No More Scapegoats! (part 4)

This is the 4th and last post in this series in which I have been exploring the human tendency toward scapegoating and blaming others. (Part 1), (Part 2), and (Part 3) all build up to these final thoughts, and may be helpful for understanding where I'm coming from.

People unite around a common scapegoat/enemy. And usually, a chosen scapegoat is not seen as innocent, but rather becomes an easy target precisely because the accusers feel justified in their accusations. The blame is placed upon the scapegoat, who is then "cast out" (sometimes by declaration and sometimes literally). This brings a sense of peace to the people who did the scapegoating, who feel justified and even righteous in their actions.

Think of how Muslims have been scapegoated, for instance. Because there have been some horrific things done by people who claim affiliation with Islam, it becomes easy for people to scapegoat all Muslims as violent, evil, problem people who need to be "cast out."

Or consider how LGBTQ folks who want to get married have been accused of "destroying the sanctity of marriage" when over half of all heterosexual marriages are already ending in divorce. Looking beyond whether a person supports traditional marriage or affirms gay marriage, the accusation in itself is lame.

Or consider the number of women who are sexually harassed, assaulted, or even raped, and then accused and blamed for it because of the "provocative clothing" they were wearing or their flirtatious personality or some other reason.

Or consider how often African Americans are accused of keeping racism alive by publicly protesting and "constantly playing the race card," as people like to say. Rather than owning up to our own complicity in the realities of American history, structure, and culture, white people very often scapegoat and blame minorities for the racism they experience (And white people often get very angry when this is pointed out, because it disrupts our privilege. There's a wise saying that essentially says: "Equality feels like oppression to the privileged.").

If we can find some thread of blame or guilt that seems legitimate, that's all we need to enforce the scapegoating mechanism and cast out the unwanted problem people, deflecting all blame away from ourselves and our own complicity in such things, which relieves us of unwanted guilt and brings temporary peace. It's a great example of finding the speck in our brother's eye while ignoring the plank in our own eye (Matthew 7:3-5).

So people naturally unite around a common scapegoat/enemy, usually unaware of the scapegoating mechanism at work, but very aware of how good it feels to name the enemy while identifying themselves with the "good" or "right" people. It feels good because the problem is not "us," but rather "them." It is a powerful and effective way to unite people, and a leader that knows how to wield this power can get some astonishing results, for good or for ill.

Nero scapegoated Christians in the first century to unify the Romans. Hitler scapegoated Jews to unify the Germans. The effectiveness of this principality/power is almost comically displayed in the Bible by the gospel writers. For example, in Luke 23:12 we witness how the scapegoating of Jesus has unified two powerful people—“And Herod and Pilate became friends with each other that very day, for before this they had been at enmity with each other.” They united around a common enemy.

Again in Matthew 22:15-16, and Mark 3:6, 12:13, the Pharisees and the Herodians come together against Jesus—these groups are NOT your everyday example of like-minded friends! This is like saying the Republicans and Democrats came together in blessed unity to accomplish a political goal! What kind of stakes would we have to be in for that to happen? Well, it probably happens best when we go to war against a common enemy.

Remember 9-11? For a moment--perhaps a few months, Americans dropped all the potential dividers and powerfully united because we had identified a real threat, a common enemy. "God Bless America" and similar slogans appeared and gave laser focus to who we are. It formed an identity that rose above all our current differences. Wars can have a strange power for uniting people around a common enemy. Societies and groups in some sense “need” an enemy in order to stay united as a people. But this is a problem that perpetuates continual rivalry, violence, hatred, and warfare. How in the world can we work toward real peace if we "need" an enemy?

Well, it begins with this: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” —Ephesians 6:12

And again from Jesus: "You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,  that you may be children of your Father in heaven." -Matthew 5:43-45a

Jesus's teaching to love our enemies is so disruptive. It is still so radical that we can hardly see it as a viable option. It unravels the very method of how cultures have learned to survive! But our struggle is NOT against flesh and blood. As long as we continue to identify and blame human people groups as our chosen scapegoated enemies, whether they are innocent or not, we can expect an ongoing, never-ending cycle of violence and war. We can choose love, or we can choose violence (This is a huge theme in the book of Revelation). Jesus is the last scapegoat, who takes all the blame, and invites us to follow the way of the "Lamb" rather than the way of the "Beast."

