THE SCAPEGOAT - Holman Hunt - introduced by the Revd Bill Snelson
Lord Sunlight's model village on the Wirral is the home of Lever Brothers, the soap manufacturers,
now part of Unilever.
But we're going to the Lady Beaverhulme Gallery to look at The Scapegoat by Holman Hunt.
Holman Hunt, best known for painting The Might of the World.
The Scapegoat depicts the Day of Atonement, according to the Book of Leviticus.
Then Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat,
and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel,
and all their transgressions, all their sins,
putting them on the head of the goat and sending it away into the wilderness.
The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a barren region,
and the goat shall be set free in the wilderness.
This shall be an everlasting statute for you,
to make atonement for the people of Israel once in the year for all their sins.
What we're talking about is the ritual associated with Yom Kippur in September or October in 2020, September the 27th.
Holman Hunt started his painting on the shore of the desolate Dead Sea,
during his first trip to the Holy Land, to which he was travelling after a crisis of faith.
It was part of a project to convert Jews to Christianity.
He was displaying the scapegoat as prefiguring the Messiah,
as the suffering figure, the suffering servant of Isaiah.
He wrote to his friend John Mealy that he hoped his painting would be
a means of leading any reflecting Jew to see a reference to the Messiah as he was,
and not as they understand a temporal king.
Hence we have the red cloth around the goat's horns,
a crown of thorns.
Hunt had the picture framed with the quotations,
Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows,
yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted,
and have the goat so bear upon him all their iniquities unto a land not inhabited.
Well, scapegoat is used nowadays to mean someone who is blamed or unpunished
for the sins and failings of others.
The civil servant or head of a quango, sacked rather than a secretary of state, resigning.
There is a renuptance to take personal responsibility,
to put your hand up and say the buck stops here.
Herman Hunt's scapegoat reminds us that the responsibility is ours.
The sins of the community are acknowledged to be placed upon the goat.
Our sins are confessed, not ignored or denied.
Our sins are confessed.
Otherwise there is no redemption.
No point.
No need for a saviour of the world, who by his cross and precious blood has redeemed us.
That saviour to whom we pray, save us and help us.
We humbly beseech thee, O Lord.