Jesus done?
Jesus gives God face. (John 17:4, Rom.
15:8-9)
He defeats demons and disease. He
overcame the shame of death!
There’s more: Jesus shares his glory
with his people! (John 17:22)
How?
Jesus changes WHO we are. Jesus restores
God’s human family.
God’s children honor their heavenly
Father.
How can you receive God’s grace? What
can you do?
Seek His face. Change your mind. Give
allegiance to Jesus.
If you want face, glorify God, not
yourself. Then you will have real honor.
“How can you believe, when you receive
glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?”
– John 5:44
Let us pray that we would seek God’s
face above our own, that we would desire the fame of His name rather than ours.
And let us pray that we would be agents of face, servants who help God to turn
those without face to Him so that Jesus can heal their deepest parts, remove
their shame, and give them face in Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment