The Scapegoat | How Jesus upends the scapegoat mechanism, moving us towards a ’we’

In Leviticus 16, the people of Israel are taught to use a scapegoat as a symbolic act of relinquishing their sins and receiving forgiveness. As beautiful as this mechanism was, it was only a step towards true spiritual maturity of loving one's enemies and being transformed by the power of God's Spirit.

Jesus becomes the scapegoat to end all scapegoats. But too often humanity has created in-groups and out-groups, us vs. them, which require scapegoats...because we want to be perceived as innocent and unburdened by our sins and inadequacies.

How can we move past the scapegoat mechanism? How can we continue to move towards a 'we'?

This episode is indebted to the work of Richard Rohr, from whom I was introduced to this idea. Here is a short article that exemplifies his work: https://cac.org/jesus-reveals-lie-scapegoating-2016-10-13/