OUTSIDE THE CAMP

OUTSIDE THE CAMP
Heb 13:7-19
"Let us, then, go to him outside the camp…" (v.13).

AS THE EPISTLE COMES TO A CLOSE, the writer makes a call for his readers to honour their leaders. And as he has done so throughout his letter, he now makes a final appeal for them not to abandon their new-found faith.

"Remember your leaders, who spoke the word of God to you." (v.7). The past tense probably means they had passed away, perhaps martyred. It is wise to look back from time to time as we all have a tendency to stray from our original goals. Fearing that his readers might be discouraged that their admirable leaders were gone, the author reminded them, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever." (v.8). Human leaders come and go, but Jesus remains with us always.

"Obey your leaders and submit to their authority." (v.17). They bear the awesome responsibility of accounting for you to God. So it is both for their sake as well as our sake that members and leaders work together. Feeling the tremendous burden on their shoulders, our author requests on their behalf, "Pray for us." (v.18). Leaders need prayer. The decisions they make often affect lives and issues of eternal significance.

One final appeal is made, and it sums up the message of the whole epistle. "Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore." (v.13). Jesus was taken outside the city gates to be crucified, just as the animal sacrifice was taken outside the camp to be burnt (Numbers 19.1-5). We are to leave the security of "the camp", to share in Jesus' expulsion and shame. The readers are to leave, to make a clear break with their former religion, Judaism.

But there are two problems. Firstly, it means to leave the visible for the invisible. It is not easy to leave behind the security of the established outward rituals they had seen and known from young. But Jesus, by His death, had abolished the whole sacrificial system. The altar (v.10) and the sacrifices (vv.15-16) for Christians are no longer literal, but figurative. It reminds us of the "culture shock" converts from Chinese religions feel when they step into a church and find it utterly bare, being devoid of images, incense, food offerings, etc.

Secondly, it means to leave the legal for the illegal. Judaism was a religio licita, a religion permitted and protected by Roman law. Christianity was emerging as an illegal sect and persecution was growing. Will the readers stand with Christ, or will they return to the shelter of the old, safe but obsolete order?

Am I looking back?