Scripture References: Ezekiel 37:1-14, John 11:17-44 (NRSVUE)

This section from Ezekiel is perhaps one of the most memorable passages out of this particular book. In it, we find the prophet Ezekiel taken up by God into a vision. In this vision, Ezekiel sees a valley of dry bones. And after taking in the scene, Ezekiel is asked by God, “Mortal, can these bones live?” God is asking - can these bones, which have been left so long that they have no stench, be brought back together? Can these bones, which once belonged to people now forgotten, regain any kind of identifiable qualities like the ones they had before? The land that Ezekiel sees in his vision is a desolate one. Later on in that passage, God reveals that this land is a representation of the people of Israel. God says that he has heard the Hebrews say, “Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost. We are cut off completely.”

You see, during the time of Ezekiel there was a Babylonian takeover of the region of Judah. The Babylonians sent many of the Judean people into exile, destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, and set up their own puppet king to reign over the people who remained in the land.

So, when Ezekiel is proclaiming the word of the Lord, his primary audience is a people who have been forcibly removed from everything they have ever known. They have been disjoined from the location and customs that connected them so closely to God. The homes they once had that were fully furnished with abundant gardens had now been ransacked by invading forces. This is the world Ezekiel is living in when God takes him to a place full of death and asks, “Mortal, can these bones live?”

We see a similar situation in our Gospel reading, just at a much smaller scale. Mary and Martha are two sisters who have become very close to Jesus over the course of his ministerial journey. Their brother, Lazarus, grew ill and they called on Jesus multiple times to be with them during the time of sickness. But Jesus does not show up, and their brother loses his life. For four days, the length of time between Lazarus’ death and Jesus' arrival, Mary and Martha experience what it is like to live in a world without their beloved brother. In fact, the whole community is mourning the death of this man, and scripture tells us that they are weeping in their distress. When Jesus finally does arrive, they say, “Lord, if you had been here, our brother would not have died.” There is now no hope of healing because Jesus did not make it in time and death has taken the final word. Like the people of Judah, I imagine that these sisters are dealing with the sense that they have been rejected by their Lord.

I don’t know about you, but I have occasionally found myself in possession of a similar disposition towards God as the Hebrew exiles and the sisters. It is not an unusual part of the Christian life to feel like our bones have dried up and our hope has been lost. It is not unusual to mumble to ourselves, “Lord, if only you had been here, everything would have been okay.” This sense of dissonance is very real. We serve a God who rules over death itself and yet people, even the ones we love, are dying. We serve a God who has promised to establish a kingdom of peace and justice, yet even our fellow Christians seem more than willing to kill and rob one another. Here is where we find ourselves, much like Ezekial and Mary and Martha, in the tension between the promises that God has spoken and the reality we face. These two passages of scripture on the fifth Sunday of Lent lead us to ask the following question: Do we think these dry bones can live again?

Ezekiel answers that question in a very wise way. “Lord,” he says, “You alone know.” God then commands Ezekiel to speak to the bones. As Ezekiel does so, the skeletons come together and muscles regrow. Skin covers the bodies and the breath of God enters them, bringing the dead back to life. It is worth noting that God very easily could have done this without Ezekiel’s help. However, God invites Ezekiel to work with him in the resurrection of the dry bones.

God also leaves Ezekiel with a promise that the same scene in this prophetic vision will become reality for the people of Israel. God tells Ezekiel to prophesy to the Hebrew people saying,

“Thus says the Lord GOD: I am going to open your graves and bring you up from your graves, O my people, and I will bring you back to the land of Israel. I will put my spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you on your own soil; then you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken and will act,”

God calls the people, and Ezekiel, to hope.

This pattern of action and hope are also present in our Gospel reading. Just like Ezekiel, Jesus speaks out loud to the dead body in the tomb, saying, “Lazarus, come out!” And so, Lazarus does. Jesus also offers a word of hope to all those present when he says, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.” Jesus states that death is not the end. Some of the early Church mothers and fathers read this claim (that Jesus is the resurrection and the life) as a fulfillment of God’s promises during the time of Ezekiel. Through Christ, our graves have been opened and the Spirit dwells within us, indeed, just as God promised.

These passages invite us to respond to the despair of our day with active hope. We share in Christian hope by remembering that Jesus is, in fact, the resurrection and the life. He holds power over death. He lifts up the lowly and casts down the mighty. He fills the hungry with good things and the rich he sends away empty. He gives sight to the blind and sets the prisoners free. These are all promises we hold from the Lord, and He will be faithful to complete them.

We are also invited, just like Ezekiel, to participate in the life-giving work of God through our own obedience to God’s word. When we give food to the hungry, when we welcome the stranger into our midst, when we visit the sick and those who are incarcerated, when we care for our neighbors and pray for our enemies - all of this is an active expression of our hope in the resurrecting power of Christ.

These passages from Ezekiel and John give us a summons to continue on in active hope, acknowledging the truth of cosmic redemption squarely in the middle of every other contradicting story. The question returns: Can these dry bones live? The answer is yes, and the proof lies in the risen Christ. Amen.

Dry Bones and Working Hope: Bekah Beck Dixon

POWERED BY SQUARESPACE