Interestingly, religious groups (including Christians) have a long history of doing the exact opposite.
Now if you try really hard, I imagine you can think of some examples where a group of people collectively scapegoated another group of people in the name of "righteous service to God"... hmmm? Can you think of any? Yeah, not too hard. The human heart might be an "idol-making factory," as John Calvin wrote, but it is also true that godless religion is a collective factory of human hearts that produces scapegoats.

Religious scapegoats tend to be people on the margins, people who can be blamed without a lot of cost to the blamers. That's what the religious leaders did to Jesus. And irony of ironies, they believed that they were doing a service to God! In order to restore peace to the community, they committed sacred violence in the name of God, as they murdered God's chosen Messiah! Talk about blindness! This is the Satan at work. This is the opposite of real peacemaking, which is to love your enemies, which is what Christians are called to do.

I'm not saying there are never legitimate reasons to name an enemy. Obviously there are enemies that arise, and have to be dealt with. A government holds authority to maintain some sense of law and order, so that we don't completely destroy ourselves (Romans 13:1-5). But scapegoating is a cathartic, self-protective action. It makes us feel better when we can cast blame on others, focusing on their sins while feeling more righteous about ourselves. So when things get tense, people tend to pour out their collective anxiety on a scapegoat.

Jesus became the ultimate scapegoat to end all scapegoating, and invited us into a new way. He let evil do its worst to him, though he was innocent, and he became the sacrifice to end all sacrifices. The New Testament claims he took on the powers of darkness, absorbed it’s most violent attacks, received into himself the fury of Satan, sin, and death—bore it all on the cross and took it down to the grave, burying it forever!

And then God vindicated his way-- his suffering, non-violent, enemy-loving way of peacemaking--by raising him from the dead. God put his stamp of approval on Jesus, while condemning the way of violent religion and culture. His life, his way, triumphed over the accusing, blaming, scapegoating, violent powers of Satan, sin, and death, which have dominated the world since the foundation of human culture. Putting them to shame, Jesus took all the powers of darkness down to the grave, left it there, and rose up again—inviting us all into the new humanity of the new creation. Jesus re-founded the world at the cross and proclaimed Peace on Earth!

Followers of Jesus cannot escape their anxiety, insecurity, fear, and anger by blaming others and scapegoating them— this is exactly what Caiaphas and “the crowd” (and all of humanity) did to Jesus. But Jesus willingly took all the blame and has now forbid that we continue in that accusatory, Satanic way. The blame game is over in the name of Jesus— we are to bless and not curse. We are to love our enemies.

Instead of casting blame and hating our enemies, we are to deal with the darkness within. We are to carry our cross (Mark 8:34-35), which is an instrument of death. That means several things, but one thing it means is that we go into the very places within our being where we feel the anxiety and rivalry. We go into the self-protective world of the ego, where we are doing everything we can to survive and to avoid pain. It's the place of our deepest fears, where we engage in the self-protective, cathartic act of scapegoating others-- and we let Jesus cast it out of us. This is terrifying and excruciating work--literally a "death"-- but it leads to freedom and life (Mark 8:35-37).

We are to recognize that the line between good and evil runs down the very center of every one of us. We are all guilty, we are all sinners, and therefore to call down condemnation on others while ignoring the plank in our own eye, is to call down condemnation upon ourselves. Rise above it and walk in the new humanity. Then we might be able to see clearly enough to "remove the speck" from our brother's eye (Matthew 7:5).

Our unity/peace is to be found, not by projecting all of our anxiety onto a scapegoat— but by gathering around the crucified Christ—the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world— the last scapegoat who already bore it all. We are to learn peace as "the Way." We are to confess our own sins, and learn forgiveness for those who sin against us. Like Jesus, we learn to absorb offenses and forgive rather than lash out in retaliation. To forgive is to wage real peace, instead of the false peace that comes from scapegoating. It is a stubborn, defiant refusal to let the cycle of scapegoating violence and hatred stay in circulation and have the last word.

