Humiliation

So Hanun seized David’s servants and shaved off half of each one’s beard. He cut the lower part of their robes off so that their buttocks were exposed, and then sent them away. – 2 Samuel 10:4 (NET)

During the reign of King David of Israel, the king of the Ammonites died. His son, Hanun, was his successor. David, in a royal and dignified fashion, desired to send Hanun a sincere and heartfelt expression of his sympathy in the matter of Hanun’s father’s death, so he sent a detachment of his servants to bear his message. These royal emissaries, however, were not well received. Quite the contrary, in fact. Instead of a friendly welcome, “the Ammonite officials said to their Lord Hanun, ‘Do you really think David is trying to honor your father by sending these messengers to express his sympathy? No, David has sent his servants to get information about the city and spy on it so they can overthrow it’.” (10:3) Hanun, perhaps still overcome with grief because of the death of his father and not yet thinking clearly, seizes upon the words of his officials and acts in a dishonorable way. “Hanun seized David’s servants and shaved off half of each one’s beard. He cut the lower part of their robes off so that their buttocks were exposed, and then sent them away” (10:4). This was designed to shame these messengers. The beard was a mark of dignity and honor; and of course, cutting off the garments at the waist not only exposed their buttocks, but it also exposed the circumcision of these men. As the Scripture says here, “the men were thoroughly humiliated” (10:5b).

Reading stories such as these, one is forced to reflect on the Apostle Paul’s words to the Corinthian church. Though he was in the midst of referencing part of Israel’s trials in the wilderness, words such as “These things happened to them as examples and were written for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11), come to mind. That said, how is this story about half-shaved beards and cut-off garments and humiliation written for our instruction? In answering that question, we must always remember that the Scriptures represent a grand narrative. They present the story of God’s plan of redemption for mankind, doing so through the tale of Israel and of Israel’s Messiah, Jesus. Owing to that narrative structure, as we find ourselves in the position to look back upon these events, we see Jesus. When we see Jesus, we must make every effort to see God’s all-important redemptive act for His Israel and the creation, which was the ordeal of His crucifixion. When we do so, we are reminded of this God’s faithfulness to His people, as demonstrated through His Word.

When the Romans carried out a crucifixion, the victim of crucifixion would be crucified naked. This was meant to add to the humiliation of the victim, adding yet another display of his utter powerlessness in the face of Rome’s great might. For crucified Jews, the fact of being naked meant that their covenant marker, their circumcision, was exposed for all the world to see. The Romans, of course, knew this, and it added yet one more dimension of humiliation to the process. Naturally, Jesus underwent crucifixion in this way, completely unclothed. Along with this, though there is no record of it in the Gospel accounts of the crucifixion, there is a long tradition that Jesus’ beard was ripped from His face at some point during His ordeal. This tradition stems from Isaiah’s prophecy, in which his “suffering servant” speaks and says, “I offered my back to those who attacked, my jaws to those who tore out my beard; I did not hide my face from insults and spitting” (50:6). The Gospels do record that Jesus was scourged, which involved lashes primarily to the back (though certainly not limited to the back), that He was insulted, and that the Roman soldiers spit in His face. Therefore, an extrapolation is made, in conjunction with this prophecy, that His beard was ripped from His face as well. In light of the sheer number of prophecies fulfilled in the life and death and Resurrection of Jesus, we are probably quite safe in accepting this tradition. These two things, naked crucifixion and beard-pulling, bear a similarity to the exposure and beard-shaving of the servants of King David. As it relates to Jesus and His crucifixion, these two things, naturally, were designed to not only increase pain and suffering, but to induce a thorough humiliation. This would have been especially so for a Jew, as this story of David’s servants might very well have sprung to mind, in light of Jesus’ messianic claims and the messianic title of “Son of David” that was attached to Israel’s messiah-king.
Undoubtedly, in undergoing these things, we can imagine that Jesus would have been humiliated. David’s servants experienced such humiliation, so such a thing would have been a natural response. However, if we move forward in Isaiah, as Isaiah himself perhaps looks back to the “Hanun situation,” we find the suffering servant, having undergone these actions that were meant to induce humiliation, saying, “But the sovereign Lord helps me, so I am not humiliated” (50:7a). He goes on to say, “For that reason I am steadfastly resolved; I know I will not be put to shame. The one who vindicates me is close by” (50:7b-8a). Jesus, in defiance of humiliation, steadfastly trusted that His God was going to raise Him up. In a culture in which being put to shame was the equivalent of undergoing death, He knew that He was going to be made to overcome the pending grave, thus trumping any possible shame. He knew that His vindicating Resurrection was not far away, so rather than rage against His adversaries and accusers, He asked for their forgiveness and entrusted all things, His Spirit included, into the faithful hands of His Father.