THE GOAT IS GONE

Gordon E. Ellis
Palm Sunday
April 4, 2004

THE GOAT IS GONE !

I thought that, TODAY, I would offer you what I IMAGINE will be a NEW way of looking at the events in Jesus’ life that we remember during this upcoming Holy Week. I’ve included in your bulletin a print-out of Leviticus, chapter 16, which I’d like you to take a look at. Chapter 16 deals with what’s called the Day of Atonement. In the Jewish FEAST calendar, there are 7 major feasts: 4 in the spring, and then, 3 in the fall. And the FALL feasts BEGIN with the FEAST of the TRUMPETS, also called Rosh Hashanah. Let me hear you say: Rosh Hashanah! Well, the Feast of the Trumpets inaugurates what are called the 10 days of AWE. And it’s 10 days of REPENTANCE. The Jews BEGIN their New Year by getting RIGHT with God. And DURING Rosh Hashanah, they FAST, DENY themselves, and SEARCH their hearts. They say: God I WANT to start this New Year RIGHT. We, as a COMMUNITY want to start this New Year right, by cleansing ourselves and letting You clean us. THIS leads up to the Day of Atonement, which is what we’re going to look at in Leviticus 16. Now, the Day of Atonement is called Yom Kippur. Let me hear you say: Yom Kippur! And Yom Kippur, in ancient times, happened in the Temple (& before that, in the Tabernacle or Tent of Meeting). And IN the Temple there was a section behind a huge floor to ceiling CURTAIN. It was called the Holy of Holies. And IN that Holy of Holies is where GOD lived, in the Ark of the Covenant. NOW, the Day of Atonement, in ancient times, centered around several animals and the High Priest. SO, we NEED a High Priest, a person to speak on behalf of his people. (HIGH PRIEST enters)

Now, notice in verse 3: THIS is how Aaron is to enter the sanctuary area. And HE was the original High Priest, so they call Him by NAME here. But LATER High Priests did the SAME thing. He is to ENTER the sanctuary area with a young BULL for a SIN offering and a RAM for a BURNT offering. He is to put ON the SACRED linen TUNIC, with linen UNDERGARMENTS next to his body (this is the ONLY reference to underwear that I know of in the Bible). He is to TIE the linen SASH around him and put on the linen TURBAN. And of course, these are sacred garments, so he must BATHE himself with water before he puts them on.

Now remember: SOME scholars believe that, at the time of JESUS, (and THIS is the SECOND Temple period, HEROD’S Temple), that 210,000 people could fit on the Temple Mount. HEROD, when he was DONE building the Temple: 18,000 people were UNEMPLOYED. They used 2.3 MILLION stones to BUILD that Temple, and SOME of the stones are 10 feet by 10 feet by 80 feet – weighing HUNDREDS of TONS each. And we don’t know HOW they were moved into place, because one historian says that, when the Temple was BUILT, not the SOUND of chisel was heard in Jerusalem. So, they carved the stones elsewhere, because you wouldn’t want to have that CARVING and defiling going on in the HOLY place. And then, they MOVED the stones into place. And what’s FASCINATING is that, to THIS day, we don’t have machinery STRONG enough to MOVE some of the stones that we have DUG up in the Temple area. So, imagine this massive, HUGE place. Josephus, a 1^st Century Jewish historian, says that the GOLD at the TOP of the Holy of Holies was in CLUSTERS the size of a grown man.

SO, picture a couple hundred THOUSAND people, ALL gathered after 10 days of fasting and WEEPING and denying themselves, preparing to come before God to be cleansed, to have their sins REMOVED. And ONE man, the High Priest, is going to go into the presence of God, INTO the Holy of Holies, on THEIR behalf. SO, you better HOPE he’s got sacred UNDERWEAR on. I mean: if THIS dude is going in and offering on behalf of his people, HE better have EVERYTHING in place. Wouldn’t you agree?

SO, understand that the Temple area is a MERGING of several different REALMS: it’s the heavenly and the earthly COLLIDING here at the Temple. And they went to great LENGTHS to make SURE that ALL the sacred undergarments and garments, the linen and the headpiece, were ALL crafted EXACTLY as God WANTED them crafted, because they understood that there was something HEAVENLY, something UNEARTHLY, happening here.

