Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

One of the places where I often walk my dog is through Victoria Lawn Cemetery here in the city of St. Catharines. It is one of the older cemeteries with some interesting monuments and really big trees, which mean a lot of squirrels to keep the dog’s attention. Walking all of the roadways in the cemetery back and forth adds up to a few kilometres, a good walking distance for me and the dog. There are about 86,000 people interred throughout the less than 0.7 km2 of land.

 

5 million dead. That is approximately how many interments there have been at the largest cemetery in the world, Wadi-us-Salaam, in Najaf Iraq. This “Valley of Peace” cemetery holds mostly the dead bodies of Shia Muslims who believe that burial in this particular cemetery will give them peace and tranquility for all eternity. Shiites from inside and outside of Iraq desire to be buried there, and so that cemetery now covers 39km2 of land. That is about the size of the entire city of St. Catharines, larger than the island of Manhattan in New York.

 

Thankfully, where I go for my cemetery walks, all of the remains of the people are either underground or encased in a niche in one of the mausoleums. Not so for the trip to where Spirit of the LORD took Ezekiel. He set him down in the midst of a valley that was entirely full of the bones of dead people. And the LORD had Ezekiel walk all around through the bones in order to see the extent of all of the dead. Ezekiel did not notice any trees or squirrels. It was just all bones everywhere and all around, dry bones.

 

Ezekiel was a prophet during the time that the people of Israel and Judah were in exile in Babylon. We are told that the dry bones that Ezekiel saw were the whole house of Israel, all the people of God. They were saying, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are indeed cut off” (Ezekiel 37:11). We are not specifically told whether this was a picture of the Israelites still living in exile, who had lost all hope of returning to their homeland, or if these were the bones of those who had died in exile while they hoped to return to Israel but now had no hope because they did not live long enough to see the LORD’s deliverance of His people.

 

Or perhaps, they were the bones of all the Israelites who had ever died who had not seen the complete fulfillment of all that the LORD had promised, and this latest deportation of the people to Babylon had caused them to completely lose faith in the LORD’s promises of a Deliverer; a Messiah; a King like David to rule over the house of Jacob forever; and a prophet like Moses to lead the people; a descendant of Abraham in whom all the nations would be blessed; a seed of the woman to crush the serpent’s head.

 

Whichever or however many of those possibilities those dry bones may have represented, they represent those whose hope was lost. And perhaps that includes you, as well. Perhaps you feel cut off from the people of God. Perhaps you feel that you have been excluded from the promises that the LORD has made about forgiveness and inclusion as one of God’s baptized children, and life under the blessing of God and the hope of a resurrection to eternal life.

 

That can happen to anyone, especially those who have had to undergo a lot of suffering and heartache in their days. It can happen to those who are anxious about life and the future and where our world is headed and their place in it. It can happen to those who have been alienated from their family and have over time slipped away from the family of the church. It can happen to those who have been praying for something for a very long time but it seems as if God has not heard them or doesn’t care about their concern. It can happen to those who are bearing a tremendous amount of guilt over something they know they have done wrong and know that there is nothing they can do to make up for it.

 

You see, it can happen to you? How dry are your bones? Have you lost hope? Do you feel you have been cut off? As dramatically as your situation is depicted along with that of God’s people in history as a valley filled in all directions with dry bones, the LORD’s answer to you through the prophet is even more dramatic. If you can scarcely imagine walking through a cemetery where the bones are not interred but lying on the surface of the ground, try to imagine what Ezekiel saw next.

 

There was the sound of rattling as the earth shook and the bones upon its surface began to move around coming together in just the right way to form complete skeletons. Then the connective tissue held them in place, and muscle and organs came upon them, and thankfully they were quickly covered with skin. Yet, still they lay there dead. Until the breath of God entered them and gave them life and they stood up on their feet, not weak and feeble as if just released from the hospital, but triumphant and strong like a victorious army.

