Post 81 of Study: Hebrews 13:10-14

¹⁰ We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat.

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.

Here the writer returns to his main themes: the enduring city we hope for, the superiority of Jesus over sacrificial Judaic system, and living in times of persecution.

He states, “The High Priest carries,” present tense, which means this was written while temple sacrifices were still going on. The leftovers of the sacrifices, after the edible, kosher portions are eaten, are discarded outside the city proper. I am reminded of the time I visited Pisa, Italy. The Leaning Tower is actually weird, and people have to have their photos made in front of it (I did, of course). My memory is more of a walk I took on the walls of the church complex, because this is what it is. (The cathedral is lovely inside, but no one seems to care about that, of course.) Exterior to the church property were the graves of the Jews; interior to the property, the “Christians.” Being outside the city walls meant far more in that time than it does today. Protection, acceptance, belonging, “rightness.”

Jesus was executed outside the camp, in a sense, and in disgrace. To follow Him is to be disgraced by the world’s standards. We are outsiders in many ways. I personally do not like that.  I want it both ways. I think the picture drawn here is metaphorical, though, not literal. We have to live within the city walls, inside the camp, and bear his disgrace at the same time. We do not get to make our own city outside the camp. God has a city for us in the future. For now, we live within the camp, the city walls, and do what we can to live for Him, even if in disgrace in some eyes. We may get run off, so be it. But we live in peace with all men, as we are able.