¹¹ For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy place by the high priest as an offering for sin, are burned outside the camp. ¹² Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people through His own blood, suffered outside the gate.

Casual readers stumble in passages like this, with its overt reference to Old Testament ritual. Some Scriptures are easier to understand than others, like fruit on lower branches being easier to reach than that on higher branches. Understanding and appreciating the book of Hebrews in many places is helped by a good understanding of the Jewish sacrificial system.

We have seen in Hebrews that Christ is superior to Moses and the Law, with all its offerings, ceremonies and formalities. But those OT events and personages, were pictures that, inferior as they were, none-the-less gave a foretaste of what was to come. Now, as we look back on them, they give us rich imagery of Christ and teach us graphically what the NT teaches us prosaically.

A specific example is given in today’s passage, the practice of burning the sacrificial animal outside the camp. As commentators point out, this probably refers to the Day of Atonement because of earlier references to such in Hebrews (although there were other times when the animal was to be burned outside the camp as well—see Leviticus 7:27). Why is this such a big deal?

The blood of the sacrifice was taken into the holy place of the tabernacle, while the body was taken out to be burned. According to Leviticus 17:28, the one who performed the burning became unclean and needed ritual cleansing (Lev 17:28). He was out in the world, outside the confines of the sanctified people of God, he was in unholy territory. The comparison is now made to Jesus who suffered outside the gate. He became unclean in the process of taking on our sins. The once-for-all-time sacrifice rendered Jesus unclean in the most profound way, far in excess of the uncleanness of any person who was guilty of his own sin. Christ went through this so that “He might sanctify the people.”

What a paradox! The Savior of the world became “unclean” for us, so that He could make us clean, that is, sanctified. We are reminded of Paul’s wonderful proclamation: “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Cor 5:21).

The comparison in this passage is probably the kind of thing Jesus spoke about to the disciples on the road to Emmaus: “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures” (Luke 24:27).

Lord, thank You for glimpses of Christ we see throughout the Scripture.