Variety: Leviticus 16v21-30
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 in the care of someone appointed for the task. The goat will carry on itself all their sins to a remote place; and the man shall release it in the wilderness. (LEVITICUS 16:21–22)
This is to be a lasting ordinance for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month you must deny yourselves and not do any work—whether native-born or a foreigner residing among you— because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the Lord, you will be clean from all your sins. LEVITICUS 16:29–30
What is the biggest thing another person has ever forgiven you for? How did it feel to be forgiven?
Forgiveness is a big theme throughout Scripture – it goes together with sin as a big thing. If we get things wrong, intentionally or unwittingly, how do we put them right? The system of sacrifices, together with codes for restitution and reparation, helps individuals acknowledge what went wrong, and take steps towards mending the wrong. Here in Leviticus 16, instructions go beyond individuals and family groups. The entire community comes together to name and acknowledge sin and brokenness in its midst, and engage in a ritual that signifies God’s cleansing and forgiveness.
Like many parts of Leviticus, it can seem strange: why blood, goats, and instructions about vestments? Once again, the community embodies a spiritual reality. They take part in actions that name and make visible the reality of their condition and the reality of God’s action among them.
On the Day of Atonement, the community comes together to acknowledge their sin before God. Sin cannot ever be reduced to a personal matter, nor to what can be easily recognised. The ritual for Yom Kippur is a communal act: personal actions are brought before God, but so is the shape and dysfunction of the community.
However ‘holy’ an individual might be, they are still part of wider networks, systems, and cultures that themselves are unjust, broken, or oppressive. People need forgiveness and transformation together, as interdependent persons, for the ways in which they organise themselves, for their economic, social, and political life. Personal and communal acknowledgement of responsibility and failure are both central to flourishing communities. Fighting racism, for instance, involves both examining our own hearts and addressing structural and cultural prejudice. We need both.
The community comes before God – and God forgives. There is ritual, but it is not lengthy, highly complex, or involving of restitution. Forgiveness – and atonement – is a gift: it is pure grace. Two goats, small animals, are contributed by the entire community. One is sacrificed, the other sent into the desert, carrying the sins of the people. There is no proportionality, and no restitution.
Some sins cause damage that cannot be humanly repaired. Human efforts are limited. The Day of Atonement, more than anything, tells us that some things can only be put right by God, that human beings cannot save themselves. Their sins need to be carried by another – by God himself.
Revd Dr Isabelle Hamley, Principal of Ridley Hall, Cambridge