Rather, Jesus is Lord and He has the last word!

No More Scapegoats! (part 3)

So far I've explored how scapegoating is a foundational human condition, rooted in the spirit of the satan, and culminating in sacred violence. From the beginning of the Biblical story, the serpent accuses and scapegoats God. Once Adam and Eve listen to and believe the serpent, the spirit of the satan takes hold, they turn on each other, and the Satanic spirit continues on in their children.

The philosopher Rene Girard explored this theme in the Bible, linking it to his studies of mimetic desire in human cultures. Our mimetic desires cause rivalry, fear, and hatred toward others who become our competition rather than our brother/sister. In order to secure ourselves, we scapegoat and blame them, often subconsciously. Both individuals and entire cultures do this as a way of self-preservation. When a scapegoat is chosen, labeled, and cast out or even killed, we feel the "problem" has gone away, order has been restored, and we can live in "peace" again, at least for a while.

Again, there is a plethora of research and writing on this subject, which I am drawing from. It is certainly not unique to my thinking, but I have found it to be very helpful and revelatory for my own life, so I am presenting it in my own words through this blog series.
It might be helpful to read (part 1) and (part 2) of this series of posts before continuing, if you haven't already.

The "scapegoat mechanism," as Girard called it, is something that is largely hidden in human cultures. We do not notice how prevalent it is and why it is happening until it is pointed out and revealed to us. It is so natural to our condition that we often lack the imagination to think any different. That is why we need revelation about it, to bring the unconscious into consciousness.

Girard contended that the scapegoat mechanism is one of those truths that Jesus came to reveal to humanity, exposing it through his own life and teaching, and especially in his death. Through the story of Jesus, we can clearly see the foundational human sin of scapegoating and blaming, the accusing spirit of the satan that is natural to all of us, which leads to violence and murder.

Jerusalem was a city filled with tension at the time of Jesus— many Jews were upset at the mistreatment by the Romans, the corruption of the priesthood, the heavy taxes imposed— they were awaiting the Messiah to deliver them, and many believed this Messiah was going to lead a revolt that kicked their enemies out of their land. This was nerve racking for the Jewish religious leaders, as there had been several attempted revolts led by would-be Messiahs. Every time this happened, the Romans came and squashed the revolt, resulting in the deaths of many Jews and increased tensions between the Jews and the Romans.

Jesus comes along, starts attracting a following, and pretty soon people believe he is the Messiah. They try to force him to become king, though Jesus refuses because he’s not that kind of king (see John 6:15).
This is why we see Jesus at points in the gospel stories trying to hide his miracles and healings, and especially his identity as the Messiah (ex. Mark 1:44-45; 8:29-30; 9:9) --he wants to help people but they are starting to get the wrong idea about what he’s here to do.

When Jesus asks his disciples who people think he is, they say “some say John the Baptist, others say a prophet,” but then Jesus asks, “Who do you say that I am?” And Peter says, “You are the Christ—the Messiah!” Jesus says—“this has been revealed to you from above.” But then immediately Jesus warns his disciples not to tell anyone, and then he starts declaring that the Messiah is going to be betrayed, rejected, and killed—and then rise on the third day (Mark 8:27-33). Understandably, the disciples are confused. But as the tension mounts in the city, and Jesus keeps gaining a strong following, it proves to be too much for the religious leaders.

Notice this insightful passage in John 11:45-53...
After Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead, the religious leaders are beside themselves. They say, "If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation" (vs. 48). They have tried to balance faithful worship of God within the context of the oppressive Roman Empire. They had already been warned severely that more uprisings would have consequences. This Jesus figure is leading people to get stirred up!

Jesus becomes the Scapegoat
But Caiaphas has insight. He sees what’s going on and what needs to happen.
Look at vs. 49-53...
"Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life."

Do you see it? Caiaphas scapegoats Jesus as the one who must be sacrificed in order to relieve the tension and rivalry that has built up, and this will bring peace and order back to the community. So they plot to take his life. And John gives some commentary for the reader, showing that Jesus lays down his life to bring a new kind of peace/unity/order that goes well beyond just the Jewish nation, but has universal effects, reaching all the children of God. Jesus will become the last scapegoat.

