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Christ Our Mediator

"Christ above me, Christ beside me, Christ within me ever guiding, Christ behind me, Christ before, Christ my love, my life, my Lord." - Hymn by John Chisum

What does it mean that Christ is our mediator? We often talk about how because of what Christ has done for us we now have direct access to the Father, but that isn't what the Bible says. We have access to the Father as his children in the Spirit through Christ. We pray in Jesus' name, after all.

We know that Christ is our mediator. The Bible does say that plainly, such as in 1 Timothy 2:5, but this is an aspect of who Christ is and what he does that I think we neglect in our theology and lives. We don't like having to go through someone else for anything, especially the most important things. We Americans prefer to do it ourselves.

The very concept of mediation is something we aren't a fan of. Couples struggling with their relationship are often resistant to see a marriage counselor or therapist, aka a mediator. We often prefer to settle things on our own instead of resorting to the courts (at least some of us do). We often treat people who try to mediate our problems with others as sticking their nose where it doesn't belong and getting into our personal business.

That's exactly right though. A mediator gets in the middle of the mess and sorts things out. In order to properly mediate a dispute the mediator needs to know the full extent of what is going on. Otherwise they won't be able to effectively solve the crisis.

Jesus is our mediator. He entered into our mess in order to resolve the conflict we had with God and he demands nothing less than all of us, personal business included. In this particular dispute there is only one guilty party, us. The Father is who has always been and shall always be: perfect, holy, all-loving, and good. He never turned his back on us and never wronged us.

We need Jesus to mediate our lives, every ounce of it. As Christians we are baptized into Christ, effectively becoming surrounded by him. We shouldn't be able to look at God, each other, or the world without having our actions, thoughts, and words shaped by Jesus our mediator. 

Christians are likewise called to be mediators in the world. The primary way we do that is through prayer. We pray for the world that they may know God. We pray for our leaders that they may rule wisely. We, the people of God in Christ, stand at the intersection of the world and the Kingdom of God, and as participants in Christ we are called to mediate.

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