Thanksgiving, Part 1: Squanto, a Human Mediator

This month, Jeff Bezos's space firm Blue Origin launched a pair of NASA spacecraft on a mission to Mars.  The firm hopes this mission will be a giant step toward landing humans on the “red planet.”

Imagine if you are among the first humans to set foot on Martian soil.  Within the hour, you are stunned to see another human being approaching you.  He looks human but appears to have an other-world ethnicity.  Then, to your amazement, he smiles reluctantly and greets you in your own language.  Sound far-fetched?  Certainly!  But it is not unlike the experience of the Pilgrims who met Native Americans when they arrived at Plymouth Rock, having sailed 3,000 miles from Europe, in 1621. 

“An Instrument Sent of God”
After their grueling ocean voyage, the Pilgrims set foot on North American soil, not knowing what to expect or whether they would survive.  To their surprise, their party met another human being who differed only in ethnicity and who greeted them in the English language!  They would come to know their English-speaking friend as Tisquantum, or “Squanto,” a member of the Patuxent tribe of the Wampanoag confederation.

Our tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving, often with a lavish abundance of food and comfort, is rooted in a history in which a widespread loss of human lives was averted by the providential hand of God.  Only 53 Pilgrims had survived their treacherous voyage across the Atlantic.  They faced harsh weather and limited food, and many of them died.  But providentially, those who reached Plymouth Rock were saved because of the kindness of Squanto.  

Squanto graciously assisted the Pilgrims as an interpreter to establish communication and peace with the Wampanoag’s including its chief, Massasoit.  Then, Squanto and his tribesmen assisted the Pilgrims in hunting game from the forest, obtaining seafood from the Atlantic, and growing corn and other crops.  It is truly a marvelous show of God’s providential care that Squanto had been equipped at just the right time to serve as a mediator to forge peaceful relationships between people of two very different cultures.
 

A mediator is a neutral third party who stands between two individuals or groups that are at odds in order to assist in bringing conflict resolution and a mutually acceptable settlement.  Squanto’s mediation of peaceful relations between the Native American majority and the European Pilgrim minority was certainly a cause for thankfulness on that first Thanksgiving.  But the backstory which centers on Squanto’s life is even more amazing.

Squanto explained how he had been captured by English sailors and taken to Europe (circa. 1614) where he and other captured Native Americans were taught to speak English as preparation for them to be guides for explorers of the North American frontier.  Here Squanto lived with John Slaney, a Christian merchant.  Squanto learned English, worked for Slaney, and worshiped with English Christians where he must have been regularly exposed to Christian teaching.  According to a more complete account of Squanto’s life (See HERE), he was captured a second time and transported to Europe.  But this time, he was providentially purchased from the slave auction block and set free by brothers of a local monastery.

As a free man who may or may not have ever professed faith in Christ, Squanto eventually returned again to his North American homeland where he became an instrument of God’s saving grace as a mediator between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans.  Governor William Bradford recognized Squanto’s miraculous role and later wrote that he was “a special instrument sent of God for their good.”  For additional details on the spiritual context of how God worked among the lives of the Pilgrims, see our 2024 Oikonomia from which part of the above content was taken [Click HERE].

The way in which God prepared and used Squanto to foster peace between Native Americans and Europeans and save the Pilgrims from starvation  and death illustrates what is required of a

successful mediator.  Here are a few character traits and abilities Squanto possessed as a mediator:

1)  Knowledge of Language and Cultures
2)  Vision of a “Higher Purpose”
3)  Showed Empathy and Compassion
4)  Built the Trust of Both Adversaries
5)  Provided for Their Future

Other Human Mediators
Since the time of Squanto, other men and women of character have served as human mediators.  Benjamin Franklin served as a diplomatic mediator between America and Europe during the crucial period of the birth of the United States.  Fast forward to the 1950’s, we were intrigued by the name, Dag Hammerskjold, a man of deep faith in God whose quiet diplomacy provided mediation during the early years of the United Nations. 