So on the night Jesus is arrested, we see something fascinating happen.
The crowd takes on a dark power when the tension between Jesus, their Messianic expectations, and the authorities proves to be too much. All the collective anxiety must go somewhere, and the crowd willingly embraces Jesus as their scapegoat. The spirit of the Satan is a powerful influence in a crowd, which can quickly turn into a mindless, bloodthirsty mob… (see also Acts 19:32, when Paul is accused in Ephesus: “The assembly was in confusion: Some were shouting one thing, some another. Most of the people did not even know why they were there.”).

A sacrifice had to be made to appease the collective fear in the crowd and the authorities, and so the crowd demanded that Jesus be crucified. In this way, Jesus was an innocent victim to the sinful, demonic power that had manifested in the crowd and the authorities. He became the scapegoat to appease their rivalry and bring “balance” back to the people. Mobs will disperse after a good lynching. Tribes will relent after they've tossed a virgin into the volcano to appease the angry fire god.

How can people come to believe they need to make human sacrifices? How could Israel get so far off course that they came to the place where they sacrificed their children to the detestable god Molech in the Valley of Hinnom? How could an entire, sophisticated culture in the 20th Century come to believe that exterminating Jews was a reasonable thing to do? This is the surprising power, and the sadistic deception of the satan. It leads people to do things they never thought possible.

Jesus the Innocent Sacrificial Lamb
What's unique about the scapegoating of Jesus is that he is completely innocent. Generally, when people unleash their accusation on a scapegoat, there is some perceived sense of justification for it. It happens in families where someone is identified as the "black sheep" of the family, and usually for some justified reason. Or just as the story of Adam and Eve shows us, it's easy to accuse your spouse and overlook your own faults when you have problems in your marriage. Generally we feel very justified in pointing out all of the ways they have failed, while ignoring how we may have failed.

On a more national level, if a person can lump all Mexican immigrants into a group that includes "illegals," then it is much easier to justify a general hatred, disdain, and racist rhetoric toward all Mexicans, insisting you're just speaking the truth. Or because there are radical Islamic terrorist groups, people can easily scapegoat all Muslims as a problem to be feared. They are easy scapegoating targets, because we can point to examples of guilty parties to justify the scapegoating.

But Jesus was the innocent, sinless Son of God. He came as our healer, our teacher, our deliverer, our friend. He was Love incarnate. And humanity still scapegoated, blamed, hated, and murdered him. That is how deep our blindness is. That is how deep our compulsive sin problem is. And that is why we need grace, forgiveness, revelation, and a new, transformed heart.

Jesus was the sacrifice to end all sacrifice, the scapegoat to end all scapegoating.

I'll conclude with some thoughts in part 4.

No More Scapegoats! (part 2)

In the last post I discussed what scapegoating is and where the term comes from, which you can read about here.
In this post I want to continue with how this is developed in scripture and how we can begin to see it in our society. But first, a story...

I used to have some neighbors who were from Mexico, and to this day I consider them some of the best neighbors I've ever had. They are hardworking, generally happy, and as friendly and generous as anyone I've ever met (and yes, they are legally here, if you were wondering). But it became clear pretty quickly that some people in the neighborhood looked at them as a problem. I learned with time that there wasn't much, if any, good reasons for this. A combination pattern of racism, petty jealousy, and classic scapegoating began to reveal itself among a couple of these other neighbors. The Mexicans were an easy target for collective anxiety and hatred.

Why, we should ask ourselves, do people do this? That's what I want to explore. We can attribute it to things like, "Some people are just ignorant, racist bigots." But that is too simplistic and it overlooks the universal human problem that is at work in such a scenario. We all have a tendency to do this, in one form or another. This is one of those things where, once we see it, we can't un-see it. I think it is one of the more helpful paradigms I've ever come across.

Sooo, as the story goes: In the beginning… it is well, with Adam and Eve’s soul (Genesis 2:25). They are naked and without shame. There is peace like a river. They have no rivalry. They have peace with God and each other. This is a beautiful story, a picture of human flourishing.

