And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. (Matthew 12:24)
I read an article in the LA Times op-ed section written by an emergency room doctor. The headline was “I am running out of compassion for the unvaccinated. Get the shot.”
I am not going to discuss the pros and cons of getting the COVID-19 shot. I am going to comment on our reactions toward each other regarding this shot and this virus in general.
I acknowledge that this emergency room doctor was speaking out of fatigue and frustration. In fact, most of us are speaking out of fatigue and frustration regarding almost everything that has been going on in our country and in the world over the last year and a half. If you mix in a healthy dose of fear, we have the makings for the destruction of many of our personal relationships.
As human beings, we have a natural instinct to find a scapegoat for all of our problems-- someone to blame-- someone to cast all of our sin and guilt upon.
The Bible has its own scapegoat story
The book of Leviticus describes a bizarre ritual requiring two goats that was performed by the High Priest of Israel on the High Holy day of Yom Kipper-- The Day of Atonement. (Chapter 16)
7 And he shall take the two goats, and present them before the Lord at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.8 And Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats; one lot for the Lord, and the other lot for the scapegoat.
21 And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live (scape)goat, and confess over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, putting them upon the head of the goat,..
The scapegoat was then sent out into the wilderness, presumably to meet its death. Tradition says that often a man was sent to make sure the goat met its death quickly rather than take the chance that it would wander back into the camp complete with all the sins of Israel on its head.
It is interesting to note that the Hebrew word translated scapegoat is actually “Azazel.” This word is found nowhere else in the Bible besides in this section of Leviticus. Translators say that the word means “complete removal,” (obviously because the sins of Israel were completely removed by this spiritual transfer of guilt from the people to the goat). It is also worth noting that the word Azazel is also the name of a fallen angel, a demon, who haunted the wilderness areas, according to the extra-Biblical Book of Enoch. The Book of Enoch says that all sin “shall be ascribed to Azazel. “
Interesting isn’t it?
Of course, for Christian believers, the symbolism of the scapegoat points perfectly to Christ, the one who “takes away the sins of the world.”
While the scapegoat account is thought-provoking, it is also comforting that there is someone who will take the blame for all that is wrong with the world. Our problem today though is that we are all trying to assign blame for this COVID virus on convenient scapegoats-- often assigning scapegoat status to family and friends who make different health and medical decisions than we do.
In doing so we have stepped way outside our realm of responsibility. The casting of lots to determine which goat served as the scapegoat was understood to be a way of determining God’s will-- nobody else’s. We do not have all the answers, and we should not act as though we do. Maybe in years to come, we might start to sort it all out. But now we are mostly blind men groping around in the dark.
I’m not saying that there isn’t someone to blame for the ravages of this virus or even some very dark agenda behind it; I’m just saying that this dark agenda probably does not involve your friends or family members.
We have learned that we do not control anything; so we need to give up the illusion that we do. We also must give up the illusion that we can control the decisions made by our friends, family and neighbors. How many of us have pleaded with loved ones to stop smoking or drinking, to exercise more often, to wear a helmet while on a bicycle, to take vitamins? Sometimes they listen; sometimes they don’t. Many of these choices could be ones of life or death.
How many of us have chosen to seek a second or a third
medical opinion for a serious medical condition? We all make our decisions based on a myriad of different data-- personal experiences, research, trust or mistrust of the source of particular information, even basic gut instincts-- which generally shouldn’t be ignored, by the way. There has never been a one-size-fits-all approach for health decisions that works any better than a one-size fits all garment -- it only looks good on a tiny fraction of people.
Let’s hope that this doctor in this article has not lost his compassion to treat all those whose lifestyle choices may or may not cause them to end up in his emergency room or doctor's office. Plenty of Americans are overweight because of personal lifestyle choices. These extra pounds can lead to all sorts of health issues.
Should these choices rob them of the need for compassion if they end up in
the hospital?
Assigning scapegoat status to any group of people has never turned out well. Consider the Jews of Germany in the 1940’s. Let’s not lose our compassion for those who make different choices than we do. Let’s not assign evil motives, lack of intelligence, or Zombie-like adherence to political agendas. We are each doing the best we have with what we’ve got.
Our own personal compassion and humanity is all that we can control right now.
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