HYDES' HOPE

BY MICHAEL HYDES

No shame; choose Pride

When I think of PRIDE I remember a story in the Bible about Jesus and a guy called Zaccheus. It’s interesting because I believe that it tells us a lot about how important Pride is, and not just as political and social protest. The story goes like this:

Jesus is coming through town. A man was there named Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was short in stature. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see him. (Luke 19 NRSV).

If you’re familiar with this story then it’s easy to miss the obvious; Zaccheus is short. He is the only person in the Bible ever to be referred to as short. So, perhaps Zaccheus was very short; a little person.

And, yes, he was a tax collector, in a despised profession; but I imagine he’d not had much choice. The usual professions weren’t open to a little person. It was written in the Torah (Leviticus 21:20). As a little person you were thought of as unclean. Zaccheus was discriminated against, every single day, for being who he was. Day on day. Year on year. Decade on decade.

Discrimination fosters shame, and shame leads to thinking I am not worth as much as them. As if life isn’t difficult enough, the cultural and social subtext that defines you is: you should be ashamed to be like that – to have that disease, that illness, that difference. Be grateful we accept you at all.

“Pride is not about suggesting that we are better than anyone else. It is a statement that we are all as good as anybody else, and certainly not ashamed to be who we are”

Of course, if your are trans, or bi, or lesbian, or gay, then this type of discrimination is nothing new.

But in a single moment Jesus turns shame to pride. Of everyone there, including the religious leaders, Jesus chooses to spend one-onone time with Zaccheus. He publicly chooses him, above everybody else! Imagine how Zaccheus felt! In an instant he felt pride instead of shame.

We’d like to think that the crowd learned a lesson from what Jesus did – that they realised by his action that in discriminating against Zaccheus they had made a big mistake. But in the story they just tried to find other ways to validate their discrimination, and Jesus and Zaccheus moved on.

This story reminds me that when shame threatens to eat us, we must choose pride. When discrimination beats at us, we must choose pride. When our religion or culture, peer group or family, work colleagues or neighbours say you should be ashamed, we must choose pride, and choose it together.

Pride is not about suggesting that we are better than anyone else. It is a statement that we are all as good as anybody else, and certainly not ashamed to be who we are. Pride is important because we are important. Just as Jesus showed Zaccheus that he was important, and perfect just as he was, we have to show each other.