Let us go forth therefore unto Him without the camp, bearing His reproach. Hebrews 13:13
When British General Charles Gordon was visiting Jerusalem in the 1880s, he noticed from his friends’ home on the north wall of the old city a rocky escarpment some distance away. He investigated the site, and made the proposal that the rocky escarpment could be the actual site of Golgotha, or Calvary. Among other aspects of the site that caught Gordon’s attention were two caves in the side of the hill that give the appearance of two eye sockets in a skull. Now referred to as Gordon’s Calvary, this hill and a nearby old tomb were purchased by an American group called the Garden Tomb Association. Is this the actual site of Calvary? If so, it differs from the site traditionally venerated by the Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches and other organizations, a site enclosed in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. We cannot be sure which of the two sites is correct, or if either is correct. To do both of them justice they are both located in what would have been outside the walls of the old city at the time of Christ. The verse that precedes today’s text tells us that Jesus suffered ‘without the gate’, that is, outside of Jerusalem. This would have satisfied the Jewish leaders of the day, who had rejected Jesus as their king, and who in their rejection would not have Him associated with their holy city. And it satisfies us as we take up our station as those who are rejected with our Lord.
In the days of the tabernacle in the wilderness, the priests would take the bodies and the refuse from the sacrifices that were made, and burn them in a site outside the camp of the Israelites. Nobody else went there; it was not a pleasant or welcoming place. But it speaks of the place where the Jewish leaders and the Roman soldiers disposed of Jesus of Nazareth. And it speaks of the place where the world will place us if we are the witnesses for our Lord that we ought to be. The apostle Paul knew of this reproach when he wrote, ‘Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day’ (1 Corinthians 4:13). In Paul’s day, he knew of the place outside the camp that the world relegated Christians to. Because they did not conform to the religions of the day and because they did not stoop to the immorality that was so prevalent then, they stood out in stark contrast to everyone around them, and they suffered for it. We know so little of this in our comfortable western world today. And yet, we are called to go outside the camp, to where Christ is, and bear whatever reproach is involved.
Those in religions that can boast of magnificent buildings, large numbers, and lovely choirs will mock and despise those who gather in simple obedience to our Lord’s words, the two or three gathered in His Name (Matthew 18:20). Those who have cast off every vestige of morality to the destruction of marriage and the family, and who embrace the abominable lifestyles condemned by the Word of God will mock and harrass those who seek to abide by the purity and holiness that our Lord desires of His people.
Yes, there is reproach to bear outside the camp today, and there will be more reproach to come. But if our Lord is there, the reproach will not matter. -Jim MacIntosh