Tuesday, Oct. 29
Leviticus 16:1 – 17:16 Click here to read
If you’ve ever wondered where the idea of a “scapegoat” comes from (or even if you haven’t), now you know.
When Aaron presents the sacrifice for the unintentional sins of the people on the Day of Atonement, he is to first sacrifice a bull for his own sins and the sins of his family.
Then he is to take two goats to sacrifice for the sins of the people. One will be offered as a sacrifice.
As for the other goat, the scapegoat, Aaron is to place his hands on the goat’s head and confess the sins of the people. In doing so, the burden of sin is placed on the goat.
The goat is then released into the wilderness, taking the sin away from the community.
The “scape” in “scapegoat” is a shortening of the word “escape,” signifying that it is the goat that lives and leaves. It is the “goat of removal,” that literally removes sin from the community.
The symbolism of the scapegoat shapes much of our understanding of the atonement through Jesus Christ. As with the goat, Jesus takes the burden of sin that was not his own and accepts its guilt. As the goat took away the sin of the community for the year, Jesus takes away the sin of the world for all time.
As with the cleansing rituals we just read about, the end result is that the people who earned the guilt are freed from it and, just as importantly, they have a visible witness to their being freed from it.
The importance of releasing and letting go of the things like guilt that weigh us down are central to Christianity, but not unique to it. Many of the eastern religions, at least in their pop-culture western interpretations, have rituals of one kind or another for letting go.
Even secular quasi-religions are often built around techniques for letting go, from breathing exercises to visualization to symbolically releasing or breaking bonds. As with much of scripture, the ritual of the scapegoat reveals a good understanding of the way people think and feel.
In emphasizing the ability of people to have a direct relationship with God without a priest as intermediary, I think Protestantism has sometimes gone too far away from the practice of confessing sins and hearing words of absolution. God doesn’t need to hear the words spoken aloud, but often we do.
It can be liberating to speak our confession aloud to someone we can trust, and hear them assure us that indeed, “In the name of Christ, you are forgiven.”