by Dr. Lani Wilson

Good day, prayer and fasting warriors. We pray for the LORD’s church here in our little neighborhood niche, for the soul of this nation, and for God’s world. Turbulent times, yet we believe God is in control.

The word for us to consider this week is tied as we follow The Christ into Palm Sunday (as I keep saying, this ain’t my party): Something tied together; fastened; secured; attaching something, binding things so that they aren’t loose. In actuality this use of the word as a verb comes from the noun usage of the word tie.

Old English tigan, tiegan “to tie, bind, join, connect,” from the source of tie (n.). Meaning “to finish equal to a competitor” is from 1888. Related: Tied; tying. To tie the knot in the figurative sense “form a union” is form 1707.
Tie one on “get drunk” is recorded from 1944.
etymonline.com

And the noun usage comes from an interesting source.

From Proto-Germanic *taugo (cognates: Old Norse taug “tie,” tygill “string”), from PIE *deuk-“to pull, to lead” (cognates Old English teon “to draw, pull drag:”
Ibid.

The very common use of the word tie or tied (in the past tense) derives from an Old Norse and English words that referred to pulling or leading, “to draw, pull drag” (Ibid). In other words, the action word tie or tied came from what was used to lead someone or something somewhere, anything that one could use to pull something along.

Then they tied him up and paraded him to Pilate, the governor.
Mathew 27:2 (TMB)

Early in the morning, after forming a plan, the chief priests with the elders and the experts in the law and the whole Sanhedrin tied Jesus up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate.
Mark 15:1-2 (NET)

Then the Roman soldiers under their commander, joined by the Jewish police, seized Jesus and tied him up.
John 18:12 (TMB)

Then Annas sent him, still tied up, to Caiaphas the high priest.
John 18:24 (NET)

Jesus had never exhibited any violent tendencies toward anyone and had never incited violence. Yet, it is obvious that all the authorities needed Jesus tied up, all the time. Why was it so important to keep an obviously non-violent man tied up? Did they think He would run away? Was He going to attack anyone? Was He going to seize weapons and foment violence among His followers? Was Jesus really bound in submission to the ruling authorities, tied up as it were, or was He leading them - and ultimately, us – somewhere else? And if so, where is that “somewhere else” in the 21st century?

From a 2011 re-evaluation of a 1985 article of the 1968 discovery of a heel bone of a crucified man from antiquity, Biblical archaeologists believe that there is a possibility that being tied up as opposed to nailed to the cross was an expedient method of Roman crucifixion.

In our January/February 1985 issue, we published an article about the only remains of a crucified man to be recovered from antiquity (“Crucifixion —The Archaeological Evidence,” BAR, January/February 1985). Vassilios\ Tzaferis, the author of the article and the excavator of the crucified man, based much of his analysis of the victim’s position on the cross and other aspects of the method of crucifixion on the work of a medical team from Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School headed by Nico Haas, who had analyzed the crucified man’s bones. In a recent article in the Israel Exploration Journal, however, Joseph Zias, an anthropologist with the Israel Department of Antiquities, and Eliezer Sekeles of Hebrew University- Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem question many of Haas’s conclusions concerning the bones of the crucified man. The questions Zias and Sekeles raise affect many of the conclusions about the man’s position during crucifixion.
Roman Crucifixion Methods Reveal the History of Crucifixion, Crucifixion in Antiquity
Biblical Archaeology Society Staff , 07/17/2011
www.biblicalarchaoelogy.com

The authors go on to say,

And, indeed, what were previously thought to be fragments of two heel bones through which the nail passed were shown to be fragments of only one heel bone and a long bone. On the basis of this evidence, Zias and Sekeles suggest that the man’s legs straddled the cross and that his arms were tied to the crossbeam with ropes, signifying the method of crucifixion in antiquity.
Ibid.

This, of course, has no absolute reflection on what The Christ suffered. To say that Jesus’ crucifixion was a significant death to the powers-that-be in the fourth decade of what we call the first century BCE (or AD) is a ridiculousness understatement. But remember, they did not know that they were living in the “first century;” they were just living in the Roman Empire. What this suggests, of course, is that tying victims or criminals up is a sign of dominance over another. It signifies that one is submissive under force or duress. As Christians we believe that that The Nazarene submitted Himself to The Cross; He submitted His Body willingly, for us, and interestingly, for them as well.

