Disgraced
After enduring spiritual abuse as an employee at RZIM, I could only trust a very small handful of people. I no longer knew how to tell who was safe. I started to look past what people said and examine how they lived.
Hebrews 13:7-19
⁷Keep in mind your leaders, the ones who spoke God's word to you. Look closely at where their way of living led them, and imitate their faith. ⁸Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. ⁹Don't let yourself be swept away by strange teachings of every kind, for the heart does well to be steadied by grace, not by rules about food, which have done no good for those who live by them. ¹⁰We have an altar, and those whose service belongs to the tabernacle have no right to eat from it. ¹¹For the bodies of the animals whose blood the high priest carries into the holy place as a sin offering are burned up outside the camp. ¹²This is why Jesus also went through his suffering outside the city gate, to make the people holy by his own blood. ¹³So let us go out to him, outside the camp, carrying his disgrace. ¹⁴For here we have no city that lasts, but we long for the one that is coming. ¹⁵So through him let us keep offering up to God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of lips that openly own his name. ¹⁶And don't lose sight of doing good and sharing what you have, for these kinds of sacrifices please God. ¹⁷Listen to your leaders and yield to them, for they stay awake watching over your souls as people who will have to give an account, so they may do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would do you no good. Pray for us, for we are confident that our conscience is clear, wanting to live honorably in everything. And I strongly urge you to do this, so that I may be brought back to you soon.
In Leviticus 16, the bull and the goat that were offered as a sin offering had to be taken outside the camp, and their bodies burned. Separately, a goat burdened with Israel's sins was sent into the wilderness. In both cases, the symbolism showed God's people that to properly deal with sin, it must be taken away from them to a shameful place. Yet no one could have imagined that God himself would personally bear this disgrace. Jesus' sacrifice is so great that we cannot help but praise him. The leaders of this community not only spoke God's words, but also their lives were worthy of imitation. If we could have seen how they lived, we would have noticed a striking resemblance to Jesus. For the sake of joy, they served the members of this community to help them learn the ways of Jesus. They are like the authors of this letter, who lived honorably with a clear conscience. When they asked for prayer, it was for the opportunity to be together, to serve one another, and to encourage each other to bear Jesus' disgrace. Going to funerals has taught me that everyone is fully committed to something. The details change, but there are always strange teachings of every kind. Whether it's keeping food regulations or looksmaxxing, we're always searching for a way to improve ourselves. But God designed our hearts to live by grace. When his grace is the operating system of our community, we can handle social shame. We have what we need to live faithfully. When grace is our starting point, generosity becomes our instinct. We want to do good to others because God has done good to us. We share what we have because God shared his life with us. We praise God together because God has satisfied us. We suffer faithfully, knowing that we're not suffering alone. The steadiness of our lives comes from the faithfulness of Jesus. He alone is the same yesterday, today, and forever. He sustained the faith of the leaders who came before us. He's just as able to handle our problems as he was then. And he is the one who welcomes us into the city that is coming. He went all-in first, and he's the one who helps us to be all-in, too.
What does it tell us about God that he bore our disgrace?
Who or what do you count on to feel secure, besides Jesus?
What's one way you opt out of following Jesus because of what it would cost you?
Who's one person whose life shows you that they live by grace? Ask God, "What would it look like for me to imitate their faith?"