5th Sunday of Lent
Scripture: Ezekiel
37:1-14
This week in our Lenten journey, the Scripture readings
focus us on death and life. In God’s salvation death and life are pitted
against one another; death the consequence of sin and life the free gift that
comes by God’s salvation. In the Old Testament lesson, God gives Ezekiel a
powerful vision of a valley full of dry bones. These bodies are beyond dead.
They are beyond decayed. They are completely desiccated. Yet God will bring
life to them. The reading reminds us that no matter how bad our sin is, we are
not beyond God’s power to give us new life in Christ.
Teaching
Ezekiel’s ministry was often one of bringing bad news to God’s
people, speaking words of judgement on them. They dreamed of going home. He
told them Jerusalem would be destroyed. They longed for the temple. He
prophesied that God’s glory had left the temple. He was a watchman to warn Israel
against its wickedness. As strange and as eerie as this vision it, it is one of
good news. It must have been a joy to him to tell the people that God would
raise them from the dead and put his Spirit in them.
In the reading God repeats the phrase, “Then you shall know
that I am the Lord,” two times. Both times the event that causes God’s people
to know that he is Lord – the same Lord that saved them from slavery in Egypt,
who claimed them as his people, and promised to be their God – is his
salvation. It is not in condemnation that people come to know God rightly, but
in his salvation and the new life he gives.
Life
When you read this account did you imagine it? Did you put
yourself in Ezekiel’s place, hearing the bones? Seeing sinews snake across the
bones to be covered with muscle and skin? Did you imagine the corpses lying on
the valley floor? Hear the first breath of this great army? This text is so rich
with imagery it almost begs for us to close our eyes and see it take place so
that we can marvel at God’s work. Once we’ve imagined it, however, we should
recognize that he has done this for us. He raised us from death in trespasses
and sins and has made us alive in Christ – and it is no less amazing than the
vision. Indeed, the vision is trying to impress upon us how amazing God’s salvation
is.
Speaking God’s Word was what made this miracle happen. It
looks like such a simple thing; just talking. When we speak God’s Word and tell
of his forgiveness and salvation it is very similar to what happened in Ezekiel’s
vision. We speak healing and life into people when we proclaim God’s Word and
tell them about Jesus – who died that we might live.
Prayer
O God, you told Ezekiel to speak in the vision and you brought
many to life through the proclamation of your Word. We thank and praise you
that we are among those that you have raised from death and sin to the new life
in Christ. Forgive us for being reluctant to speak your Word; sometimes from
fear of others, other times from doubt that you will work through our lips. Capture
our minds with this vision so that we will remember how great our salvation is,
and then proclaim the Word that raises the dead and brings eternal life. Amen.
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