Thanks to the King James translation, the English language has numerous biblical expressions. One of them is: “We have no continuing [or ‘lasting’] city here.” An early version of Webster’s Dictionary defines “city” as: “In a general sense, a large town; a large number of houses and inhabitants, established in one place.” It conveys the idea of permanence. The world is our dwelling place, but anything earthly is not lasting. Ultimately, we are not at home in this transient world. We will never truly find our home here. It is not here below, on earth.

“No continuing city” becomes therefore a description of dying, where a human being exchanges the temporary for the eternal (2 Cor. 3:18). An example of this is the monumental choral work by Johannes Brahms, Ein Deutsches Requiem, which he completed after his mother’s death and conducted by himself on Good Friday of 1868. The German text for this mournful music was composed by Brahms from the Luther Bible, using words with universal eloquence to comfort mourning people. Part VI, for baritone and chorus, “Denn wir haben hier keine bleibende Statt” (“For here we have no continuing city”), starts with Hebrews 13, immediately followed by the conclusion of 1 Corinthians 15 and of Revelation 4. Based on his sombre feeling for life, Brahms emphasizes the transience of all earthly things. This is further reinforced by the fact that he made part VI in the structure of the Requiem to correspond with part II: “Denn alles Fleisch es ist wie Gras” (“All men are like grass”) (see 1 Peter 1:24-25, quoting from Isaiah 40:6-8).

“No lasting city” was also the obvious title for the March issue of a magazine called “Contextua”’, a thematic issue about being strangers or foreigners. Christians are like pilgrims on their way to the kingdom of God. We are citizens of an empire in heaven, as the apostle Paul writes (see Phil. 3:17-21; see Gal. 4: 25-27). Our orientation is directed at the other world, where Christ is enthroned in heavenly glory. On earth we are no more than strangers and passers-by.

The question for me at this point is whether the author of the letter to the Hebrews wanted to direct his readers to the impermanence and transience of life. He did not say in general terms: “we have no permanent place here”, but in special terms: “we have no permanent city here” (Greek: polis). What city? The answer to this question can be deduced from the previous verse, where reference is made to the suffering of Jesus outside the gate. This of course refers to the gate of Jerusalem—that proud temple city over which God’s name had been proclaimed (Jer. 25:29; Dan. 9:17-19). Yet this city evicted God’s Son. As a prisoner condemned to death Jesus was led through the city gate to Calvary. The place of his execution was outside Jerusalem (Matt. 27:31; Mark 15:20b; Luke 23:26; John 19:20).

For Jesus, Jerusalem was therefore not a lasting city. He was no longer welcome there. He had made the great pilgrimages often enough and had addressed people in the temple. During his last visit he had been enthusiastically welcomed as the king of Israel by a crowd waving palm branches. But their shouts of “Hosanna” were soon followed by another slogan: “Crucify him!” (John 12:12-13; 19:15). Jesus was not given a permanent place in Jerusalem. He was not ever to enter the holy city again. He was not even allowed to be there at all. This is how God’s Son was crucified: not in Jerusalem, but outside of the city walls and its gate.

This fact reminds the author of the letter to the Hebrews of Israel during their journey through the wilderness, on the great Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur; see Lev. 16:27-28). First the sacrificial animals were slaughtered, according to the ordinance, then their blood was brought into the central sanctuary by the high priest to bring about atonement for himself and the people. The carcasses of the dead animals had to be burned with skin and all outside the tent camp. Is that not how it went with Jesus? He himself was the sacrifice for our sins. With his own blood, he sanctified the people of God. But the location of his suffering was outside the gate. Therefore the ultimate sacrifice for our sins was not made within the walls of Jerusalem.

Since that one sacrifice everything has changed. Jerusalem is no longer the city with some magnetic attraction, a place you need to have visited once in your life, the religious centre of the world. We will never quite get our hands on Jerusalem, even though as Christians we have been given much. Read in the letter to the Hebrews what all we have received: we have a high priest in heaven (4:14; 8:1; 10:21); we have an altar (= the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ; 13:10); we have a kingdom that cannot be shaken (12:28). The only thing we apparently do not have is this continuing or permanent city. Jerusalem, the city of God down below, has not been given to us as a possession. We lose it just like that.

For the first readers of the letter to the Hebrews this loss was a living reality. The “Hebrews” of the letter are Jews who confess the Messiah. Presumably we are dealing here with a letter to the Jewish-Christian congregation of Jerusalem. This congregation came under increasing pressure from their own Jewish fellow citizens. In the Spring of the year 62 AD, James, the son of Joseph and the brother of Jesus, had been killed in a violent way. For years he had led the congregation of Jerusalem, together with a council of elders. He was a widely respected Jew, someone who was known as “the Righteous”. But when James testified at a temple visit that Jesus is the Messiah he was thrown down by angry opponents and stoned to death.

Murder in the middle of the temple! A tremendous blow to all Jews who confessed the Messiah/Christ. Political factors increased the pressure. Because they wanted to form a common front against the Romans, dissidents were no longer tolerated within their own Jewish ranks. The church of James became the victim of this. Fanatical freedom fighters were more and more in charge in Israel. Some confessing Jews were arrested and imprisoned, others were mistreated, robbed of their possessions.

Only a few years later the Jewish War started (66-70 AD), in which Jerusalem was to be surrounded and taken by the Roman legions. Pagans then razed the holy temple to the ground. But that is also how it had been prophesied by Jesus: “The days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down…Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are inside the city depart, and let not those who are out in the country enter it” (Luke 21:5-6; 20-22). The holy city was not a safe city. Just before or during the siege the Christians left Jerusalem. They found a place of refuge beyond the borders of Israel, in the city of Pella.

