Our scapegoat

 

Jesus fulfilled the first four Feasts of the Lord, which means that he embodied all the elements surrounding them in stunning detail.

Let us look at a few events of the Passover Feast to illustrate this. When God gave the instructions for this Feast in Egypt, He instructed the Jews to set aside their lambs on the tenth day of Nisan. Jesus entered Jerusalem on this day, to be set aside as the human Passover Lamb. These lambs then had to be kept for four days and thoroughly examined for any defect, as the lamb offered had to be perfect in every way. Just so Jesus was examined in the following four days by all the religious leaders, and even by the Roman authorities, who through Pilate officially declared Him to be without any fault (John 19:4 “I find no fault in Him”). The Passover lambs were prepared for sacrifice at nine o’clock in the morning of the fourteenth of Nisan and killed at three o’clock in the afternoon. Likewise, Jesus was nailed to the cross at nine o’clock in the morning of the fourteenth and died at three o’clock in the afternoon. His bones were not broken, as also the Passover lamb’s bones were not to be broken. God’s instruction in Egypt regarding the eating of the lamb for the Feast was that the meat be eaten in haste, and none left over for the next day. Jesus had to be taken down hastily from the cross so that He could be buried before six o’clock that evening, as this was the start of the next day which was a Sabbath, and no bodies could be left on the cross on that day.

But there is a lesser-known fact which has a bearing on this sacrifice of the body of Jesus on the cross as well. It concerns the scapegoat that in Old Testament times had to carry away the sins of the Israelites on the Day of Atonement:

Lev 16:21

Then Aaron shall lay both of his hands on the head of the live goat, and confess over it all the wickedness of the sons of Israel and all their transgressions in regard to all their sins; and he shall lay them on the head of the goat [the scapegoat, the sin-bearer], and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man who is prepared [for the task].

As mirrored in the Passover Feast, Jesus took all our wickedness and transgressions and sins on Himself and died in our place – He became our scapegoat, taking away our sins! And even in this, He underwent the same treatment as the original scapegoats in the Old Testament had to undergo, as written above. We read about it in John 18:

John 18:22

Then one of the Temple guards standing nearby slapped Jesus across the face. “Is that the way to answer the high priest?” he demanded.

This Temple guard was a Jewish official, whose hand therefore also was ‘layed’ on the head of our heavenly Scapegoat or Sin-bearer, under authority of the High Priest standing by.

Points to ponder: If the relevant events in the life of Jesus followed the exact details as celebrated in the first four feasts, then surely, He will do the same in the next three!

Rise Up