Enter the serpent (Genesis 3) = Satan: the Hebrew HaSatan means “the accuser" or "the adversary."
Adam and Eve listen to the satan, pictured here as a cunning serpent, as it accuses and scapegoats God (3:1, 4-5), and they eat the forbidden fruit.
Adam then accuses Eve (3:12), and Eve accuses the serpent (3:13). The spirit of the satan has taken root…
It continues in their angry son Cain, who accuses his brother Abel and murders him (Genesis 4). John 8:44 says that the devil/satan was a liar and a murderer from the beginning.

After Cain murders Abel, he is terrified that what he did will come back upon himself (Genesis 4:13-14). Driven by the satan, his internal world has become a pool of fear, guilt, and shame, as he accuses even himself— so he begins to project his internal world onto everyone else ("Whoever finds me will kill me.")— Which is instructive for us…

A primary fruit of sin is that we are all mirroring or projecting our own internal fear, anxiety, guilt, and shame onto the world around us and casting blame on others as a way of self preservation. This causes us to live in slavery to fear, and to form rivalry and enemies.

Mimetic Theory
Anthropologists, psychologists, philosophers, and even neuroscientists have recognized this mirroring pattern in human culture. There is a phenomenal body of literature and resources where these ideas are continuing to be explored. Rene Girard developed "Mimetic Theory," building from the work of Kenneth Burke. Many others, such as Ernest Becker, have also influenced the discussion. Gerard was the first to trace this theme in scripture. He describes the scapegoating process as something rooted in our imitation of desire, which leads to rivalry and sacred violence.

So for example: From a young age, we learn to imitate the desires of others. A child doesn’t want a particular toy until the other child decides he does want it, and ascribes value to it. As soon as that happens, the other child suddenly sees him enjoying it, and agrees that there must be value to that toy. So we have a rivalry that is born.

Or an adult male proudly admiring and showing off his new sports car— provokes his neighbor to envy and then hate him.

Or a thousand other examples... rivalry over someone's beauty, someone's possessions, someone's lifestyle, someone's talents or gifting, etc. We've all seen this and experienced it. As we imitate each other's desires, it stirs up insecurity and we project our internal rivalry onto each other. The satan whispers, "They are not your friend, they are your enemy. There is not enough for everyone. You must cast them out, push them down, triumph over them."

Materialistic culture thrives on this mimetic desire… Advertisers know how to appeal to the base desires of envy and jealousy pretty well. By linking our human value to the objects they are selling, our mimetic desire takes over from there and we are hooked. Intrinsic to this rivalry is also a mindset of scarcity rather than plenty. Remember the “Tickle me Elmo” craziness several years back? People were paying thousands on eBay to get one for their child for Christmas. What sense does that make? Or have you ever witnessed a Black Friday opening at, say, Walmart? Good shopping deals become a legitimate reason to injure your neighbor if necessary. These are classic examples of mimetic desire that often leads to rivalry and even violent behavior.

Adam and Eve had no rivalry with God until the serpent appealed to the fruit on the tree, provoking the initial Mimetic Desire-- they wanted to be "like God" (Gen. 3:5) even though they already were--they were made "in God's image" (Gen. 1:26-27). Cain and Abel had no rivalry in the text until one’s sacrifice was valued over the other. Suddenly, rivalry was born, or as the scripture puts it –“sin is crouching at the door. It desires to have you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4:7). If we learn to master it and manage our anxiety and fear, we can overcome. But if not, we are birthed with hatred and rivalry for the other. Mirroring turns to rivalry, producing inner angst, fear, shame, insecurity—which often leads to scapegoating and sacred violence ("sacred" because the violence is completely justified and even righteous in the mind of the perpetrator). It begins in individuals but it also takes root in human cultures.

So Cain kills Abel (Genesis 4).
Then Cain goes on to build a city, with the foundational sin of accusing, scapegoating violence as a way of life. It escalates quickly in the text: Lamech says, “I have killed a man for wounding me… if Cain is avenged 7 times, then Lamech is avenged 70 times 7 times.” The foundation of a human society built after the way of Cain is ever increasing rivalry and violence.



