Addressing Jewish believers in Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah, the author of Hebrews wrote these extraordinary words:

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. And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. (Hebrews 13:11–14)

Almost 2,000 years later, this exhortation remains relevant. We are often called to go to Jesus outside the camp, bearing the disgrace He bore.

The High Cost

As He was rejected, we too are rejected.

As He was misunderstood and maligned, we too are misunderstood and maligned.

As He was put out and excluded, we too are put out and excluded.

To this day, believers around the world are rejected by their own families, especially in very religious circles where faith differences run deep.

In some countries a devout Muslim who comes to faith in Jesus might even be killed by his family.

In ultra-Orthodox Jewish homes, if a family member became a follower of Yeshua he or she would lose everything — from family and friends to job and reputation — and would be considered “dead” from that point on.

Following Jesus is often quite costly!

Shunned by Fellow Jews for My Faith

On a massively less significant level, but still quite illustrative of the point I am making, I was shunned by Orthodox Jews when I lived in Maryland between 1987 and 1993.

At that time, I was serving in an influential Messianic Jewish congregation and had engaged in public debate and dialogue with rabbis and religious Jews.

There was subscription service for Talmud study where you paid a monthly fee in order to listen to a new, hourly lecture by phone every day. Since I was not raised in a religious home and was doing my best to understand rabbinic literature better, I signed up for this service to sharpen my learning skills.

One night, I called in for the lecture but the number was disconnected. I tried another number — there were several available at once — and not one of them worked.

I subsequently learned that when this service discovered that I was one of their subscribers (in their mind, studying their sacred texts for missionary purposes) they discontinued all the phone numbers and gave out to new numbers to all their subscribers — other than me, that is! (Of course, they cancelled my subscription too.)

One Man Spat in My Face

Another time, before appearing on the radio show of a Messianic Jewish colleague, a show that was adjacent to a religious Jewish show hosted by the same network, I met some ultra-Orthodox Jewish men waiting in the lobby.

When I sought to greet them, they turned their backs on me, refusing to acknowledge my presence. (I even tried quoting some rabbinic and biblical sayings to them in Hebrew, but to no avail.)

Once, an Orthodox Jewish man sitting next to me on a commute on Long Island Railroad literally spat in my face. He was that upset with me for believing in Jesus, especially with a Hebrew Bible in my hand. In his mind, I was as dangerous as I was evil, willfully believing in things that my ancestors rejected even at the cost of their lives.

I can tell you from the heart that I felt no animosity towards him at all. Instead, I said to him, “I can see that you really love me as a Jew,” and I meant every word of it.

We Bear Disgrace: Sometimes Minor, Sometimes Major

To be perfectly clear, these are absolutely minor events and they caused me no trauma at all. They cannot be put in the category of suffering, and they are not to be put in the same universe as the very real sufferings experienced every day by our brothers and sisters around the world as, quite literally, they have to go outside the camp to Jesus, bearing the same disgrace He bore.

If ten thousand volumes of Foxe’s Book of Martyrs were written, the fact that someone spat on me or that people turned their backs on me or cut off my subscription would not merit a tiny footnote on the last page of the book — unless it was put there for comic relief.

But I share my experiences for a reason.

Suffering Rejection as a Form of Intercession for Others

About 25 years ago, I was talking with a wonderful, godly German Christian who was a member of the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary. What saints these women were and are!

When I had mentioned the way many of my Messianic Jewish friends had been treated over the years by the larger Jewish community, she said to me (and I paraphrase), “But that is how you can intercede on their behalf. You bear the pain they inflict on you, and that is part of your intercession.”

In other words, the very real rejection that many believers experience can serve as an act of identification with the Lord as well as a way in which we, carrying that pain, can bring our people to Him in prayer. We carry that sting on their behalf. We suffer that rejection for their sake. That is part of our intercession, going outside the camp, praying for them as we go.

It’s the same thing when we expose ourselves to hatred and vilification and mockery when we reach out to certain groups. We know our efforts will be despised. We know that we will be falsely judged. We know that our reputations will take a hit. We know that we will become targets for their venom and their lies.

But that is a small price to pay for planting seeds in their midst, for shining the light in dark places, for opening a door that was not open before. And perhaps, as they pour out scorn on us for our efforts, this will burden us all the more to pray for them. And perhaps, as we respond with love, this will help to open their eyes.

“Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.”

Dr. Michael Brown (www.askdrbrown.org) is the host of the nationally syndicated Line of Fire radio program. His latest book is Why So Many Christians Have Left the Faith. Connect with him on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube.