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!