Thursday, March 15 ~ Miriam

Today's passage from the Chronological Bible In a Year Reading Plan is Deuteronomy 11-13.

Today's scripture focus is Hebrews 13:11-14.

¹¹ 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. ¹² And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. ¹³ Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. ¹⁴ For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. 

Verse 11 & 12 are basically an extension of what was in yesterday's verses, but I was curious about verses 13 & 14.  What does it mean to go to him outside the camp and bear the disgrace he did?  Excerpts from The Sacrifice of Suffering by John Piper:

And this verse 13 makes explicit something very important for us today. It says that we should go to Jesus "outside the camp." Now what does that mean? The writer knows that we don't live in camps the way the Israelites did. "Outside the camp" stands for something. What does it stand for?

I think the camp for Israel was the place of safety and sanctity. Outside the camp there were dangers of wild animals and dangers of enemies. And outside the camp was where the unclean animals and refuse were to be buried. So outside the camp there was potential danger and the risk of uncleanness. The camp was comfortable and safe and clean and sacred.

So when he says to us, "Let us go forth to him outside the camp," he probably means, "Let's go outside the place of comfort and safety and religious sanctuary; and let's join Jesus in the risky places, the dangerous places, the dirty places."

The thought that Christians are only called to live and work where it is safe is not a biblical thought. Biblical thinking proceeds on the assumption that we are all called to follow Jesus outside the camp where there is reproach and danger. It may be the risk of ostracism and scorn at your work. It may be the risk of egg on your face at school. It may be the pain of misunderstanding from an unbelieving relative. Or it may be the far greater risks of prison and persecution in Colombia or Mindinao.

This way of thinking—this willingness to go outside the camp of comfort and security—is a very strange mentality. It's not natural to this world. What is it? Is it naïveté about what pain and suffering are really like? Is it a kind of pathological masochism that just wants people to feel sorry for us? Is it stoical heroics that hopes to be remembered in the hall of fame? What is this willingness to go outside the camp to Jesus and bear the abuse he did?

Verse 14 gives the answer. "For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come." Our willingness to live and work with Jesus outside the camp of comfort and security is not naïveté. It is not a pathological desire to suffer. It is not stoical heroics. It is, in fact, an unshakable and happy confidence that there is no abiding security and happiness in this world but only in the next. 

It is not only possible to go with Jesus outside the camp; it is possible to do it WITH joy! Why? Because whatever we lose in obedience to Jesus will be repaid a thousand-fold in the city of God. Jesus said, "Blessed are you when men persecute you and revile you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice in that day and be glad, for great is your reward in heaven" (Matthew 5:11–12). Your willingness to go outside the camp is the measure of your treasure in heaven and your freedom from treasure on earth. 

I don't know about you, but this definitely gives me something to think about!

Tomorrow's scripture focus:  Hebrews 13:15-16.

Tomorrow's Bible In a Year Passage passage:  Deuteronomy 14-16.