Rene Gerard, the great French philosopher who died in 2015, develop
the theory of the scapegoat. Gerard identified
the process in human history and psychology in which someone or some group was
made to carry all the problems of a society, or to put it in religious terms,
the sins of that society. The classic
example of this is the literal “scapegoat” described in Leviticus 16, in which
the sins of the people accumulated in the past year are placed on the literal
goat by the priest. The goat is then
driven out into the dessert carrying those sins. The fate of the goat is sealed by this act
and its fate could be in the hands of God.
The people are then temporarily relieved of their sins.
Girard identified this process as the organizing principle for
most societies throughout history which is, of course, still in operation
today. It is not a problem to identify
this process in recent history with the Jewish people fulfilling that role in a
special, some might say chosen way, by the Nazis Today,
it can be seen wherever antisemitism raises its evil head. However, there are countless more examples of
people or groups who have been victims of this phenomenon. The twenty-fifth anniversary of the Rwandan
genocide was marked earlier this month in which an estimated 800,000 primarily
in one ethic group, the Tutsis were massacred by another ethnic group, the Hutus,
in an ethnic cleansing.
The scapegoating mechanism operated on a personal level as
well as on a group level as detailed at great detail by Girard in his ground breaking
work Things Hidden Since the Foundation
of the World. In effect, Girard has
identified a meta-structure on which human culture operated.
Turning to the personal aspect of scapegoating,
I am sure that no one will have a problem coming up with examples of people who
have served as a scapegoat for others. I
dare say that if we are honest, we can identify times when we have scapegoated someone
else for our failures. It is, apparently
human nature to try and blame others for our shortcomings not wanting to admit
or even recognize them in ourselves.
As we approach Easter the great example of Jesus as
scapegoat looms ahead of us. The scapegoat
mechanism was fully on display yesterday in the Sunday of Palms and the Passion. We Anglicans celebrate both the triumphant
entry of Jesus in Jerusalem as well as the Passion of the cross. The foretaste of this event was seen in Jesus
being driven or led (depending on which Gospel you read) into the wilderness to
face the temptation offered by Satan.
Unlike the situation in the Jewish tradition where the scapegoat dies, Jesus
survived the dessert experience and returns to bring the Good News to the
world.
In a similar way Jesus defeats the power of sin and death and
is resurrected on Easter Sunday. Unlike
the all other cases of scapegoating, the willing sacrifice by Jesus defeats the
power of the scapegoat mechanism. He is a
guiltless victim just as the scapegoat in Leviticus is guiltless. However, the scapegoat mechanism is overturned
and defeated by the triumph of Easter. For
Christians and the world this frees us from the chains of sin which imprison us
in the need to blame others.
This Easter season, I invite you to reflect on how you
scapegoat others and who are the scapegoats around us.
Blessings on your journey.
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