Wednesday in the third week of Lent

Dear friends,

In the sixteenth chapter of the book of Leviticus we read these words:

And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat, and shall send [him] away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness: And the goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited: and he shall let go the goat in the wilderness.

Strangely (or not, I'm not sure) the Old Testament image of the Scapegoat is never used in the New Testament to describe the passion and death of Christ.  Anthropologists, in particular Rene Girard, point to the Scapegoat as an almost universal phenomenon in human cultures - ancient and modern.   In brief, the theory goes something like this... the volatile turmoil within human communities (which is inescapable whenever we try to live together) grows and grows and instead of destroying the community, the tension is finally released through a sacrificial victim - either an individual or a group of people.   The victim, usually innocent, takes upon itself all of the anger of the community and is slaughtered, either by mob violence or in ritual sacrifice.   Girard points out that the slaughter of the Jews in 20th century Europe is a perfect example of the "scapegoat mechanism" (his words).  

Robert Graves, in today' poem, very creatively links Christ not with the scapegoat, but with the "fit man" who was to accompany the goat into the wilderness.  I've attached Justin's wonderful reading of the poem, but also include a link to Samuel Barber's interpretation of it in his cycle Despite and Still.  It really gets at the drama of the poem.  Everything is relatively calm for the first bit, when it appears to be just Christ alone in the wilderness, but then things turn very dark and threatening.  Gradually it is revealed that accompanying Christ in the wilderness in "all His wanderings" is a "Comrade, with ragged coat, Gaunt ribs—poor innocent— Bleeding foot, burning throat, The guileless old scapegoat."

United with Christ in the wilderness, and on the cross, is the suffering of all innocent victims.  They were with him there, sharing his fate, and sharing their tears "like a lover."  They bore, and continue to bear what S Paul very mysteriously described as "what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions." (Colossians 1.24)

In the Wilderness
By Robert Graves

Christ of His gentleness 
Thirsting and hungering, 
Walked in the wilderness; 
Soft words of grace He spoke 
Unto lost desert-folk
That listened wondering. 
He heard the bitterns call 
From ruined palace-wall, 
Answered them brotherly. 
He held communion
With the she-pelican 
Of lonely piety. 
Basilisk, cockatrice, 
Flocked to his homilies, 
With mail of dread device,
With monstrous barbéd slings, 
With eager dragon-eyes; 
Great rats on leather wings 
And poor blind broken things, 
Foul in their miseries.
And ever with Him went, 
Of all His wanderings 
Comrade, with ragged coat, 
Gaunt ribs—poor innocent— 
Bleeding foot, burning throat,
The guileless old scapegoat; 
For forty nights and days 
Followed in Jesus’ ways, 
Sure guard behind Him kept, 
Tears like a lover wept.