Jewish people don’t need a middleman
It all depends on what you mean by “middleman.” If you mean no Jew could ever pray to God without a go-between acting on his or her behalf, I agree with you: We don’t need a middleman. If you mean that any individual Jew (or the entire nation) could come into God’s presence at any time without a divinely ordained agent first going to God on his or her behalf, I disagree with you.
When God gave us the Torah, he told us in no uncertain terms that only the descendants of Aaron (i.e., the priests) could enter the Most Holy Place or perform the annual atonement rituals. We were completely dependent on them, along with the Levites who assisted them in their work. So in a general sense, any Jew can cry out to God at any time and plead for mercy; in a specific sense, without priestly atonement and intercession, no Jew has direct access to God.
We don’t need to spend a great deal of time on this objection since it all comes down to how we define “middleman.” Still, I am aware of the perception some Jews have about the role of Jesus as a mediator between man and God. They view his role as if he were a secretary with an office outside the boss’s door, and you have to go through him to get clearance to enter. Actually, the teaching of the New Testament would be closer to this: The boss’s door is closed and locked shut. Jesus opens the door and provides the way for us to enter.
Or to take the image even further, Jesus himself is the door. That’s how we should understand the following verses in which Yeshua stated plainly, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). “I tell you the truth, the man who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.… I tell you the truth, I am the gate for the sheep” (John 10:1, 7).
It is the death and resurrection of the Messiah that has opened the door of heaven for all of us, Jew and Gentile alike. Through him, our sins are forgiven and we can approach God’s holy throne with confidence and boldness. We have direct access to the Lord himself. It is in this sense that Jesus is the mediator between God and man: He “gave himself as a ransom for all men” (see 1 Tim. 2:5–6). That’s why the New Testament letter to the Messianic Jews exclaims:
Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Hebrews 10:19–22
You see, out of all the peoples living on the earth two thousand years ago, it would have been the Jewish people who would have best understood their need for a middleman—someone to approach God on their behalf, someone to help them deal with their sins, someone to procure favor and blessing for them. God-fearing Jews knew full well their spiritual limitations: Only the priests and Levites could perform the Temple functions, and only the high priest could enter the Most Holy Place—the place where God revealed himself (see Lev. 16:2)—and that only once a year. Even then the high priest could only enter with sacrificial blood.
When Uzziah, a godly Judean king, went into the Temple and offered incense, he was smitten with leprosy. He had encroached on the holy, doing something forbidden to all but the priests:
But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord his God, and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. Azariah the priest with eighty other courageous priests of the Lord followed him in. They confronted him and said, “It is not right for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests, the descendants of Aaron, who have been consecrated to burn incense. Leave the sanctuary, for you have been unfaithful; and you will not be honored by the Lord God.”
2 Chronicles 26:16–18
Not even kings had direct access into the Temple. Note also that the Bible states it was Uzziah’s pride that led to his downfall. He thought he had as much right to enter the Temple and perform priestly service as anyone. God thought otherwise. Uzziah needed a middleman too. In fact, the very turban worn by the high priest enabled him to “bear the guilt involved in the sacred gifts the Israelites consecrate, whatever their gifts may be. It will be on [the high priest’s] forehead continually so that they will be acceptable to the Lord” (Exod. 28:38). From this we learn that not even Israel’s gifts and offerings would be acceptable to God without the ministry of the high priest. Yeshua is now our great High Priest, making our gifts and offerings acceptable to God. (For more on this, see vol. 3, 4.1.)
You should also remember that God gave Israel prophets to communicate his will to the people. When he spoke directly and audibly to the nation (on Mount Sinai), they were terrified and begged him to stop: “When the people saw the thunder and lightning and heard the trumpet and saw the mountain in smoke, they trembled with fear. They stayed at a distance and said to Moses, ‘Speak to us yourself and we will listen. But do not have God speak to us or we will die’ ” (Exod. 20:18–19). This, then, was the main reason God raised up prophets for his people:
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.” The Lord said to me [i.e., Moses]: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.”
Deuteronomy 18:15–18
We see then that the Jewish people needed prophets to communicate God’s will to them and priests to make atonement on their behalf, and both prophet and priest were often called on to make intercession for the people. Without this intercession, divine judgment would fall.318 A middleman was sorely needed.
Interestingly, most religious Jews still rely heavily on a middleman, but now he is not called a priest or a prophet but rather a rabbi. It is the rabbi—especially the leading sage in each generation—who tells the community what God requires and interprets the Torah for them. In many ways, he is seen as God’s representative, speaking with all the authority that his learning has earned him. In fact, if I were to question a traditional Jew about the validity of his rabbi’s interpretation or ruling, he would tell me in response, “Who am I to differ with what my rabbi says?” Not only so, but that rabbi would rely heavily on the rulings and interpretations of his rabbi, who in turn leaned heavily on the rulings and interpretations of his rabbi—all the way back to the rulings and interpretations of the medieval Law Codes and commentaries, and before that, to the rulings and interpretations of the post-Talmudic sages, and before that, to the rulings and interpretations of the Talmudic rabbis themselves. Jewish tradition actually teaches that it was the Rabbinic leaders who received the inspiration the prophets once had.319
The rabbi functions as a middleman in another way as well, and that is in the area of prayer. Many religious Jews—especially Hasidim—believe that the rabbi’s prayer carries special weight with God, while nonreligious Jews sometimes send prayer requests to religious Jews living in Jerusalem, asking them to put their requests in the Wailing Wall and say a prayer for them.
The bottom line is that Jews, as human beings, need someone to help them come into right relationship with God and stay in right relationship with God. In biblical times, the main, God-appointed agent was the high priest, and, as we stated, he was the only one who was allowed access into the Most Holy Place in the earthly Tabernacle and Temple. While any Israelite could bring an offering to God, the high priest’s work was essential, ultimately enabling that Israelite’s offering to be received.
Through the Messiah our High Priest, we have been brought into an entirely different relationship with God, since Jesus has actually opened the door to the Most Holy Place in heaven itself—the very throne room of God—and granted us direct access into that holy presence through his blood. That’s the kind of middleman we need. Without him, we are shut out, and the door is locked and bolted. With him, it is open wide.
318 See the insightful study of Yochanan Muffs, “Who Will Stand in the Breach?: A Study of Prophetic Intercession,” in idem, Love and Joy: Law, Language and Religion in Ancient Israel (New York: Jewish Theological Seminary, 1992), 9–48; note also the implications of verses such as Psalm 99:6; Jeremiah 15:1.
319 Cf., e.g., b. Bava Bathra 12a; see, vol. 3, 6.1–6.5, for an in-depth discussion of these issues.
Brown, M. L. (2000). Answering Jewish objections to Jesus, Volume 2: Theological objections (195). Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books.
