First Reading Ezekiel 37:1-14
1The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. 2And he led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. 3And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord God, you know.” 4Then he said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. 5Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. 6And 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.” 7So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8And I looked, and behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them. But there was no breath in them. 9Then he said to me, “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.” 10So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. 11Then 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.’ 12Therefore 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. 13And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. 14And 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.”
Psalm Psalm 130
1Out of the depths have I called to you, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice; let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication. 2If you, Lord, were to note what is done amiss, O Lord, who could stand? 3For there is forgiveness with you; therefore you shall be feared. 4I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; in his word is my hope. 5My soul waits for the Lord, more than watchmen for the morning, more than watchmen for the morning. 6O Israel, wait for the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy; 7With him there is plenteous redemption, and he shall redeem Israel from all their sins.
Second Reading Romans 8:1-11
1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 8Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. 10But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11If 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.
Gospel John 11:1-53
1Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2It was Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was ill. 3So the sisters sent to him, saying, “Lord, he whom you love is ill.” 4But when Jesus heard it he 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.” 5Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6So, when he heard that Lazarus was ill, he stayed two days longer in the place where he was. 7Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9Jesus answered, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks in the day, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10But if anyone walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” 11After saying these things, he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him.” 12The disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover.” 13Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. 14Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” 17Now when Jesus came, he found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. 18Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, 19and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. 20So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, but Mary remained seated in the house. 21Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22But even now I know that whatever you ask from God, God will give you.” 23Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24Martha said to him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” 25Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 26and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?” 27She said to him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.” 28When she had said this, she went and called her sister Mary, saying in private, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you.” 29And when she heard it, she rose quickly and went to him. 30Now Jesus had not yet come into the village, but was still in the place where Martha had met him. 31When the Jews who were with her in the house, consoling her, saw Mary rise quickly and go out, they followed her, supposing that she was going to the tomb to weep there. 32Now when Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. 34And he said, “Where have you laid him?” They said to him, “Lord, come and see.” 35Jesus wept. 36So the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” 37But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man also have kept this man from dying?” 38Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. 39Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” 40Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” 41So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. 42I 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.” 43When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” 44The 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.” 45Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what he did, believed in him, 46but some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done. 47So the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered the council and said, “What are we to do? For this man performs many signs. 48If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” 49But one of them, Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, said to them, “You know nothing at all. 50Nor do you understand that it is better for you that one man should die for the people, not that the whole nation should perish.” 51He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the nation, 52and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad. 53So from that day on they made plans to put him to death.
NEW TENDONS FOR DRY BONES
Grace, mercy and peace to you from God our heavenly Father and from Jesus Christ, the God of Life.
If given the opportunity to pick any job, what would your dream job be? Can you imagine having a job working for the Queen of England? In February 2018, Britain’s royal family posted a job ad for a Digital communications officer to manage the social media account for Queen Elizabeth II. For about $38,000 a year, the Digital communications officer is required to post articles, videos and photos about the Queen’s state visits and royal business on YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
As you would guess, the Queen has a worldwide following on social media. She also has a certain image to uphold. It’s a huge responsibility to be the spokesperson for the Queen, or for any major public figure for that matter. The qualifications needed to be hired were, in addition to social media experience and a college degree, the Queen was said to be looking for someone “innovative and with creative flair” who would do their job as part of a “fast-paced and dynamic team.” So, ask yourself this; do you think God chose Ezekiel to be His prophet to the nation of Israel because he was innovative and had a creative flair? I doubt it.
God calls His servants based on their obedience, not their skill set. As the saying goes, God doesn’t call the qualified, God equips those He calls. Ezekiel wasn’t part of a “fast-paced and dynamic team”, as we’ve come to understand from reading about the other Old Testament prophets, the job of prophet is probably the loneliest job on earth.
The Harvard Business Review surveyed some 1,600 workers to measure levels of loneliness on the job. People who worked in law, engineering and science reported the highest levels of loneliness. However, I bet the Harvard Business Review didn’t include any prophets in their survey. But based on what we’ve read, the job of being God’s prophet has to rank number one as the loneliest job in history. And dangerous too. No one wants to be told that they’re sinful and rebellious and on the wrong side of God’s will. And the people who hear these words of condemnation usually want to silence the messenger.
There’s an old story about Moishe, a medieval Jewish astrologer who prophesied that the king’s favorite horse would die soon. Sure enough, the horse died a short time later. The king got angry at Moishe, certain that his prophecy had brought about the horse’s death. He summoned Moishe and commanded him, “Prophet, tell me when you will die!” Moishe realized that the king was planning to kill him immediately no matter what answer he gave, so he had to answer carefully. “I do not know when I will die,” he answered. “I only know that whenever I die, the king will die three days later.” Well guess what? Moishe lived a long life.
