untying the ropes
At the beginning of this year I started doing a Scripture writing plan. My dear Sherry and I picked a plan, started it together, and it has been awesome! David was right when he said, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.“ (psalm 119:11) Not that I have not sinned since beginning this plan, but making the deposits of God’s rich word in me sure helps my days on the trajectory of focusing on Him, rather than myself or my circumstances. It helps serve as a navigational device that redirects my course to His true north.
Recently, while writing one of these short scriptures God met me in an especially intimate way. The verse is found in Acts 2:24 and the NIV reads like this:
But God raised him from the dead, freeing him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep its hold on him.
That’s good, right?!! Freedom from the agony of death always sounds like a good idea. And the fact that it is impossible for death to keep its hold on him blows my mind and reminds me at the same time that God/Jesus (LIFE & LIGHT) are not equal to Satan/the devil (DARKNESS & DEATH). The God of the Bible is the creator of ALL, including the one who rebelled against Him and desires harm for God’s people. Satan has no power over our God. Can I get a hallelujah for that?!!
Listen to how Eugene Peterson words this passage in The Message…
But God untied the death ropes and raised him up. Death was no match for him.
It’s the same principle, but to me this wording feels so personal.
Anyone ever had a necklace get all tangled up? Or a gnarled ball of Christmas lights? I can’t tell you how many times I have given up and just tossed the tangled mess out because it’s just going take too much time and patience to untangle it and make it functional again. But praise be to God, He is not like us. He doesn’t grow tired or give up on us because we’re in a tangled mess.
This is the wonder to me about this short little verse, ‘God untied the death ropes’. I don’t know about you but I’ve had some ropes that felt like they were strangling the life out of me. Ropes like hopelessness, despair and grief. Ropes of death that someone else tied me up with that I didn’t have the capacity to detach myself from. I can’t say that I didn’t work really hard trying to do this on my own, but breaking free is not a solo sport.
Did you catch that?…..Breaking free is not a solo sport.
We can’t do it alone and we were never meant to. And honestly, the harder we try, the more entangled we become. Breaking free takes what seems, at the time, to be the backwards work of surrender, in order to allow the only one with hands big enough, strong enough, gentle enough and patient enough to untie the cords. Hands that were pierced on my behalf. As He painstakingly grabs hold of the cords that we’re bound up by, the light of his glory shines through the holes in his hands—through the cracks in the ropes and onto our God fashioned bodies.
But not only that, we get the privilege of ‘up-closeness’ with God in the process. He can’t untie death ropes from a distance. He has to draw near in order to do so.
The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit. Psalm 34:18
See the difference between us and Him? We try to hide and pull away and He longs for intimacy. For nearness. Just like our great, great Uncle Adam and Aunty Eve, we forget who we belong to and what He is like. His desire is relationship not isolation, and He patiently waits til we are ready to press through our fears and believe He is who He says He is.
If we are not careful, we’ll begin to believe we were made for the tangled life. The cords will whisper lies to us that we belong there. That they are the only comfort we deserve, but just because they say it, and it feels true, doesn’t mean it is. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. We were made for intimacy and freedom. Our God bought back our right to it that day on the cross. His walk to death, paved the way to freedom and life for us.
Letting down my guard enough to let Jesus draw near and comfort me in my sadness, reminding me of His great love for me and sorrow for what had happened to me, was the place where freedom began to grow. Not only in the untying but in expanding my capacity for closeness with the One who formed me.
For me, the cords that were strangling me have been untied. Period. I no longer LIVE in the place of bondage that I used to, but there are days that I listen to that old, familiar voice that advised me to trust no one. The one that tempts me to believe the illusion that relationship doesn’t include me. But what that voice doesn’t know, is that I have a new groove in my brain now. The old groove that kept me isolated and alone is becoming more and more shallow as I continue to courageously step into the risky business of relationship. Each footprint deepening the groove that says, ‘I belong here’.
What about you? Can you relate to what it feels like to be a tangled mess? Maybe you think you’re too far gone for God to help. There’s no such thing as ‘too far’ in Kingdom language. His death ropes were untied so that we could come close enough for Him to untie ours. I’d love to pray for you and join you in the messy business of breaking free.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. Galatians 5:1