The Go-Between

I really don’t know what the problem was.
I just remember being very scared as I watched it unfold.
I was a young girl, playing outside on my front lawn.
Two older girls in the neighborhood must have had an argument about something.

The two girls were under a sweet gum tree that was near our house.
The taller girl picked up some of the sweet gum tree balls that had fallen to the ground.
She pulled the other girl towards her and dropped the sweet gum tree balls down her shirt.
She took the palm of her hand and smashed them against the girl’s skin.

I frantically ran to get my mother who by this time had heard the commotion.
She came outside and got between the two girls, and grabbed them each by the collar.
She demanded an explanation.
There were tears and loud voices; nothing made any sense to me.

My mother lifted the girl’s shirt very discreetly so she could see her back.
There was blood and pieces of sweet gum tree balls all over her skin.
My mother took the injured girl to her mother.
The one who was responsible had no choice but to go as well, since they were going to her mother next.

My mother was visibly upset, wondering how anyone could do such a thing.
She worried about me as well, since I witnessed all of it firsthand.
I never knew how it was resolved with the girls and their mothers.
But I was so very proud of my mother…the go-between.

To this day, I do not like sweet gum trees.
I find it very difficult to look at the sweet gum tree balls that fall to the ground.
However, it wasn’t the tree’s fault.
It was our sin nature that all too often rears its ugly head.

We may shake our head in disgust and think we are above that kind of behavior.
But we’re not!

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.” But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to his brother, ‘Raca,’ is answerable to the Sanhedrin. But anyone who says, ‘You fool,’ will be in danger of the fire of hell. Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother, then come and offer your gift. (Matthew 5:21-24)

Jesus is very specific when He says, if your brother has something against YOU.
Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
Jesus knows that our actions have consequences.
Appearances are deceiving.
The heart behind the action is what Jesus sees.

Jesus talks of anger leading to murder and lust leading to adultery.
We are one step away from the most heinous thing you can imagine.
One step.
We need the Holy Spirit to help us with our hearts, to make them more like His.

When my mother intervened all those years ago, she was a go-between.
That is what Jesus is for us.
He is the go-between, the One who stands between His Father and us.

God the Father is a holy God; He cannot look at sin.
When we come to faith in Jesus, His righteousness is imputed, or given to us.
In this great exchange, Jesus takes our sin upon Him.

That is why the Father had to look away when Jesus was on the cross.
All the sin of the world, past, present, and future, was placed on Him.
Jesus was forsaken as His Father turned away.

Because of the great exchange that happened on the cross, when God the Father looks at us He sees His Son.
Without Jesus as Mediator, Advocate, and Redeemer, God the Father sees our sin.
He has to look away.

We need a go-between.
If there were Someone to arbitrate between us to lay His hand upon us both. (Job 9:33)
Even now my Witness is in heaven; my Advocate is on high. (Job 16:19)
I know that my Redeemer lives and that in the end He will stand upon the earth.
(Job 19:25)

We have a Go-Between.
We have an Advocate.
We have a Redeemer.
Our Lord, Jesus.

Sin is as ugly and prickly as the sweet gum tree balls.
The enemy gathers up his ammunition and smashes it against us.
We are a bloody mess, with the debris of our sin all over us.

The Go-Between grabs us and brings us to His Father.
The one who is responsible stands cowering before God; He knows his time is short.
We DO know how it is resolved.

The Go-Between cleans us and clothes us with His garments of righteousness.
The one who is responsible has already lost; he has been defeated.
Defeated at the cross, the place of the great exchange, the place of the Go-Between.