As the rivalry increases, a scapegoat must be chosen to blame, pour collective guilt and anxiety upon, and cast out in order to restore peace to the community. Scapegoat rituals with animal sacrifices served this very function. The scapegoat is the community's substitute victim for their collective sin, shame, fear, guilt, and violence. What's true on the inside will find expression on the outside. It has to for our own self-survival. With a scapegoat, communities find an acceptable person or group to blame. This saves us from having to examine our own hearts, confronting our own darkness, telling the truth about our own sin. And it blinds us from the reality that the line between good and evil goes right down the center of every one of us, as the Russian novelist Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn suggested.

We have many scapegoats in our own society today. Muslims, gays, minorities, immigrants, conservatives, liberals, atheists, Christians, men, women, etc. Everyone has a tendency to identify and label and blame the "problem" people. Capitulating to collective blaming and scapegoating is participation with the satan. "If we could just get rid of them, things would be better," the satan whispers. "They are the reason I am unhappy. They are the reason I don't have the life I want."

What is fascinating is that the majority of these processes are happening at a subconscious level. Most of us do not even recognize the pattern of rivalry and scapegoating that happens in our own lives and in the culture around us. It is a blindness, a system of slavery that we have all found ourselves in. The satan is a deceiver, the prince of darkness, a liar, a murderer. We need to be aware of his schemes (2 Cor. 2:11, Eph. 6:11).

So who are your "go to" scapegoats? Who are you naturally tempted to curse and blame for the problems you face? Who do you blame for society's problems? Our natural tendency is not to look at our own sin, but to point out and magnify the sins of others (Matthew 7:3-5).

In the next post, I want to show how Jesus is the last scapegoat.

No More Scapegoats! (part 1)

Have you ever been scapegoated?

I remember a story about a man who lost his job with a company after the executives made some bad financial decisions, then blamed the man for the company's struggles. He eventually took the fall for their mistakes and got fired. He was scapegoated... "thrown under the bus," as the saying goes.

Maybe you can identify with the picture below...  are you the goat or one of the finger pointers?

Likely you have experienced both positions at different times in your life. No one likes to be scapegoated, but we have all participated in pointing the finger at an easy target. It happens all the time on the playground with young kids. Some poor kid who doesn't fit in, doesn't look right, doesn't smell right, doesn't act right, or something like that, becomes an easy target for everyone else to gang up on. But adults do it, too, unfortunately. Sometimes it is simply the guy or gal at work that doesn't fit in, or a neighbor that everyone views with disdain.

Sometimes, however, it is much more serious.

Probably the most obvious example of scapegoating is what Jews refer to as HaShoa —“the catastrophe,” or the Holocaust. This is such a horrific era of history. Jews, along with several other specific people groups, were singled out, identified as subhuman, blamed for societal problems, and systematically rounded up and murdered. This remains as one of the most chilling examples of evil scapegoating in our world. But it is not an uncommon thing, unfortunately. Every people group has their scapegoats.

What is a scapegoat?
One dictionary definition says, “a person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place.”

And where did we get the term scapegoat? It comes from Leviticus 16:7-10, which says:
  
“Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the Lord at the entrance to the tent of meeting. 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.”

Once a year on the Day of Atonement, the Israelite priests (Levites) would perform this ritual to make atonement for the sins of Israel. There is some debate about whether "scapegoat" is the best translation for the Hebrew word Azazel, which some scholars think is actually the name of a demon that was believed to live in the wilderness, or the place where the scapegoat was sent. But the point is the role of the scapegoat.

The scapegoat symbolically took the blame of the people and the consequences of that blame, as the priest confessed the sins of the community over the scapegoat. The sins of the people were then symbolically placed or transferred onto the scapegoat, which was then “cast out” of the community and into the wilderness.

This removing of the community's sins has a cleansing, “peacemaking” effect on the community for a while. It removes their conscious guilt and anxiety, and provides "peace with God," since the goat becomes the one who bears the burden of Israel's sins. Or as the text says, it "makes atonement" (vs. 10). The word "atonement," as many theologians have pointed out, basically means "at-one-ment," or the reconciliation of what was once separated/fractured.

