If you have ever been a Boy Scout, or Girl Scout, or Pathfinder, you will be familiar with tying knots, square knots, hard knots, slip knots, sheepshank knots, bowline knots. All these knots can be untied, some easier than others. King Gordius of Phrygia once tied a knot that no one could untie. According to the legend, a Greek oracle revealed that whoever untied the knot would be the next ruler of Asia. As the story goes, Alexander the Great tried to untie the knot and failed. In frustration he cut the knot loose with his sword and subsequently became the master of all Asia. Whether the legend is true or not, the Gordian knot has come to symbolize any perplexing problem. and to cut the knot means to find a quick solution to the problem.
Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934) became most well known as the composer of the familiar "Pomp and Circumstance" march used in many high school graduation ceremonies. As a consequence, most young people can identify the piece and the composer. However, Elgar composed many other musical compositions. One of these is called the "Enigma Variations." He used a simple musical theme to write ten variations. Each of these variations represented one of his colleague friends, but he never revealed which variation referred to which friend. Even though there has been much speculation, their identities remain a mystery, thus the title, "Enigma Variations."
There are many mysteries or enigmas that man has been able to solve, but many remain unsolved. Mysteries in nature such as, how cells know when to divide, how flower blossoms know when to open, how butterflies know how to metamorphose, how birds learn to fly, the mysteries of light and sound, the source of gravity, what is inertia, how the human mind thinks and remembers are all modern Gordian knots.
The Bible contains many unsolved mysteries which we call miracles: the instantaneous healing of the sick and disabled, the multiplying of the loaves and fishes, the changing of water into wine, the resurrection of Lazarus, the manna in the wilderness, the water out of a rock, the parting of the Red Sea, the sinless life of Christ, and many more miraculous events defy human logic. The mystery of iniquity (Col. 2:2), the mystery of godliness (1 Tim. 3:9), the mystery of God (Rev. 10:7), and the mystery of Babylon (Rev 17:5) are beyond man's ability to solve. Perhaps the greatest mystery of all is the mystery of the resurrection. "Behold, we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed in the twinkling of an eye" (1 Cor. 15:51). To escape the confines of sinful flesh, to shed the frailties of sickness and disease, to break the bonds of death, to free the captives from Satan's prison house is to ultimately untie the "Gordian knot."
