1 Timothy 2:5

Paul Gauguin, "Christ in the Garden of Olives"

"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;"
1 Timothy 2:5


The word translated "mediator" is the Greek    μεσίτης

or "mesites" and that comes from "mesos" - "middle" .

In Perseus, we have the meanings as:   mediator, umpire, arbitrator;
and in The Biblkehub, Thayer's Greek Lexicon, we read:
http://biblehub.com/greek/3316.htm

Thayer's Greek Lexicon

STRONGS NT 3316: μεσίτης

μεσίτης, μεσίτου, ὁ (μέσος), 

one who intervenes between two, either in order to make or restore peace and friendship, or to form g compact, or for ratifying a covenant:

a medium of communication, arbitrator (Vulg. (and A. V.) mediator): ὁ μεσίτης (generic article cf. Winer's Grammar, § 18, 1 under the end), i. e. every mediator, whoever acts as mediator, ἑνός οὐκ ἐστι, does not belong to one party but to two or more, Galatians 3:20.

Used of Moses, as one who brought the commands of God to the people of Israel and acted as mediator with God on behalf of the people, Galatians 3:19 (cf. Deuteronomy 5:5; hence, he is called μεσίτης καί διαλλακτής by Philo also, vit. Moys. iii. § 19).

Christ is called the μεσίτης Θεοῦ καί ἀνθρώπων, since he interposed by his death and restored the harmony between God and man which human sin had broken, 1 Timothy 2:5; also μεσίτης διαθήκης, Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 12:24. (Polybius 28, 15, 8; Diodorus 4, 54; Philo de somn. i. § 22; Josephus, Antiquities 16, 2, 2; Plutarch, de Isa. et Os. 46; once in the Sept., Job 9:33.) Cf. Fischer, De vitiis lexamples N. T., p. 351ff

 I emphasized "diallaktes" above ( διαλλακτής ), and that word means "one who exchanges", "one who changes one thing for another", etc.

What is very interesting is the fact that years of familiarity have bred our contempt of the real dynamic stated here.

The usual way of stating that Jesus is the mediator between God and man has the notion of a very active mediator and sort of a passive divinity one one hand and a miserable wretch of mankind on the other.

However, this misses the essential fact that a mediator is mediating between two active participants in a negotiation. It sort of misses the fact that man is in the face of God, and God is right there in the face of man, each stating their demands, and the resolution so impossible that it requires a great negotiator, referee, arbitrator, and middleman.

God is Active. Sin is Active.
The smoke rising from the fires of Sin ascend into the sky and choke the air of Heaven. God and Man are at loggerheads! Feel it!

This is my Maundy Thursday prayer, the duration of which I spent one hour with Thee.

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