The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.

‘This world is not my home, I’m just a passin’ through’, sang the country and western artist Jim Reeves.

The truth is we Christians don’t belong here. We will always be outsiders. Of course, there is a natural instinct to want to be liked, loved even; and accepted: to belong. But we don’t and we won’t. We are disciples of Jesus who was treated as an outsider by the Jewish religion He actually came to fulfil. We need to recognise that, as His people, we are strangers and aliens here. We don’t fit in. We’ve been born ‘from above.’ We belong to another Kingdom. ‘Our citizenship is in heaven.’ Part of the deal in becoming a Christian is that we accept we are going to share in the scorn, insult, derision and abuse which was heaped on Christ. When people are friendly towards us, as some people will be, we are naturally grateful. But let us never forget what the true score is.

I think ‘The Message’ expresses this very well:

” So let’s go outside, where Jesus is, where the action is—not trying to be privileged insiders, but taking our share in the abuse of Jesus. This “insider world” is not our home. We have our eyes peeled for the City about to come. Let’s take our place outside with Jesus, no longer pouring out the sacrificial blood of animals but pouring out sacrificial praises from our lips to God in Jesus’ name” (13-15)