2026 03 22 Fifth Sunday in Lent
Ezekiel
37:1-14 Psalm
130 Romans
8:6-11 John
11:1-45
The scripture readings for
today are totally mind-blowing! In our
first reading the prophet Ezekiel has a vision in which God takes him to a
valley of dry bones. What does it tell you
about the bones if they are “dry”…. Very
dead! The valley of dry bones inspired
the song, “Dem Bones - Ezekiel connected dem dry bones..” We also have the New Testament reading which
tells us of Jesus raising Lazurus from the dead. A dramatic story which ultimately proves that
Jesus Christ has power over the grave. I
don’t know if you caught it, but this story is the fulfillment of the prophecy
recorded in our first reading. It says;
“…you shall know that I am the LORD when I open your graves and bring you up
from your graves,..”
These are both stories of
death and life. They are stories with a
powerful message, that when all human efforts and striving are spent and all
hope is dead and gone – not just dead and gone, but bone-dry, dead and gone,
God does what we cannot - God brings hope & life.
To anyone who has
experienced, or is in the midst of loss and grief, it certainly doesn’t feel
there is hope. Someone once
explained that we are on the underside of an elaborate tapestry… we see the knots
and mess, but God sees clearly that there is brilliant masterpiece, visible
from his point of view. For sure, however,
suffering and death was not part of God’s original plan for us. Because of God’s own grief about our
situation, Jesus, the Messiah was sent to make a way for us to be back in
communion with God – for us to be reconciled to God – and to receive his
eternal life. God is deeply grieved over
death.
The shortest verse in the
bible is found in this Gospel passage where it says; “Jesus wept”. Jesus knew that Lazarus would be raised from
the dead. Yet Jesus’ weeping was so intense
and authentic that the onlookers commented about how much he loved him. I suspect that Jesus was feeling the pain
that we all feel when we lose someone, but also, he was feeling all our
pain. He feels our pain. Why?
Because he loves us. Don’t ever
think that God doesn’t care when you are hurting. Just as we hurt when our precious children
are in pain, God feels that for us.
Martha is the one who, in an
earlier story, was concerned about doing all the proper things and cranky that
her sister was not helping her. This
time Martha is the one to step outside conventional norms. In the Jewish grieving process, the mourners are
supposed to sit barefoot in their house for a week – not going anywhere. On the third day people would bring food and
sit with them. This was the fourth day,
but still within that first week. Martha
hears that Jesus is there and leaves the house to see him – breaking social
convention. She says the most amazing
thing which shows us her faith in Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here,
my brother would not have died. But even
now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him."
Martha knows the power of
God is in Jesus. Jesus responds to her
with something we might also miss; “I am the resurrection and the life.” The bit
that we miss in our English translation, is that Jesus said, “I AM… the resurrection..” That “I AM”
is reiterating the statement that God made to Moses when Moses asked him
his name. God responded, “I Am who I am”. When Jesus was saying “I Am the resurrection”,
to Martha, He was stating that He is the resurrection today, yesterday and
tomorrow, and most importantly, He was also declaring his deity – Jesus is
God. He and the father are one. This is the mystery that we see all the way
through the Gospel of John – which begins with; “In the beginning was the Word…
and the Word was God… and the Word became flesh”
Jesus is the resurrection
and the LIFE – He came to bring us eternal life. He brought Lazurus back to life. Jesus is called the Word of God. Hold that thought while we explore some of
the passage from Ezekiel.
In a vision, Ezekiel was brought to the valley of dry bones. This was like that horrible valley in Psalm
23 – the valley of the shadow of death!
The bones being exposed implies disgrace, shame and desecration. After some conversation God tells Ezekiel to prophesy
to the bones. In other words, he was
told to speak the Word of God to the bones. Remember – Jesus is the WORD
of God.
As Ezekiel speaks the word
of God, life comes back to the bones. There is so much to explore in this, but I’ll
start with a quote from an influential English preacher, Charles Spurgeon who
said; “If we want revivals, we must revive our reverence for the Word of God…,
for the only power which will bless men lies in that.” (Spurgeon).
Ezekiel was a prophet who
lived through the time when Israel was taken into exile. It seemed that the nation of Israel was
completely doomed. They were scattered,
their homeland was destroyed and the temple had been destroyed. Who they were as the chosen people of God was
not much more than a memory.
Ezekiel declared the word
of God out loud, and it brought life to the dry bones. It was done as obedience to God. It was the word of God proclaimed out
loud, at God’s prompting. We could put
it this way; God the father commanded it and the WORD – or God the Son,
actioned it. But there is another
element yet needed. Did you notice in the passage that although the bones came
together and grew flesh at the Word of God, there was yet no breath – the
breath -The Holy Spirit. The Hebrew word for breath and Spirit is the
same. It is a word that means “air in
motion”. And our first reading ends by
making it clear that God would put his spirit in his people; “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," says the
LORD.”
Humans need breath to live. In our readings that breath is synonymous with
God’s Holy Spirit. Humans, made in the
image of God, need God’s Holy Spirit in order to live as God knows is best. Without the Holy Spirit we are incomplete. The scriptures explain that God originally
made mankind as a “Living” being – in other words, he made us with his eternal
Spirit sustaining us, but through sin, that eternal spirit was taken away. However, there was always a plan to have us
be able to come back into fullness of the life which God intended. The bad news is that there would be a price
to pay… Jesus paid that price on the cross.
Our story of redemption is
completed by the cross. “It is FINISHED”
is what Christ declared. By the cross,
the debt of sin is complete, and by Jesus’ resurrection he proves his authority
over the grave, but if you check out how the disciples lived after the
resurrection of Jesus and before the day of Pentecost, you will note that they
lived pretty much like us now; in faith and trust in God…. Yet they were hidden
away, keeping to themselves - something in them came to life on the day of
Pentecost.
The bones, to which Ezekiel
declared the Word of God, grew flesh -They looked alive, but they were not
truly alive - there was no breath in them.
In 1946 a Preacher by the name of Major Ian Thomas, said that many
churches are like this. He explained, they
have lots of church activity and use up a lot of energy doing things that make
them appear to be alive, but they are merely zombies, because they do not have
the Holy Spirit empowering them. (like headless chooks I think he said) I think he was probably a bit harsh, but
sometimes it is good to hear someone be harsh so that we can remember the
importance of the Holy Spirit in all that we do.
The Holy Spirit also comes
through the proclamation of the Word of God.
Jesus is the word of God made flesh and so many times he spoke to
his followers about the Holy Spirit, even breathing on them himself and saying,
“receive the Holy Spirit”. We are triune
beings; flesh, soul and spirit, but through sin the spirit that brings
spiritual life died. In baptism we
acknowledge our fallen human condition and our need for spiritual life. We are baptised in the name of the father,
the son and the Holy Spirit. We identify
with Christ and accept his redemption.
We use the symbol of water because it is a sign of new birth – spiritual
birth. Christians are born of God,
spiritually alive through the Spirit of God and our eternal life begins that
moment.
Because we forget so many
things, we continue to meet together and tell the story of our salvation. And each year we remember the most holy and
important days…. Which is why have THIS Lenten season. This year, I challenge us all to remember
that the story doesn’t end with Easter. Resurrection
Sunday is certainly a highlight, but God’s plan was not complete until that
life that Jesus achieved could be passed on to us. Life is never complete until we have breath -
the breath of God - the Holy Spirit.
This year let’s consider the biggest celebration the one where Jesus
sends his Holy Spirit – Pentecost. God’s
spirit is within us…. We bring God’s goodness and love to our world only when we
rely on His Holy Spirit to BREATHE in us and then we truly live!
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