Now our high priest has obtained so much more excellent a ministry as he is mediator of a better covenant, enacted on better promises. // Hebrews 8:6
My first year of college, I realized that my desire to be a pediatrician was not really in line with my natural gifts. Rather, psychology was my calling. It was the first thing I wanted to study each day, and so I would save the psychology subject matter till the end of my day as a reward. If you are thinking “what a nerd,” you are quite right! I embrace that aspect of myself proudly.
But there was one area that always seemed to give me trouble: statistics. As a psychology major who pursued graduate study, I had to endure a lot of statistics classes. Mean versus median, moderator versus mediator—I had to keep looking up these elementary concepts. When reading Hebrews today I found myself again, twenty years removed from my last stats class, looking for a refresher on the vocabulary.
A mediator is a mechanism that causes an effect on the relationship between two things. If one thing is affected by another thing, sometimes there is something in between (a mediator) that is actually responsible for the effect. A mediator can also be the variable or mechanism that explains the relationship between two other variables. It is the statistical ‘go-between’ that is responsible for the effect between the two variables.
And it is a Biblical term that can be used in a theological way.
In Hebrews today, we read that the heavenly priesthood of Jesus places Him as a mediator of the new covenant between God and His people.
I don't suggest that Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior is reduced to a statistical variable, but rather that through Him our relationship with God the Father is affected. Our relationship is made new and different because of the life and death of Jesus Who offered His Body as a living sacrifice.
Moreover, He not only gave of Himself in atonement of our sins, but He is continually present to us in the Mass, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, to bring us to the Father. And that radically changes the equation for our eternal lives.
Spend some time today thinking about how you best relate to Jesus in your daily life.
Listen to today's audio devotion.
Dr. Mary Ruth Hackett is a writer, national speaker, and podcast host covering topics in psychology and faith. She holds a PhD in Educational Psychology and works at the important intersection of faith and developmental science, blending them in the original harmony God intended. Dr. Mary Ruth is the author of Daughter by Design: Discovering Your Identity as God's Beloved Daughter, and co-coauthor of Spiritual Discernment for Beginners: Learning to Hear God and Defeat the Lies of the Enemy. She is a contributing author to All She Had and our children’s devotional prayer book called Rise Up. Find out more about her here.
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