One Hand Clapping

He stands before Pilate with his hands bound.  

Mashad* sees the irony, and says to Lazarus, “See who is bound now, even as he unbound you.”  

Atashaah* hears his silence, this man of words, this man of truth, and wonders why he does not speak up.  “It is as if those cords that bind his hands strangle his throat too.”  

Lazarus remarks, “One is unbound within the bindings.”

Hands that cannot be loosed to heal, words that cannot be set free to teach; in my aging, I think of the restraints put on us in age.  But I can remember being a tongue-tied little boy with my hands in my pockets too; restraints have no limitation in time.

I find in this image of a silent, immobile Jesus a koan – the sound of one hand clapping.  A koan is a Zen technique that is akin to Jesus’ parables, meant to release us from thought and its traps.  What is the sound of one hand clapping?  It is silence. 

Christians often look at the Passion as Jesus teaching us not to fear death.  But even as the Passion begins with his being placed in restraints, he begins to teach us that helpless is a condition, not an identity.  He prepares us not merely for death, but for a life in which constraints are part of being human.

Who are Mashad and Atashaah? See previous posts.