Lots of people are trying to figure out whom to blame for the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight 370. Many world leaders are blaming Vladimir Putin for Crimea’s secession from Ukraine and annexation by Russia. Putin on the other hand blames Ukrainian leadership for not recognizing the Russian heritage and connection of the people of Crimea.
It’s business as usual in our world, especially in the public, political arena. People seek to justify themselves, and make themselves appear superior, by finding others to blame for problems and wrong-doing.
This very human process of blaming goes right back to the beginning. In Genesis 3:8-13, we find Adam and Eve immediately ready to point their fingers at someone else when God confronts them with their sin. Adam points at Eve, and Eve points at the Serpent.
Blaming continues right on through human history as a way to dissociate oneself from one’s own sinfulness. From nations blaming each other for aggression to individuals pointing the finger at each other to explain personal violence.
The French historian and philosopher Rene Girard maintains that blaming others, the process of “scapegoating,” is in fact the root of human sinfulness and violence. Girard believes the Bible reveals the scapegoat process beneath all human interaction. Girard’s thought is complex and I’m pretty sure I don’t completely understand it, but at least one way to appropriate it is to say that God finally and completely reveals the hopelessness of blaming (scapegoating) by His gift of a perfectly innocent scapegoat in Jesus Christ. His sacrifice on the Cross puts an end to our need to blame each other.
In any case, in the Gospel lesson I’ve selected to join the Genesis text this Sunday, John 8:1-11, Jesus clearly demonstrates that we cannot point our fingers at each other, blame each other, without first confronting the reality of our own sin. And once we have done that, the same mercy which He showed the woman in the passage becomes available to us.