Ezekiel 37:1-14
“Can these bones live?”
Lent is a good time to think about death. As good a time as any. Especially under the current cloud of Coronavirus news – many of us are closely watching the death counts in every country rise by the day. It’s an ominous picture.
Death is a reality every man must face sooner or later. A topic we like to put away, out of our sight, far from our minds. Try as we might. But all the denial in the world won’t stop death from smacking you in the face. All the doctoring and supplements and diet and exercise. All the good clean living, good genetics, or whatever someone’s secret to long life might be. None of it can stop death – we can maybe only delay it for a while. If that. Death is universal and unavoidable... like, well, death and taxes. No matter how we try to get out of it.
For us Christians, in some ways it's the same, and in some ways it's different. Death is still an enemy. It still brings tears, even to the eyes of Jesus at the grave of Lazarus. Death is a separation from loved ones. And it is the great leveler of all men – after all, whatever wealth you have in this life, you can't take it with you. We are not immune to much of death and it’s bitterness.
But death for Christians is not the worst thing that can happen. For Christians, like Lazarus, there is Jesus with the answer to death. For us, death is not the end, nor is it to be feared. “Where, oh death, is thy sting?” we say at the grave of our loved ones. Indeed, it is through death - his own death - that Jesus brings salvation, and through his resurrection that he brings life. And so we grieve death, but not without hope.
Today we have Ezekiel's vision of the valley of dry bones. And what this vision shows is really hopelessness turned into hope. It shows us the power of the word. And it points us toward the Christ, whose death destroys death and who will resurrect his people to eternal life.
Ezekiel’s role was to preach to a people of Israel who must have felt without hope. They had lost the battle for Jerusalem. They were removed from their homeland, and living in exile. The temple had been destroyed. It must have seemed hopeless. As a nation, they were as good as dead. As God’s chosen people – it seemed pretty hopeless that God would still keep his promises – for them to prosper, and live in that land, and especially that the seed of Abraham would bless all nations.
Ezekiel must have had a hard time preaching and teaching those hopeless people. But as God shows Ezekiel the vision of the dry bones, and Ezekiel retells the story – we see that even the most hopeless situation is not beyond the power of our God in Jesus Christ, who speaks his powerful word, and whose spirit brings life to the dead.
Take a look at that valley with Ezekiel. Imagine in your own mind what it looked like. A vast army of dead, very dead people. Not freshly slain soldiers, among whom you might find some living but injured survivors. You see that in the movies after a great battle – usually there’s a few moaning and groggy soldiers left on the field, injured, but still clinging to life. But not on this battlefield. There are no survivors. No they are quite dead. Not merely dead, but really most sincerely dead. Dead and decayed, just bones left, and dry ones at that. Bones that have been out in the heat of the sun for days, maybe months or years. Hope has long passed. They are not even close to alive.
Kind of like you, in your sins. In fact, just like you, in your sins. Sometimes visions like this paint an even truer picture of reality than our eyes do. Just like the Israelites of Ezekiel's day were a hopeless and defeated nation with no life left in them, exiled to Babylon, powerless, hopeless, as good as dead. So are you, and so is every sinner, who may look alive but is very much dead in sin.
That valley of dry bones is the human condition apart from God. Just as dead and hopeless. Just as far from life and breath as anything. Might as well be a rock or some dirt. Your everyday experience tells you you're alive and just fine. But God's word shows the true reality. Sin brings death. It clings to us. It infects every part of us. We are dead men and women walking. Because we are sinners who sin daily and sin much. And no matter how hard the skeleton tries, it can't come to life. No matter how hard, you, the sinner, try, you can't come to life. What we need is a miracle. A divine intervention.
And God is in the business of doing just that. From death he brings life. From the cross, first and foremost. There in the hopeless, helpless, death of Jesus on the cross, he brings help and hope and life to all people. There in the valley of the shadow of death, Jesus dies to bring the light that chases away death forever. And as his dead flesh would rise to life again, so does he bring life to dead sinners who die in him.
Ezekiel's vision wasn't without hope, because he had God's word. The prophet spoke, by God's command and promise, to the wind, that is, the Spirit. Who came and brought life to those lifeless bones. Just as the pastor speaks the word of God to lifeless sinners, and the Spirit works through that word to bring life to you again. The valley of dry bones is a vision of how God works in all times and places, bringing life to the dead, through word and spirit, because of the life from the dead won by his Son at the cross.
As pastors, we could look out on you, the people in our care, and see a pile of bones – sinners who are hopeless and struggling with all their own faults and failings, grieved by the sorrows of living in a world where death reigns. You tell us your troubles, and we listen. We visit you when we can. We pray for you. But usually can't do anything much about it. It's like Ezekiel looking at a femur and a skull. The troubles can be so much. And I am just a man.
But the pastor has one thing for you, and it is enough. Not a man's word, but Christ's. So now hear this, you dried up and dried out dead people: Jesus Christ has died and Jesus Christ lives and Jesus Christ promises you new life. So hear the Gospel, now, and live! Hear the life-giving word of the Spirit, who creates life where there was only death. Hear the life-renewing hope and the sin-forgiving declaration. You are not dead. You are not lost. You are forgiven. You are in Christ, and Christ is alive. So, too, do you live through him!
You are baptized. There you first rose from the death of sin to new life in Christ. And one day your flesh will die, only to rise again because of the promise of Christ, who is the resurrection and the life! The fanciful picture of dry bones coming back together, and breathing the breath of life again – is not so fanciful compared to the promise of the last day. That at the trumpet call of God the dead in Christ will rise and meet him face to face, in a glorified body, and see him as he is, being like him. The same Jesus who raised Lazarus, the same Jesus who himself broke the bonds of death, is the same Jesus who will call you forth from the very dust – to live forever in the kingdom to come. This is our hope. This is our destiny.
We may not know what tomorrow or next week’s news headlines will bring. We can’t predict when the quarantine will be lifted and when or if things will get back to normal. There is so little we actually know, so few questions we can answer with certainty. But here are few we can:
“Son of man, can these bones live?” Yes. Can Christ conquer death and live? Yes. Can he, does he, promise the same for you? Yes. So believe it, and live in him, who is the resurrection and the life. Amen.
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