Death of the Middleman (1 Timothy 2:1-6)

The current age is one in which the middleman has become increasingly marginalized, to say the least. In business, online or direct-to-consumer options can eliminate the dependence on big box, retail stores as well as wholesale distributors to market a company’s products.

In entertainment, whether music or movies, one can build an online following or platform without requiring the traditional gatekeepers’ approval by recording, uploading and marketing one’s own talents or ideas to the general populace. From there, the entertainer has a greater position of leverage to share their gifts with the world as they already have a following.

There are some political examples where more quick and efficient change can occur through independent or grass-roots movements, rather than the processes of traditional political machinations. For organizers, the worst of bureaucracy and politicking slows down the momentum of movements.

Consider the exploding world of podcasting. Rather than yield to the censorship of one’s own ideas and philosophies, many are able to circumvent the constraints of the company line and express their style, thoughts, and ideas directly to their listening audiences through this medium. Professional athletes, pop culture experts, religious thinkers, academics, and sports and political pundits all can go directly to those who view and listen, in their own words and in their own way. There are numerous other examples of the ways that technology has allowed people to circumvent processes (and people) that were, in past eras, a more necessary component to connect audiences to one another.

In religion, there are similar notions of direct-to-God options, without a mediator. Many believe there are numerous paths to God; choose the one that suits. One route might be by good deeds, hard work, and effort. Another route may be through spiritual enlightenment. Some routes circumvent organized religion, given its sometimes checkered history of excess, abuse, neglect, hierarchy, and just dealing with overall fallen-ness of the people (all of us) who make up these institutions. Many just want to get to God, without a whole lot of “extra.”

The Apostle Paul, in his 1st epistle to Timothy, 1 Timothy 2:5, boldly asserts, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” He is pretty clear in his profession that, in terms of salvific efficacy, a middleman is wholly necessary to bridge the gulf between a holy God and sinful man. That Middleman is Jesus the Christ. Jesus stated it this way, in John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Social, economic, and political movements may survive the death of the middleman, and keep moving along. For salvation, we absolutely needed the death of the Middleman to reconcile us back to God. Not because He was a middleman whose death meant He was easy to discard. But because He was The Middleman whose death was tantamount to our spiritual liberty.

Reflect: How do we navigate the exclusive claims of Christ with our world, where we should respect religious diversity and pluralism exists?