Middleman; Mediation; I am the way, the truth, and the life / Middleman

What did Jesus mean

You have direct access to God through Jesus.

Where did Jesus say this

John 14:6 — “I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no man cometh unto the father but by me.”

Matthew 23:8–12 — “But ye shall not suffer yourselves to be called Rabbi. For one is your master, that is to wit, Christ, and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth, for there is but one your father, and he is in heaven. Be not called masters, for there is but one your master, and he is Christ. He that is greatest among you shall be your servant. But whosoever exalteth himself shall be brought low. And he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”

A historical sidenote

Before we get into what Jesus said and why, we first need to go back to God’s time. To fully understand where Jesus is coming from, you need to understand where High Priests come from. It might shock you.

Jacob and Esau were twins. Their mother was Rebekah. God spoke to Rebekah and said “the elder shall serve the younger.” You can see this as God playing favorites or simply stating destiny. Either way, Rebekah created a real problem for their household, pitted the two boys against each other, and helped Jacob deceive their father into tricking Esau out of his rightful blessing. Awful parenting no matter which way you look at it.

Jacob and Esau were essentially rivals from the womb, and ended up creating two separate nations that ultimately — you guessed it — wound up fighting each other. Big surprise there.

Esau went off and created Edom, which eventually produced Herod. Herod was the one who tried to kill baby Jesus.

Jacob, on the other hand, went off and created Israel, but not before he had 12 sons and a daughter.

The daughter was raped by a prince, who then came back around and asked to marry her. Two of the sons, Levi and Simeon, vowed to avenge her, but they went a little overboard in the process. The two sons said to the Prince, “Sure, you can marry our sister, but you and every other man in your town must circumcise yourselves first.” So they did. While the men were healing, Levi and Simeon singlehandedly went through the town and murdered all of the men and then the rest of the brothers took the women and children.

As such, Jacob cursed Levi and Simeon on his deathbed.

Simeon and his lineage basically disappear and get absorbed by another tribe within Israel; however, Levi ends up creating the Levites (who eventually become the High Priests and staff people for God and the community).

But before the Levites become High Priests, Moses and Aaron are born into the Levites. They are brothers and technically great-great-great-grandsons of Rebekah.

Moses becomes an intermediary for God, and God names Aaron as Moses’ prophet. We now have ourselves a chain of middlemen. And not just any chain - an already corrupt chain depending on how you look at it and their family history.

Moses was called to work for God by God. Moses said no many times and then told God to go find someone else. God got angry and demanded he help anyways.

God helped the tribes escape Egypt, and Moses was the face of it all.

Everyone follows Moses to Mount Sinai after the famous parting of the Red Sea, and God speaks the Ten Commandments to all. Everyone is terrified of God, and they beg Moses to stand in for them (as… a middleman). God agrees. Moses goes up the mountain for 40 days to receive instructions.

While Moses is up on the mountaintop, Aaron is pressured into building a golden calf to worship. They couldn’t stand to be without their middleman, so they created a middle-calf, partied around it, and offered it animal sacrifices.

God sees this and says, “Okay, I’m starting over again.” Moses talks him out of it.

Moses comes down from the mountain, dismantles the calf into the water, and then makes his people drink that water (also weird). Then Moses says, “Who is on the LORD’s side? Let him come unto me.” And of course, the Levites come forward to greet their middleman.

At that moment, Moses commands the Levites to kill three thousand of their own people for worshipping that calf. This is interesting considering Moses just pleaded with God to spare his people. In the end, he turns right around and orders their deaths anyways (just not his tribe, of course).

And another thing that’s interesting? The man who was responsible for building that calf (Moses’ brother) was not punished, but instead, he was given the highest position next to God. He became the “top” middleman.

So in essence, we have a pedigree of middlemen birthed from corruption and the death of their own people.

What Jesus did not mean

You can choose to look at the backstory however you want. Maybe God messed up. Maybe God was playing favorites. Maybe God had a little too much hope.

Either way, we can determine two things: what God didn’t always want, and what Jesus didn’t mean.

God didn’t always want a middleman.

God spoke the Ten Commandments directly to the people. They were too scared and begged for a middleman. God agreed.

Jesus disavowed middlemen completely.

By the time Jesus comes into the picture, God has completely given up on picking a middleman and decides to bake one up himself.

You can think of it as God saying, “Alright, I’ll do it myself.”

So enter Jesus:

John 14:6 — Jesus is the way. You only get to God through him. He is your direct line of access.

John 10:9 — Jesus is the door. Through him, you will be saved.

Matthew 23:8–12 — Call no man on earth your father. The only father is God.

One thing is for certain: Jesus did not mean for you to use anyone other than yourself to communicate with God. And you do that through Jesus. It is guaranteed access. He is the direct line of access to God, given to you by God. No temple, no curtain, no ritual, no ring-kissing or calf-worshipping required.

Where to start

To start, you need to know where not to start.

If you think you can only gain access to Jesus by going to a specific place, listening to a specific person, or following a specific set of rituals, you will not get where you need to go. You will be impeded at every turn.

Instead, go into your room, shut the door, and talk to Jesus in private.

Benefits

You’ll remove the barriers that were never meant to exist.

You can finally build a relationship with Jesus.

You can connect to God through this relationship.

You can clean the inside of your cup and live inside the Kingdom of God.

The Kingdom of God was never closed. People just built a fence around it. Your job is to get around it.