Scapegoat – The solution to violence & forgiveness

The scapegoat model or theory of the atonement is about Jesus being the scapegoat where humanity’s sins are taken away. Our guilt is carried away from us by the placing of that guilt upon Jesus. The hatred, violence, and bloodlust of humanity reached its ultimate peak when they decided to execute an innocent man who is also God. This theory of the atonement contrasts the goodness of God with the wickedness of humanity so that we see how far we’ve fallen and how we need to repent. But how did we get here? How could we kill pure and divine innocence? Maybe this doesn’t even register in our brains. Even today, we look on the news and social media and hear about someone being killed or watch someone being assassinated, even going so far as to pick apart all the gory details and talk about it like it’s some kind of casual school project—or like it’s just another day on the job. Some of us are so desensitized that it doesn’t even emotionally affect us. For example, when Charlie Kirk was assassinated, there were all kinds of people saying nasty comments, thinking he deserved to die, they were happy for his death, they were cheering, they were laughing. Their hearts were so cold and callous to another human being’s life being taken away. This is just a glimpse into the hardened and evil hearts of people who crucified Jesus. Charlie was a good man though he had his own flaws. But Jesus was a perfect man. Never once did He commit any sin. Never once did He give into temptation. He healed the sick, raised the dead, cast out demons, put the religious leaders in their place, showed compassion to the poor, and broke the powers of darkness. Jesus forgave sin and did not return evil for evil but returned evil for good. He gave hope to the hopeless. He healed the brokenhearted. He offered to the world life and wholeness. Never once was there an evil word on His tongue or bitterness in His heart. He lived a peaceful life. He proclaimed the truth.

Jesus was a man of God and the accusations brought against Him concerned religious matters for the religious leaders to deal with Him according to their laws. But their laws would not allow them to put Jesus to death but they really wanted Him dead and so they found a way. They delivered him over to Pontius Pilot, the Roman authority. But not even Pilot could find anything wrong with Jesus. And so he gave them an option to release someone from prison. They could choose to release Barabbas who was a robber or they could release Jesus who was an innocent man. But the crowd yelled for Barabbas to be freed and yelled, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” to Jesus. And so Pilot, since he feared the crowd, had Jesus flogged and crucified while Barabbas went free. Even the high priest who was supposed to be God’s representative man and mediator to the people, said that it would be better for one man to die than for the whole nation to perish, as he feared the overturning of their religious system and the popular following that Jesus was attracting (Jn 11:50). The world wanted this innocent man dead.

Imagine that. The hate, rage, and bloodlust of humanity was so great that they wanted to kill God. They wanted blood to satisfy their evil hearts. But we’ve heard the story of Jesus so many times, perhaps we have become desensitized to it as well. So think about this: imagine if there was an alien spacecraft that came to visit earth from another planet. The alien came out of his spacecraft bearing many bountiful gifts and made many frequent trips to deliver more good things for us earth-dwellers. Once this alien came, life was improved for everyone with better technology, healthcare, and knowledge. They only had good intentions for us. But then one day when the alien came back down to bring more gifts without expecting anything in return, someone murdered him; and then every country decided to nuke his planet, only leaving the cloaked mothership in space with the alien’s father piloting it. They did they out of fear and anger, thinking that the aliens were evil and only had bad intentions. But after having just destroyed their planet, what do you think the rest of the aliens would do? The father had just lost his only son and the justified response would recognize that the earth-dwellers cannot be trusted and nor do they deserve to live. They are not worthy of the blessings of this earth. They have corrupted the earth and themselves with their evil. They should all be destroyed. The father would be justified to be filled with anger and rage against these murderers and wipe them out. But the father decides to spare them and show mercy to them instead though they completely do not deserve it. He sends a message down to them from his spaceship and says, “What you have done was a terrible, terrible evil, and you killed my only son. I have the planet earth locked into my sights right now but you know what? I’m going to spare you. I’m not going to blow up the earth. I forgive you. I love you guys and I care about your lives.” At that moment, they would come face-to-face with their own evil hearts and recognize how terribly wrong they were and how they betrayed such innocence and pure goodness and love. We could only hope from then on, that people would turn from their evil ways, having been given a second chance, they would choose love over hate and compassion over violence. But if it were not for the scapegoat in which they placed all their sin and evil upon, they would not have been awakened to their evil hearts and they would not have changed their ways.

