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The concept of Jesus being a Mediator is one which appears in four specific New Testament passages. In 1 Timothy 2:5, the apostle Paul writes that there is "one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ." In the letter to the Hebrews, the writer mentions three times that Jesus is the mediator of a better covenant between God and man, (Hebrews 8:6; 9:15; 12:24).
The word occurs only twice in the Old Testament in Job 9:33 and Job 33:23 where Job complains that there is no "mediator" between him and God. In Job 9:33, Job is expressing the feeling that there is no one to bring him and God together so that he may be able to plead his own innocence before Jehovah.
During the Hellenistic period there was a commonly held idea among Jews that their prayers could not ascend directly to Jehovah, because of their inability to bridge the gulf between man and God. Therefore, angels were frequently thought of as intermediaries; and the angel who was given the particular responsibility for this task was frequently believed to be Michael.
However, it was in Greek life and thought that the idea of a mediator was most deeply rooted. The Greek word for mediator is "mesites" and literally means that which is in the middle, or the middleman, and is defined as the one who stands between two parties in an effort to bring them into fellowship.
Although the word did not exist in classical Greek and does not appear in general usage until the Hellenistic period, the idea behind it was frequently expressed.
It was customary among the Greeks to always attempt to settle disputes by mediation so that they would not have to be settled in a court of law. Although the Greeks had not yet begun to think in terms of a "mediator," they did have another word which described almost exactly the same thing. This was "diaitetes," which was most commonly translated arbitrator, and was a person who performed the same function as the mediator. Both were appointed so that equity and justice might prevail.
In Greek law, a body known as The Forty were appointed to act as judges, and in all cases involving less than ten drachmae, their decision was final. However, in cases involving more than ten drachmae, The Forty appointed an arbitrator or mediator. This person was selected from among the common citizens, and was required to be in their sixtieth year. Their whole purpose was to bring disputing parties together to reach an agreement or a compromise. If the parties could not reach a compromise, the arbitrator or mediator was then required to give his opinion, and if the parties still refused to agree, the matter went to back to The Forty for a final ruling.
By New Testament times, everyone had become familiar with the purpose and the function of the mediator. When the apostle Paul described Jesus Christ as the mediator between God and man, everyone knew that it was the supreme purpose of the Savior the bring man and God together again.
There are certain qualities that every mediator had to possess in order to bring about equity.
First, the mediator had to be capable of representing both parties. He had to have a complete understanding and sympathy for both sides in the dispute. Otherwise his decisions would be prejudiced, one-sided and therefore unjust. Jesus possesses that unique quality since he is God the Son who took upon himself the form of a Servant and became as man. No other person could possibly represent both man and God, unless he too was both man and God.
Another responsibility of a mediator is to establish communication between disputing parties. It was never the intention of Jesus to establish communication between God and man, for God never needed to be reconciled to man, but rather man needed to be reconciled to God. Jesus pictured God as having always been a seeking God, seeking that which was lost. The task that Jesus had before him was to bring men back to God by showing them the love of God, and by getting them to hate their own sins and turn again to the God who has always been seeking them.
But the primary task of the mediator is far greater than simply establishing communication, and fairly representing each side in the dispute. The mediator's main responsibility is to establish a new relationship between the two parties, in which suspicion has turned to trust, animosity to friendship, and hatred to love. It was the mediator's task to establish much more than simply a legal relationship, he functioned to establish a personal relationship in which love and trust is the bond.
Throughout the scriptures, Jesus is picture not as the mediator who brings two legal disputants together, but rather who brings together two lovers who have drifted apart, and for whom life can never be complete until there has been a loving reunion.
Jesus is the only mediator that stands between God and man, and draws the two together again. |
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