But he said, “Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won’t believe it.”
John 20:25 (TMB)

It is unnecessary to get caught up in the debates about details of His death that will never be answered on earth. What is important for us are the issues of Jesus’ willingness to be tied up before, during, and after His trial, torture, and execution: The submission of His Body to death on The Cross.

A Roman shared table was an embodiment of equal bodies. To be at table meant that the people who were eating together were of similar status; they had somewhat equal ranking, importance, wealth, etc. But the table of the Jesus movement disrupted the imputed meanings of relative importance. This means bodies met and served each other, no matter the value placed on them in the context of hierarchy. This means that the bodies women survivors meet at the table have no relative worth higher than theirs, even if they “mess with notre dame [sic] football.” What they say and need is not only heard, but believed and acted upon. The other bodies in the body serve her. And she, them.
Streufert, M. J. (2014). Solus Christus within Empire: Christology In the Face of Violence against Women. Dialog: A Journal Of Theology, 53(3), 223-232. Doi:10.1111/dial.12119

The reference “notre dame [sic] football” is to the rape and subsequent suicide of a college student in 2010.

On August 31, 2010, Elizabeth “Lizzy” Seeberg, a student at St. Mary’s College, Indiana, was sexually assaulted by a Notre Dame football player. Although she reported it within 24 hours to campus police, they did not interview the suspect until two weeks later, five days after Lizzy, despondent over the assault and aftermath, completed suicide.
Ibid. 223.

The journal article discusses the inseparability of Christ from women’s experience in the world and especially in the Church. To a certain extent, women relinquish control, willingly or not, over their bodies as part of our biological life cycle. We have the medical means to amend, delay, and even stop this cycle, but it is a biological factor of women’s lives. Essentially, Streufert makes the case that violence against women does not have to alienate women from Christ. In fact solus christus (“only Christ”) means that it is through Jesus that we can be reconciled, one to another. What kind of reconciliation will be required of the Black Church in America in the 21st century by The Nazarene Who is one with God? Can we afford to continue to act as if 52% of African-Americans (women) cannot equally partner with and lead the other 48% (men) in God’s church?

Yup, I just stepped into it – with both size 10 feet.

We dance around it in muffled tones. We “round the bend” in conversation about the prospect of female leadership of major Black, denominational churches. We talk about it in small, distinct groups, and organizations within the church. We whisper it to each other as if it’s taboo, sinful, shocking, and yet The Christ was there 2000 years ago. In His suffering on The Cross, He enjoined women and men to His mission.

The promise of grace also is deeply connected to our bodies in at least two important ways, through Jesus’ ministry of healing bodies and through the crucifixion of Jesus as God incarnate. Both of these areas are intertwined with dogma, the confession that Jesus Christ is fully human and fully divine—and thus sufficient for salvation.
Ibid. 229.

We have a wonderful ministry led by Sister Mattie E.G. Johnson, For Sisters Only, that focuses on sexually trafficked women. It is permissible to talk about violence done to those women, but not about the violence – psychological, physical, organizational, and metaphorical – done to women in the church. Come visit ATBC on those sparse Fifth Sundays. And yet, we are considered a progressive Black bastion of social justice around the world. Praise God for the leadership of Rev. Dr. J. Alfred Smith, Sr. that we were the first in the Black Church nationally to ordain women to the ministry almost 50 years ago.

In fact, we find in the Bible and pursuant interpretations a web of denial, protection of important men, silence, and distrust of women, including blaming them for the violence. Throughout centuries of interpretation, silent women were seen as trustworthy; women who protested the violence men did to them were untrustworthy.
Ibid. 227.

When Jesus offered His Hands in the Garden of Gethsemane to be tied and then led away to the next 36 hours of hell on earth, did He offer them for all of His disciples who included women or just the men? And was it just for the Jews and Gentiles in that part of the world?