When God calls someone to be His prophet, He gives them one job: to speak for God. Often, that message is uncomfortable; it’s a message that’s hard for us to hear. Pastor John Ritenbaugh says, “When a person is freezing to death, he feels a pleasant numbness that he doesn’t want to end. He just goes to sleep as he is freezing to death. But when heat is applied, and the blood begins rushing into the affected areas, pain immediately occurs. Though it hurts, the pain is indicative of rescue and cure. God sends a prophet to people who are disobedient, cold in their relationship with God—spiritually freezing to death—though they want to stay that way. The prophet turns the heat up, and they become angry with him when he’s actually working to make them better.”
So instead of viewing prophets as killjoys, what we should be doing is viewing them as symbols of hope. Consider this: If God had given up on His people, He wouldn’t have sent them a prophet. He wouldn’t have sent anyone. So, logically speaking, if God sends a prophet, that means there’s still hope.
Ezekiel faced a difficult task because he was called to prophesy to the Jewish people at one of the lowest points in their history. The Northern kingdom had fallen to the Assyrians a century and a half earlier. The Southern Kingdom had been under siege and were finally conquered by the mighty army of Babylonia. Jerusalem now lay in ruins; the Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed. Ezekiel, along with thousands of other Jews, was forced into exile to the capitol city of Babylon. Can you imagine being a refugee, driven from your home and land and forced to live in poverty in a strange land?
Think about it: your center of worship has been destroyed. Your community has been scattered. You could very well have been separated from your family and your neighbors. How do you rebuild your life when everything you have has been taken from you? The life of the Hebrew people was centered in their worship, in their identity as God’s chosen people. Did this mean that God had ended His covenant with the nation of Israel? Had the people lost their very identity as the people of the One True God? God sent Ezekiel to these desperate and broken people to answer that very question.
Ezekiel 37 in part reads like this: The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. I saw a great many bones, and they were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”
Then He said to me, “Prophesy and say, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Lord says: I will make breath enter you, and you will live. I will attach tendons, and make flesh and skin come upon; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’” So I prophesied as commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.
Then God said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; say to it, ‘This is what the Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds that they may live.’” So I prophesied, and breath entered them; they came to life—a vast army. Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. The people say, ‘Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’
Therefore, prophesy and say: ‘This is what the Lord says: I am going to open your graves and bring you up; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord. I will put my Spirit in you 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.’” In the midst of suffering, Ezekiel brought a word of hope in a hopeless time.
In 1665, the bubonic plague swept through the city of London. In his book, A Journal of the Plague Year, Daniel Defoe described the devastation we would have seen if we walked the streets of London back then. People who had the means to escape did so. Others barricaded themselves in their houses. More than 1500 people died each day. Bodies were piled up in open pits because there wasn’t enough ground or enough grave diggers to give them a proper burial. Defoe writes that men roamed the streets, prophesying God’s coming destruction on the city. One prophet wandered naked through the streets chanting, “Oh, the great and dreadful God!” I wondered, is that what Ezekiel really wanted to say when he stood in the Valley of Dry Bones? “O, the great and dreadful God!” Maybe so. It was a terrible time.
David Guzik, in his Enduring Word Commentary, writes that Jews insisted on a proper burial for their dead as a way to honor them. So, an unburied body was a sign of shame, of disgrace. Having been conquered, enslaved and taken away from home and heritage meant that this was a time of fear, heartbreak and shame for Israel. And then God asks Ezekiel the strangest question: “Son of Man, can these bones live?” Why even ask the question at this point? Why does God try to interject hope in our most hopeless times?
When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden and hid themselves from God, God killed an animal and made clothes for them to cover their shame. When Abram and Sarai had reached their golden years without having children, God promised them a son and delivered to them Isaac. When Esther was a teenage bride in a foreign kingdom, God gave her the courage to stand up to a heartless king and save her people. In all our seemingly hopeless situations, God keeps giving His people hope. So where is the hope in the Valley of Dry Bones? We find our hope in this: God can; God is always with us, and God always keeps His promises. History gives us plenty of evidence to these facts.
When God tells us that “God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”, (Rom.8:28) we need to trust God for He promises “the LORD loves the just and will not forsake his faithful ones. They will be protected forever” (Ps. 37:28). Ezekiel was confronted with a challenging situation: on the surface, these people didn’t seem to have a future. In their captivity, they were nothing more than dry bones. Now God is calling Ezekiel to prophesy to them. The people needed to hear a word of encouragement.
