Hebrews 12.1-3: Christmas is a season of joy – joy anticipated and joy realized. It leads us to consider what it takes to pursue joy. Jesus offers a way through him, who “for the joy set before him, endured the cross and scorned its shame.” Shame robs joy now and the prospect of joy for the future. At the cross, Jesus takes our shame and gives us opportunity to be free from its insidious destruction of our soul. He calls us out of the isolation that shame keeps us in to find freedom in him. He opens us up to a greater freedom of the soul that pursues the joy set before us.