Since 1990 “100 People: A World Portrait” has been taking a snapshot of who lives on the planet by reducing it down to 100 people and proportionally telling us what we look like. As of 2012 and for purposes of our discussion, there would be:

• 50 males and 50 females
• 33 Christians, 22 would Muslims, 14 Hindus, 7 Buddhists, 24 would equally practice other religions or be non-aligned
• 12 would speak Chinese; 5 would speak English; 5 would speak Spanish; 3 would speak Arabic; 3 would speak Hindi; 3 would speak Bengali; 3 would speak Portuguese; 2 would speak Russian; 2 would speak Japanese; 62 would speak other languages
• 60 would be Asian; 15 would be African; 14 from the Americas; 11 from Europe

But most importantly,

• 77 people would have a place to shelter them from the wind and the rain, but 23 would not
• 1 would be dying of starvation
• 15 would be undernourished
• 21 would be overweight
• 87 would have access to safe drinking water, but 13 people would have no clean, safe water to drink
  2012 - Fritz Erickson, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Ferris State University (Formerly Dean of Professional and Graduate Studies, University of Wisconsin - Green Bay) and John A. Vonk, University of Northern Colorado, 2006; Returning Peace Corps Volunteers of Madison Wisconsin, Unheard Voices: Celebrating Cultures from the Developing World, 1992; Donella H. Meadows, The Global Citizen, May 31, 1990.

Yes, we have our issues, serious life and death issues. But, in the richest nation on the planet, can we afford for God’s people who, according to the Bible, look like Him and intimately know slavery, suffering, injustice, and unending neglect to tie ourselves up in knots because we can’t honestly talk about our own crippling insecurities as a people, as a church? We’re going to hamstring ourselves, tie our own hands behind our backs, and not push forward – together? If there is anybody in the world who can speak to mass injustice, it’s African-Americans. We are looked upon for leadership and in sparks and pulses, we provide it. But until we turn toward each other, stretch out our hands to be tied to one another, regardless of gender, sexual and racial/ethnic identity, citizenship, and/or class and socioeconomic status, we are going to be bystanders. Our children, the Millennials, have made it clear that they’re moving on, with or without us: They are serious. #blacklivesmatter ain’t going nowhere. And I, for one, despise being left behind.

As Lutheran theologians Kathryn Kleinhans and Anna Mercedes make tellingly clear, God’s grace is a giving, not a taking; through the Spirit’s work in us, our hands likewise are opened towards each other in the body of Christ.
Ibid. 228.

Jesus Christ has lived the terror of the body and continues to live it. Yet as the God who redeems through the body, Jesus Christ urges hope through the Spirit.
Ibid. 229.

Who are we tied to? The same mission, choir, ministry, clique that we have become familiar with for decades? Are we tied to each other in new, changing, challenging, and demanding ministries or have we become tied in knots like old macramé plant hangers that look nice, hold plants in place, but don’t do much else but swing in the wind? Eventually, those neatly tied ropes wither from the sun, rain, wind, and then they unravel. What are we doing, Church, and to Whom are we tied?

LORD Jesus, we know You submitted Yourself to be tied so You could lead us to the new challenges from which we sometimes cower. Help us tie ourselves to You so that even when it gets dark and stormy, we can feel You tugging on us, dragging us forward, pulling us to Your feet. That’s all we really need. Nothing else much matters. Nothing else is as sure. No One else is as true.

macramé on pinterest

"I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing. Anyone who separates from me is deadwood, gathered up and thrown on the bonfire. But if you make yourselves at home with me and my words are at home in you, you can be sure that whatever you ask will be listened to and acted upon. This is how my Father shows who he is-when you produce grapes, when you mature as my disciples.
John 15:5-8 (TMB)

I’d rather be pruned than pushed out.
Primed rather than preserved.
Pulsing rather pulse-less.
Dona nobis pacem - Grant us thy peace.

Blest be the tie that binds
our hearts in Christian love;
the fellowship of kindred minds
is like to that above.
John W. Fawcett (1740-1817) hymnary.org

solus christus

Amen.