Now, if you SCOUR the ancient sources, you can FIND accounts of people who were IN the Temple area, and who DESCRIBED what they saw. One of them is a Letter to Erosdaus, and it’s a FIRSTHAND account of the Temple and the High Priest in ACTION. He says: It was an occasion of great amazement to us when we saw Eleazar engaged in his ministry, and all the glorious vestments, including the wearing of the garment with precious stones upon it in which he is vested. There, the priest’s appearance makes one AWESTRUCK and dumbfounded. A man would think that he had come out of this world into another. I emphatically ASSERT that every man who comes near the spectacle of what I have described will experience astonishment and amazement BEYOND words, his very BEING transformed by the hallowed arrangement of EVERY detail. SO, there was something ABOUT the High Priest, working on the Day of Atonement in his priestly functions, that LED people to sense: I am witnessing another REALM colliding with THIS one: the heavenly with the earthly.

Let’s look at what Josephus said in the first century: If one reflects on the construction of the Tabernacle, and looks at the VESTMENTS of the priests and the vessels which we use for the sacred ministry, he will discover that every ONE of these objects is intended to recall and represent the UNIVERSE. SO, there IS something ELSE going on here. It’s not JUST a priest, not JUST a SASH, not just BELLS around the BASE of the garment. There’s something ELSE going on here! After all: everyday, normal occasions CAN take on HOLY, sacred significance, can’t they? SO, let’s go back to the High Priest, because the HE is going into God’s presence on OUR behalf. And notice what he HAS to go through. Verse 6: Aaron shall offer the BULL as a sin offering for himself, and shall make atonement for HIMSELF and for his house. SO, Aaron goes through a SERIES of rituals to make sure that HE is cleansed, POWER-WASHED, SO that HE can go into the Holy of Holies on behalf of his people.

Verse 7: THEN he shall take the two GOATS and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the Tent of Meeting. He is to cast LOTS on the 2 goats: ONE lot for the Lord and the OTHER for the Ahzahzel (the SCAPEGOAT). Aaron shall present the goat on which the LOT fell for the Lord and offer it as a SIN offering. SO, two goats: one gets SACRIFICED. But the goat on which the lot fell for Ahzahzel shall be presented ALIVE before the Lord to make ATONEMENT over it, that it may be sent AWAY into the wilderness to Ahzahzel. So, the HIGH moment, the PINNACLE of this Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, is when the High Priest is standing there. And imagine HUNDREDS of thousands of worshippers coming together to begin the year by having their sins atoned for, removed, cleansed - and be reminded of God’s GRACE and mercy. And the HIGH point is when the High Priest has the 2 goats brought to him. ONE is sacrificed, and the OTHER is brought to him ALIVE.

So NOW, we need a LIVE GOAT, (bring GOAT down the aisle) because WHEN you see how the goat and the High Priest INTERACT, it will start to bring to LIFE what’s happening here (EYES on the PREACHER – like I can compete with a LIVE animal, right?). Now remember: the Eastern mind thinks in terms of PICTURES. We, in the WEST, are educated to think in terms of definitions and precision. When WE think about theology, and God, WE tend to think systematically. WE think in terms of: Define it. Give me 3 points. Give me 4 insights. Give me 2 things to take home. But the EASTERN mind thinks in pictures, in metaphors. SO, instead of JESUS saying: God is really FORGIVING, and I want to give you FOUR reasons WHY, JESUS says: There’s this guy who has 2 sons, and ONE son says: Dad, I wish you were DEAD. I want your money. Now, I think it’s interesting that they think in PICTURES, because WHAT has TELEVISION done for us? Where’s OUR culture headed? SO, the picture HERE is of a HIGH Priest and a GOAT.

Now notice Verse 20: When Aaron has finished atoning for the Holy Place and the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall present the live goat. Then Aaron shall lay BOTH his hands on the HEAD of the live goat and confess over it ALL the iniquities of the Israelites and ALL their transgressions, all their SINS, PUTTING them ON the head of the goat. (By the way, Jesus said that when He returns, He’ll separate the SHEEP from the what? The goats! You do not want to be a GOAT. It’s NOT a good thing in the Bible. That’s a BRILLIANT insight, isn’t it? DON’T be a GOAT!) And he shall SEND the goat into the wilderness by means of someone DESIGNATED for the task. The GOAT will bear on itself ALL their iniquities to a BARREN region; and the goat shall be SET FREE in the wilderness. Imagine: watching your SINS disappear into the desert… NOW, there was a LOT of controversy about WHO would be the person designated for the TASK? I mean: if you’re a JEW, and this GOAT has the sins of ALL your PEOPLE on it, do YOU really want to be leading this GOAT out into the wilderness? SO, tradition says that the person designated for the task would be a GENTILE, someone with NO connection to the people of Israel. Because this community, when they send the goat away: well, you don’t want to SEE that goat walking around in TOWN 3 days later, do you? I mean: this is one LOADED goat, right? SO, you want to say: GET that thing OUT of here, and KEEP it out of here!

