Freaky Friday Wisdom

Job 16: 19 – 21 “Even now my witness is in heaven.
My advocate is there on high.
My friends scorn me,
but I pour out my tears to God.
I need someone to mediate between God and me,
as a person mediates between friends”

1 John 2:1 “… we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.”

1 Timothy 2: 5 “… there is one God and one mediator between God and mankind, the man Christ Jesus …”

Galatians 6: 2 “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

How many times are enough times to watch a movie?

My Wife is one of those people who will watch a movie again and again. One of several that she watches repeatedly is “Freaky Friday.” It’s the story of a Mother and Daughter who are constantly “at war” with each other. Through a twist of the paranormal and a couple of enchanted “fortune cookies” they end up in each other's body. The outcome is really quite funny. Both of the actresses do well taking the part of the other.

In the end the enchantment of the cookies is vividly revealed in a quite touching way.

When each is able to enter not only the other's experiences but wholeheartedly share their true feelings and deepest needs the spell is lifted and they are genuinely reconciled.

It is just this sort of sharing the life of another – “walking a mile in someone else's shoes – that we who are Christ-followers are taught to practise. “Carry each other's burdens,” is the way Paul of Damascus Road fame describes it.

Without doubt the greatest example of this kind of “entering the experiences of someone else” is Christ’s choice to become one of us.

Centuries before Jesus was born a man named Job, caught in terrible trouble insists, “Even now my witness is in heaven. My advocate is there, on high. … I need someone to mediate between God and me, as a person mediates between friends.” Little did this troubled man, conflicted over whether or not the God he trusts really “has his back,” realize that God would in a most mysterious way actually enter his experience and act on his behalf. But that is precisely what Jesus did when He came and lived here where we are. And, not only did he live with us, he entered our lives in every dimension to such an extent that, once reunited with the Father, He is our Advocate – our attorney – the “one who pleads our case” with the Father. He lived human life to such a complete degree that He – the “man Christ Jesus – now is the “one” – only – “Mediator between God and mankind …”

Think of it! There is a “man” -- the “Christ,” the “One,” the “Consummate Man,” -- now fully united with God Our Father, who is continually letting the Father know how it is for us and pleading with Him to treat us fairly, lovingly, in ways that will make us genuinely what they created us to be.

God really does “have your back,” He is your Vindicator, Defender, and Liberator!