“Life for Dry Bones” Mount Olive Lutheran Church Pentecost Sunday Sermon May 19th 2024 – Ezekiel 37:1–14

Mount Olive Lutheran Church / Pr. Ted A. Giese / Sunday May 19th 2024: Day of Pentecost / Ezekiel 37:1–14 “Life for Dry Bones” 

The 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. And He led me around among them, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley, and behold, they were very dry. And He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord GOD, You know.” Then He said to me, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And 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.”

So 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. And 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. Then 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.” So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.

Then 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.’ Therefore 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. And you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O My people. And 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.”

Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in Your sight O Lord. Amen.

Grace peace and mercy to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Good Christian Friends. “Nothing will be impossible with God.”[1] Now when Jesus came, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Bethany was near Jerusalem, about two miles off, and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them concerning their brother. So when Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met Him, but Mary remained seated in the house. Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever You ask from God, God will give You.” Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.” Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on The Last Day.” Jesus said to her, “I Am The Resurrection and The Life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live, and everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” She said to Him, “Yes, Lord; I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world.”[2]

Did you notice a little detail at the beginning of that account of Jesus coming to raise Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus from the dead? Now when Jesus came, He found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb four days. Jesus had delayed His arrival so that Lazarus would be beyond the length of time the Jewish people of that day believed it was possible to resurrect a person from the dead.[3] They had this idea that the soul lingered near the body for a couple days after death so maybe the soul and the body could be reunited during that time ... but four days? After four days the thought was that it was becoming impossible: that is unless the one doing the resurrecting was God Himself like in the Book of Ezekiel where God asks Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And [Ezekiel] answered, “O Lord GOD, You know.” Then [Ezekiel recounts what God said to him], “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.”

From the widow of Nain’s dead son,[4] to Jairus’ dead daughter,[5] to the Centurion’s trusted servant who was only near death,[6] Jesus had spared people from death through healing and resurrection either just before of soon after death but not four days after death like with Lazarus. In our modern world we often remove ourselves as far away from death as possible in our daily lives. At the time of the Gospels the dead were quickly buried after death within a day or two and then when a few years had passed and perhaps another family member needed to be buried in the same grave, then the grave would be opened and the bones of the previous dead loved one would be removed, these dry bones would be removed by the family and placed in a stone box with the bones of other dead relatives. And so the pattern of death went on, but for the Jewish folks they had promises of the bodily resurrection of the dead handed down to them over the centuries, one of the oldest of these promises was from poor Job where in the midst of suffering Job exclaims,

       “For 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.

                My heart faints within me!”[7]

Did these words from Job run through the minds of the living as they handled the dry bones of their dead loved ones? How quickly the gravity and severity of death settles in when you look upon the one you love dead before your eyes, how tempting it would be to think it impossible to reverse their death if you looked not upon their dead bodied minutes or hours or even a day after death but rather upon their dry bones. If asked, “can these bones live?” how tempting it would be to say “no, no they cannot, they are dead.”  

When Jesus came to Lazarus’ tomb, Jesus wept because death is an evil and sad thing that goes against the pattern of life laid out in creation; it is the result of sin in the world and the thought of Death having Lazarus in its cold grip moved our dear Lord Jesus to compassion. Saint John in his Gospel recounts, “Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus 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.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone.”[8] Now after four days Lazarus would not yet be reduced to bones, but he was most certainly dead. At this point Jesus prays a rather strange prayer in the hearing of those present around Lazarus’ tomb, “Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I 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.”[9] If other’s doubted what was about to happen Jesus did not. He knew His heavenly Father and His heavenly Father knew Him. “Son of man, can these bones live?” ..., “O Lord GOD, You know.” Then the Lord GOD said, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD...”

When [Jesus] had [finished His prayer in the hearing of those gathered around Lazarus’ tomb, Jesus] cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The 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.”[10] When God speaks to you by His word He makes you alive, when He gives you a promise in that word He will faithfully keep it. Jesus is the Word made flesh.[11]

Around a week after Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, just hours before His Cross and Passion would commence, before Jesus’ crucifixion and death shocked and saddened His disciples and followers, this Jesus had promised His disciples in those hours saying, “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness about Me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.”[12] Jesus had spoken about the Spirit of Truth before when He’d explained to Nicodemus, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”[13] ... “Son of man, can these bones live?” ..., “O Lord GOD, You know.” Then the Lord GOD said, “Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And 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.”” On the day of Jesus’ death Saint John looked upon Jesus’ dead face, Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus wrapped Jesus’ cold dead body in linens with spices and lay Him in the stone tomb ... did the question to Ezekiel rattle around in their head while they prepared the body for burial, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Did these words haunt them as they laid Jesus to rest as evening approached that Friday afternoon?  