Among U.S. presidents, Theodore Roosevelt is regarded as “one of the most influential international mediators” (ChatGPT).  More recently, Presidents Jimmy Carter and Donald Trump have been instrumental in promoting Arab-Israeli peace.  President Carter negotiated peace between Israel and Egypt in the 1970’s.  President Trump continues to expand the Middle East peace efforts which he began in his first term through the Abraham Accord.

Among professing Christians is David Augsburger, an American Mennonite pastor known for his cross-cultural counseling and conflict mediation; and Gary R. Collins, former President of the American Assn. of Christian Counselors, well known for his pioneering approach to Christian counseling.  Corrie ten Boom of Dutch descent mediated for reconciliation between victims and their former German persecutors who served under the Third Reich.  Mother Teresa who served in India and Albania is recognized as a “mediator of personal and community conflict through humanitarian service (ChatGPT).”

Readers who conduct their own internet searches will turn up names of other men and women who have served as human mediators.  But all human mediators have one thing in common: they are humans who are imperfect and the durability of their accomplishments last only as long as other fallen humans agree to honor their treaties and agreements.   Perfect, lasting mediation requires a Mediator infinitely superior to any human being.  That Person is the perfect God-Man, Jesus Christ.

One True Mediator
Overshadowing imperfect human mediation is the infinitely greater mediation inaugurated and sustained through the life, death, resurrection, and intercession of God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ.  In 1 Timothy 2: 5-6a (NLT), we read

For, there is one God and one Mediator
who can reconcile God and humanity
—the man Christ Jesus.
He gave His life
to purchase freedom for everyone.

The Book of Genesis reveals our need for a “Mediator between God and man.” Early in the Creation narrative, we learn that the first man and woman walked and talked with God in the Garden of Eden.  Imagine that!  No blemish existed between them and God to interrupt their perfect fellowship with God—that is, until sin entered, causing Adam and Eve to hide from each other (Genesis 3: 7) and from God (v. 8-10).  Sin corrupted their minds and created feelings of shame, doubt, suspicion, fear, and alienation from each other and from God.

Every human being is made to worship and enjoy God as the central purpose of being (Ecclesiastes 12: 13).  Although God’s once-perfect image bearers forfeited their fellowship with God, they did not lose their nature as God’s image bearers (Genesis 1: 27).  Worse than that, under sin’s curse and without God, all mankind is pronounced “dead in [our] trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2: 1).  As such, we are spiritually separated from God who is Holy and cannot be in fellowship with sinful mankind. 

Being “dead in our sin” and possessing corrupt minds (Romans 1: 28), we became like blind people walking in darkness.  Yet, pathetically, God’s once-perfect image bearers still seek Him, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist… (Acts 17: 27b-28a).  The Apostle Paul spoke these words to Greek philosophers in Athens while standing with them in the midst of many stone images of pagan gods from whom they were seeking to gain justification and merit.  They listened to Paul as he elegantly described the One true God, Jehovah, the One in whom all men and women “live and move” and owe their very existence:

“Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17: 29-31.”

These words stunned the Greek philosophers.  Pause a moment and meditate on them.  Some wanted to hear more (v. 32).  Could it be that this “UNKNOWN GOD” (v. 23) who was not represented among their pagan images was the One true God for whom their souls had longed?  Was it possible that this “Unknown God” would call them to give an account of their lives “in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed as judge”— shockingly, a Man whom this God had raised from the dead!?  The answers to these questions are all YES!  This is the “Man” whom Paul would later declare as the one Mediator also between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all…(1 Timothy 2: 5-6a).

In “Thanksgiving, Part 2: Jesus, Divine Mediator,” we compare the human mediation of Squanto with the divine mediation of Jesus Christ. Specifically, we will cite five marks of an effective mediator, each with Scriptures and commentary suitable for a daily meditation leading up to Thanksgiving.  [Click HERE for Part 2.]