Scapegoat

Scapegoat

I has been said before that he who smiles in a crisis has found someone to blame. I do not think many are smiling in the Philippians today after the devastation of one of the world’s strongest storms. I do not think anyone is smiling, but the devil, at the death of the young kids in Immokalee. But the blame is sure to come. Technology has been blamed for a lot of things. There is either too much or too little. But like blaming Mrs. O’Leary’s cow for the Chicago fire it really does not make a lot of sense. Pigs have been blamed for a lot of things as well. It is not quite fair. And the West, well we have been blamed for all the world’s problems. Perhaps this blaming appeals to the paranoia in all of us. Perhaps it also appeals to our self-denial, as we cling to the notion that something or somebody else is responsible for our failings or for the bad things that happen to us rather than for us to face personal responsibility. It is the story of the world that by chance or divine plan that some are made to bear the blame for others and to suffer in their place as a Scapegoat.

Scripture: His wife said, “Still holding on to your precious integrity, are you? Curse God and be done with it!”  He told her, “You’re talking like an empty-headed fool. We take the good days from God – why not also the bad days?” Not once through all this did Job sin. He said nothing against God.

Job 2:9-10 (MESSAGE)

Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. He shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting; and Aaron shall cast lots on the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel.
Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord, and offer it as a sin offering; but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.

Leviticus 16:6-10 (NRSV)

Come now, let us argue it out, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be like snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Isaiah 1:18 (NRSV)

 It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when Christ came into the world, he said: “Sacrifice and offering you did not desire, but a body you prepared for me; with burnt offerings and sin offerings you were not pleased. Then I said, ‘Here I am—it is written about me in the scroll— I have come to do your will, my God.'”

Hebrews 10:4-17 (NIV)

Now is the time for judgment on this world; now the prince of this world will be driven out.

John 12:31 (NIV)

Message: For Job it was the blame of blessings. For the Jews, they became as goats for the German government and were both exiled and sacrificed in the Holocaust. The drama of the scapegoat is still played out in history. What a powerful image! One goat takes on punishment, the other carries away iniquity. There are three main characters in the story. The priest who lays on the blame, the goats sent out and sacrificed. And the third character is of course you and me and the evil and love in us all. And our role is a choice too, for either we watch all this played out or we actually lead the goat for all to see out into the wilderness where healing and redemption and yes even death can occur. There is an amazing reference in the Talmud that states: “Forty years before the Temple was destroyed (30 A.D.) the chosen lot was not picked with the right hand, nor did the crimson stripe turn white, nor did the westernmost light burn; and the doors of the Temple’s Holy Place swung open by themselves, until Rabbi Yochanon ben Zakkai spoke saying: ‘O most Holy Place, why have you become disturbed?”  Apparently for a time after Jesus was crucified, God no longer accepted the sin offering and the scapegoat offered by the Jewish high priests. Some view this story as an amazing witness to Christ but some view it as the foreknowledge of the Holy Place knowing of its own destruction. Friends, people’s lust for gold destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem just as people lust for conquest is turning this world into a wasteland. Maybe we like Jesus need to go where others fear to go…into the desert to face our temptations. Friends, we either we pay the penalty for our sins, or we accept a sacrifice made in our behalf to cover the debt of our sins. But there is more to the story, if we have been forgiven we then must also seek to be Holy. And holiness comes by going out into the desert and waiting until God turns our red into white.

Pray we realize that Jesus is the scapegoat and Azazel is evil. Pray we realize that Jesus is not just a scapegoat for Israel but for us as well. Pray we marvel at the symbolic teaching lesson of the plan of redemption…that as Aaron transferred the sin of Israel onto the goat that is led outside the camp and sin is removed through the offering of the sacrificial goat, so too thousands of years later, Jesus took the place of the goat and our heavenly Father took on the role of the ultimate priest and transferred our sin onto His son. Pray we realize that God stands ready through the prompting of the Holy Spirit to remove sin from us. Pray as the Body of Christ we are willing to venture into the wilderness to help free others from their judgment. Pray we not heap more blame on the goats of this world in the process.

Blessings,

John Lawson

—William Holman Hunt, The Scapegoat 1856