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Ramadan Mubarak, Day 5: More Than a Scapegoat

The origin of "scapegoat" and how it is not good enough

by Sarah Davis

When I think about fasting, I wonder about two things: Where does fasting come from? And does God want us to fast?

As a Christian, I know that we fast in the 40 days before Easter. But why? For one, it is supposed to mimic Jesus’ 40 days of fasting when he was in the wilderness and resisting the devil. So we can see that Jesus knew about fasting. He did it, and he talked about when to do it. But how does he know about it? Did he invent it?

The answer to that is definitely “No”. Jesus didn’t invent fasting. He knew about fasting because it was part of his own religion and tradition. Jesus was a Jew! And in the Jewish faith, fasting goes all the way back to Moses.

In the Jewish faith, fasting can be done for a variety of reasons. You can fast when you mourn that someone died. You can fast to help you in your prayer, so you can experience God without distractions. You can also fast as a sign for repentance, to show God that you have done wrong, that you want to turn back to Him, and to ask for His forgiveness. This last kind is what I want to write about.

When Moses received God’s law, this kind of fasting was required only for one day; The Day of Atonement.

What is the day of Atonement? It is also called Yom Kippur, and it is an important Jewish holiday. The first time it was ever celebrated was when Moses and the people of Israel were at Mount Sinai in the wilderness. A lot of important things happened at Mount Sinai. God made a special bond with Moses and his people, a bond that He would be their God and they would be His people. Part of this bond was the law. God gave them rules so that they would know what is right and what is wrong, and the people agreed that they would keep them. God also said He would stay with them. He wouldn’t be far away, He would be right there, in their midst. And He told them how to build a house for Him. It had to be holy and special, otherwise He couldn’t be there, because God Himself is holy and special. But it didn’t take too long for the people to break the rules, to sin, to do what was disgusting to God. It was like their hearts and their actions were too dirty for God to be around them. But instead of breaking the relationship, God gave them a way back to Him. He allowed them to become clean again so that they would be able to be in His presence. There are lots of smaller ways for individuals to do this throughout the year, but one time every year, God commanded that the whole nation and the house of God should be cleansed and made pure. This way of becoming clean was the ritual of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. On this day, the priests had to sacrifice a bull for their sins, they had to bathe, and they had to put on new, clean clothes. All this was to make themselves clean so they could help the house of God and the people to become clean as well. To make all the people clean, two goats were selected. One of them was killed, sacrificed for the peoples’ sins, and its blood sprinkled around the ark of the covenant, which is the chest containing the rules of the special bond between God and the people. The other goat symbolically bore the sin of the nation and was sent into the wilderness, far away. This practice is where the English term ‘Scapegoat’ originally came from.

As mentioned earlier, this Day of Atonement was the only holiday on which God commanded that the whole nation of Israel should fast. In the original Hebrew, it says they should ‘afflict the body’. Why? Because they broke the rules, and by fasting, they could show that they knew about all the wrong actions they had done. They showed that they needed God’s forgiveness. And after the goat, an innocent animal, was sacrificed, God granted them forgiveness.

Now, this is a strange practice, and as Christians, we don’t do it anymore. Why is that? Are we doing all the right things now?

No. As Christians, we understand that we still do things that are dirty and sinful in the eyes of God, we still break the rules. But God doesn’t like the continued killing of animals for what the people do wrong, and He doesn’t like that there is distance between Him and the people He created. God loves His people. So He ended all the animal sacrifices by sending the ultimate, perfect sacrifice. Jesus.

If you read Matthew 27 carefully, you notice that when Jesus is on trial to be crucified, Pilate recognizes that he is innocent and hasn’t done anything wrong, just like the innocent goat slaughtered for the people’s sins at Mount Sinai. And if you read further, you learn that there is not just one prisoner, but two! There is Jesus, and there is also Barabbas. And if you read even more, you learn that one of the prisoners is released, and sent away. This prisoner is Barabbas. The other prisoner, Jesus, is killed. Just like the two goats on the Day of Atonement. When Jesus is crucified, he doesn’t only bear the sins of the nation of Israel, he dies for the sins of the entire world. He is God’s last sacrifice to make the people clean, and to give them the chance to come back to Him, to be in His presence.

Now it makes sense that Christians fast in the 40 days before Easter! They remember the sacrifice that God made, they repent, and they ask for forgiveness, because Jesus’ death was the last sacrifice, and it still gives forgiveness to this day.

But was Jesus just a scapegoat, then? Was he nothing more than an animal, slaughtered for people’s breaking of rules?

No! Jesus was way more than that! Easter doesn’t end on Good Friday, when Jesus died, but it ends on Easter Sunday! On Easter Sunday, we celebrate that Jesus rose from the dead. This is why he is the last sacrifice. He defeated death itself permanently.

John 3:16 says “ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

That means that Christians believe that Jesus was the last, perfect sacrifice for the sins of everyone. Because he died, God can forgive us, and we can be in God’s presence without guilt. We are washed and clean.

Christians also believe that he came back to life, he defeated death. Because he defeated death, he can give us life. He is with us every day that we live on earth, and he allows us to be in his presence when we die.

To answer my first two questions: Fasting comes from the time of Moses at Mount Sinai, and God wanted people to fast to show that they needed forgiveness. Today, we do it in remembrance of the perfect sacrifice of Jesus.

 

*If you would like to participate in a Bible study on this subject and similar ones, email us at comparingfaith@gmail.com or text 313.485.7153.

  • 20 May 2018
  • Author: Guest Blogger
  • Number of views: 2030
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