(I am thankful to Rob Bell of Mars Hill Community Church for many of the ideas presented in this message)
Please turn with me to Leviticus. It is the third book in the Bible. I know many of you were probably reading Leviticus just this morning. Let’s go to chapter 16. When you think of Leviticus, what do you think of? Regulations for mildew and leprosy? After tonight, I hope to change that perception.
Chapter 16 focuses on what the Hebrews called “The Day of Atonement.” In the Jewish calendar there are seven major feasts – four in the spring and three in the fall. The fall feasts begin with the Feast of Trumpets which is called Rosh Hashanah. The Feast of Trumpets inaugurates ten days of awe. With the blowing of the trumpet (called the shofar), the Hebrews would begin every year with repentance, fasting, and soul-searching. It is a time of deep sorrow over sin and a plea for God to renew and restore the community. This ten day period leads up to the Day of Atonement, or what the Jewish people today call Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur is a fascinating day full of ritual and reverence. It was rightfully been called the “Good Friday of the Old Testament.” Let’s begin in verse three:
"This is how Aaron 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; he is to tie the linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are sacred garments; so he must bathe himself with water before he puts them on.” (Leviticus 16:3-5)
Picture 200,000 people gathering together. They have just finished ten days of weeping, fasting and praying so they can come before God to be cleansed, and have their sins removed. Aaron, the high priest at that time, is charged with the awesome responsibility of going into the presence of God on their behalf. God had given specific instructions of how the high priest was to dress and it was said that the priest in his sacred garb could make one “amazed and astonished beyond words.” There was something “otherworldly” about this whole affair.
After washing his body and putting on the holy garments, the priest is ready to begin. He first sacrifices a bull. Knowing that he himself is sinful, the high priest has to first do something to get clean before God. He takes a bull and applies the blood to the altar so his own sins can be forgiven. Only then can he offer a sacrifice for others. He enters the Holy of Holies with hot coals in one hand and incense in another. He would drop the coals on the ground and pour the incense over them, creating a sweet fog of fragrance. He would then sprinkle the blood of the bull on the altar, or the mercy seat. After he had atoned for himself and his family, he would offer the sacrifice for the sins of the community. Let’s look at verse 6:
“From the Israelite community he is to take two male goats for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. "Aaron is to offer the bull for his own sin offering to make atonement for himself and his household. Then he is to take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He is to cast lots for the two goats--one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat. (Leviticus 16:5-10)
Imagine the scene. Hundreds of thousands of worshipers have gathered to be reminded of God’s grace and mercy, and the high point of the day is when the two goats are brought to him. One of them is sacrificed; the other is brought to him alive. One takes the punishment, the other is taken away. Why goats? One theory is that goats smell and symbolized the stench of sin to God. Another theory was that most pagan religions had “goat gods” that they worshiped. Perhaps God had the Hebrews sacrifice goats to make sure they did not sacrifice to goats. I may have been another way to affirm that the Hebrews were different than the other nations around them. Let’s skip ahead to verse 20:
"When Aaron has finished making atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting and the altar, he shall bring forward the live goat. He is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the wickedness and rebellion of the Israelites--all their sins--and put them on the goat’s head. He shall send the goat away into the desert in the care of a man appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a solitary place; and the man shall release it in the desert. (Leviticus 16:20-22)
Now the high priest would take his hands and lay them on the goat. This is the absolute pinnacle of ten days of mourning, fasting, and weeping over their sins. Then in one symbolic act, their sins are taken care of for the next year. The priest’s voice booms out over the hushed crowds: Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, immorality, impurity, theft, profanity. One by one, individuals in the throng hang their heads in shame. He continues: bitterness, hatred, malice, murder, greed, lust, envy, jealousy, oath-breaking, and pride. By this time there is loud weeping. The goat must have been struggling under the weight of such a list of sins.
This goat, appropriately called the “scapegoat,” is led outside the camp by a Gentile who had no connection with the people of Israel. The Hebrew word for this scapegoat is “ozzazel.” This word carries with the idea of being “banished” or “taken away.” So the scapegoat is “ozzazelled.” It is removed from their sight. All of their collective sins were placed on the head of this goat and then disappears into the desert, outside the city. In the time of Christ, the goat would be led to a high rock about twelve miles from Jerusalem where it would be pushed over the edge and killed.
A very interesting tradition went along with this event. A red cloth was tied to the horns of the goat to represent the sins of the people. A red cloth was also tied to the gate at the Temple. If, during the coming year, the cloth turned white, then the people could be assured of forgiveness. Isaiah may have been thinking of this when he wrote:
“Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” (Isaiah 1:18)
Jewish writings tell us that forty years before the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD, the red cord suddenly stopped turning white. This means something extraordinary must have happened around AD 30. What could that have been?