But in Israel's case, it must be repeated over and over as the anxiety and guilt keep building up because of their ongoing sin problem. Or as the author of Hebrews puts it, "It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4). This all points to when Jesus is eventually crucified and he becomes the last scapegoat, so to speak, as he bears the blame for all of humanity's sin, and is cast outside of the city to die on a cross.

Human cultures have always operated with a scapegoating mechanism as a way to restore peace. Variations of the ritual are widely attested to in Ancient Near East culture. Traditionally, in cultures that practiced animal sacrifice, the scapegoat was an animal such as a goat. But some cultures also practiced human sacrifice for the same reason, to appease the gods and purify the community. Even Israel fell into this practice when they worshiped false gods, such as Molech (Leviticus 18:21, 20:1-5, 1 Kings 11:7, Jeremiah 32:35), and ended up sacrificing their own children. Scapegoating, blaming, and sacrificing a human victim seems so barbaric and primitive. We think we could never do such a thing.

But the practice is still with us, at least in principle. Strangely, however, this phenomenon of scapegoating has not always been something people are consciously aware of. It is a truth about humanity that has been just under the surface, something hidden since the foundation of the world (Matthew 13:35). Perhaps it is because we are so used to it and it is so natural to do it, that it takes the special revelation of scripture for us to see it for what it actually is.

So we can see the early scapegoat images and ritual in Leviticus 16, but the human act of scapegoating and blaming others is revealed from the very beginning of the scriptures as a foundational human sin pattern. And so to the beginning, we must go...

...which I will continue to discuss in the next post.

Fish Story

Okay, you're not going to believe this story but I don't care. I'm telling it anyway.

Back when I was about 15, I went to summer camp near Kansas City along with a few buddies of mine. It was a great camp, with lots of fun things to do. One of those things included a big lake that we could fish at all day during free time. Well, my friend Jason and I loved to fish so we were there as often as possible, reeling in bass and blue gill.

In the cabin next to ours, there was a camper who seemed a little... off. I don't mean to be mean, he was just really quirky and said some things that made my forehead wrinkle. Anyway, one day when we were out fishing at the edge of the lake, this guy (I'll call him Don) came out with his tackle box and his gigantic fishing pole. Seriously, I thought he was fishing for sharks.

Jason and I looked at each other, shrugged our shoulders and kept fishing. We had just come from lunch, where they had served chicken patties... which worked great for catching blue gill, so we had swiped a few extra when we left the table. Well Don pulls out his big deep sea fishing pole and puts almost an entire chicken patty on the hook for bait. He said, "I'm gonna catch a big one!"

He threw the bait out there as far as he could and let it sink. I kind of felt bad for him, since he was so confident and yet I knew he didn't have a prayer of catching anything on what he just rigged up. Jason and I just kept fishing, steadily reeling in bass and blue gill. It was a good day for fishing!

After about 25 minutes we hear this loud "I got one!" and we look over to see Don setting the hook with all his might, and his giant deep sea fishing pole is bent and looks like it might break. Our eyes got wide with disbelief, and we ran over to see what in the world he had hooked. He fought it for ten minutes and then pulls in the biggest grass carp I have ever seen. I couldn't believe it.

It weighed 24.5 pounds according to the little Zebco scale Don had hooked to the gill of the fish. But that's where the problems started. Don had placed this mega-carp on a tiny little hook on a tiny little scale, more appropriately used for weighing perch and minnows. That big ol' carp only had to squirm once and that little hook on the scale tore right through its gill up to its mouth as the weight of the fish was too much. Now it was flopping all over the ground and bleeding everywhere.

Don kind of panicked and decided to throw the carp back into the lake. We watched it as it tried to swim but something was really off and all it could do was swim in circles while spinning in the water. I had a feeling it wasn't going to make it. About that time we had to go to an event so we left the fish to fend for itself, hoping it might recover while we were gone.

When we came back, sure enough the poor fish wasn't doing too well. Jason and I looked at it kind of floating and struggling right next to the bank of the lake. No one else was there yet, so we decided we would try to help it by picking it up and taking it out onto the dock where we could throw it out into deeper water. Maybe that would help it have a better chance.