They needed to hear that although they had been unfaithful, God remained faithful. That doesn’t mean it was easy. It was hard enough to share God’s word with those hard-hearted people in their own land. Can you imagine prophesying to them after years of being in captivity? But why the vision of dry bones; why is God calling Ezekiel to prophesy to skeletons? The answer is simple: the power wasn’t in Ezekiel’s prophesy; the power wasn’t in Ezekiel’s obedience, although that was important. The power was in God’s word and in His promises.
So Ezekiel does as God commanded and he begins to prophesy to the dry bones. And God begins to speak through him: “I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons and flesh; and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.” At the sound of God’s promises, those dry bones came together and stood up and the muscles and tendons and sinews and flesh covered those bones and they became bodies again. Then God called the winds from the four corners of the earth to breathe life into these bodies. And those bodies came to life and stood on their feet and assembled themselves into a vast army. And this is important! They didn’t assemble into a crowd. Not a mob. But an army.
An army has a purpose. An army has an allegiance. An army has unity and power, a goal and a mission. And God explains to Ezekiel that this Valley of Dry Bones represents the nation of Israel. In their sin, in their arrogance, in their self-focused ways, they were dead, hopeless and cut off from the power of God. But they wouldn’t remain that way. No matter how circumstances may look now, no matter what the history books or the politicians or the pundits say, listen to what God says: “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. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord. 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.’” God will keep His promises to them. But when did God first make those promises to the nation of Israel?
To see the origin of God’s promise you need to turn all the way back to Genesis 12 when God told an old, childless man named Abram to leave his country and his people and go to a land that the Lord would show him. And this was God’s promise that first gave life to the nation of Israel: “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”
And why is this important for us today? “All peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” That promise was fulfilled when God sent His Son, Jesus, through the lineage of Abraham and the nation of Israel, to make a new covenant in His blood that would offer salvation and new life to all peoples on earth (Luke 22). And the good news is, we too are included in God’s promises.
On Sept. 4, 2012, Alex Sheen’s father died. Most people would describe Alex’s father as an “average” man. But Alex describes him as a man of his word. At his father’s funeral, Alex passed out small cards to everyone in attendance. He called them Promise Cards. At the bottom of each card were the words “Because I said I would.” His father lived by those words. He could always be counted on to keep his promises. In honor of his father, Alex challenged those in attendance at the funeral to write a promise on their card and to make a steadfast commitment to keep that promise.
The people at Mr. Sheen’s funeral were so inspired by Alex’s Promise Cards that he began printing more and sending them for free to anyone who requested them. Today, Alex Sheen runs a nonprofit that does character education programming in schools, colleges and prisons. He teaches about integrity and honor and character, and yes, keeping your promises. And his organization has sent more than 11 million Promise Cards to people in over 150 countries. Alex also has a website, Becauseisaidiwould.com, where people who have received a Promise Card can post their stories of the promises they have made and kept.
Elizabeth is a 26-year-old nurse who works at an assisted living facility. She eats lunch every day with a particular patient who has dementia. Every day, at the end of their lunch, the woman would become afraid that Elizabeth wouldn’t come back to visit her. Her dementia made her forget how faithful Elizabeth was to her. So, Elizabeth took a Promise Card and wrote on it, “I promise I will come and have lunch with you tomorrow.” And at the bottom of the card were the words “Because I said I would.” The next day, when Elizabeth showed up for lunch, she found her friend clutching the Promise Card. She looked up and smiled and said, “You remembered . . .” God never forgets His promises. God will never forget His people. The good news is that today is no different.
Today we’re in the midst of an unprecedented time. The number of people being infected with this Covid-19 virus is continuing to rise and so is the death rate. Drastic measures are being taken in this country to encourage us to keep our distance from each other. In many places, far and near, people are living under “stay at home” orders. Non-essential workers are being told not to come to work. Thousand are losing their jobs and places of business are closing their doors. We have daily White House briefings and each night on the news we hear the death count of the day. Drug and alcohol abuse are of great concern. This just seemingly get worse and worse. But we, as children and recipients of God’s promises, have hope.
Across every page of the Bible, God writes His promises and signs them with “Because I said I would.” Listen to the promises God made through Ezekiel. To His people who were dead and hopeless and cut off, He will give new life and new hope. He will bring them back to their home again and put His Spirit within them. He will turn death into life. We can cling to these promises because God always keeps His promises.
God said, “I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.” As we move toward this Easter season, remember that God isn’t done keeping His promises to His people. God is faithful and God’s plans are eternal. And we, as God’s people, can base our lives and our hope, now and in eternity, on the promises of God. Remember, one of the last things Jesus said to His disciples before returning to the Father was, I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matt. 28:20).
Amen
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