Turn with me to John 19. Jesus is brought before a man named…do you remember? Pastor taught us all about him. Pilate, that’s right. Question for you – is Pilate a Jew or a Gentile? Right, Pilate is a Gentile. The high priest and the teachers of the law demand that Jesus be killed. The have placed “guilt” upon His head. Jesus is beaten, a crown of thorns are placed on His head. A ring of crimson blood circles his head. Pilate, mocking the Jews, presents Jesus, and says, “Here is your king.”
Now, do not look at your Bibles. What is the next thing the crowd says? Most of you would say, “Crucify Him,” right? No, they yell “take Him away” (John 19:15) that is what they shout. So Jesus is taken outside the camp, by Gentiles, with the crowd shouting “ozzazel.” I wonder if the good Jewish guys in the crowds, the ones that knew their Torah, the ones that had seen the ozzazel goat taken outside the city year after year, did they see the striking symbolism? Did they get it? Was this ultimate, final Yom Kippur?
Oh, this is getting good, isn’t it? Turn with me to Hebrews Chapter 10. You have been wondering, “Is he going to have to stand through the whole teaching tonight?” One of the things that the high priest was never allowed to do was to sit down. Why? His work was never done. Once this Day of Atonement happens there is always next year. Why? The people keep sinning. So a pattern was developed – The Feast of Trumpets, followed by ten days of mourning for sin, followed by the Day of Atonement. Year after year this went on. Can you understand the deep longing with the Jewish psyche for a “once and for all” sacrifice? Wouldn’t that be “good news?” Listen to the writer of Hebrews:
“The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming-not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. (Hebrews 10:1-4)
The Day of Atonement was a shadow, a symbol of a time that sins would be taken of and the people would be cleansed once and for all. But the reality was coming.
Skip down to verse 11:
“Day after day every priest stands and performs his religious duties; again and again he offers the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” (Hebrews 10:11-14)
Did you hear that? He sat down. It is finished! Atonement has been made. Jesus, the Lamb of God, took all our sins on Himself and became the final sacrifice. Jesus, the ultimate high priest, paid for our sins, knowing we could never pay for them ourselves. This was the end of the sacrificial system. The price has been paid; the debt has been taken care of. Say it with me – He sat down! Seven hundred years before Christ was born, Isaiah wrote about this sacrifice. Appropriately, Mel Gibson begins “The Passion of the Christ” with these verses:
“But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way;
and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 52:5-6)
Echoing this sentiment, Peter writes:
“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.” (I Peter 2:23-24)
Listen to how Paul put it in his second letter to the church at Corinth:
“God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” (2 Cor 5:21)
There is a message I want you to hear tonight. Maybe you are beaten down with shame and guilt. Perhaps you are paralyzed by fear that someone will find out that thing, you what it is. Someone in here has failed and people love to remind you of it. Listen to me – the goat has left the building! Say it with me – the goat has left the building! Many of you believe that you are defined by that sin you just can not get a handle on. No, you are not defined by your sin. If you have asked Jesus to be forgiver and leader of your life, you are “being made holy” remember? In fact, Paul in many of his letters addresses the believers as “saints.”
Listen to me saints – God knows. He knows about abortion. He knows about the lust. He knows about the break up. He knows and He is not mad at you. He is mad about you.
God wants to give you freedom. The goat has left the building! Rob Bell says: “God is in the freedom business, and Jesus the ultimate scapegoat, took your sin and nailed it to a cross so we could live free.”
John quoted Jesus as saying:
“If the Son has set you free, you are free indeed.” (John 8:36)
And Paul adamantly writes in Romans:
“Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death.” (Romans 8:1-2)
No condemnation, did you hear that? That means Christ is not accusing you or shaming you. The goat has left the building. The goat has left the building. The goat has left the building!
We not only need to hear that individually, but as a community has well. The church is a place where we constantly remind each other – “I don’t see no goat around here.”
I’m going to ask the high priest to slowly make his way to this chair. As he walks, let’s be really quiet. Let’s thank God for His grace that He was given us. Let’s remember our first love. Use these moments to get real with God and another human being. Maybe it is an addiction that no one knows about but is killing you. Maybe it is abuse issues that have held you in bondage for years. The goat has left the building! It is gone. Freedom is available.
As our high priest heads to his chair, listen to God speaks:
“I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist.
Return to me, for I have redeemed you." (Isaiah 44:22)
In your love you kept me from the pit of destruction; you have put all my sins
behind your back. (Isaiah 38:17)
“You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” (Micah 7:19)
and…
“The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
He will not always accuse, nor will he harbor his anger forever; he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. (Psalm 103:8-12)
We call this day “good” because what our Good God did for us…
Jeff starts playing and Becky reads:
“The soldiers led Jesus away into the palace (that is, the Praetorium) and called together the whole company of soldiers. They put a purple robe on him, then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on him. And they began to call out to him, "Hail, king of the Jews!" Again and again they struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him. Falling on their knees, they paid homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they took off the purple robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him out to crucify him. (Mark 15:16-20)
We are going to end tonight with the song “You are My King.” Let’s sing that song like we have never sung it before. Let’s sing it loud, with passion. Why? Because the goat has left the building!
