14 Sep: The Vendor’s Gourd
Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Hebrews 13:12
Scripture Reading: Hebrews 13:11–16
Friday was market day in the small town in Ghana where I grew up, and one vendor has stayed with me all these years. Leprosy — Hansen’s disease — had worn away her fingers and toes, so she’d crouch on her mat and dip a hollowed-out gourd into her goods to serve people. A lot of folks steered clear of her. My mother never did; she made a habit of buying from her every week. I only ever saw her on market days — once the day was over, she’d disappear back outside town.
Among the ancient Israelites, a disease like hers meant being sent “outside the camp.” It was a lonely way to live. The law didn’t soften it: “He shall dwell alone” (Leviticus 13:46). That same patch of ground outside the camp was also where the carcasses of sacrificed bulls were burned (4:12). It wasn’t a place anyone wanted to be.
That history gives real weight to what Hebrews 13 says about Jesus: “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach” (verse 13). Jesus was crucified outside Jerusalem’s gates — a detail worth sitting with once you know how the Hebrew sacrificial system worked.
We tend to want the opposite: to be liked, respected, comfortable. But God keeps pointing us outside the camp, toward the shame and the people nobody wants near them. That’s where we’d find that woman with her mat and her gourd. That’s where we’d find the ones the world has written off. And that’s exactly where we’d find Jesus.
By: Asher Christman
Go deeper on: The Vendor’s Gourd
Reflect & Pray
How do you initially react to outsiders and misfits? In what practical way might you go to Jesus “outside the camp”?
Thank You, Jesus, that You don’t show any favoritism. Thank You for going outside the camp for me.