Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts

Transcript

"Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me: 'Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more.'"

Welcome back to Scripture for Your Inner Outcasts. Today is March 21st, 2026, Saturday of the Fourth Week of Lent. Today we are joined by Peta Evans, a wife and mother and the founder of Esencia Life Center, a pregnancy resource center in Albury, Australia.

Jeremiah chapter 11, verse 19. "Yet I, like a trusting lamb led to slaughter, had not realized that they were hatching plots against me: 'Let us destroy the tree in its vigor; let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will be spoken no more.'" With permission, I would like to speak directly to your exiles, as the Scripture today focuses on a passage from Jeremiah that prophesies the suffering Redeemer, the Son of God, Christ, who would come and restore order through the sacrificial gift of himself. Today you may resonate with Jesus as described as an exile, a lamb led to the slaughter. In the Old Testament, during the ritual of the Day of Atonement, two goats were presented. One was sacrificed, the other, the scapegoat, had the sins of the people symbolically placed on its head and sent into the wilderness. The Girardian dynamic is part of the mimetic theory developed by René Girard. The idea that a group forms when a victim is chosen to become the scapegoat. Despite its unstable foundation of violence, there is a certain cohesiveness within the group because of its intention of uniting against the arbitrary victim, the scapegoat. Some parts of us may feel like these two goats, the sacrifice goat burdened by roles, that sacrifice their own needs, boundaries or feelings to ensure safety.

Often, in the effort to avoid triggering the scapegoats, our more vulnerable, younger, innocent exiled parts. Exiles, you may fear Christ. And yet we see in this passage that he was very much like you. Those who should have received and loved him ganged up, and in mobs of raging violence, they tore at his garments, beat and spat upon him, tortured and flogged him, made him a garland of fiery pain to pierce his head and made him carry a burden so great it cut into his flesh and drove him to the ground numerous times. He did this all for you and for me, to show us that violence must end for all victims. Essentially, Jesus fulfilled the two goat ritual, embodying both the sacrifice goat and the scapegoat, acting as both priest and victim to remove our sins. Exiles, your hope is that Christ, as the innocent victim on the cross, reveals the truth that you, too are most likely innocent, and that Christ came for you. He came to stand in your place and end the violence with compassion and love. When we see Christ on the cross, we can see that he is not removed from our pain, but within it. Just like the innermost self that can become the connection between the pain of suffering and redemption.

If today's episode resonates with you, you can find similar content at soulsandhearts.com/content. Thanks for joining us and we hope to see you again tomorrow. With that, we'll end with our invocations. Our Lady, our Mother, Untier of Knots, pray for us. Saint Joseph, pray for us. Saint John the Baptist, pray for us.