ONE way of settling differences between men and nations is through mediation. This is the process whereby two parties, or their representatives, come together with a third person to work out a satisfactory solution to a particular situation about which they do not agree. Often the mediator, or third person, through his reasonable arguments, good will, and impartiality, points the way whereby the differences are reconciled and a harmonious settlement is brought about.
The patriarch Moses, who led the children of Israel out of Egypt and through the wilderness, can undoubtedly qualify as a great mediator between God and men. Possessing many of the qualities of noble, alert manhood, he communed with God and communicated to his people the concept of the creator as the one great I AM. Through God-inspired wisdom and direction he also gave to the Israelites the Ten Commandments—the great moral law— which throughout the ages have guided men in their relationship with each other.
The descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses, inherited the priestly office of ministering to the religious needs of the people. They were regarded as mediators between God and men. In the Judaic religion it was the duty of one who trespassed against the law or who sought divine favor to make an offering to God through a priest.
Christ Jesus was a priest after a different order from that of the Levitical priesthood. He was a "high priest of good things to come" (Hebr. 9:11) and derived his authority from the Most High. He was the greatest mediator of all ages. He not only revealed God as Spirit and His creation as wholly spiritual, but he also demonstrated man's eternal, indestructible nature as the son of God, inseparable from the Father. Referring to our great Way-shower, Mary Baker Eddy writes in "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" (pp. 315, 316): "Wearing in part a human form (that is, as it seemed to mortal view), being conceived by a human mother, Jesus was the mediator between Spirit and the flesh, between Truth and error. Explaining and demonstrating the way of divine Science, he became the way of salvation to all who accepted his word."
In the following words the writer of Hebrews refers to Jesus as a high priest (2:17, 18): "In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted."
In his spiritual office as a "high priest," Jesus called for no material sacrifice. His method of mediation differed completely from that of the Judaic priesthood. Their authority came through inheritance from a material ancestor; the authority of the Way-shower came directly from God, his heavenly Father, divine Mind.
In fulfilling his office of mediator, Jesus demonstrated the Christ, his true nature as the Son of God. It was the Christ, expressed in purity, sinlessness, Godlikeness, which made him effective as the mediator between God and mankind. Jesus was wholly unselfish. He devoted his whole career to showing men, through Christlike living as well as preaching, how they too could demonstrate their true identity as the children of God.
Christ, Truth, and not a human personality has power to forgive sin and to reform the individual. Only through the spiritualization of one's thought and the understanding of God as the one cause, or divine Principle, can forgiveness be gained and salvation achieved. Mrs. Eddy writes (Science and Health, p. 141): "For this Principle there is no dynasty, no ecclesiastical monopoly. Its only crowned head is immortal sovereignty. Its only priest is the spiritualized man. The Bible declares that all believers are made 'kings and priests unto God.'"
Christian Science teaches that there is no vicarious atonement. Our Way-shower's great sacrifice of material selfhood was made not only to demonstrate his own nature as the Son of God, but also to show all men how to achieve freedom from the false claims of mortality. The true blood of Jesus was his life, the pure life which he lived among men, to bless them and enlighten them and awaken them to their Christlike inheritance as sons and priests of God, Spirit.
The Master said to his disciple Thomas (John 14:6), "No man cometh unto the Father, but by me," that is, through the demonstration of man's true selfhood as the son of God, as the Way-shower himself demonstrated it. The power of the Christ is available to every individual, for it is the saving and healing ever-present manifestation of God. It was the Christ, evidenced in unselfed love and complete forgiveness of his enemies, that enabled Jesus to over-come every obstacle which confronted him. It established his eternal right to the titles of Christ, of Way-shower, of Saviour, and of the Son of God. It enabled him to demonstrate for the benefit of all men the supreme power of the Christ over hatred, death, and the grave.
At this season of the year, let us rejoice with Christians who are celebrating throughout the world the birth of the Bethlehem babe. Let us give thanks for his glorious career of preaching and teaching and well-doing. Let us also be ever mindful that he revealed to us the great power of the Christ as the ever-present mediator through which all men will ultimately find and enjoy their complete identity as the sons of the living God, Spirit.
In Science and Health, our Leader, Mrs. Eddy, writes as follows of the great mediating power of the Christ, demonstrated by Jesus (p. 45): "Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts! Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of human hope and faith, and through the revelation and demonstration of life in God, hath elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual idea of man and his divine Principle, Love."
