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Fifth Sunday of Lent
Light of Christ Anglican Church
The Rev. Michael Moffitt, April 2, 2017


The Miracle of God’s Word and Spirit


Text: Ezekiel 37:1–14

As I considered the opening scene of our Old Testament reading from Ezekiel 37, I was reminded of some of the more gruesome and dramatic battle scenes that I have watched in movies. Scenes where there is absolute carnage to the extent that it is overwhelming to even watch on the big screen. I remember the battle scenes from the movie Braveheart and Lord of the Rings-Battle of Helms Deep, or the opening battle scene in Gladiator. These were scenes where the loss of life was horrific and sobering to see. Or perhaps you have seen the pictures of bodies in mass graves at Nazi concentration camps in World War II and been revolted by the horror and sadness of senseless human death on such a large scale.

Although this is not quite what confronted Ezekiel in his vision of the valley of dry bones it would have been to him equally repulsive. As a priest he would not have been allowed to touch a human corpse and yet God in the Spirit leads him around and among the remains of so many dead so that he can see two things about them. First, he sees that there were enough skeletons to make up “an exceedingly great army” (verse 10) showing that this had been a battle scene where thousands of people had died. Secondly, the bones were very dry, which means they had been there for a long time. The birds and animals had picked the bones clean and the sun had bleached them white. There was no way to recognize the individuals that they once were, just dry bones in a valley. What would have been very disturbing to Ezekiel was the fact that they were unburied which was a sign of being cursed in the ancient- near eastern culture. Proper burial was not just for the sake of the family or friends for to not be buried was considered a guarantee of the continuance of suffering in the afterlife. It was a sign of ultimate humiliation and to Israel it was a sign of God’s judgment for disobedience. In Deuteronomy 28:25–26 God warned Israel against turning away from his commands,

The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.

These bones were not only the evidence that the victims had died in battle but they had fallen under divine judgment.

God then turns to Ezekiel and asked, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I can’t imagine what went through Ezekiel’s mind when God asked him this but certainly the answer would seem to be no, absolutely not. There was nothing to restore, there were only bones. He most likely was familiar with the stories of Elijah and Elisha who both had prayed over the bodies of those who had recently died but this was very different. What was there to restore? I suspect that he assumed that God was asking the question for a good reason and so his answer is really quite brilliant, “O Lord God, you know.” Ezekiel knew that Yahweh was not like the gods of other nations who were not gods at all but He was the creator God who ruled and reigned over the living and the dead. One of the earliest poems of the Hebrew Bible was Deuteronomy 32:39,

See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

The Psalmist declared in 104:29–30,

When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.30 When you send forth your Spirit, they are created, and you renew the face of the ground.

Ezekiel would have known that it was certainly within the power of God to revive the dead but still these were dry bones. His answer leaves room for God to act according to his power but it wouldn’t be because Ezekiel had the faith to believe it a possibility. It’s at this point that God spoke again asking that Ezekiel act in faith in speaking his word. 4 “Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.” Think for a minute what God is saying. Ezekiel is to speak to bones which as far as I know don’t have ears. Ears have bones but not the other way around. Then again it is God who is commanding. This was very different than the other times when God had sent him to proclaim his word to the living who were stiff-necked, hard hearted and disobedient but alive. Then God instructs him as to what he is to say to the dry bones,

Thus says the Lord God to these bones: “Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6 And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

Ezekiel chooses obedience to the command of God so he spoke the very same words that God gave him. No incantations, no special ceremony, just the simple command of God to the bones, causing the most amazing thing to happen right in front of him. The living power of the word of the living God who rules with all power and authority enters into the valley of the shadow of death and the transformation is immediate. There is the sound of bones once again being perfectly joined together and then sinew, flesh and skin covers the bones but there was a problem. Though they are now covered with flesh there was no breath in them, no life and no movement. They are still lifeless corpses and if something doesn’t happen soon the vultures will be back for round two. Then Yahweh speaks for the 3rd time and commands the prophet to once more speak in obedience to His command:

“Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.” 10 So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