Pella was named after the birthplace of Alexander the Great, the Hellenistic Pella in the region of Trans-Jordan belonged to the Decapolis, a free federation of ten cities. According to tradition, Pella became a place of refuge for Jewish Christians from Jerusalem, who were forced to leave the holy city before or during the Roman siege on heaven’s instruction (Eusebius, Church History III 5, 3). When Rev. H.P. Scholte (one of the leaders in the Secession of 1834) emigrated to America in 1847, he founded the city of Pella in Iowa with this tradition in mind.

It is against this background that we need to read what is stated in the letter to the Hebrews, “For here we have no continuing city.” The author is alluding to the conquest of Jerusalem by the Romans and the destruction of the temple. God’s judgment puts an end to the centuries-old sacrificial cult in Israel. He allows himself no longer to be worshipped from that one holy place, but now the Father can be reached anywhere in the world for all who want to worship him (John 4:21-24). The author shares this faith with his readers. Our “mother city” of Jerusalem will not remain as an untouchable stronghold under the protection of God. On the contrary, its glory will soon disappear. That is why we should not hold on to a city that is doomed to death and has no future, but we should voluntarily distance ourselves from it and from the temple service. Jerusalem is no lasting city.

We are therefore not dealing here with a call to leave this world behind, as is usually claimed (see for example the explanation of Reiling). How would that even be possible? We cannot leave the world, can we? (see 1 Cor. 5:10b). Nor is it about letting go of all our certainties. Even if Jerusalem is not a permanent city, we ourselves continue to live here on earth — whether in a city or in a village. And if we have to look for another place, we still end up somewhere in this world. Where do you actually end up, once you have passed through the gate of earthly Jerusalem?

The letter to the Hebrews continues, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come.” Here we discover again another indication that it was especially about Jerusalem. Having no lasting city here, that is about the earthly Jerusalem. Seeking the city of the future, that is the heavenly Jerusalem. That future had already been indicated earlier in the letter to the Hebrews. Chapter 11 recalls all the witnesses of faith who have gone before us. Such as Abraham, who responded to God’s call and confidently set out on his way to the place that was destined for him and his descendants. He left without knowing where he was going to end up. He lived in tents, but “he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God”. Instead of being homesick for the land where he had to leave his family, Abraham longed for a better country: the kingdom of God. There the great Designer and Builder also founded a city for Abraham!

To the Hebrews themselves it is said in chapter 12: we, as a Christian congregation, have come very close to that city of the future, the heavenly Jerusalem. For we may draw near to the living God thanks to the Mediator of the new covenant, his son Jesus Christ: he who brought the sacrifice of his life in order to atone for our guilt. Through this, the heavenly sanctuary is open to you and whoever you are and wherever you live, you may draw near to God and his holy angels through Jesus. That New Testament privilege does create a great responsibility, even more so than when the people of Israel stood at Mount Sinai, trembling with fear. But our life has been given space: a liturgical space of heaven and earth together. So that through Jesus we would continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, i.e., the homage of our lips praising his name (Heb. 13:15).

We have to look for the city of the future. Apparently you will not get there by yourself. The verb in the original Greek text means: to search intensively; but also: to long intensely. What is this longing aimed at? Where should we be seeking the city of the future? At least not here. Not somewhere in this world, and not in the land of Israel. There is no longer any point in longing for a holy city, a venerable temple complex or an ecclesiastical hub. The city of the future is where Jesus is. He went before us to serve as high priest in the heavenly sanctuary. The city of the future must therefore be sought in the other world. It is the dwelling place of God and of his holy angels. As Christians we are, fortunately, in touch with that other world. We can approach the heavenly Jerusalem via the one that has gone before us, God’s Son, Jesus Christ. So you do not have to start searching at random. In fact, the letter to the Hebrews gives us an indication as to how we can find the city of the future. Namely by following after Jesus, who suffered outside the gate. “Therefore let us go to him…” (Heb. 13:13a).

Jesus went out of Jerusalem to suffer beyond the city walls and outside the gate. When the Messiah-believing Jews followed him, they could no longer pitch their tent within the camp of the orthodox Jews. They had to seek their wellbeing elsewhere. That was not easy at all. But he who joins Jesus the Messiah in faith, must also bear his reproach (as did Moses, Heb. 11:26; and Christ himself, 12:2; see Luke 9:23). Sooner or later you end up at the cross. But the reproach of the Crucified One surpasses all the treasures of this world. For on Calvary you will find what you are looking for, and receive that which you desire. That is where Jesus went when he left the earthly Jerusalem behind him. Via the shameful cross of Calvary, he eventually ended up in the city where God dwells. The cross, that gruesome last stop on his life’s path, was at the same time a landmark that provides access to the other world. Jesus has preceded us.

Our route to the heavenly Jerusalem begins at Calvary. The city of the future already exists. Now it is still above, where Jesus Christ is, in the other world. One day it will also come down here on earth. Not to appear within our horizon for a moment and then quickly to disappear again. But as a city that settles in this world to be inhabited by God and people together. In the heavenly Jerusalem we do have a lasting city. According to the book of Revelation, a dwelling place will descend on earth where the joint throne of God and the Lamb is standing at the centre (Rev. 21:1-3; 10-13; 22:14). It is a city that will unite heaven and earth in a continuous form of praise. Its gates are invitingly open to all the corners of the world.

Anyone who is looking for this city of God, in the direction that Jesus went, that is, via the cross on Calvary, will surely find it. Because Jesus suffered outside the gates of Jerusalem and outside the encampment of Israel, we may say: “Blessed are those who enter through the gates of the city, the lasting city of the future!”