 

This is what the LORD promised for all those who felt that they were long dead and nothing but dry bones. This is what the LORD will do for those who have lost hope. This is what the LORD is doing for those who feel they have been cut off from His grace. To those as dead as dead can be, He will give life, abundant and vigorous beyond imagination.

 

And we have seen Him do it. Over the past two weeks we have recounted the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In agony upon the cross, cast off from His own people, feeling dried out to death, one of the few phrases Jesus spoke from the cross was, “I thirst” (John 19:28). He had that feeling of being nothing more than dry bones. And then He said, “’It is finished,’ and He bowed His head and gave up His spirit” (v. 30).

 

And at that point the witnesses tell us that “the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened. And many bones of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many” (Matthew 27:51-53). This was no ethereal vision.

 

Jesus Himself was raised bodily and proved it. As we heard in today’s Gospel reading, Thomas saw and likely touched the nail marks in Jesus’ hands from the crucifixion, and the hole in His side where the soldier’s spear was thrust to make sure that He was truly dead (John 20:27-28).

 

The resurrected Jesus who had given up His spirit as He breathed His last upon the cross, imparted His Holy Spirit by breathing on the gathered disciples and saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld’ (John 20:21-22). This is the same Spirit that Ezekiel saw breathe life into the slain in the valley of the dead. The Spirit of God gives life through the good news that our sins are forgiven in the death and resurrection of Jesus.

 

That good news, gives life to those who feel that they are bone-dry dead. It points those who have lost hope to the forgiving grace of God in the sacrifice of His Son. It brings back into the family of God, His children who have been cut off by the guilt of their sin. Ezekiel was told to speak that Word of God over the dead so that they would live. He prophesied and as He spoke the words, the Spirit of God resurrected those who had lost hope, to the triumphant victorious life of the people of God who live forever.

 

The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead gives you life. It restores the hope that God can overcome whatever it is that has you feeling like dry bones right now. He does not forget His promises, even if there are times that we forget them. It is never too late for Him to give what He has promised. Even when we think that we will never see the day, it is not too late.

 

Remember how Job in the midst of his great suffering (and the struggle of faith that came with it) confessed as we heard last Sunday: “I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25-27). This is the kind of resurrection that Job believed in, pretty much exactly as Ezekiel saw and described.

 

It is also the way that St. Paul describes it in the New Testament as well. On the last day there will be a great bodily resurrection of the dead to eternal life. “What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power.... Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: ‘Death is swallowed up in victory’” (1 Corinthians 15:42-43, 51-54).

 

All of that dryness and death that seems overwhelming to you now, is but a dryness in the back of your throat compared to the dryness of dead bones to which all of mankind are destined due to sin. But also the good news of the resurrection that we have in the words and images of Scripture are merely an inkling of what the resurrection and everlasting life will be like. Ezekiel saw it in slow motion. St. Paul says that it will happen in an instant. They both say that it will come along with the Word of the LORD. The breath of God sending His life-giving Spirit.

 

That is the same Spirit that Jesus dispenses upon His Church, in order to proclaim the forgiveness of sins to you. It is the Spirit active in the words that speak of God’s great promises of a Deliverer; a Messiah; a prophet like Moses to lead you; a king like David to defeat all of your enemies forever; a descendant of Abraham in whom people of all nations find God’s blessings; a seed of the woman, born of the Virgin Mary to defeat the ancient serpent, and the sin and death that he has brought into your life.

 

It is sin and death that will be removed from your life, not your life that will be removed leaving only death. It is the other way around. Death will be completely removed. The perishable becoming imperishable and the mortal putting on immortality. God will breathe His Spirit into the slain and they will stand victorious. He breathes that Spirit into you today to declare that you are not cut off, you are His child. Your hope is not lost. Your sins are forgiven. You don’t have to live feeling that you are nothing but dry bones. You have the life of Christ imparted to you.

 

If you ever find yourself looking in the mirror and asking, “Can these bones live?” The LORD knows. And He has told you. “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20).