The Last Scapegoat:

How Jesus Came to Set Us Free from Self-Righteous Pride and Misguided Justice

Scapegoating: “The act of unfairly blaming an individual or group for problems, faults, or wrongdoings, often to deflect responsibility from the true source(s); casting shame upon someone for something they did not cause.”

Blame and shame. They are two of the most powerful weapons the enemy of our souls uses to attack the courage, dignity, and wide-eyed wonder of God’s beloved children. Sadly, his most effective means of deploying his arsenal is through friendly fire. He loves to invade our thoughts with notions of suspicion, judgment, and offense so that we do his bidding to tear down the image of God in one another. It is civil war. 

Modern examples of scapegoating are everywhere. It is found in every workplace where co-workers complain ad nauseam about their boss or supervisors behind their backs. It happens daily when we turn on the news and proceed to blame a political leader or party for “everything that is wrong in the world.” Scapegoating is on display in every space we threaten to cancel “video games” or “social media” or “fill-in-the-blank company” for ruining our children. The spirit of scapegoating often drives our binge-watching or clicking to see the latest gossip, reinforcing our superiority over these “messed up” individuals. Sadly, scapegoating is alive even within the walls of the church. I have been saddened and surprised over my years as a pastor by the number of things spoken about me from people I was only trying to love and serve. 

Scapegoating doesn’t always appear as outright “blame.” Often, it disguises itself behind sarcastic comments and under-cutting jokes. It loves name-calling and assuming the motives of others without ever seeking to understand. Regardless of the package it arrives in, the contents are always the same. Scapegoating happens anywhere we feel qualified to elevate ourselves above another and stand as their teacher. Ahead, I share four of the greatest ways scapegoating kills us and four steps we can take today in joining Jesus where justice and mercy meet. 

4 Great Tragedies of Scapegoating:

1. Scapegoating is easy, lazy, and cruel. 

Scapegoating is easy to fall into because it is everywhere. With the rise of digital communication, crowds have grown emboldened to share unfiltered opinions about people they’ve never even met. Scapegoating is viral. Everyone’s doing it. It’s accessible. All you need is a keyboard or someone in earshot willing to listen to you rant. But it’s also lazy. Scapegoating bypasses the work of self-introspection as it callously complains about others, usually without having all of the facts. It is the gossip the writer of Proverbs called the tasty morsels we digest. 

Most of all, scapegoating is cruel. Have we forgotten that we have no enemy of flesh and blood and that our attacks on one another play right into our real enemy’s scheme of division and separation? Is it lost on us that Satan’s name, “The Accuser,” is the Greek word katēgoreō, meaning “The Categorizer?” He’s the one who works hard to reduce people to labels and stances. He hates the nuance of us being a “work in progress,” far preferring we choose designations like “racist,” “bigot,” “narcissist,” “snowflake,” or “Karen” instead. He’d far rather us define people by stances than by their faces because if we looked past our disagreements, we’d see the image of God in that person and handle our complaint with far greater compassion and care.   

2. Scapegoating is distrust in the Holy Spirit’s ability to transform hearts.

Let that sink in. Out of the overflow of our hearts, our mouths are speaking. Every time we feel the need to air our complaints about another person (especially when we are not going directly to them for the sake of reconciliation), we are voicing which kingdom we believe is most powerful. “The kindness of God leads us to repentance,” but scapegoating calls for public shame and the taking of sides, an outright protest to the way the Holy Spirit seeks to draw hearts to himself. 

3. Scapegoating is gossip parading around as justice. 

There is much in the world that should break our hearts. God calls us to boldly put ourselves in the dock and “spend ourselves on behalf of the poor” (Isaiah 58:10). Here’s the problem: it’s much easier to blame others for darkness than to courageously live as light. 

Many of the loudest voices claiming to champion “justice” are often doing nothing more than hiding behind a keyboard to tear others down while there’s nothing of note they’re constructing. We’d do far better to adopt the posture of Nehemiah who, when faced with gossip and complaint, refused to contribute to the noise, but simply said, “I am doing an important work and I cannot come down.” 

How different could our world be if all of our efforts to correct everyone and everything else were re-funneled into constructive avenues to get on the front lines loving the lost, the last, the least, the lonely, and the lepers of our society…and inviting the world to join us? Praise looks befitting in the mouths of God’s saints. Pride just looks ugly.

4. Scapegoating is the epitome of self-righteousness. 

Scapegoating often seems holy, but it is projection at its worst. In scapegoating, we inevitably elevate ourselves to a class above our brother as if we don’t need the same redeeming grace they do. Friends, I’ve seen the thoughts and motives that can fill my headspace, and I am no hero. I desperately need the mercy of God every hour, deeply aware that I am a refugee being rescued, not a professor who has earned the right to teach the world a thing or two. Scapegoating silences our weaknesses and complicity to sin, simultaneously plugging our ears to our own shortcomings and blaring a megaphone to announce the blind spots of our brothers. Scapegoating is anti-gospel. It is the opposite of loving your neighbor as yourself because it is never how you’d want anyone else to treat you. For a Christian, scapegoating is the unsettling dissonance of a bad news tabloid being delivered from a good news body! 

Ironically, the original picture of the scapegoat was a gift of mercy, not a weapon of vengeance. In ancient Israel, God set a practice for worshipers who wanted to draw near to him but couldn’t get over the guilt of their transgressions. He appointed a goat, naming it the “scapegoat” (a word meaning “the complete removal”) who would take their sins upon itself and carry them out of the city into the wilderness. Imagine the relief of someone who’d blown it and couldn’t make it right watching his shame disappear out of reach, over the horizon. This was a shadow of the day Jesus would come as the last scapegoat. Innocent and pure, he took our sins upon his shoulders, carrying them outside the city, where he bore them all so we’d never need to blame or shame ourselves or anyone else ever again. 

We’ve all fallen short, and we all still do. But Jesus didn’t come to point a finger in blame but to stretch out his arms in the pursuit of our redemption. This is the posture we’re invited to follow in a broken world. Here’s a few tips to start. 

4 Ways to Send Scapegoating into the Wilderness:

1. Reject the sin of Cain. 

When wronged, stop and remember, “this is my brother, my sister,” not some “other” that I can write off. Be your brother’s keeper, asking God’s kindness to do the same restorative work he’s doing in you.

2. Pray more, publish less. 

When you’re tempted to go off, go low instead. Commit to spend more time talking to Jesus about the one who hurt or offended you than talking about them to someone else. Resist the urge to post or share, instead inviting the refiner’s fire to heal your heart and to purify the words and intents of your heart until they look like him. 

3. Seek transformation while keeping the Father’s tone.  

We have to speak out against injustice, but it is important that we stop fighting the wrong battles. Refuse to slander those Jesus came to save, and instead direct your attention strongly against “every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10). Tear strongholds down while inviting people in. 

4. Make more of the Advocate than of the Accuser. 

Do you believe God’s ability to transform is greater than the enemy’s ability to destroy? Match that belief with the way you talk! Call for the transformation of everyone who sets themselves up as an enemy until the day they stand as God’s friend. Speak about them as beloved kids on the brink of awaking to unbelievable grace…and watch what it changes in you.

The last scapegoat has already come to carry your shame and every need to blame away. Where is he inviting you to look like him today?