Daily Lesson for April 30, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Leviticus chapter 16 verses 6 through 10:

6 Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin-offering for himself, and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. 7He shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting;8and Aaron shall cast lots on the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. 9Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord, and offer it as a sin-offering; 10but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, so that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.

In Second Temple Judaism the Priest used two goats for the making of atonement for the people. One was sacrificed as a sin offering in the Temple. The other was sent away into the wilderness. The one sent away was known as the Azazel goat, sometimes translated the “scapegoat”.

For the most part Western culture has given up animal sacrifice. Yet we continue to scapegoat over and over again. We still scapegoat, though we don’t use goats to do it; we use people. 

One person is made to bear all the unsettled anxiety and weight of all the collective sins of the group.  All the moral, ethical, and institutional failures of the group fall on this one person. They are inevitably judged guilty or culpable and then sent away from the group. This act of expiation then leads to the group’s reformed consciousness.

Scapegoating is a primary reason why serving on the White House staff is such a revolving door in modern America. All the blame is cast on lower, expendable surrogates for the leader. 

Of course, the leader doesn’t always escape. Oftentimes he or she is the scapegoat. Amidst a tremendous moment of anxiety and crisis in the life of the group, the leader is often dismissed or resigns. The institutional anxiety is diminished and the group then moves forward collectively. 

We need to watch out for scapegoating. It’s in our churches, our denominations, our businesses, and our government. We need to watch out for it, lest we continue the victimizing ritual of casting the sins of many upon the one.