For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. (ESV)

Religion. When I talk to people about what words come up when they hear this, mostly it is rules and regulations. In the time when Hebrews was written, religion was a main staple of life, and a lot of it was meant for good: to keep order and sanitary conditions.

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Today’s verse speaks to the process of keeping the camp of Israel, and later the city of Jerusalem, pure despite the realities of the sacrificial system. Because the center of religion for the Jews was Jerusalem, the priests of the temple were in charge of keeping the space holy. So, when someone brought a sin offering, they dealt with it carefully. The blood would be shed, and then, if not entirely burned up as some sacrifices were, the remains of the animal were disposed of outside the city gates to protect the community’s purity.

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Jewish law certainly protected them and the city from exposure to evil or unclean things and set them apart from other cultures of the day. It ingrained in them that what was unclean belonged outside the camp and outside the city gates. Even the temple had places that were off limits to people who weren’t Jewish and ceremonially clean. Unfortunately, laws that were meant to protect the Jews also became a status symbol: “Look at how much more religious I am.” Sadly, that didn’t stop in the old city of Jerusalem. We see this idea still today, that you need to clean yourself up before you can encounter the resurrected Jesus.

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A week before his death, Jesus comes into the city treated as a king: palm branches and fanfare. But he exits the city as a dirty criminal. He is taken out where the unclean, unusable carcasses of sin offerings are burnt as garbage. This is not what the religious people of Jerusalem would have expected of their Messiah.

If you are anything like me, your house is in a constant state of “getting there.” I’m always getting there with cleaning and projects. And when one part of the house gets done, there is another part staring me right in the face. No mater how hard we try, the junk in our life will be there.

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Unlike the blood of the sin offerings that had to be brought into the city, Jesus entered into the unclean, the unholy, outside of the gates when he poured out his blood for us. In doing this, he didn’t say, “get your life together before you get this gift.” No. He says, “Hey, I am meeting you right there in the mess and am washing you clean of it.” In The Message translation, Ephesians 2: 8-9 says, “Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it.”

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You can’t get your metaphorical “house” clean enough for God, but fortunately, Jesus poured out his blood on a cursed tree outside of the city, in a place that is not considered holy, so he could enter your messy life and pour his redemptive blood all over it, wash you clean, and make you holy and justified in the eyes of our Father. You no longer need to futilely clean your mess; through Jesus’ blood you are forgiven! Let him do it!

Jesus, you are so good, and you love us more than we can fathom. Thank you for being the sacrifice for my messy life, that you bore my sin on a tree. Jesus, I pray that, as we go through our lives, we trust your work right where we are. You entered into our mess and pain to cover us with your blood. We love you, Amen.