* Ezekiel 37:1-14
* Psalm 130
* Romans 8:6-11
* John 11:1-45
The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the
Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of
bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great
many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He
asked me, Son of man, can these bones live? I said, O Sovereign
LORD, you alone know. 4 Then he said to me, Prophesy to these
bones and say to them, Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! 5 This
is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath
enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and
make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in
you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the
LORD. 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was
prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came
together, bone to bone. 8 I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on
them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. 9 Then
he said to me, Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say
to it, This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four
winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live. 10 So
I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they
came to life and stood up on their feet-- a vast army. 11 Then he said to
me: "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. They say,
Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off. 12
Therefore prophesy and say to them: This is what the Sovereign
LORD says: O my people, I am going to open your graves and bring
you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13 Then
you, my people, will know that I am the LORD, when I open your
graves and bring you up from them. 14 I will put my Spirit in you and you
will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I
the LORD have spoken, and I have done it, declares the LORD.
Now that’s an interesting – even shocking – question for God to ask
Ezekiel: Can these bones live?
The Holy Spirit had taken Ezekiel to this valley – where two armies had
slaughtered each other in an epic battle. Perhaps it was the battlefield
where Judah was defeated by the Babylonian army – which took the
best and the brightest with them back to Babylon.
This was essentially the end of Judah as a nation. The death of a
people – signified by a valley, littered with bones.
Lots and lots of bones. Bones which had been there so long that no
two were still connected by muscles or ligaments or tendons. So long
that they had been bleached white by the sun.
This vision must have horrified Ezekiel – because Jewish tradition
required that a person be buried as soon as possible after death –
preferably within 24 hours. Exceptions were made for the Sabbath
and other holy days.
But these poor soldiers had never been buried. They were left to be
eaten by vultures and other scavengers – leaving only clean, white
bones.
The Spirit of God asked Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?”
And Ezekiel – not wanting to appear foolish – could only reply,
“Sovereign Lord, only You know.”
But God turns the spotlight back on Ezekiel: “Prophesy to these bones
and say to them, Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD! This is what
the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you,
and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh
come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and
you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”
So Ezekiel quoted God’s words to the dry bones – and while he was
still prophesying – in a scene that could only have been put onto film
by directors like John Carpenter or George Romero – the bones all
started to reconnect. The hand of God was re-assembling them.
Imagine the rattling from that many bones flying together. Then the
tendons and ligaments started to appear, followed by skin wrapping
it all up. They were bodies again – God had reconstructed them,
but they were still dead – still lifeless bodies.
Then God told Ezekiel to “prophesy to the breath” or wind or Spirit –
the Hebrew word “Ruach” means all three – and say, “Come from the
four winds, O breath or wind or Spirit – and breathe upon these slain
that they may live.”
The Spirit of God came into them and brought them back to life –
in the very first account of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation in history.
The newly revived stood up – all of them – enough for an “exceedingly
great army.”
God was – very graphically – showing Ezekiel that He would revive
the people of Israel – who had been languishing in exile in Babylon
for 50 years. So long that no one who had been taken to Babylon was
still alive.
Their descendants would still be a nation – but without a homeland –
without their Temple and without their king – and their cultural history
would be erased. But God was promising to restore them – because
God can do the impossible. God was going to put new life into the
dried-up bones that were the people of Judah.
The captives would return and rebuild their city. God would put His
Holy Spirit in them and they would live faithfully in their land again.
Until they didn’t. Which led to more conquests. The Persians pushed
out the Babylonians – then the Greeks pushed out the Persians – and
finally, the Romans pushed out the Greeks.
That was the world into which Jesus was born. Finally – in 70 AD –
the armies of the Roman general Titus destroyed the Temple in
Jerusalem and the Jewish people were dispersed around the world.
For the next 1878 years, they would not have a homeland of their own.
Until 1948 – when Israel became a country again. But I digress.
Jesus – in His last miracle before going to Jerusalem to die – gave His
closest friends some foreshadowing of the God’s power to restore life
in the face of death. And it was right out of Ezekiel’s playbook.
His dear friend Lazarus – brother of Mary and Martha – was very sick.
The sisters begged Jesus to hurry – but Jesus deliberately dawdled for
two days, and then set out for their home in Bethany.
I know that doesn’t sound like something a very good friend would do.
If your dear friend called and said she or he needed a prescription from
the pharmacy immediately – or he or she would die – would you wait
two days? What good would the prescription be after that much time
had passed?
But Jesus knew that Lazarus had died – and He tells His disciples that.
He even tells them that He is glad – for their sakes – that Lazarus died
before He and the disciples got to Bethany. Jesus wants them to see
the ultimate proof of His power – and that it comes from His Father in
heaven.
When Jesus and the disciples finally got to Mary and Martha’s house,
Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days – long enough for
the process of decomposition to begin – making any kind of healing
much more complicated. But Jesus doesn’t seem at all worried –
although He is upset by the news of Lazarus’s death – because He
knows He has the power to raise His friend back to life.
It was for the benefit of the family and friends of Lazarus – as well as
Jesus’s own disciples – that Jesus waited until Lazarus “was not
merely dead – but really most sincerely dead.” He did not want the
naysayers to claim that Lazarus had fallen into a deep sleep or coma –
and had not really died. In fact, the sisters warn Jesus that the
process of decomposition would have started – creating a horrible
smell. Or as the King James Version puts it, “He stinketh.”
Confronted with the reality that His dear friend was really dead –
Jesus wept. Even though He knew He was going to bring His friend
back to life in a few moments – He still wept at the reality of how
painful death is and what an enemy it is.
That is how much Jesus identifies with and understands our human
experience. As the TV ad campaign puts it, “He Gets Us.” He really
does.
Jesus tells the onlookers to roll the stone away from Lazarus’s tomb.
Then He speaks firmly to His dead friend, “Lazarus, Come out.” And
Lazarus does – still wrapped in his burial cloth.
Twice today we have seen the power of God to make these bones live.
As He did with the captives in Babylon. God is still putting life back
into dried-up, lifeless people, marriages, families, institutions, and even
churches.
And if you’re feeling like one of those sun-baked soldiers in Ezekiel’s
vision – or the lifeless Lazarus in the tomb; if you don’t believe you
have anything left to give – ask Jesus to breathe more of the Holy
Spirit into your life – so you can do more living for Him.
Amen.