This story is an allegory as to why Jesus needed to come and die for the world. He was the scapegoat that made change possible. He bore the sins of humanity on his own body, with every lash, every insult, and every act of violence and hate against Him. He took the punishment we deserved but by His sufferings we were healed. Through His death, He brought to us life and peace because by His perfect love, He showed us the darkness within us, the moral stain of our hearts, the reprehensible acts of our own behavior. His sacrifice has moved us and inspired us to choose life, love, peace, and healing so that we can be saved. It is partially because of this scapegoat reason that the blood of martyrs build the church. The blood of Jesus as the first to be spilled for the foundation of the church. There is something very powerful when someone’s moral convictions and perseverance despite all odds against them, continue without wavering even unto death. To have such a conviction to love God and love people to the point of forgiving our enemies even though they kill the innocent ones we love, has great power to overcome the world. This isn’t a love you can buy. This isn’t a love that comes from only friends and family. This is a love that comes from God. The spilling of this innocent blood has power to change the world. And the more people who are killed for the cause of Christ, the stronger our testimony becomes. Jesus gave us the secret to win against the spiritual darkness and that secret is to overcome evil with good, just as He did when He died on that cross.

That is the scapegoat model and though there are not any explicit texts that say the Father’s wrath was poured out on Jesus or that the Father killed Jesus, there are explicit texts that emphasize the wrath of humanity poured out on Jesus, that it was people who killed Jesus:

Acts 2:22-23

Men of Israel, listen to these words: Jesus the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know—this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.

Acts 3:13-15

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified His servant Jesus, the one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release Him. But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, but put to death the Prince of life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses.

Acts 5:30

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross.

Acts 10:39

We are witnesses of all the things He did both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They also put Him to death by hanging Him on a cross.

Acts 13:28

And though they found no ground for putting Him to death, they asked Pilate that He be executed. (cf. Jn 18:31)

Isaiah 53 is also a text which may very well likely be pointing to Jesus as the Suffering Servant being a scapegoat, carrying away our sins and sorrows, as he was also “forsaken of men” and “cut off” from the land of the living. Isaiah 53 also mentions many evil things that people did to the Suffering Servant. Jesus “bore,” meaning, He experienced and endured the onslaught of humanity’s sin and evil against Him and knows what it’s like to experience the worst griefs and suffering unjustly. In this way, He can more than relate to us. But, He also bore our sins by carrying them away as the scapegoat.

Many who hold to scapegoat theory would say: Jesus didn’t die to satisfy God’s wrath. Jesus died to satisfy man’s wrath and need for violence. The scapegoating model aligns better with the teachings of Jesus about non-violence and turning the other cheek compared to Penal Substitution Theory which is about God not being able to turn the other cheek and having to have His pound of flesh. The death of Jesus was the sacrifice to end all sacrifices/scapegoats, the giving up of His life to end the selfishness of humanity in always seeking their own self-preservation and self-glory.

Someone might point to Acts 2:23 and say that God killed Jesus because He predetermined it but that’s not exactly how predetermination works. We know that God gave His only Son and that He knew ahead of time (foreknowledge) what the plan was and that Jesus would ultimately be put to death. However, God Himself did not deterministically cause any evil acts against His own Son. The evil in the world was already present. So what happened was, God used the evil of humanity that was already present, and made something good out of the bad situation. Jesus was delivered or handed over to Pontius Pilot by the hands of godless men and this was God’s predetermined plan which was orchestrated by the foreknowledge of God. In other words, there were certain things that Jesus said or didn’t say and places that He decided to be or not to be and the choosing of Judas as a disciple whom God foreknew would betray Jesus, all these things set up the right set of circumstances so that the evil of humanity would be given the opportunity to kill Jesus at the proper time. And so, God allowed these things to happen. But the evil actions were not deterministically determined or controlled by God. Those evil actions were totally and completely the responsibility of those who put Jesus to death. People acted according to their own volition—according to their own free-will. John 3:20 says, “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.” It was because of the darkness within people’s hearts, their hatred for the Light, and their fear of being exposed, that they killed Jesus.

