Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

Terracotta Warriors

Qin Shi Huang, the first emperor of China had an army of 8,000 soldiers, 130 chariots with 520 horses, plus 150 cavalry horses. But they did not fight in any war. They did not earn him any victory. They did not go on any military campaign. They did not do him any good at all. For they were made from pottery. This grand army of terracotta warriors was only stationed by the tomb of the emperor to stand immobile, silent, and lifeless.

The heads, arms, legs, and torsos were formed separately and then joined together and placed in precise military formation, creating a wondrous archaeological find but not much of a military defense. While they were meant to display the emperor’s might, power, and wealth, they were lost, covered by earth for centuries. And once found, despite meticulous efforts to preserve these sculpted soldiers, many of them have broken to pieces, and their colourful paint has disintegrated, leaving them looking, well, lifeless.

What the LORD took Ezekiel to see in the valley, was not nearly as impressive although just as useless—a valley full of dry and dusty bones that used to be a great people, but now there was nothing left. Just as impotent and dry as the terracotta warriors, those bones were useless, not even a great archaeological discovery, no great evidence of a mighty dynasty. Rather, a testimony to defeat and destruction.

The Babylonians were advancing and they were such a dominant force, a world empire, that nothing would survive if they came that way. They had already conquered the great empires of Assyria and Egypt. What was the tiny kingdom of Judah going to do against them?

The time arrived when Judah had nothing left to pay off the Babylonians, and so their time had run out. They were going to be wiped off the map, literally. The fortress city of Jerusalem could not withstand them or offer the people any protection. All of their land would fall under the Babylonian banner. All of their culture would be wiped away. The people would become slaves or killed. The soldiers of their army were going to be decimated and lie dead on the battlefield.

And so they cried and mourned and wailed. Even the prophet Ezekiel thought this was the end. God’s people were marked for death because of their continual idolatry and rebellion. The LORD had put up with them long enough. The Babylonians would pass through and there would be nothing left but a scattering of bones in the valley. Everyone was sure of the outcome and had given up hope.

But the LORD called to His prophet, Ezekiel, and brought him into a valley such as everyone expected to see after the military wave of the Babylonian army passed through. As far as the eye could see, nothing but bones, picked clean, bleached by the sun, dry and ready to crumble to dust. Everyone was sure that this was the end.

The LORD asked the prophet “Can these bones live?” (Ezekiel 37:3). The obvious answer is “No. They cannot. It is too late. Death has not only left its mark but has claimed and devoured the people.” And it had. The Babylonians did come through and had taken away everything that was worth taking. They flattened the city of Jerusalem and left a wake of dead bodies to decay in the sun.

When will our time run out? Will the nation of Canada stand forever independent with its own unique culture or will some other world power decide it wants this land and its resources for itself? Or is it the Christian Church in Canada that is nearing the end of its existence? Have changing morality and cultural norms and resulting policies and laws made it clear that the decline of the Christian Church in Canada is destined to fizzle out completely? Where are we headed when hardly anyone of your neighbours goes to church and the moral abominations are paraded proudly through the streets and the sound of Scripture is silenced?

Can these bones live? We are quite right to be concerned, and perhaps even to feel powerless, dry and dusty, without any energy or sign of life. But thankfully someone is asking a question that gives us hope. “Can these bones live?” Well, although the obvious answer might be “No!”, there must be a reason why you ask? Posing the question itself offers hope that someone will dare to say “Yes!” or at least, “O Lord GOD, You know” (Ezekiel 37:3).

There is hope because our God is capable of resurrection even from dry, dusty bones. There is hope because Ezekiel saw a valley full of dry bones turn into an exceedingly large army that looked unconquerable. There is hope because Jesus rose from the dead. He came out of the tomb, not stinking with decay or stiff with rigour mortis or pale and lifeless. He came out full of power and majesty.

He came out to comfort Mary Magdalene in her grief (John 20:15). He came out to dispel the fears of the women and the disciples (Matthew 28:5; John 20:19). He came out to quench the disappointment of the two on the way to Emmaus (Luke 24:17). He came out to conquer the doubt of Thomas (John 20:27). He came out to forgive the denials of Peter (John 21:19). He came out to feed His disciples and restore them to be shepherds of the people of God (John 20:22).

Jesus rose and came out out full of power and victory, so that those few disciples hiding in the upper room, feeling all dry and dusty without hope or life in them to do anything, were filled with the breath of the Spirit to proclaim the good news of salvation through the resurrection of Jesus who was crucified (Acts 2:4). And that Good News spread around the entire world, producing an exceedingly great army, standing on their feet and ready to withstand any invasion.

For two thousand years this army has stood in the confidence of the resurrection against all manner of evil forces, both spiritual and earthly. And just as Jesus said, “The gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18). The world and its evil prince have done their worst. They have slaughtered millions of Christians and turned moral societies into depraved cesspools. And yet this great army is never defeated. Its soldiers face death with faith, and resist temptation and sin with the strength of the Holy Spirit, they fight against their enemies with prayer and the Word of God, and still they stand.

It may appear that the Holy Christian Church is headed in another direction than the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, but these are no terracotta warriors. Yes, it is true as St. Paul says, that we hold the treasure of the Gospel within ourselves as in jars of clay, but that only reveals that its “surpassing power belongs to God and not to ourselves” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

So “we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (vv. 8-10). “Can these bones live?” Yes, the bones of the holy Christian Church will always have life in them as the Spirit breathes upon it. And each soldier of the Church, individually, will live and stand on his feet, as his Commander, our Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead and came forth from the tomb full of power and might to give us His victory over death and the grave.

Can you imagine what Ezekiel saw in that valley when he prophesied the Word of God to the dry bones and they began to rattle and come together. Can you imagine the prophet calling to the Holy Spirit to breathe on the slain and they standing up on their feet, ready for action? Can you imagine what Mary saw when Jesus called her name and she turned around to see her living Lord? Can you imagine the two disciples receiving bread from Jesus at the table and their eyes suddenly being opened? Can you imagine Thomas seeing the Lord standing before Him with the marks of the crucifixion in His hands? Those people really saw resurrection life overturning death.

Can you imagine what is happening as the Gospel is proclaimed to you and the Holy Spirit of God breathes upon your dry and dusty bones. You are being given resurrection life and power. Your sins of doubt and despair and hopelessness are forgiven in the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Spirit of God gives you life in the Gospel and stands you on your feet to be one of a great army of God’s people, the holy Christian Church.

Now, try to you imagine the sight on the Last Day, the day of the Resurrection or all, even grander than Ezekiel saw in the valley? “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise” (1 Thessalonians 4:16). All around the world, the ground will sprout and the sea will give back the dead.

And there they will stand a great army, whose soldiers never laid down their weapons, but who continued in warfare praying for the holy Christian Church on earth, and bearing witness through their lives of piety and their deaths in faith. All sins of despair forgiven, and fears quenched, all doubts dispelled, they will stand with their Commander and Lord, an exceedingly great army, the glorious victory won, the crowns of life awarded, and the never-ending age of peace begun.