It is important here to note that the Hebrew word for breath is the same word used for wind and for Spirit in verse one and fourteen. As a matter of fact this word is used ten times in our text this morning from Ezekiel 37:1–14 and it is very significant. At the beginning and end of our section it refers to the Spirit of God who at first lifts up Ezekiel and brings him into the valley of dry bones and at the end it is the Spirit of God that will bring the people of God back to their own land and this is how they will know that God is the Lord. In verses 5, 6, 8, and 10 it literally means breath, as in breathing to live. It also has this meaning in verse 9 but in the last part of that verse through the prophetic word Ezekiel is to command, “come from the four winds O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live”. In this case breath has the dual function of speaking of the Spirit of the living God who imparts the breath of life that causes the corpses to come alive again. From the very beginning in Genesis it was the Spirit of God who breathed life into Adam who was made out of the dust yet inanimate but was given life through God breathing into his nostrils. Here in Ezekiel’s vision the life giving power of the creator God once more breathes life into the lifeless bodies and once more brings the miracle of new existence. Then finally in verses 11–14 the whole point of the vision is made clear.

Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off.’ 12 Therefore prophesy, and say to them, thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14 And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will do it”, declares the Lord.

God’s people are in exile due to their continued disobedience. Their mood had become one of despair as their beloved city, Jerusalem had not only fallen into the hands of their enemy but it had been destroyed. The temple of the Lord built by Solomon now lay in ruins. The exiles were without hope of restoration and it seemed as unlikely as bones being brought back to life. Beings exiles in a pagan land was to them a living death, it would be better to be in a cemetery. All of these feelings are summed up in verse 11, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cutoff.’ Remember the words of the Psalmist in 137:1–4,

By the waters of Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion.2 On the willow there we hung up our lyres.3 For there our captors required of us songs, and our tormentors, with mirth, saying, “Sing us one of the songs of Zion!” 4 How shall we sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?

It’s here that God through Ezekiel finally speaks words of hope and as is often true in a vision the scenery changes. Instead of the valley of dry bones, Ezekiel now sees Israel as buried in the graves of exile. Of course Ezekiel is not actually writing to those who are literally dead but to exiles whose life was like being entombed in a cemetery. Now God is promising,

Behold, I will open your graves and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will bring you into the land of Israel.

Though they had rejected him God was still desirous of calling them “My people” and he would bring them back to life in their own land and they would be resurrected from the death of exile and would once again have the opportunity to become the mighty army of God. They would know that this had happened by the mighty word and spirit of Yahweh, the only true and living God. What kind of love is this? Can you imagine the depth of love that God has for those who are his beloved? Have you ever stopped to consider how often Israel turned away from God and even boldly worshipped other god’s in His temple and yet he longed to restore them and call them his people. God has not changed and he still longs for reconciliation with his people. 1 John 3:1 captures this,

How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called the children of God! And that is what we are!....”

Some have considered the passage from Ezekiel as speaking of the final resurrection of the dead at the end of the age but I don’t believe that is the point that Ezekiel was making here. His vision and interpretation was initially to bring hope back to Israel as a people and was not intended to teach the doctrine of bodily resurrection. Instead it was comparing their restoration to bringing back life to dry bones in hopes that they would see the power and glory of Yahweh. They needed to accept that their exile was deserved because they had in essence chosen death in exile to covenant faithfulness with God. They had been warned repeatedly by the prophets that this would be how God brought judgment upon their rebellion but they continually turned away from His overtures and kindness. Hopefully this time of exile would wake them up to the reality of the consequences of their sins and when God acted to miraculously set them free and restore them to life they would see it as life coming out of death, the miracle of resurrection and they would respond with gratefulness to the God who had shown such commitment and faithfulness to them.

Ezekiel most likely would not have seen this vision in the fuller sense of God’s story of His redemption of the world but as we have already seen there is a correlation between God breathing life into the dry bones that had been given flesh and God’s breathing life into the lifeless form of the man created from dust at creation. Christopher J.H. Wright in his commentary on Ezekiel points out,

The links between Israel and humanity are apparent. Israel had been called in the first place, through Abraham to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth. Their election and redemption were for the sake of the rest of humanity. Likewise, therefore, just as their sin and punishment mirrored the fallenness of the whole race, so too their restoration would prefigure God’s gracious purpose of redemption for humanity. Resurrection for Israel anticipated resurrection for all.

