Scapegoating? The Seed Died.
“Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as He was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the garden’s trees. But the LORD called to the man, “Where are you?” “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid,” the man answered (Gen 3: 8-10).
“And I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.” (v.15).
Dan Foster of Backyard Church writes in one of his posts on Medium:
“Like other stories in the Bible, the story of Adam and Eve has the value of explaining the human natural conditions. It is a divinely inspired narrative for understanding the complexities of human nature and our eternal quest for meaning and redemption.”
God, in His benevolence, placed the first humans in the Garden of Eden, where they had all they needed to live an abundant life in His presence. They were recipients of God’s love - created for fellowship and worship - with a caveat.
Innocence to Guilt
Innocence to guilt is our story: As children, we began our journey with wonder and curiosity, exploring the world around us with wide-eyed enthusiasm. We laugh, we play, and we accept all things as given.
At some point, we eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil - the forbidden fruit. Our innocence shattered, and we came out feeling empty - devastated. Our nakedness stares us in the face. Feeling exposed, we reach out for “our fig leaves,” hiding behind a finger.
In the garden, the knowledge of good and evil - nakedness - brought Adam and Eve a surge of guilt, fear, and shame. But the Creator knew them for who they were. His love would not let them go.
Scapegoating:
What happens when our masks are off? When our fig leaves fail to conceal our faults and frailties - when we become exposed and vulnerable? We look for someone to bear the blame. Adam and Eve shifted the blame onto the serpent and then to each other.
That is the nature of scapegoating - in search of whom to project our fears, insecurities, and failures - absolving ourselves of our responsibilities. Adam and Eve cast blame to avoid confrontation with their choices. We’ve not done any better. We find solace in assigning fault elsewhere rather than facing the discomfort of self-confrontation.
Àlas! The Adamic nature in us.
Whether it’s your boss at work, your spouse at home, an institution, or a racial/tribal category in some corner of society, the scapegoat serves as a convenient target for our frustrations and disappointments. Scapegoating allows us to maintain the illusion of our righteousness - to avoid the hard work of interrogating our failure and our need for personal growth.
Ultimately, we must confront our shadows, escape the cycle of blame and denial, and stop looking for a scapegoat. The ultimate scapegoat has finished the job.
Our Scapegoat:
Jesus is the ultimate scapegoat. He took our sins on his shoulders in unparalleled self-sacrifice as redemption for whoever believes in him.
“He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem. Surely he took up our pain and bore our suffering…But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds, we are healed.” (Isaiah 53:3-5).
Let’s not go through life-shifting blame; Jesus has born our shame. He has paid the price to remove our guilt. By grace, we are saved through faith. God is never interested in our works or performance religion. Our works and gifts, tainted with sin, are like filthy rags. Performance religion plus traditions are potential fig leaves.
The Redeemer.
The one who breaks the curse that Adam and Eve were under - and by extension, all humans, is the redeemer who allows us to throw away our fig leaves and turn them over to him. That is the one who says, “I see you fully for who you are, and I love you all the same.”
The Redeemer sees beyond our masks and pretenses, penetrating the core of our being with unconditional love and acceptance. He is the one who invites us to release the burden of guilt and shame that we carry.
Jesus embodies our forgiveness, grace, and mercy - extending a hand of compassion and putting us in a position to drop all our fig leaves. He restores the innocence we lost and allows us to stand naked and unashamed before God.
Jesus bore it all - our guilt and our pains. He died to pay the price of sin - righteous for the unrighteous. The cross is where we stand naked before the One who sees through our fig leaves and proclaims,
“It is finished.”
(Adapted from Dan Foster).
