When I was a much younger baseball player, if you made the last out or the error that cost the game, you were the “goat”. I never really thought about what that meant until now. You see that is a clear religious expression about the “scapegoat” that the Hebrew people used to get rid of their sin.
Have you ever been the goat? I have, in all of its pure meaning. In ancient times, the Hebrew people would bring a goat to the priest and they would lay all of their sins on the goat and force it into the wilderness and that is the origin of scapegoating. So, in baseball terms, you are blaming one person for the faults of the whole team. It happens a lot. It happened to me when I was the CEO and the Board decided that every thing that had ever gone wrong was my fault. It doesn’t feel real good, I can tell you.
Why didn’t they use a lamb? Or a sheep? I have thought about that and the sheep were always highly prized, deeply valued for their sustaining of life for the people. The goat is much more independent and apparently a bit smarter. So, in ancient times, the goat, the self-sustaining and independent one was used to carry away the sin. A sheep would always try to return to the flock and thus bring the sins back.
Now that just wouldn’t do would it, send all of the sins away and yet they come right back. But Christ wasn’t a goat, he was the Lamb of God. We took the totally trusting and loving Lamb, put all of our sins on Him but he did not go to the wilderness, he stays right here among us, silently bearing our sins, for us to see. This picture is much more personal and humbling for me. Every time I go my own way (sin), the silent Lamb lovingly remains in view, as a reminder of the price that is paid every day.
I love these words: Christ did not come to change God’s mind about us. God never had to change God’s mind about us. Christ came to change our minds about God! We are the scapegoats/sheep now, we forgive our enemies, love the unloveable ones all while standing among all of life. We are called to bear in our bodies, the sins of the world. We Christians are the living Eucharist of the World.
TMM