But here is an important point: Behind the evil is the fear of being exposed. What results from that? Blame-shifting and violence to divert attention, stop, or snuff out those who make us feel uncomfortable. This is nothing new. It was there at the very beginning with Adam and Eve. After they sinned, they hid themselves from the truth and from the light. Realizing their own nakedness was more than just physical—it was spiritual. And so they hid from God and when they were confronted with their evil, they blamed the snake, blamed the woman, and blamed God. Cain took it another step further by murdering his brother Abel because with no Abel, there would be no one to make him feel guilty, no one to expose the darkness in his own heart. But God wants us to do away with violence and blame-shifting by seeing and facing the darkness within us. And so He sent to us Jesus, to show us how broken we really are, and how far we would go, that we would murder God’s only Son, pure innocence, love incarnate, love divine, and blame Him for our problems before facing the darkness in our own hearts. But once people realized that this was God that they killed, and that God chose to show mercy upon them rather than wrath, they had to face the evil within. The brightness of the love of God shone hotter than the sun and it exposed them. They couldn’t hide anymore and so they repented of their evil deeds and chose love over hate, God over self, compassion over violence. This is how Jesus was an effective scapegoat. He took all the hate and violence of humanity against Himself without breaking, without giving in to the darkness. His love remained steadfast and outshined all the darkness even to His dying breath. He took all the blame upon Himself so that we could find healing.

Here are some passages in the Bible for the scapegoat concept pointing to Jesus:

Leviticus 16:9-10

Then Aaron shall offer the goat on which the lot for the Lord fell, and make it a sin offering. But the goat on which the lot for the scapegoat fell shall be presented alive before the Lord, to make atonement upon it, to send it into the wilderness as the scapegoat.

Leviticus 16:20-22

When he finishes atoning for the holy place and the tent of meeting and the altar, he shall offer the live goat. Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who stands in readiness. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land; and he shall release the goat in the wilderness.

Matthew 12:39-40

But He answered and said to them, “An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign; and yet no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet; for just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Jonah “was fleeing from the presence of the Lord” (Jonah 1:10) similar to how a scapegoat is led away from God’s holy temple. A great storm was raging on account of Jonah but when the men threw Jonah off the boat and into the sea, the sea stopped its raging. Similarly, when Jesus died and was sent into the heart of the earth, He brought sin with Him to its death—hurling them all into the sea of forgetfulness (Micah 7:19; Ps 103:12; Heb 8:12), bringing an end to the power of sin and death (1 Cor 15:55-57; Heb 2:14). In all these things, we could say that Jonah was a type of Christ.

We could also say that Joseph was a type of Christ and scapegoat. Joseph was not worthy of death or slavery but his brothers sinned against him, selling him into slavery into Egypt, and he was sent away from his father into that wilderness land, bearing the sins of his brothers against him for many years. He even bore the guilt of sin he did not commit when Potipher’s wife falsely accused him of sexual harassment and he was thrown into a wretched prison. All these things ultimately happened so that he could redeem Egypt, saving them from famine and death. In this way, he bore the sins of many to bring salvation.

Some say that the scapegoat theory is relatively recent in history from René Girard. However, take a look at this.

Early church father, Barnabas (AD 70-135), saw Jesus as the Azazel scapegoat:

