going to Jesus outside the camp

Hebrews 13:11-14, “going to Jesus outside the camp” [no audio]

Today is the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. I’d like to connect with this issue through Hebrews 13:11-14

Hebrews 13:11-14 – The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

Verses 11-12 – Clean / Unclean

• The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.

Before Jesus came God required his people to be meticulous in observing rules that would set them apart from the cultures around them and keep the focused on Him. Many of these rules or laws dealt with what was considered “clean” and accessible and what was considered “unclean” and to be avoided. In Hebrews 13:11 we see an example of this. An animal carcass was “unclean” and was to be avoided. When animal sacrifices were made for the sins of the people, the carcass was burned outside the camp – outside the sacred perimeter – outside God’s city, Jerusalem.

The execution of criminals needed to take place outside Jerusalem. The lawless person and the dead body were both unclean. Verse 12 shows us that Jesus was considered unclean. The very people God created to be the embodiment of his mercy and character ultimately decided that Jesus was a criminal to be killed outside the sanctity of God’s city. To most Jesus was someone who had no connection to God’s plan and needed to be rejected. Not much has changed today.

Vs 13 – Our call to identify with Jesus

Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.

What does it mean to go to him outside the camp and bear the disgrace he bore? Lives that embrace Jesus as Savior are always moved to embrace him as Lord. We are always moved to lives of faith (deepening commitment to trust our lives to God instead of this world). We must choose – either we find our home and comfort and security in the construct the world offers or we leave that and identify with Jesus. If we identify with Jesus we will find an increasing number of people who hate us. Some will lose their lives.

Our call is go to Jesus outside the camp. Loyalty to Jesus will lead you outside the camp. The way of Jesus is NOT compatible with a legalistic, religious power structure. The way of Jesus is NOT compatible with treasuring this world as your security. The call of Jesus on your life is NOT compatible with split loyalties – you cannot embrace Jesus as your hope while hoping in the temporal.

• Matthew 16:24-26 – Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. ²⁵ For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. ²⁶ What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?

Vs 14 – Why would we embrace disgrace

For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

This is a call to live what we claim to believe – our hope is NOT here. Embracing this worldly camp is a death-wish. Embracing Jesus is life. We cannot embrace disgrace if our vision and hope is rooted here. On the other hand, if our hope is in the eternal values and realities of God, the draw of this world will not control us.

• Jesus died for me that I might be forgiven and united forever with him – I cannot die. So why do I protect my life so much?

• God, my father, owns and controls EVERYTHING. So why do I protect my resources so much?

• The heart of God, now beating within me, is purposed on saving the lost. So why do I think inward instead of outward?

1 Peter 4:16 – …if you suffer as a Christian, do not be ashamed, but praise God that you bear that name.

Romans 8:38-39 – For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,  neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.