Have you ever felt like an outsider? Some one who doesn’t belong to any particular group. Or perhaps outright rejected from joining a certain assembly. For others, maybe you’ve found yourself outside looking in on someone else’s happiness and joy.
Well you’re not alone. Because sin and death permeate our world, there are periods of “outside-ness” in our lives when we feel no one else understands, or even worse, no one seems to care.
Life was no different in the experience of ancient Israel. You see God was so intent on forming a people so completely distinct that he established extraordinary measures to remove any spiritual or physical defect that might pollute the uniqueness of his people.
One example was sin offerings like those in EX 29:10-14. You see while the animal’s blood could be brought to the altar, the animal itself had to be taken outside the camp because God could not be in the presence of sin.
Another example was when anyone was found to have leprosy like in LEV 13:42-46. Again, in order to protect the purity of his people, God at that time could not allow the diseased to live among the healthy. Otherwise, all of the people would become infected. Thus, the diseased were ordered to live alone, to live outside the camp so long as they were diseased.
Thanks be to God that Scripture does not end with Exodus or Leviticus. Because God is faithful, the Scriptures and God’s redemptive plan move forward and upward towards the Gospel and its good news for all the afflicted and diseased living outside the presence of God.
This week we celebrate the watershed movement in the symphony of God’s salvation culminating in the birth of Jesus Christ. Sitting there in the manger, Joseph and Mary were never happier. Furthest from their mind was the end destination of Jesus’ mission.
In Heb 13:11-16, we read about where Jesus’ ministry would lead him. You see Jesus’ mission would lead him out of the manger to engage this fallen world. In his miracles, we find Jesus healing the lepers of their disease, which meant they longer had to live alone outside the community.
And yet God still needed a sufficient sin offering. This meant that Jesus’ purpose could not allow him to stay behind the city walls where he would be safe. Instead, Jesus’ mission led him outside the camp to a place of rejection, shame, death.
Consequently, those who seek after Christ do not stay behind the safe walls of suburbia, nor satisfied with a faith the does not leave the pew. Because the world is still fallen, there will always be many that spend Christmas outside. If not outside on the street, then outside the presence of love.
As finite people, we can only do so much and we can feel overwhelmed by the despair and need that lies beyond our walls. But may we each day hear the encouragement to do what we can while we can.
May the spirit of Christ create a stirring in our hearts so that we too will venture outside the camp and all that is familiar. May we travel to the margins, to the unknown where the diseased, the invisible, and the desperate dwell. May we tell them that Jesus has come. And because he has, they don’t have to be alone anymore.