Well, after awhile, there were some traditions surrounding the goat and a RED cord. Now, the red cord, you can only find in a FEW sources, but I think you can ALSO find it in the Bible. Now, what they would DO is take a RED cord – RED being symbolic of BLOOD, of judgment and punishment – and that red cord would be placed on the HEAD of the goat. And the red cord (once again, think in PICTURES, like the EASTERN mind would) – the red cord would be symbolic of our SINS. We are placing our SINS on the HEAD of this goat. And remember that the EASTERN mind also thinks COMMUNALLY. Many of US think INDIVIDUALLY. When WE think of sins, WE think of MY guilt before God, and YOUR guilt. Well, the EASTERN mind ALSO thinks individually, but FAR more important to them is the COMMUNAL. What are WE guilty of, as a PEOPLE, that needs to be PLACED on the head of the GOAT? Hey, what if CHURCHES did that? WHAT would it be like for a CHURCH to capture a sense of: What are WE guilty of? And what if NATIONS did it? What do WE need to confess before God as the United States of America? THINK about that!

Yes, the Eastern mind thinks COMMUNALLY, so ALL these people are coming together and placing their communal, as well as their individual SINS on the head of this goat. And the High Priest would take his hands, and lean over, and PLACE them UPON the goat. And remember: this is a most SACRED and powerful moment, because GOD is here, and all their sins and communal guilt are being PLACED on the head of this goat. And so, there’s the beating of chests. And it’s quiet and SOMBER. And there’s a recognition that, for the next year, our SINS are being COVERED because God is GRACIOUS. God FORGIVES. Yes, THIS is a moment of UNBELIEVABLE seriousness! And THEN, the person designated for the task LEADS the goat OUT into the wilderness. Now, the WORD that’s translated to mean SCAPEGOAT is Ahzahzel. Let me hear you say Ahzahzel. And though the etimology of this word is HARD to discern, Ahzahzel SOMEHOW carries with it the idea of TAKING AWAY. And SO, the Gentile designated for the task would ahzahzel (would take away) the Ahzahzel goat. It’s removed. It’s GONE! It’s NO longer HERE. Your SINS are GONE!

OK! NOW look at the passage from John 19. Jesus is before a man named Pilate. And Jesus’ OWN community has said that He is GUILTY. They’ve taken what THEY say is GUILT, and placed it UPON Jesus. And THEN Pilate TOOK Jesus (John 19) and had Him FLOGGED. And the soldiers wove a CROWN of THORNS and PUT it on His HEAD. Now, IF you have a crown of THORNS on your head, and it punctures your skin, what color LINE do you get around your head? RED…. And if you’re a good, Torah-observant JEW, whose been coming to the Temple EVERY year for Rosh Hashanah, followed by Yom Kippur, a red LINE around the head is going to REMIND you of WHAT picture? Yes, the GOAT, with the red CORD on its head. Verse 15: But they shouted. And when the text says that the crowd shouted, WHAT did they shout? What’s your FIRST response? CRUCIFY Him! But that’s not it, is it? FIRST, they shout: AWAY with him! Away with him! AHZAZEL! AHZAZEL! And THEN, they shout, Crucify Him! Now, if you’re familiar with the Day of Atonement and ahzahzel, WHAT do you THINK of? And then, in verse 16: Finally Pilate handed Him over to them to be CRUCIFIED. And so, Jesus is led OUT, OUTSIDE the camp, which is NOW the city of Jerusalem, and he’s led out by GENTILES. SO, you have Jesus with a red ring around His head; the crowd chanting, Ahzahzel, Ahzahzel; and a GENTILE leading Him outside the camp, Jerusalem. You see: the ritual of the Day of ATONEMENT is alive and well in John 19.

