Passion & Last Supper✦ Passion CenterpieceModerate
The Scapegoat
Written: ~1400 BC→Fulfilled: ~AD 30
The scapegoat ritual of the Day of Atonement, bearing the people's sins into the wilderness, prefigured Christ's bearing of the world's sins.
Prophecy & Fulfillment
Old Testament Prophecy
Leviticus 16:20-22
"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 wilderness."
New Testament Fulfillment
John 1:29
"The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!""
Commentary
John the Baptist's declaration "Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" combines the imagery of the Passover lamb and the scapegoat. The scapegoat bore the sins of Israel into the wilderness; Christ bore the sins of the world to the cross. The laying of hands on the scapegoat (transferring sin) is fulfilled in God laying on Christ the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:6).