Christ - the sole Mediator in All relationships

“[Jesus] stands between us and God, and for that very reason he stands between us and all other men and things. He is the Mediator, not only between God and man, but between man and man, between man and reality. Since the whole world was created through him and unto him (John 1:3; 1st Cor. 8:6; Heb. 1:2), he is the sole Mediator in the world...

The call of Jesus teaches us that our relation to the world has been built on an illusion. All the time we thought we had enjoyed a direct relation with men and things. This is what had hindered us from faith and obedience. Now we learn that in the most intimate relationships of life, in our kinship with father and mother, bothers and sisters, in married love, and in our duty to the community, direct relationships are impossible. Since the coming of Christ, his followers have no more immediate realities of their own, not in their family relationships nor in the ties with their nation nor in the relationships formed in the process of living. Between father and son, husband and wife, the individual and the nation, stands Christ the Mediator, whether they are able to recognize him or not. We cannot establish direct contact outside ourselves except through him, through his word, and through our following of him. To think otherwise is to deceive ourselves.

But since we are bound to abhor any deception which hides the truth from our sight, we must of necessity repudiate any direct relationship with the things of this world--and that for the sake of Christ. Wherever a group, be it large or small, prevents us from standing alone before Christ, wherever such a group raises a claim of immediacy it must be hated for the sake of Christ. For every immediacy, whether we realize it or not, means hatred of Christ, and this is especially true where such relationships claim the sanctions of Christian principles.,,

There is no way from one person to another. However loving and sympathetic we try to be, however sound our psychology, however frank and open our behavior, we cannot penetrate the incognito of the other man, for there are no direct relationships, not even between soul and soul. Christ stands between us, and we can only get into touch with our neighbors through him. That is why intercession is the most promising way to reach our neighbors, and corporate prayer, offered in the name of Christ, the purest form of fellowship.”

― Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship (Discipleship and the individual 챕터 에서)

<God, Neighbor, Empire> 책에서 설명된 관계성 (relationality) 의 하나님과, 드라마 <ㄷ백꽃 필 무렵> 에 나오는 마을에 대해서 이리저리 생각해보다가 떠 올리게 된 본훼퍼의 글. 

예수님께서 모든 관계의 mediator 가 되신다는 것. 

하나님과 인간 사이의, 인간들 사이에서, 인간과 reality 사이에서. 

예수님께서 모든 관계의 mediator 가 되신다는 건, 예수님께서 모든 것의 중심, 즉 주인이자 왕이시라는 사실과 통한다. 

그렇게 예수님께서 mediator 가 되지 않는 관계로 이루어진 공동체는 한 배를 탄 한 운명 공동체이거나, 아주 친밀한 공동체일지라도 예수님 안에서 진정한 신앙 공동체는 아닐 수도 있다. 

--- <God, Neighbor, Empire> 책에서는 이웃이 된다는 것에는 친밀감보다는 같은 운명을 나누는 것이 더 중요하다고 했다. 물론 "관계성의 하나님 안에서" 라는 조건을 내포하고 있는 거겠지. 

<ㄷ백꽃 필 무렵> 의 마을의 예를 들자면, 서로의 집에 뚝배기(?) 가 몇 개인지 서로 아는 친밀감의 공동체보다는, 남자 주인공 어린 시절, 이웃 아주머니들이 다 함께 그를 키운 거나 다름없다는 운명 공동체가 더 이웃다운 걸까?

물론 신앙 공동체 안에서는 예수님께서 mediator 가 되신 관계 속에서 그래야 하는 거겠지.

 

어쩄거나,

하나님의 공동체 밖에서 한 개인이 홀로 생존하거나 성장/성숙할 수 없듯이,

하나님 앞에서 바로 서지 않은 개개인들이 모인 공동체는 생존하거나 성숙/성장할 수 없는 것이 당연하다. 

위 본훼퍼 글의 마지막 부분 - Christ stands between us, and we can only get into touch with our neighbors through him. That is why intercession is the most promising way to reach our neighbors, and corporate prayer, offered in the name of Christ, the purest form of fellowship. 에 대해서 다시 생각해 본다.