NOW let’s look at HEBREWS, chapter 10. HOW many of you, watching this High Priest, are getting TIRED? CAN’T this guy JUST take a SEAT? Is he going to have to STAND for the entire sermon? And remember: the Day of Atonement happens THIS year, but it’s ALSO going to happen NEXT year, because people keep SINNING. And so, the High Priest has to come back and do the WHOLE thing all over again – the 10 days of fasting, the bull, the ram, the 2 goats, the red cord, the sacred underwear – the WHOLE thing again NEXT year! And WHEN you think about ALL of this happening EVERY single year, over and over for HUNDREDS of years, you can UNDERSTAND the Hebrew Scriptures and their longing for a SACRIFICE that is ONCE and for ALL. Boy, THAT would be GOOD NEWS, wouldn’t it? And the prophets spoke MANY times, and in MANY ways, saying: He’s COMING. He’s BRUISED for OUR iniquities. By HIS stripes, WE are healed! He’s coming! SO, the writer of Hebrews locks IN on this prophecy. Chapter 10, verse 1: Since the law has only a SHADOW of the GOOD things to come and NOT the true form of these realities, it can NEVER, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make PERFECT those who approach. Otherwise, would they not have ceased being offered, since the worshippers, cleansed once for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sin? BUT in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sin year after year. For it is IMPOSSIBLE for the blood of bulls and goats to take away SINS. Notice verse 11: And every priest stands, day after day, at his service, offering again and again the SAME sacrifices that can NEVER take away sins. But when Christ had offered for all-time a SINGLE sacrifice for sins, HE sat down at the right hand of GOD. And SINCE then has been WAITING ‘until His enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.’ For by a SINGLE offering, HE has PERFECTED for all time those who are sanctified, those who are being made holy.

NOW, there are a couple of FASCINATING traditions. ONE of them comes in the MISNAH, a NON-BIBLICAL source recorded by the JEWS. It says that when the red cord had been placed on the goat, and then taken off, SOME believe that the red cord was hung on the FRONT of the altar, and OTHERS, that it was hung in the DOORWAY going into the Temple. There were several different traditions. But LEGEND says that, over the next YEAR, the RED cord would mysteriously turn WHITE. And THEY interpreted this to mean God’s supernatural ability to FORGIVE their sins. But what’s FASCINATING here is this (and remember: these are JEWISH sources): roughly 40 years before the destruction of the Temple, they say, when they would HANG the red cord in the Temple on the Day of Atonement, it STOPPED turning from red to white. Now, 40 years before 70 A.D., when the Temple was destroyed, puts us around the year 30, which is when Jesus died. Hah! Now, that’s a JEWISH source! And they REJECTED Jesus as the Messiah! But you see: THEIR system STOPPED working when Jesus died! It was NO longer effective! ISN’T that AMAZING?

Now, the Book of Hebrews says that the High Priest, OUR High Priest (Christ) sat DOWN. SO, in a moment, THIS High Priest will sit down as well. And THAT’S, of course, the message of EASTER, which we will get to NEXT week. BUT, one of the messages here is that, when WE are reminded of our FAILURES, our DARK side, our SIN, maybe our message to the world is: Ah, the GOAT is GONE! And when someone REMINDS us of our PAST, and wants to hold our sins AGAINST us, we need to say: Excuse me, but I don’t see a GOAT anywhere…. And maybe when people are feeling loaded down with SHAME and discouraged, and maybe feeling like even religion has hurt them, WE need to say: We’ve got GOOD News for you! The goat? It’s GONE!

And those who TRUST this good news, Hebrews says, have been made HOLY forever. You see: the central redeeming message of Christ is that when we MEET Christ and CONFESS our sins, and make ROOM in our hearts for Christ to DWELL in us, THEN we AREN’T who we WERE anymore. We are a NEW creation! The OLD has passed away, and the NEW has come. WE have a NEW identity! And WHILE we still STUMBLE and mess up, as the Letter of James says, we are now FUNDAMENTALLY defined as SAINTS! And so, the MESSAGE of the GOAT leaving, ahzahzel, is the story of the scriptures that keeps CALLING people to become a NEW creation because the OLD has GONE. Now, it doesn’t mean that we won’t SIN, but scripture keeps telling us: you are NOT who you WERE. You are a NEW creation! Your SIN does not DEFINE you. You have joined the SAINTS, and you have been made HOLY forever! And MAYBE one of the reasons why churches so often get FIXATED on RULES is because, WHEN we LOSE that sense of WHO we ARE, and WHO we have BECOME in Christ, ALL we’re LEFT with is trying to KEEP a bunch of RULES, and sin MANAGEMENT. But, I LOVE this quote by Stuart Briscoe: Perhaps if we taught people who they ARE, in Christ, we wouldn’t have to spend as much time telling them what to DO. Friends, God KNOWS about your ADDICTION. And God KNOWS about that ABORTION that you feel so badly about. God KNOWS about your break-up, and what you did to your family. Yes, God knows it ALL! But, I’M here to tell you that the GOAT is GONE, and it’s NOT coming BACK! You see: OUR God is in the FREEDOM business! And this PICTURE that God gives us of the GOAT, the ahzahzel: Hey, TAKE that goat and get it OUT of here, because it’s GONE, and it’s NOT coming back! Yes, OUR God is in the FREEDOM business! And Christ, the ULTIMATE scapegoat, took our SIN, and it was NAILED to the cross, SO that WE might be a NEW creation, and LIVE our lives freely and abundantly. And THAT’S the message you’ll hear on EASTER. But TODAY, on Palm Sunday, THAT is our SAVIOR, our Gentle Healer, whom we WELCOME into the Holy City.