Pay attention to what he commanded: “Take two goats, fine and well-matched, and offer them, and let the priest take one for a whole burnt offering for sins.” But what shall they do with the other one? “The other one,” he says, “is cursed.” Notice how the type of Jesus is revealed! “And all of you shall spit upon it and jab it, and tie scarlet wool around its head, and then let it be driven out into the wilderness.” And when these things have been done, the man in charge of the goat leads it into the wilderness, and he removes the wool and places it upon the bush commonly called rachia (the buds of which we are accustomed to eat when we find them in the countryside; only the fruit of the rachia is sweet). What is the meaning of this? Note well: “the one is for the altar, and the other is cursed,” and note that the one cursed is crowned. For they will see him on that day, wearing a long scarlet robe about his body, and they will say, “Is this not the one whom we once crucified, insulting and piercing and spitting on him? Surely this was the man who said then that he was the Son of God!” Now how is he like that goat? The goats are well-matched, fine, and almost identical, for this reason: so that when they see him coming then, they may be amazed at the similarity of the goat. Observe, therefore, the type of Jesus, who was destined to suffer. And what does it mean when they place the wool in the midst of the thorns? It is a type of Jesus, set forth for the church, because whoever desires to take away the scarlet wool must suffer greatly, since the thorns are so terrible, and can only gain possession of it through affliction. Likewise, he says, “those who desire to see me and to gain my kingdom must receive me through affliction and suffering.”

(The Apostolic Fathers, Third Ed., Michael W. Holmes, 403-404, Ch. 7:6-11)

I do not completely follow Barnabas’ train of thought but nonetheless, he viewed Jesus as a scapegoat. Though, I cannot say whether this is similar or different to the modern scapegoat theory. But we do know that Jesus was deemed to be cursed in His suffering and death, especially the manner of death which He died (Isa 53:4; Gal 3:13). He was also led outside of Jerusalem to Golgotha, and in that sense, into the wilderness, and into the place where sinners and criminals go. Jesus was “cut off.” Some might argue that according to Leviticus 16, the scapegoat was never killed, and they would be right. However, it is said to be a Jewish tradition for them to have pushed the goat off a cliff. In this way, they did what was unlawful. And in a similar way, they unlawfully put Jesus to death.

In the scapegoat model, Isaiah 53, 1 Peter 2:24, Hebrews 9:28, and 2 Corinthians 5:21 are viewed differently than in Penal Substitutionary Atonement. Jesus bearing our sins is not about the imputation of our sins to Him in some kind of legal framework and nor is His bearing of our sins merely Him enduring the evil afflictions against Him as in some other atonement models. Rather, Jesus bears our sins away into the wilderness as our scapegoat and even unto death and into the land of forgetfulness (Lev 16:22). Therefore, this “bearing” language is symbolically all about forgiveness. When Jesus was “cut off” from the land of the living, so also were our sins “cut off.” Even as the goat had sin and guilt symbolically transferred to it through the laying on of people’s hands, and sent away from them, so also our sin and guilt are taken away from us through the love and forgiveness of Jesus through our faith in Him. We have been freed from this burden that we once carried since we have transferred it to Jesus and laid that burden upon Him to carry and remove from us. It was through His scapegoat sacrifice that we are forgiven and free. Putting our faith in Jesus is like putting our hands onto the scapegoat. It is when we place our faith in Jesus that our burden of sin and guilt are laid upon Him and carried away from us. However, this must be true faith, not just intellectual assent. Saying a prayer, confession, or intellectually affirming certain truths do not save in and of themselves if such things do not lead to a change in action. True faith leads to a transformed life and faith is the means to that life, but the substance is Christ living in us.

The mechanism of forgiveness for scapegoat theory is not penal/legal substitution, but representative substitution. Or, representative transference. It is forgiveness offered freely to us and enacted on our behalf if we partake in faith. Even as Jesus said in John 3:14-15 “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.” The sacrifice of Jesus was offered on behalf of all who would believe even as life and healing were offered to anyone who would look up to the staff of Moses. Therefore, this isn’t what some would call, “Limited Atonement,” because the love and forgiveness of Jesus displayed in His death on the cross was a provisional sacrifice for all people. Even in the Old Testament sacrificial system, the sacrifices were offered on behalf of all Israel but was all Israel of faith? No, even as Paul writes, “For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel” (Ro 9:6). Therefore, the sacrifice of Jesus was on behalf of the whole world but is only effective to those who apply faith.

Here are some YouTube videos for further research:
The Scapegoat Atonement Theory (Rene Girard) by Stephen D. Morrison

Day of Atonement: The Mystery of the Azazel Goat by Rise On Fire Ministries