Bring Your Shame to Jesus – Hebrews 2:5–18
Aug 18, 2025 23015
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Shame can be a heavy burden. Some of us feel shame because of the things we’ve done. Others carry shame because of things that have been done to us. Words spoken over us. Painful actions. Past experiences that still weigh us down. Shame can feel like a cloak we never asked for but can’t take off. It can define us, isolate us, and make us feel unworthy.
So where do we take our shame? What do we do with it?
Hebrews chapter 2 gives us good news. We take our shame to Jesus. And we can do that for three big reasons.
First, we take our shame to Jesus because he is the true and better man. Hebrews quotes Psalm 8: “What is man that you are mindful of him, or the son of man that you care for him? You made him for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned him with glory and honour, putting everything in subjection under his feet.” That’s God’s good design for humanity — made in his image, crowned with glory, ruling his creation under his authority. But the writer adds, “At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.” Things are not the way they should be. We’ve rebelled against God. We’ve tried to live independently of him. We’ve broken our relationship with him, with one another, and even with creation itself.
But then verse 9 gives hope: “But we see Jesus… crowned with glory and honour because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.” Where we failed, Jesus has succeeded. He lived the life we could not live. He died the death we deserved. He tasted death on our behalf. And now he is crowned with glory and honour. He is the true and better man.
Second, we take our shame to Jesus because he brings us into a new family. Verse 10 says, “It was fitting that he… in bringing many sons and daughters to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.” Jesus didn’t just come to rescue isolated individuals — he came to bring a whole family to glory. And verse 11 continues, “That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters.”
That is incredible. We live in a world where people often shame and reject us. Some of us have even felt that from our own families. And yet Jesus is not ashamed of us. He knows everything about us — the worst things we’ve done, and the worst things that have been done to us — and he still calls us brother, he still calls us sister. He welcomes us into the family of God. If you belong to him, you are no longer on the outside. You belong.
Third, we take our shame to Jesus because he is our faithful high priest. Verse 14 says, “Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.” Jesus came to share in our humanity. He came to destroy the devil’s grip and free us from fear.
And then verse 17 says, “He had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest… to make propitiation for the sins of the people.” At the cross, Jesus bore our sin and our shame. He turned aside the wrath of God. He took on himself what we deserved, so that we could go free. And because he himself suffered when tempted, he is able to help us in our weakness. He knows what it is to be human. He knows what it is to be tempted. And he stands with us as a merciful and faithful high priest.
That is good news. You are not defined by the shameful things you’ve done. You are not defined by the shameful things done against you. You are defined by Jesus, who calls you his own.
So where do we take our shame? We take it to Jesus. Because he is the true and better man. Because he brings us into a new family. And because he is our faithful high priest.
This week, we will unpack each of these ideas in great depth. My prayer is that these truths from Hebrews will help you to keep trusting Jesus.
Reflection
Where do you take your shame? Jesus is not ashamed of you. He bore your sin and shame at the cross, and he calls you his own. Bring it to him today.
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