Go Outside
Scripture Reading: Numbers 5:3; Hebrews 13:13
The writer of Hebrews makes a direct connection between Jesus being crucified outside the walls of Jerusalem and the burning of the sacrificial animals outside the camp of Israel. Jesus fulfills the types of Old Testament sacrifices. He does what the sacrificial system could never do. He brings about reconciliation and forgiveness and sanctification through the Cross.
He also makes an application to the situation of the Christians to whom he was writing. They were under intense social pressure to abandon their faith. Following Christ was, for them, to bear a social shame. So, the writer encourages them to courageously accept that reproach. The way he puts it is to “go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured.”
These are not two completely separate and unrelated ideas. It is not (1) Jesus bore our sin outside of Jerusalem and, (2) we should bear the burden of reproach that comes with being a follower of Christ. It is, Jesus came to us outside the camp to bear our shame, now go to him bearing His. I get that from Numbers 5 where we find that lepers were to be put outside the camp of Israel. It is the same language Hebrews uses. Leprosy was a symbol or metaphor of sin. To have leprosy meant separation from God (in the sense that they couldn’t come near the Tabernacle or Temple) and family. Leprosy was a disease that slowly destroyed and led to the death of whomever it infected. It was contagious and could easily spread. These are all true of sin, which explains why it became a symbol of iniquity.
How Jesus was crucified was a picture of his joining those expelled from the camp to bear their reproach. He went outside the camp to take our spiritual leprosy upon himself. He bore the shame and separation of our sin. He bore our reproach. Therefore, bear his. Jesus is, in a sense, still outside the city. He is not welcomed nor received within the walls of the City of the World. As a result, there is a certain reproach the follower of Christ must bear. We must go to him outside. And we should since he decided to come to us when we were outside.