How to restore honour with the gospel

In summer 2021 German Alliance Mission (GAM) started a think tank—a place to just jot down ideas and think widely. Three members (Jörg Eymann, Carsten Berners, and Judith Ricken) participated. They decided to dig into “contextualization,” specifically how to present the gospel in Japan in a way that it can be culturally understood. After reading various books on the topic, each member of the think tank selected a Bible passage about honour and shame to share with the think tank. This article is a summary of some of the ideas they discovered and talked about.

Judith: concept of shame

I remember the first time I shared Romans 3:24 with Japanese university students: “justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (ESV). Excited, I said, “You are justified!”—and was met by blank faces. The students had no wish or desire to be justified and therefore couldn’t rejoice about the fact that they were. I pondered this for weeks. How do I present the gospel if justification is not desired? When on furlough in Germany, I asked a Japanese friend who lived in Germany for more than 20 years. He said, “I don’t want to be justified. It is clear that I am a sinner—I want to be accepted.” Coming from Martin Luther’s inheritance, I was stunned and wondered if you could even be a Christian without a clear understanding of justification by grace.

I decided to dive into the topic and discovered that forgiveness is the answer to guilt, but honour is the answer to shame. I read The Global Gospel¹ where Werner Mischke explains that shame is more harmful than guilt because if you feel guilty, you can apologize and receive forgiveness. But the person feeling shame cannot “un-shame” him/herself. They need a person from outside giving them honour, accepting them into the group, reinstating their status.

Part of the problem is that shame is a kind of taboo word in Japan. I learned the Japanese word for sin (罪 tsumi) in my third week in Japan. It took many years for me to learn the word for shame (恥 haji), but even when I finally learned it, I never heard it mentioned. This puzzled me. My Japanese coworkers explained that it is felt deeply but not necessarily verbalized. Some students might not even connect what they feel with the word “haji”. It seems shameful to even talk about it. So people who feel ashamed remain hidden, and it is hard to recognize or find them. Many people also carry a sense of shame without expressing or identifying it.

Furthermore, for a person who feels guilt, it is possible to distance themselves from their sin. We perceive sin as a deed. “I have sinned,” we say in English. Whereas the person who feels shame most often doesn’t feel shame for a deed but rather in their entire being. “I am ashamed” is the expression used. That’s why the force of shame and its destructive power is stronger than that of feeling guilt.

Werner Mischke wrote that the topic of shame is far more often mentioned in the Bible than the topic of sin. This puzzled our think tank as again the word “shame” doesn’t appear so often. Shame and honour are often in stories, expressed through images and not through the literal word “shame.” Mischke shared a list of words that express the concept of shame without using the term. Most of these words are relational in character: for example, Father, honour, accepted, renewed, and crowned.²

Psalm 113 has been on my mind for a long time, and so I chose it to study for this think tank. Often when we don’t reach the same level as others or don’t reach what we perceive as the common standard, we feel unworthy. We think things like: “Everyone is married but me, everyone has children but me, everyone has a position of influence but me”. After praising God and proclaiming his greatness, Psalm 113 talks about God who “raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes, with the princes of his people. He gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children” (Ps. 113: 7–9 ESV).

Coming from a guilt culture (Germany), I realized that this feeling of “not fulfilling the standard” is indeed shame. But in this Psalm, God fulfills the standard for the poor and needy and also for the barren woman. In those days barrenness was a huge shame. We read how Hannah suffered from it in 1 Samuel 1.

The images in Psalm 113 are so vivid it is easy to imagine. Images from stories like Joseph, who was taken from prison and made the second-most important man in the state within mere moments of having explained the dreams to the pharaoh. This is not a rags-to-riches story where someone slowly works himself up in society, where the poor refugee becomes a famous doctor. The biblical promise is different: the poor and needy person is taken by God and put in the midst of princes, among the noble of his society and treated as if he belonged there! Wouldn’t that be amazing if you or I suddenly found ourselves among the noblest of the city—not as an outsider but as a cherished member? That is what God is doing for us. He takes our “lack” away, that failure to fulfill the standard that makes us feel ashamed and unworthy.

After I presented my Bible passage and explanation, we thought, Yes, this is great news, but how does it influence and change the lives of Japanese people who might be bullied by their co-workers or who indeed are childless among mothers? I think imaginative prayer is really helpful to grasp this new reality. It helps to imagine myself on the ash heap, a place that poor people could sleep to get warm, and not even daring to enter the city gate thinking myself unworthy of normal society. And then suddenly there is a tap on my shoulder, Jesus smiles at me and I find myself dressed in robes among the noble of my society and everyone is eager to include me in the topic they’re currently discussing. How amazing that would be! And yes, indeed that is what happened. God invited me into his kingdom where I have an important role and he shows me that he cherishes my presence every day. I still live on earth, but my citizenship is indeed in heaven (Phil. 3:20). Carsten worked the “status change” out in more depth.

Carsten: from strangers to citizens

For our meeting I read the book Ministering in Honor-Shame Cultures by Jason Georges and Mark D. Baker. It gave me some essential insights into this interesting topic.

Sentences like “The removal of shame and the restoration of honor lies at the center of God’s salvation”³ really widened my understanding of this theme. For missionaries serving in Japan, knowing about honour and shame is of utmost importance because we encounter this way of thinking in our daily lives.

When I was doing my internship in a church in Nagoya, the Japanese pastor shared that in his view, for many Japanese “belonging comes before believing”. There were some people in church at this time who were not Christians yet. But it was obvious that they enjoyed the warm atmosphere at the church. We often sat together after lunch talking about many different topics. I am convinced that this fellowship helped some of the guests to become Christians.