We see the best representation of this story in Christ Jesus himself. On the very evening of his resurrection he comes into a locked room and in John 20:22, “He breathed on them and said, ‘receive the Holy Spirit’. The Lord of life who had just risen from the bones of the dead adopts the same posture of God himself by commanding the breath of the Spirit to come upon His disciples. The disciples would come to realize that what God had done through Jesus the Messiah was exactly what they had hoped that God would do for Israel. Everything that Israel and indeed all of creation had longed for was now accomplished for those who would believe in and follow him, Jews and Gentiles alike. For those who refused to follow Jesus, they would be just like the dry bones, lifeless and without hope. The breath that breathed life into the dead came from “the four winds” – teaching us that the Spirit of God is working everywhere in the world, in all directions. The same resurrecting power that brought life to the dry bones in Ezekiel’s vision and then to the dead body of Jesus in the tomb, is the same power that is available to the ends of the earth to bring life, salvation and hope of bodily resurrection to all who trust in the one who sends it. As we read this morning in Romans 8:10–11,

But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.

Last week we discussed how the Apostle John wrote his gospel as a testimony to the divinity of Jesus Christ the Son of God. It was Jesus whom the Father used as the agent of creation and as the one who came down from Heaven and put on human flesh to live and die for those he came to save. In John’s gospel Jesus demonstrated his power and authority by healing the sick, casting out demons and teaching as one who had power and authority. Last week we read of Jesus the “light of the world” restoring the sight of a man who had been born blind and even those who were not following him had to admit that such a thing had never been heard of before.

In today’s gospel reading Jesus hears that his friend Lazarus was very sick and his sisters Mary and Martha sent for him to come. Jesus upon hearing of this said, “This illness does not lead to death. It is for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” He deliberately stays where he is for two more days before he goes to Bethany in response to the request. When he arrives he is told that Lazarus had died and had already been placed in the tomb four days earlier. Why would Jesus have waited the additional two days before going to Bethany? Clearly by the time Jesus had received word of Lazarus’ illness he was already dead but Jesus knew what he was going to do and in order for God to receive the full glory, he needed to wait the additional time.

Dr. Rod Whitaker explains in his commentary on John’s gospel.

Jesus arrives and finds that Lazarus has been in the tomb for four days. Burials normally took place on the day of the death (cf. Acts 5:6–10), so he has been dead for four days. For Jews this probably signifies that Lazarus is clearly dead and beginning to decay. A later Jewish text that cites an authority from the early third century A.D. says the mourners should continue to come to the tomb for three days because the dead person continues to be present. Mourning is at its height on the third day, presumably because it is the last time the dead person will be present there. "Bar Kappara taught: Until three days [after death] the soul keeps on returning to the grave, thinking that it will go back [into the body]; but when it sees that the facial features have become disfigured, it departs and abandons it [the body]". Thus, the reference to the fourth day may be quite significant for setting the scene for another dramatic miracle.

Upon arriving in Bethany both Martha and Mary profess that if Jesus had been there their brother would not have died. He responds to Martha,

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?’ She said to him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”

As Jesus, Martha, Mary and the crowd of mourners go to the tomb Jesus requests that they roll away the stone. Mary replies that Lazarus has been dead for four days and by now there will be an awful odor due to the inevitable decay of the body. Jesus replies, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God.”

Let’s read again verses 41–44,

So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42 I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” 43 When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44 The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”

What Jesus was preparing to do was to further reveal that he was indeed the Messiah that they had been looking for and this miracle should model the same power and authority that Ezekiel’s vision of Yahweh had demonstrated over the valley of dry bones. Jesus cries out to a dead body, “Lazarus, come out” which made about as much sense as Ezekiel by God’s command crying out to dry bones and yet Lazarus comes out of the tomb alive and they remove the grave clothes from him. This event had very little to do with Lazarus needing to be restored to life again, it wouldn’t be that long before he died once more. This whole episode was to demonstrate that Jesus, the one who had authority over sickness, nature, demonic forces and every physical abnormality also had authority over death. Clearly, he was indeed the Son of God whose voice could raise the dead.

So what is our response to this story and the vision of Ezekiel? Do we merely tuck the information away in our minds in case it ever comes up in a conversation or should we be curious about what God wants to do through us? When Ezekiel spoke the words of Yahweh the transformation of the dry bones began and when he called on the Spirit of God to breathe on them they came fully alive. What if we who have been given the Word of God and been indwelt by his Holy Spirit chose to speak that word and call upon His Spirit on behalf of those around us who are the walking dead? What about those who look to be alive but inside feel empty and spiritually dead? This word is for them and for us who long to see the glory of God displayed now and in the future. Which one are you this morning?

Let’s pray and ask God to show us the answer to that question. In Jesus Name.

©2017 Rev. Mike Moffitt

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