Jesus Christ the Innocent Scapegoat (part 3)

The last two week I have been writing about Jesus as scapegoat, drawing on the theory of Rene Girard.  In brief, Girard theorized that human culture is founded on the scapegoat theory of mimetic (copycat) violence in which all violence originates in the mimetic desire to, in effect, obtain what other people have.  This violence would have destroyed humanity if unchecked and was only kept in check by the scapegoat mechanism which found a common victim – the scapegoat – who was accepted as being the cause of a crisis such as a famine or plague which was consuming the community.  

However, one of the critics of Girard has put forward an argument that Jesus was not innocent.  He was therefore no different that other scapegoats,  Richard Landis, in his essay, A Millennial critique of Rene Girard’s thesis on scapegoating, http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2008/09/01/a-millennial-critique-of-rene-girard%E2%80%99s-thesis-on-scapegoating/, proposes that Jesus was indeed guilty of believing he was the Messiah and was therefore deserved to be crucified by the authorities, Roman and Jewish:

(Jesus) was wrong about the imminence of the apocalypse and, whatever his intentions, dangerous to those who brought their demotic millennial hopes to the surface in a prime divider society profoundly hostile to such sentiments, in the case of Jesus, during the pax romana, whose peace the Romans nailed down, literally, with crucifixion.

There is some justification for this position in my analysis.  Jesus made what could be seen as political moves such as the triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  This had all the accouterments of the Messiah in Jewish tradition.  This was the fulfillment of the prophecy in Zachariah, "Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey -- riding on a donkey's colt." (Zechariah 9:9). 

As Jesus and his followers approached Jerusalem, they began to proclaimed his great works, “As he was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of his disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen” (Luke 19:37).  This could be seen as an effort to incite the crowd. 

This was recognized by the crowd who welcomed him, “They saw Jesus riding the colt and a throng of people singing, "Blessings on the King who comes in the name of the LORD! Peace in heaven, and glory in highest heaven!”   This was a quote from Psalm 118:26, “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.” However, that same crowd who hailed him as Messiah on Pam Sunday, turned and called for his execution fitting Girard’s analysis of the scapegoat mechanism.  

So, let us grant the argument that Jesus was not innocent in that he went to the cross to fulfill the will of his Heavenly Father as the messiah.  This, in no way, means that he was guilty of what the Roman and Jewish authorities accused him of i.e. trying to overthrow the existing earthly authority.   As the thief on his right declared his innocence.  Indeed, as Jesus proclaims to Pilot, "My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my kingdom is from another place."  (John 18: 36).

There is no doubt that Jesus was a scapegoat, fitting perfectly the definition as developed by Girard.  What then is the implication that he is the first scapegoat who is recognized as innocent, which as a Christian, I believe?  If this truly is the beginning of the end of the scapegoat mechanism which has enabled the structure of human culture to develop and thrive throughout history, what is to replace it?  The answer of course if to fulfill the great commandment of Jesus to love one another as he loves us.  This, especially the command to love our enemies does seem to be an impossible task. 

However, the key to this is contained within this revelation that Girard has uncovered.  If we are to love one another, we must stop making scapegoats of the “other”.  We must stop blaming the wrong that is present in the world and in ourselves on those easy targets and believe that if we only deal with them all will be well.  We must recognize the innocence of those victims even if they are not perfect just as we are not perfect.  That is what we are called to do as Christians, to love one another. 

Blessings on your journey