Gordian Knot
Of all the ways you can talk about life, think with me about the image of the knot. All the questions, people, problems, and decisions are twisted together like that, aren’t they? Now imagine a knot which in fact has in it three knots, drawn in different directions, so that to pull one string one way, at the same time tightens another knot another way. You are stuck between options. No way out. That’s not all. When I was a rector, I had a parishioner who taught theoretical mathematics. I asked him what his thesis was about, and he replied ‘mapping knots in five dimensions’! Like Harry Houdini, we can imagine tying ourselves up even tighter, a threefold knot in five dimensions. That is a good metaphor for hard decisions in your life!
In this same theme, there is a legend about Alexander the Great, who conquered the known world (not including Nigeria). In the fourth century B.C. When crossing through central Turkey, he came to a pagan temple dedicated to Zeus. A team of oxen was tied up outside the temple. Long ago the famous king Midas, son of Gordias, had created a threefold knot which no one was able to untie, and he prophesied that whoever succeeded in doing so would be the king of the world. Alexander tried, but failed, to untie it. Then he stepped back and gave it more thought. What happened next has two versions. According to one, he took hold of his sword, sliced the knot in two, and declared the puzzle solved. Alexander was king because he solved the knot as no other human could! The second version goes like this- Alexander took his sword and cut down the post to which ox cart was tied. This solution challenged the terms on which the dilemma depended! One more thing- the ancient god of that place was Dionysus, who was the lord of knots. The great king had at once fulfilled and overthrew the prophecy of the old gods of the place.
Our faith does not depend on myths, nor as Christians are we striving to enter a temple made by human hands. But we are looking for access, to life, to hope, ultimately to the presence of God, as did generations and times before us. Access means to know where He may be found, and to be able to approach him. Access is what all sacrifice in human history has been really about, no matter the tribe or the continent or the era, even this strange time we live in today, where many think they can do fine without God.
Access is what we had in the beginning, in the Garden, in the relation to Him for which we were created. We were creatures, He the creator, and we still walked and talked with Him. Since the fall the way back to such access was barred by an angelic sword of fire turning this way and that. Still we have a memory of it, a longing in pursuit of the appropriate words. We humans, of whatever religion or none, share the one thing, the hope for access, of home.
The question of access leads straight, as I say, to the practice of sacrifice, for that is what it seeks to provide. Sacrifice may be found throughout the world, in the history of religion, and people who study it have lots of explanations, but the actions always have in them this same desire for restored access to life. Wherever we are from, our ancestors made sacrifice. This brings us to our reading from the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the writer agrees that sacrifice, and in particular the sacrifice in the Temple to the God of Israel, has been a glimpse, a promise, of the true sacrifice to come in Jesus. The old sacrifice had to be performed over the over again, because it depends on us, and was our effort somehow to get back to the garden. But the sacrifice of Christ is once and for all- it opens a road that cannot be closed. This is because this road is opened from God’s side. His act is perfect. Secondly, our efforts are as imperfect as our own thoughts, actions, and motives, but Christ offers himself, fully, and without sin.
Recall this verse from an Easter hymn- Praise we Him, whose love divine Gives His sacred blood for wine, Gives His body for the feast, Christ the Victim, Christ the Priest. Alleluia!
We can put the matter another way. Insight into sacrifice comes from both directions, above and below, God reaching out triumphantly downward to us, and the man Jesus offering himself up fully, though in the midst of fear and desolation. The two meet in the God-man Jesus, so that his action leaves a blessed mark on the world like none other.
Our reading is about sacrifice, and what we Christians make of it. On this question let’s circle back to that Gordian knot one more time, but now with the finished work of Jesus Christ in mind. Solving the knot of life remains an important question- the great king does not neglect it. But the great king offers sacrifice in a way no one else has or could. His sacrifice is the last one, and permanent. It is the pure one, though from the man of sorrows. That is what being a great king looks like. And how does he slice through the knotted wrongs and confusions? with the sword piercing his side, with the sword of the Word declaring ‘it is finished.’ And this sacrifice does not cease because, still bearing the wounds, he is raised and ascended to where the father is, there to plead our case to him. Sacrifice goes on forever, that one final sacrifice of his, because he goes on forever.
Does this mean that neither God or we need our sacrifice? In a sense yes, since we have the confidence that the required work is accomplished. That is why Hebrews can speak so much about the ‘rest’ we have, even as we soldier on. But there is another sense in which we do have something to offer, not because we need to find access, but because we already enjoy it. Our own prayer book speaks of a ‘sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.’ When you receive a gift, these are what you do! We give our hearts to God in praise and thanksgiving as a result, not a cause. That is what this service is all about, named in Greek ‘the thanksgiving,’ eucharist Because our rest with God is already real and available, we can give that thanks as the service says ‘at all times and places, even the ones that are hard. That is the kind of life we are called by Jesus to live, as mothers’ union, at work, as parents, as confirmands, in our illness, in our joy. Struggle though we still do, the knot barring the true temple has been cut open, and there we dwell this and all our days. Amen.
