May 16, 2008
The Middle Man
I once had to call an ambulance for a family member who fallen and broken a hip. Reeling from pain the patient kept saying, “Jesus help me...Oh Jesus, please Jesus.” When I’m in dire straights my heavenward cries are more directed to the Father or God. And, depending on how much pain or distress I’m in, I sometimes add, 'in the name of Jesus.' When Jesus was on the cross he cried out, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” - which means, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”(Matt 27:46 NIV) According to my study Bible footnote, Jesus’ words are a mixture of Aramaic and Hebrew. Because of the language barrier I can understand those at the foot of the cross not knowing who Jesus was calling out to. But what I find interesting is that they would take a wild guess that Jesus was calling out to Elijah. Not taking anything away from the Elijah, but I find it odd that they would think Jesus was invoking the name of a middle man prophet rather than calling on the God of Israel.
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Gail;
-----Society is full of middle-men, I suppose because they are important in a limited world. Thinking of it as a distribution problem, both the supplier and the consumer would be overwhelmed if everyone had to go straight to the source of production. So, for more reason than just efficiency, even for reason of making distribution possible, goods are passed to middle-men, sometimes to even more middle-men, until they are finally close enough to the consumer for possible access. Otherwise, you would have to contact New York, maybe, for your Revlon, California for your hair-spray, Florida for the hairbrush, etc., etc. And the principle operates in areas other than just the market. Both team work and the rumor mill, for example, have an information distribution system, complete with middlemen. Middlemen are everywhere in our lives.
-----It is no wonder, then, the world of religion also has acquired it’s middlemen, distributing prayers in one direction and comfort in the other, so much so that the soldiers at the cross would think Jesus were calling for Elijah. But to bring the concept all the way to Jesus’ door is to fail to understand that He is not a product of our temporal, limited supply, strapped by further constraints of time and distance. Some want to associate all this with Him because it is all we empirically experience. So they call upon Mother Mary and Saint Help-me rather than pressing right on through to the Father, boldly. But that is to have eyes and not to see. We are given His Spirit which guides, intercedes, and teaches like going right to the factory. Our communication line is direct to the Father, straight through to the top, constructed by Jesus. And one ceases to have a difficult time understanding it when he simply begins to live according to it.
Love,
Steve Corey
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