Dec 10, 2015
Scripture of the Day:
Hebrews 12:18-29 (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Hebrews%2012:18-29)
Thought of the day: Christ the Mediator
As we
prepare for the feast of the Birth of our Lord we ought to meditate on the
reason for his birth. In the past few days we have looked at several different
pictures that reveal the purpose of the incarnation – to clothe us with
himself, to establish the kingdom of God, etc. Today let us reflect on the
theme of Christ the Mediator. Author of book of Hebrews identifies our savior
as “Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant.” What does it mean to call Christ
the mediator?
The
word translated as mediator is the Greek word mesites. This word can be literally translated as “in the middle”. The Greek word is used to speak of a person
who acts as an intermediary. It can specifically be used to refer to the one
who guarantees the terms stipulated in a covenant. As St Paul teaches us, a
mediator implies more than one party (Gal 3:20). The two parties that Christ
mediates for are God the Father and the creation. Creation and more specifically humanity has
become estranged from God. There is a great divide between God and humanity.
There is nothing that creation can do to overcome this divide. God sent his own
son to bridge that gap. Therefore the word mediator is used to speak of the
work of salvation that Christ does to unite humanity back to God.
This
concept is captured so well in the often misunderstood verse of St Paul : “For
there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ
Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5). It is through the birth, passion, death and resurrection
that the man Christ Jesus fulfilled his work of mediation. Nothing else can
save us. However this does not preclude the possibility of other believers
praying for us. It is in this point that well-meaning Christians often
err. They misunderstand the role that
Orthodox Christians give to saints. We do not believe that Saints can ever
fulfill the role of Christ to mediate between humanity and God. However we do
believe that Saints (whether living or departed) can pray to God on behalf of
others. We call this prayer intercession. As we participate in Orthodox
services if we pay careful attention we will note the significant difference
between prayers addressed to God and requests to the saints for their
intercession.
Song of the Day:
Icon of the Day:
Picture
from Kottayam Cheriapally –
Ancient
Churches of Kerala had traditional murals:
Quote of the day:
As it is impossible to verbally
describe the sweetness of honey to one who has never tasted honey, so the
goodness of God cannot be clearly communicated by way of teaching if we
ourselves are not able to penetrate into the goodness of the Lord by our own
experience.
(St. Basil the Great, Conversations
on the Psalms, 29)
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