Scapegoating Jesus to pay for humanity’s “sins”?

Hey, sin (aka evil) happens.  It’s in the nature of us beasts.  Greed, selfishness, revenge, lust (you know… all the usual suspects), they’re part of who we are as humans; our modus operandi.  Once we have grown enough to reach the age of reasoning, there’s not a person alive, or dead, who has not experienced some or all of those negative afflictions.  That’s a given.  So, what could be done about that?  A solution was needed.  And, a pretty crafty solution, a way out, was indeed found. 

And that’s something that’s always bugged me about the only religion I have some experience with, Christianity.  That is to say…

Q: Who came up with the ingenious idea of scapegoating Jesus for humanity’s shortcomings? 

Was there any one person who gets credit for that stroke of genius?  Or, was it some collective effort on the movers and shakers of the time?

So being the curious sort, in the flavor of our Germaine, I used Perplexity to ask some interesting questions about it.  I highlighted some of the more interesting phrases.  For the tl;dr crowd, I’m summarizing, but feel free to ask Pxy my questions yourself, to get the extended version:

1.   Susan asks: Where in the Bible Does It Say Jesus Died for Our Sins?

Pxy responds: The Bible contains numerous passages, particularly in the New Testament, that explicitly state or explain the belief that Jesus died for our sins.

2.   Susan asks: Did Jesus Directly Say He Died for Our Sins?

Pxy responds: When searching for explicit statements by Jesus where he directly says, "I died for your sins," we find that the most theologically explicit statements that Jesus died for our sins are made by later New Testament writers (like Paul, Peter, and John), rather than by Jesus himself in the Gospels.

3.  Susan asks: So, it was other people who actually made that claim?

Pxy responds: Yes, the clear and explicit statements that "Jesus died for our sins" are made by Jesus' followers and later New Testament writers—such as Paul, Peter, and John—rather than by Jesus himself in the recorded words of the Gospels.

Oh, isn’t that interesting?  The claim was made by the NT writers, years after Jesus was brutally murdered.  So, how did the idea that Jesus died for peoples’ sins ever get so widely accepted, if not the focal point of Christianity?  My understanding is, it’s the foundational premise. 

From what I know of the religion, it all comes down to that bottom line: Accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior and you are a Christian.  That’s where you’ll find the keys to your Heavenly Kingdom. 

Really, somewhere along the line, that juicy tidbit was presented to the masses and they bought it.  And, it’s been successfully sold ever since.

My questions to you:

1. When you think about it, about people who truly seek to be moral, why in the heck would they agree to go along with the idea of some third party taking any blame/responsibility for their personal mistakes in life (some call them “sins”)?  Who/What kind of person goes along with that?  Wouldn’t a righteous person never agree to letting someone else take the fall for them?  Their answer: “But it's a gift from Jesus to me.”  Oh.  My answer: “No, it’s more like a believed self-preservation tactic.”
2. And what kind of person, in good conscience, gets satisfaction for taking blame on something they didn’t do?  Someone who’s maybe just a real nice person and wants to help someone out?  You know, the proverbial Good Samaritan?  This goes beyond Good Samaritanism, I’d say.
3. Besides, what gives that person, in this case Jesus, to right to take over other people’s responsibility for blame?  Is Jesus really doing them a favor?  Or is he enabling them?  Explain that one. 
4. Was the whole thing just a rumor, dis/misinformation that got promoted to a truth, a truth that still stands strong in the Christian community to this day?

I don’t know but the whole thing reeks of humanity’s scapegoating and need to self-preserve.  What a perverted setup to buy into.  The whole crazy scheme seems bizarre to me.  But we all know cognitive dissonance gets easier and easier the more you do it.  A person can talk themselves into all kinds of things.  Am I right?

(by PrimalSoup)

*Note- All my questions are meant rhetorically because I believe, with a “high degree of confidence” (a la PWoD), that I already know the answers.  But chime in if you think you know something about all this that I don’t.  I’m fair.  I’ll consider it. 😊