Then, three days later on that first Easter Sunday the bones of Jesus along with His sinew and flesh and skin filled with the breath of life walked out of the tomb alive and when Jesus stood before His remaining disciples late that afternoon on Easter Sunday He said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so I Am sending you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.”[14] Now we’ve been through the forty days after Easter arriving at Ascension Day when the risen Christ Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father in heaven and we have been now through the ten days after that which bring us to The Day of Pentecost. This Holy Spirit given quietly by Jesus to the disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem on that first Easter Sunday now comes to them all, including Judas’ replacement Matthias; Saint Luke tells us how “suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.” The promised Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of Life, falls upon them and He causes them to preach, to teach, to tell of the risen Lord Jesus, His life, His death, His resurrection from the dead and His promised return on The Last Day and His abiding presence with the faithful day by day in Word and Sacrament until that Day. Father, Son and Holy Spirit create, sustain, and redeem life.

At the beginning of our sermon today I said, “Nothing will be impossible with God.” This is a quote from an answer given to the Virgin Mary when she asks the Angel Gabriel who’d proclaimed to her that she would conceive in her womb and bear a son, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren. For nothing will be impossible with God.”[15] Mary’s virgin womb, barren wombs of women like Elizabeth, the recently dead like the widow of Nain’s dead son, and Jairus’ dead daughter, Lazarus, yes even the dry bones of the long dead; there is no where cut off from God’s life giving Spirit. Good Friday at the moment of Jesus’ death we have reports of life when Saint Matthew tells us how when, “the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom ... the earth shook, and the rocks were split. [And] the tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised, and coming out of the tombs after [Jesus’] resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.”[16] A foretaste of The Resurrection we will experience in Christ Jesus on The Last Day.

“Son of man, can these bones live?” ..., “O Lord GOD, You know.”  

When you look around and you think, this nation is dead or dying, when you look around and think this church is dead or dying, when you look around and say these people are dead or dying, when you look at yourself and say I’m dead or dying, think on the Word of the LORD, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And remember what the LORD also says, “you shall know that I am the LORD, when I open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O My people. And 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.” Notice He doesn’t says ‘I have spoken, and you will do it,’ no He says “I have spoken, and I will do it.” The virgin womb does not conceive by its own power, neither does the barren womb, the dead body does not revive itself and dry bones do not reassemble themselves, they do not re-grow sinew and flesh and skin on their own and they do not cause breath to breathe in the lungs. The LORD does these things; He’s the one who brings life to the body, to the mind and to the soul. The miracle of Pentecost proclaims that God the Holy Spirit who does these things is with us and He gives each and every one of you Jesus, who is “The Way and the Truth and the Life,”[17] you now are the recipients of this Life, and it is the Holy Spirit who provides faith to you and keeps you in Christ.

“Son of man, can these bones live?” And [Ezekiel] answered, “O Lord GOD, You know.”

We in Christ Jesus can answer this question saying, “Yes, yes Lord these bones can live; yes Lord these old bones of mine which You’ve given me can live, and do live, and even if ‘my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh [I can say in confidence] I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself,’ yes I will have life again in You, dear Lord, today and on The Last Day.” And when we feel as though ‘Our bones are dried up, [as though] our hope is lost; [as though we are] cut off,’ dear ones in those dark moments say to your heavenly Father in prayer, “To You and Your glory Lord, and to the good of my neighbour, remind me each day of the life You’ve give me in Your Son Christ Jesus and strengthen me Lord that I may live a life worthy of Your holy name to the benefit of my neighbour in need.” Amen.    

Let us pray: Lord have mercy on us, Christ have mercy on us, Lord have mercy on us, “take our minds and think through them, take our lips and speak through them, take our hearts and set them on fire; for the sake of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, Amen.

[1] Luke 1:37
[2] John 11:17–27
[3] John 11:1-7
[4] Luke 7:11-17
[5] Luke 8:40-42, 49-56
[6] Luke 7:1-10
[7] Job 19:25–27
[8] John 11:38–41
[9] John 11:41–42
[10] John 11:43–44
[11] John 1:1-4, 14
[12] John 15:26–27
[13] John 3:6–8
[14] John 20:19–23
[15] Luke 1:34–37
[16] Matthew 27:51–53
[17] John 14:7

Photo Credit: Main photo montage of Lutherbibel 1534 coloured print illustration "Hesekiel 37" from picryl.com; photo of The Ossuary of Caiaphas, the High Priest, in the time of Jesus of Nazareth from wikimedia commons.