Now, in a moment, as I said, OUR High Priest is going to sit DOWN. And AS he does, I think it’s appropriate that we CELEBRATE! After all: that GOAT is gone FOREVER! BUT, remembering that this is still PALM SUNDAY, and NOT EASTER, we are ALSO celebrating the triumphal entry of the NEW High Priest, HE who WILL cleanse us ONCE and for all. And so, I REALLY want us to get EXCITED and CHEER, and wave our palms, and jump up and down, when this High Priest sits down! Oh, I know: you’re SO restrained and distinguished. You’re New England Congregationalists, after all…. But I ALSO know that MANY of you go to sporting events, or WATCH them on TV, and when the UCONN girls get that WINNING basket, or a young man in tight pants and a helmet runs over a GOAL line, you JUMP up and down and SHOUT and SCREAM so loud! You HUG your spouse and high-five your KIDS! You embrace the guy NEXT to you, whom you DON’T even KNOW, and shout: Wasn’t that FANTASTIC! But then, the NEXT day in church, you say, P-r-a-i-s-e t-h-e L-o-r-d…. Friends, it just DOESN’T compute in my BRAIN! HOW can get SO excited about a sporting event, which will be FORGOTTEN tomorrow, and be so BLAH about our FAITH, which is ETERNAL and WONDERFUL beyond words? HOW?

Friends: this world NEEDS people who know HOW to celebrate the RIGHT things in the RIGHT way! And maybe the Day of Atonement and all these ANCIENT festivals were GOD’S way of saying: Listen, EVERY year I’m going to get you together, because I want you to get into the PATTERNS and rhythms of CELEBRATION, because if you FORGET that that GOAT is GONE, you’ll start to lose your JOY. And I want MY children to be people of JOY! And it’s true: if OUR communities are NOT places of JOY and celebration and FREEDOM, then HOW in the world are WE going to take this GOOD NEWS of Jesus Christ out into the WORLD, as HE asked us to, and INVITE others to come and JOIN us? It’s just NOT going to happen! SO, we need to make the church FUN and JOY-FILLED, not Oh, we’re having a Bible study until we DIE. NO! It needs to be EXCITING and CAPTIVATING and DRAMATIC!

So, OUR High Priest is going to sit down, because CHRIST did the work and SAT down, His MISSION accomplished. And, Christ sits NOW! And He WAITS for EVERYTHING to be brought under His feet. He SITS because His WORK is DONE! And He just WAITS for HIS kingdom to take ROOT in this world and BLOSSOM. So, WHEN this High Priest sits down, I want US to jump UP and CELEBRATE, and I DO mean CELEBRATE! I want us to celebrate MUCH more WILDLY than we do when UCONN wins the national championship, or the PATRIOTS win the Super Bowl! I want us to celebrate with EVERYTHING in us! I want to see grown MEN, who don’t even KNOW each other, HUGGING in the aisles and jumping up and down. I want us to RAISE the ROOF! OK? SO, in HONOR of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who is God’s Ahzahzel, God’s ULTIMATE scapegoat, entering the Holy City to DO the WORK that we will REMEMBER Him doing THIS week, let’s ALL get up when the High Priest sits down, and TRULY CELEBRATE! Let’s RAISE the ROOF! Are you ready? (to the High Priest): OK, you may sit down.

My deepest gratitude to my colleague in ministry, Rob Bell, for the meat of this message in Preaching Today, #247.