*an except from my journal last night.
“therefore Let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach the He endured” Hebrews 13:13
1. “Therefore”- When the bible uses the word therefore its always talking about what comes before the therefore. In this case in verse 12 its talking about how Jesus suffered in order to buy our salvation by His Blood. This is the foundation for V.13. Verse 13 is possible because of Jesus’s sacrifice not our own power.
2. “Us”– The scripture is talking in a way that seems to communicate we go with people, not by ourselves. It makes perfect sense. Nobody would want to go outside the camp by themselves, its scary, dark, dirty, and hard. If I went by myself I could slip up and fall back into sin. I need to go with others. I need there support, and they need ours.
3. “to”- Notice it doesn’t say go with Him… It says “go to Him” it is impossible for us to go with Jesus into the dark, dirty, broken places, it is impossible because He is already there. He always has been and always will be. It’s the whole point.
4. “outside the camp” – Think the Dirtiest of the dirty. Think of the most broken, the most rejected, the biggest outcast, the worst sinners… that’s “outside the camp”. We read in the Old Testament about when someone would break the Law they would go outside the camp. I beat there were thieves out there. I beat the rapist were out there with the murders. Or if your in the church and need a better analogy, I beat the gays were out there with the people who drink to much beer. The lose girls and the guys that watch porn. They are all outside the camp. And guess were Jesus likes to hang out. He could be anywhere doing anything with anyone and He is with them outside of the camp. If your theology or your discipleship involves running away from the broken and the hurting, the misguided and lost, the cold and hungry, if it is defensive and not offensive, if it involves safety and never ventures out into the dangerous then your theology/discipleship is not for me, and I don’t think Jesus would like it very much either. I want to be were Jesus is!
5. “bear the reproach”- We will suffer if we live like this. We will be persecuted. “Christian people” will probably say that you are not Christian enough and question the things you do. People who are far from God will probably call you “too Christian” because you love the people that are hard to love. You will suffer because you will lay down your “rights and expectations” to do what God would have you to do. You will suffer because living this way goes completely against our selfish nature. We are prone to run toward that which is comfortable, and living a life outside the camp with Jesus is anything but comfortable.
I say all that to say with every ounce of passion in my body: GO. We have to make a choice to Go and be where Jesus is. He’s in the bars in your neighborhood. He is in the underprivileged neighborhood that is scary; He is in the brothel in Central America. He is in the midst of the starving in northern Africa. He is at work in the extremists is in the Middle East. He’s in the orphanage in South East Asia. Go, for the sake of the broken, Go, for the sake of the hungry, Go, for the sake of those who have NEVER heard his name, Go for those in your own town the “Christian people” look down upon because there sin is to taboo.
Go be with Jesus, I promise its better there.
