The woman saved from stoning: An answer to scapegoats and scapegoating

Abstract

According to René Girard, Jesus is the scapegoat to end all scapegoats. The Gospels reveal that his voluntary death as an innocent scapegoat unmasks the scapegoating process in which human societies participate and frees humanity from its power. Jesus’s passion is not the only episode from the Gospels that provides an antidote to scapegoating. In the story of the woman saved from stoning (John 8:2-11), Jesus calms a scapegoating storm, de-escalates a mob, and thwarts the scapegoaters. Jesus removes the scapegoat target from the woman’s back and focuses attention where it belongs: on the wrongs of the accusers. In his interactions with the woman, Jesus frees her from blame and treats her like a human being made in the image of God, not an object to be used. Jesus offers a glimpse into how to create a future without scapegoating, a future in which we turn our gazes to our own sins and treat those who are marginalized and targeted for blame not as scapegoats but as image-bearers worthy of love.