Who needs a scapegoat?
With my interest in modern history, whenever we reach the early part of October, my mind goes back to October 1973. It was at the time of the most important Jewish Sabbath, Yom Kippur. Egypt and Syria chose the moment to make a surprise attack upon Israel. Because of the special holiday, the Arab nations hoped to catch Israel on the back foot. This conflict is known as the Yom Kippur War.
So why is Yom Kippur - the Jewish phrase means Day of Atonement - a big deal? We read about it in the Old Testament. Christians realise that through the pages of the Jewish Scriptures, God was laying out principles, plans and illustrations in a similar way to an architect who provides drawings and even scale models to get across what he has in mind. The plans and scale models are not the real thing, only shadows of what is to come. The annual Day of Atonement is such a shadow.
This is what took place on the Day of Atonement in keeping with God’s directions: two goats, of impeccable quality, were selected and one of them was slaughtered. This goat was a sacrifice; its life taken in lieu of the Israelite people who, God declared, deserved to die because of their sins. Having had their misdeeds atoned for, the second goat was brought into the ceremony to play its part. The priest laid his hands upon the goat’s head and confessed the sins of the people. The animal was then led into the wilderness, to the back of beyond as we might say, and released after which it wandered off into the sunset, never to be seen again. This second goat was a great comfort to the people; it signified the fact that God had accepted the life of the first goat as an atonement and that the people’s sins had been taken far away ‘as far as the east is from the west’.
That was the shadow or the thumbnail sketch. The whole process was pointing to the real deal, namely Jesus. Unlike the first goat which had no say in the matter, Jesus willingly gave his perfect life over to death as a sacrifice for people; people who recognise that they are accountable to God but are incapable of making amends for their wrongdoings. The Christian message calls such people to metaphorically place their hands on Jesus and confess their sins. In this way, like the second goat, Jesus becomes their scapegoat, removing their wrongdoings from God’s presence and comforting them with a clean conscience.
If we want him, Jesus is willing to be our scapegoat even now.