The Great Scape Goat. Leviticus 15-16; Mark 10

May the mumbling commence!

Sometimes it feels like you’re the scapegoat being sent out into the wilderness.  You are the one being blamed for the sin of another.  Where does this idea come from?  One place that it comes from is from the sacrificial practices of the Israelites as commanded by the Lord.  Read from Leviticus chapter sixteen:

"When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tabernacle, and the altar, he must bring the living goat forward.  He is to lay both of his hands on the goat's head and confess over it all the sins and rebellion of the Israelites. In this way, he will lay the people's sins on the head of the goat; then he will send it out into the wilderness, led by a man chosen for this task.  After the man sets it free in the wilderness, the goat will carry all the people's sins upon itself into a desolate land.” (Verses 20-22)

There it is.  Lay your hands on the living scapegoat, confess you sins, and send it off to the wilderness… abandoned to its own particular fate.  Though the people of Israel did not kill the scapegoat, the scapegoat would likely die outside the camp in the wilderness.

There was another perfect sacrifice that occurred outside of Jerusalem.  That was the perfect sacrifice of Jesus.  No other sacrifices are needed now.  Read from Mark chapter ten:

They were now on the way to Jerusalem, and Jesus was walking ahead of them. The disciples were filled with dread and the people following behind were overwhelmed with fear. Taking the twelve disciples aside, Jesus once more began to describe everything that was about to happen to him in Jerusalem.  "When we get to Jerusalem," he told them, "the Son of Man will be betrayed to the leading priests and the teachers of religious law. They will sentence him to die and hand him over to the Romans.  They will mock him, spit on him, beat him with their whips, and kill him, but after three days he will rise again." (Verses 32-34)

Jesus was handed over to the Romans for crucifixion.  And that awful death occurred on Skull Hill outside of Jerusalem.  Jesus carried all of our sins – past, present and future – to that cross.  Judas who turned Jesus over to the authorities thought that perhaps he was escorting a scapegoat that would survive.  But it was not to be.  It was the will of the Lord.

Let’s thank God for the work of Jesus – his life, his teachings, his miracles of healing, his death, and his resurrection.

Enough mumbling for now…

Peace Out