HOLY WEEK 2024: "THE BRIDEGROOM AND THE SCAPEGOAT"
During Holy week 2022 Jonathan Pageau and Richard Rohlin posted the video, "The Bridegroom and the Scapegoat" in a series on Universal History that is still running today (playlist). We have the honor of reposting the video again for this year's Holy Week.
April 19, 2022 Jonathan Pageau: Universal History: The Bridegroom and the Scapegoat.
The Orthodox Wiki provides the following description of Christ the Bridegroom, a theme that dominates the first half of Holy Week.
"Bridegroom Matins is a service specific to the first four evenings of Holy Week."|
Live stream of the service of the Bridegroom during Palm Sunday this week in the Holy Church of the Ascension of the Lord, Neos Kosmos in Athens, Greece (live stream).
"Incorporated into these services is the theme of the first three days of Holy Week; which is the last teachings of Christ to his disciples. As such, these services incorporate readings and hymns inspiring this theme.
"The mood of the services is to experience sorrow and to feel Christ's voluntary submission to His passions and highlight the purpose behind the evil that is about to take place against the Lord.
"The atmosphere is one of mourning (for sins) and is symbolic of the shame the Christian should feel for the Fall of Adam and Eve, the depths of hell, the lost Paradise and the absence of God.
"The vestments of the Priest and the altar clothes are black or deep purple to symbolize and enhance the atmosphere of mourning and remembrance of sins. The main emphasis of the Bridegroom Service is metanoia and each service has its own particular theme on repentance and watchfulness" (more on Orthodox Wiki).
For the scapegoat we are quoting from our own notes on the page on Eastern Orthodox Dogma in Sin, Death and Resurrection (link):
"Sin is a violation of God's divine order. The Hebrews managed sin with the annual Day of Atonement. Two goats were selected. One of them, the scape goat represented all collective sins committed, and was chased out into the wilderness; the other goat was sacrificed to God as atonement (original translation at-one-ment, becoming reunited with God). Its blood was used to purify the Temple and the territory.
"The cycle of sin and death is a debt we owe to the devil. Without redress this will ultimately lead to indentured servitude, sometimes of entire families. We owe the devil our lives!
"Jesus Christ the Son, the second Hypostasis of God, is a sinless God-man. So Christ is free of the devil's claims. He takes our sins upon Himself, serving the roll of the scape goat as well as the sacrificed goat of Yahweh at the same time. He set man free from the cycle of sin and death, hence the language of emancipation and redemption" (source).
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