Reframing Good Friday: From Scapegoating to Restoration with Mako Nagasawa
The Allender Center Podcast
The Allender Center
4.7 • 648 Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2026
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
We all know what it feels like to scapegoat—or to be scapegoated. To shift blame, protect ourselves, and make someone else carry what feels too heavy to hold.
So what does that have to do with Good Friday?
In this episode of the Allender Center Podcast, Mako Nagasawa helps us see that what we call "scapegoating" today is actually a distortion of its original biblical meaning.
Looking at Leviticus 16, he explains that the scapegoat was never about blaming or punishing a substitute, but about removing what didn't belong. A way of naming that the problem isn't who we are, but what has taken hold within us.
But over time, we've changed that meaning, looking for others to carry the blame instead of facing what's broken in us.
This episode invites us to see the cross differently.
Rather than reinforcing blame and punishment, Jesus steps into our cycle of scapegoating to break it, revealing a God who is not looking for someone to punish, but is committed to restoring what's broken.
This is the hope of Good Friday: not a story of blame, but the beginning of restoration.
Special Offer for our Listeners:
"Scapegoating as a Spiritual Formation Problem:" A free, four-week discussion group led by Mako Nagasawa with The Anástasis Center.
Explore how Penal Substitutionary Atonement theology encourages people to accept arbitrary authority and deploy harsh retributive justice. Explore how Medical Substitutionary Atonement theology from Early and Eastern Christianity can heal our souls, relationships, and public witness.
Enroll for free (with donations) at: https://anastasiscourses.thinkific.com/courses/scapegoating
About the Allender Center Podcast:
For over a decade, the Allender Center Podcast has offered honest, thoughtful conversations about the deep work of healing and transformation. Hosted by Dr. Dan Allender and Rachael Clinton Chen, MDiv, this weekly podcast explores the complexities of trauma, abuse recovery, story, relationships, and spiritual formation. Through questions submitted by listeners, stories, interviews, and conversations, we engage the deep places of heartache and hope that are rarely addressed so candidly in our culture today. Join the Allender Center Podcast to uncover meaningful perspectives and support for your path to healing and growth.
At the Allender Center, we value thoughtful dialogue across a wide range of voices, stories, and lived experiences. In that spirit, our podcast features guests and hosts who may hold differing perspectives. The perspectives shared on this podcast by guests and hosts reflect their own experiences and viewpoints and do not necessarily represent the views, positions, or endorsements of the Allender Center and/or The Seattle School of Theology & Psychology.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you're listening to this podcast, chances are you felt the heartbreaking impact of trauma and abuse in your own story, or in the stories of those you care about. |
| 0:15.0 | The truth is, we all carry the weight of personal and collective trauma. It's part of living in this world. And yet, |
| 0:22.6 | we also know we were made for more. We were made for connection, wholeness, and a life marked by |
| 0:29.5 | faith, hope, and love. If you desire more, for yourself, for the people you love, and for your |
| 0:36.2 | community, I want to personally invite you |
| 0:38.9 | into narrative-focused trauma care training with us here at the Allender Center. |
| 0:44.3 | Narrative-focused trauma care, or NFTC for short, is a methodology developed by the |
| 0:50.2 | Allender Center and built on the lifelong work of Dr. Dan Allender in the field of trauma |
| 0:55.5 | and abuse recovery. It brings together psychology and theology to give you a holistic framework |
| 1:01.2 | as you enter into your story and the stories of those around you with wisdom and care. |
| 1:07.1 | It begins with NFTC level one. Throughout four intensive training weekends, you'll receive foundational teaching from our team. |
| 1:15.3 | But this isn't just theory. |
| 1:17.5 | You'll also roll up your sleeves and enter into your own story, because as Dan says, we cannot take anyone further than we've been willing to go ourselves. |
| 1:26.4 | In small groups with a trained facilitator, you'll actually participate in the work of story |
| 1:31.3 | engagement, sharing your story and learning to listen well to the stories of others. |
| 1:37.2 | Whether you're a therapist, ministry leader, or simply someone longing for deeper personal |
| 1:42.0 | healing, this training invites you into a process of exploring |
| 1:45.7 | your story, naming both your pain and your goodness, and growing in your capacity to love and lead |
| 1:52.2 | well. Applications for NFTC Level 1 are now open. If you're ready to begin the journey |
| 1:58.6 | toward deeper healing in your own story and a renewed calling to bring compassion, courage, and hope to the world around you, we invite you to visit the Allender Center.org slash trainings. |
| 2:14.5 | Thank you for listening to the Allender Center podcast. |
| 2:18.0 | I'm Dr. Dan Allender. |
... |
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