Blame. The currency of exchange in political transactions.
Perhaps you’ve noticed.
Vision takes a backseat to blame. Whether it’s political ads, stump speeches, opinion columns… or just the pervasive attitude of the day. But don’t be confused, blame is not an invention of cable news, or social media, or a two-party system.
We can trace the roots of blame to Genesis 3. To the Garden of Eden…
The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the LORD God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
The woman.
The serpent.
Blame.
The shift of responsibility. The delegation of consequence.
A burden too damning to carry, shifted to the shoulders of others.
From the beginning. The problem.
From the beginning. A solution.
And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel, and all their transgressions, all their sins. And he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. The goat shall bear all their iniquities on itself to a remote area, and he shall let the goat go free in the wilderness. (Leviticus 16:21–22)
The cosmic shift of guilt. Iniquities transferred. A scapegoat.
A
precursor to the ultimate solution. A prophetic description by Isaiah.
“All
we like sheep have gone astray;
we
have turned—every one—to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.”
The burden. Our sin. His shoulders.
Our guilt. His cross.
Our only “boast”, the cross of Christ. (Galatians 6:14)
Our only hope, His grace.
Sins carried. Justice satisfied. Without a goat.
By Jesus. “The iniquity of us all…”
Confession accomplishes what Aaron practiced. His hands on the head of a goat…
our honest admission on the head of our Lord.
Blame shifted. Atonement made. Forgiveness extended.
The Lenten journey continues. Humbling gratitude extended to the God who
redeems His creation.
Us.
Me.
Oh, what a Savior.
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