So Jason reached down and grabbed the fish by the gills and we started walking toward the dock. Now, you know how fish have those air bubbles in their stomachs and sometimes they make little chirping noises? Well, this big fish made some pretty loud chirping noises and what I'm going to tell you next will make you roll your eyes, but I'm not making this up.

The fish was making these sounds...."khk-khk-khk-khk-...kkhhh-hhhe-e-l-l-p....m-e-e....khk-khk." The freaking fish said "help me!" I'm serious! I know you don't believe me, but Jason and I immediately looked at each other dumbfounded. "Did it just say 'help me?'" Jason asked, his eyes were as big as baseballs.

I didn't say anything. I was too scared.

We kept walking, only faster, toward the dock as the fish continued to make chirping noises. Then it did it again... "khk-khk-khk...khwa-terrr...khk-khk." It said "water!" With that we threw it back into the lake and ran.

Try not to dismiss me. Jason will verify this entire story. He was there! I know it sounds crazy.

We immediately found our friend Kirby and began to tell him the story. Now Kirby wasn't having a very good week. I don't remember all the reasons why, but part of it had to do with the fact that I had spilled a large glass of orange juice in his lap earlier that day. Kirby was bitter a lot in those days. Several of us used to give him a hard time about it, which actually kind of helped cheer him up sometimes.

Well, we began to tell him the story, which he was not enjoying. But when I insisted that the fish said, "Help me," it was too much. I crossed the line. Kirby told me to shut up and then he punched me in the gut. It didn't hurt that bad but it did surprise me. He later apologized and now we laugh about it whenever we tell this story. Kirby later found himself a good wife and has a little girl now. I don't think he's been bitter since.

Anyway, we went back to the lake and found out Don had grabbed the carp out of the water and chopped it up with his fillet knife, since it was basically dead anyway. Fish guts were everywhere. He said, "I'm gonna use it for bait!" Well that's just great. Now we'll never know if it had more to say before it died.

Later that night, my friends and I were about to go to one of our evening camp sessions, and we were goofing off just outside the main building. My friend Luke and I were using our straws from our drinks as little blow gun pea shooters, shooting the crushed ice at each other. It was a fun little war, until Luke shot me right in the eyeball. I had hard contacts in those days, and the blast from the ice knocked my contact out. So my eye was stinging like crazy, and I was on my hands and knees trying to find my contact lens on the ground, with the help of my friends.

Well right about that time, as we're all huddled together on our hands and knees looking for my contact, Don walks up to the drinking fountain right outside the building, takes a big swig of water in his mouth, and walks over to us. He then proudly poses himself as a statue, sticks his head out, and with a mouthful of water says, "Look, I'm a fountain!" Then he spews the water out of his mouth just like a fountain. He spit it right where we were looking for my contact. Some of it splashed on me. I don't think he even realized what he did. Don sure was a strange guy.

So that's the story. My wife helped me create the bumper sticker above to memorialize this story. We gave one to everyone who thinks this story is special. And by "special," I mean "probably true," even if we have doubts.

My brother has made it a habit to tell this story to his youth groups (he's a youth pastor) even though he wasn't even there. He just thinks it's a hilarious story, and so do his youth groups apparently. And I think it's hilarious too-- I mean, I know it sounds so ridiculous, but the fact of the matter is it also creeps me out a little. That fish talked and people who claim such things might get sent to an institution somewhere. And I have a witness! But hey, I can pretend it didn't happen all I want. I'd just be lying to myself and to everyone else.

Well, maybe in the grand scheme of things it's not a big deal. I mean, we live in a really strange universe with black holes and weird dimensions and physics that don't seem to make sense. We haven't even scratched the surface. Maybe animals do talk, like so many of the Pixar films are trying to tell us. In the Bible there's a story about a talking donkey. Metaphor? Perhaps... or perhaps not.

Anyway, this fish story is something I'll never forget and I'm guessing you won't either (if you actually made it to the end). Hopefully it at least gave you a good laugh.