That got your attention, didn't it?
I use the phrase metaphorically, but also in total seriousness. About 30 years ago, I went head-to-head with the Philadelphia Parking Authority when they refused to acknowledge my timely payment of a small parking ticket. Copies of bank statements proving my assertion left them yawning. My requests to speak to management were ignored. In desperation, I contacted my big sister, Jo Ann, who is known far and wide (at least to disinterested bureaucrats) as someone you don't want to tangle with (her favorite slogan to get around gatekeepers is "You don't get paid enough to talk to someone as angry as I am!").
Jo literally took my problem to City Hall and, voilá, somehow my missing payment was found and the thugs got off my back.
Some time later, I received a parking violation which was totally fraudulent. I had never even been to the location of my supposed infraction; to add insult to injury, I had been tending my ailing father on his deathbed at the time I was allegedly incurring said ticket.
I saw red.
This time I sought help from local legislators to fight the spurious charges. One correspondence with legal letterhead settled the matter in my favor.
If we examine these two instances, each is somewhat unique. In one case, I deserved the ticket, but had done my part to rectify it; in the other, I truly was guiltless, but needed help to extricate myself. In the first situation, someone who had more time and a more "I mean business" demeanor than I managed to solve the problem; in the latter, I needed professional assistance.
But what do they have in common?
The odds of my winning either one of these battles were astronomically against me. My father used to complain that city parking authorities are often notoriously corrupt, so one would do well to mind one's P's and Q's when one ventures into their territory. In scenario #1, I had fallen afoul of said authorities, and they were making it impossible to establish my debt had been paid. Scenario #2 was even trickier, because a crooked ticket had been issued, and I had no way to prove I hadn't earned it. I had argued and fussed, even provided physical proof of my innocence, yet the consequences still loomed and were, in fact, growing; every day I didn't pay up, surcharges were accruing. In short, my own resources failed to solve the problem.
The deciding factor in both matters was the help I had in resolving them.
If I wanted to brag, I could mention other matters in which I "beat the bad guys" by involving bodies like the state attorney general's office and other agencies with more clout than I have. But then I would also need to admit that for every tussle I've won, there have been plenty that I lost. What often makes the difference is who is on my team plugging for me. In many cases, the powers that be won't budge until someone in a high position rattles their cages; then and only then will they back down.
Jesus stood in the gap for believers in much the same way the aforementioned advocates did for me. This won't be a perfect analogy, so I hope readers won't pick it apart till it bleeds (but our Savior did bleed - buckets full - and what a gift His sacrifice gave to hurting humanity). One of my seminary professors used to say, "Don't try to make it walk on all fours." In other words, don't expect every analogy to perfectly align the two entities being compared. An illustration is only that - a reasonable facsimile of the object it represents.
That said, the least analogous part of the advocate comparison I'm making is the culpability of the two parties involved. In the examples I mentioned, I was being wrongfully accused, whereas Christ wasn't (on the cross) and isn't (in His resurrected state) defending a wronged party against a corrupt one. On the contrary, His death reconciled guilty sinners to a sinless God. He advocated for sinners on the cross (past tense), and continues to advocate for us before God's throne (present tense). In that sense, Christ actually flips my analogy by pleading for the guilty party, rather than the guiltless one.
Two Bible verses put this whole topic in a nutshell:
My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. - 1 John 2:1
Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. - Hebrews 7:25
There may be times when we need the intercession of human defenders, and by the grace of God, lawyers and consumer protection agencies exist for just such occasions. But when it comes to spiritual advocacy, there's no one better than Jesus Christ.
