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Scapegoat

                  "He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.” (I Peter 2:24)

                He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the Lord and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the Lord and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the Lord to be used for making atonement by sending it into the wilderness as a scapegoat. (Leviticus 16:8-10)

                This is another of those ideas that doesn’t make sense. How could Jesus bear our sins on the cross? How could His dying be the means by which we might die to sins or live for righteousness? How could we be healed by His wounds? It doesn’t make sense, but there are historical precedents. Throughout history, people have made sacrifices for sin. If God, or the gods, were angry, people sacrificed something or someone. It was part of Jewish culture as well, only within Jewish law, it was pretty specific about what got sacrificed, by whom, where, and how. As described above, even the concept of a scapegoat was included.  It was a picture for them of one thing making atonement for (or redeems) another. Two goats were actually involved. One was sacrificed, but the priest put his hands on the scapegoat and “transferred” the sins of the people to it, then it was released into the wilderness.

                Joseph can be seen as a scapegoat story. The Jews are often portrayed as scapegoats. The trope can also be found outside of Scriptural as well. Oedipus is a scapegoat. Witches are, too. Whenever someone or a group of people adopt the attitude of “if we just do away with _______, the gods will smile on us again or everything will be all better in some other way, it’s a scapegoat story. I’m looking at you, both sides of the political aisle. You tend to make scapegoats of the other side. And Jesus is the ultimate scapegoat.

                The thing is, we get the story wrong, because the scapegoat has both a goat that dies and a goat that lives. Both were necessary in Jewish tradition, but it’s only in Jesus’ story that we get both, in one person.

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