The Scapegoat

Yesterday I had the chance to attend a play performed by my church's theatrical team. Featuring some of my friends, the play portrayed Jesus' passion and resurrection. Packed in an hour and on an extremely limited budget, the show was no Mel Gibson "The Passion of the Christ" but it was a great effort that got the lady sitting in front of me to cry.

The trial scene triggered many thoughts in my mind, on one side stood Jesus, silent and submissive and on the other stood Barabbas, the guy portraying him  tried to invoke the crowd through crude humor, and the conclusion is obvious , an angry mob claiming the guilt in the famous “His blood is on us and on our children!” verse.

I believe this interpretation of the situation - thought common - lacks essence and was the reason of blood shed and discrimination over the ages. The emphasis on Barabbas as the convicted felon, the Jews as the main collaborators and Pilate as the clueless cornered ruler overshadows a much deeper scriptural meaning.

• First, there is very little historic evidence the Romans in general released convicted felons, and none that Pilate in particular did so. John's gospel calls the release of a prisoner a Jewish tradition (Jn 18:39)
• Second, the name Barabbas, bar-abbas literally means "the son of the father", Matthew even calls him Jesus in the (Mt 27:16-17), thus setting the confrontation between Jesus the king of the Jews and Jesus the son of the father
• Going back to the book of Leviticus, chapter 16 clearly specifies the proceedings to the day of atonement, this takes place when a lot is cast between two goats, one is the lord's goat which was sacrificed and it's blood was sprinkled on the atonement cover, then the priest reads all the sins of the people while holding the scapegoat's head then release it in the wilderness.

Jesus trial scene places him not only as the lord's goat who is killed as a sacrifice, but also as the scapegoat who carries people's sins and is alienated as a part of the atonement (note that he is crucified at calvary outside the city walls). Both of them are sinless at the beginning, both have their essential role in atonement. Maybe it's the fate of the scapegoat to be forgotten even during a simple exegesis. Read that way  “His blood is on us and on our children!” bares a totally different meaning.

The fact that all this happens during the Passover, makes him the Passover lamb as well. Without going into further historical details about the matrix of religious or political forces of the first century Judeo-Roman world, a first century Jew would understand it as a proceeding for atonement not as a guilt indulgence ceremony. Reading the passages literally leads to the creation of new scapegoats which are punished over the ages for no sins of their own.

"scape·goat

/ˈskāpˌgōt/
Noun
(in the Bible) A goat sent into the wilderness after the Jewish chief priest had symbolically laid the sins of the people upon it (Lev. 16)."