I chose a text from the letter of Paul to the Ephesians: “Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household” (2:19 NIV). I especially find the fundamental differences between the two central pairs “foreigners/strangers” vs. “fellow citizens with God’s people/members of his household” eye-opening for our study of honour and shame.

I approached the text in the form of a spiritual meditation, noting associations that came to mind while looking at these four central words (foreigners, strangers, fellow citizens, members of his household). I believe for many missionaries these expressions ring a bell.

The expression “foreigner” (他国人 takokujin) led me to think about when and where I am a foreigner. How do I feel being foreign to some place?

Missionaries all over the world can easily connect with this term. Since I am from Germany, I am a foreigner in this beautiful country of Japan. This is not my place of birth, and even after many years of serving as a missionary in Japan, some cultural aspects are still foreign to me. I look like a foreigner, I speak Japanese like a foreigner, and my whole appearance makes it immediately obvious that I am not from this country.

“Strangers” (寄留者 kiryūsha): How does this word sound to me? What are some of the thoughts that I connect with this term? Is there anybody in the world who likes to be called a stranger?

This term is familiar to me as well. I am a stranger in Japan, and I feel like an outsider, which sometimes can be a painful experience.

The second pair is very different: “fellow citizens with God’s people” (聖徒たちと同じ国民であり seitotachi to onaji kokumin de ari) and “members of his household” (神の家族 kami no kazoku).

In comparison to the first two groups of people, these men and women have more rights and privileges. They have more protection and can easily access other members of their family. Being called a “fellow citizen with God’s people” sounds clearly like an honour to me.

Finally, the expression “members of his household” is a wonderful description of our state of belonging to God’s family. What a privilege it is to be described like that! The Japanese translation underlines this truth in a direct way: (神の家族 kami no kazoku) God’s family!

Jörg: the God of second chances

For my Bible passage, I chose the story of Jacob (Genesis 25–35). We all know this story of honour and shame. Jacob disinherits his older brother, Esau, and dishonours his old, honourable father, Isaac. He changes the order of succession that no one was ever allowed to change in this ancient society. He brings shame on the whole family and becomes a disgrace to the entire clan. He should be severely punished for his shameful acts and be cast out of the community never to return. Esau wanted to kill Jacob, so Jacob flees.

Are we (as Westerners) aware of how shameful and hurtful his behaviour really was? Do we understand how shocking this story might be for our Japanese friends? And another thing: Where is God in the story? What does he think about Jacob’s shameful and deceitful behaviour? Later, he calls himself the “God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”. How is that possible?

Before Jacob flees from Esau’s anger, something extraordinary happens: Although Isaac was badly deceived by his son Jacob, he blessed him a second time. “May God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers” (Gen. 28:3 NIV) Why? When Rebekah was pregnant, the twins were already fighting in her womb. “Why is this happening to me?” she asked.

God answered, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger” (Gen. 25:22–23 NIV). Surely Isaac heard of this story and was aware that God had elected the younger son over the elder.

Hebrews 11:20 says that Isaac prayed in faith for the blessing of Jacob and Esau (see, the order has been changed!) in regard to their future. Isaac needed faith in God’s provision and guidance when, as patriarch of the clan, he was deceived and hurt by the shameful behaviour of his son Jacob. He needed faith to forgive Jacob and to give him a second chance because he trusted in the God of the second chance. He trusted that the LORD could use bad to bring forth good.

Conclusion

Judith: I was surprised how easily I could relate to many things we discovered about shame. Germany is often classified as a guilt culture, and I still think that is the main feeling I have. But shame is universal and a feeling everyone can relate to. In the Japanese honour-shame culture, it is all the more important to address this topic in our sermons and everyday conversations. How to do so wisely whilst knowing that shame is rarely spoken about remains a challenge, and I hope we will continue to find new ways to restore the honour of our Japanese friends and teammates.

Carsten: I was delighted to study with my teammates in the think tank about honour and shame. Being restored from a position of shame into a state of honour, being called a member of God’s family, is a wonderful way of describing that we belong to the living God.

Jörg: From the story of Jacob, I have learned the following truths that help me to share the gospel within a culture of honour and shame:

1. God is sovereign. He has the authority to challenge cultural values and social standards, including honour-shame cultures like Japan.
2. God uses imperfect people to accomplish his perfect plans.
3. A Japanese pastor once told me, “In Japan, if you make a big mistake, there is no forgiveness, no second chance for you.” But the God of the Bible is a God of second, third, fourth chances of forgiveness.
4. Like Isaac, I often do not understand God’s plans and his way of leading people, so I need an “Anyway Faith”, a faith that trusts in God’s goodness and wisdom without understanding and knowing everything. I need to learn to trust that God is good and can make good out of bad, even shameful things (Rom. 8:28).

1. Werner Mischke, The Global Gospel: Achieving Missional Impact in Our Multicultural World, (Scotsdale, Arizona: Mission ONE, 2014).
2. Werner Mischke, “Four steps—and a free guide—to help you read the Bible in the language of honour and shame,” Culture Learner, https://wernermischke.org/2013/01/28/read-the-bible-in-the-language-of-honor-and-shame-in-four-steps ( January 28, 2013).
3. Jayson Georges and Mark D. Baker, Ministering in Honor-Shame Cultures: Biblical Foundations and Practical Essentials, (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2016), 24.
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