“The Lord Speaks Life into our Dry Bones”
Ezekiel 37:1-14
3/9/08
In today’s O.T. lesson we see a divine service
going on. We see Pastor Ezekiel preaching the Word of God to a
congregation of dead, dry bones. And as he does this, the bones
are brought to life - sinews, flesh, and skin cover them, the breath of
life is blown into them, and they live. It’s an
illustration of what happens in the divine services of today, where the
Lord is using the called and ordained servants of His Word to breathe
His Spirit into the deadness of our dry bones, that we might not only
be raised to life and live with Christ now, but that also on the Last
Day we might be resurrected from our graves and live and reign with Him
in His heavenly kingdom forever.
In Ezekiel’s day, the dry bones represented
the people of Israel, who were living in the land of Babylon (modern
day Iraq). God had exiled them there, because they had forsaken
Him and gone after idols. But the Lord hadn’t forsaken
them. Their exile was only for a season; it was to last for
seventy years, during which God would work repentance in the hearts of
His people, so that they might return to Him in faith and walk in His
ways. This time, then, was a time of testing for God’s
people. They had no temple, no place where sacrifices could be
made, no place where they could gather together to hear God’s
Word and have their sins atoned for. And they lived under the
oppression of their captors, who taunted them and made fun of them in
their captivity. Ps. 137 describes what God’s people were
going through when the Psalmist writes, “By the waters of
Babylon, there we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. On
the willows there we hung up our lyres. For there our captors
required of us songs, and our tormentors, mirth, saying, ‘Sing us
one of the songs of Zion!’” But even in their exile
God still sent them prophets like Ezekiel and Daniel to proclaim
God’s Word to them, in order to bring them back to repentance and
comfort them with words of deliverance. With words like the ones
we have here today the prophets assured God’s people that they
would be saved. God would breathe His Spirit into them with His
Word; their dry, dead bones would come to life; and they would come out
of their graves and live. They would be delivered from those who
oppressed them and once again be settled into the promised land.
Now the Christian Church often feels the same way as
she awaits the return of her Lord. The time in which we live
between Christ’s first coming and His second coming is like our
own period of exile. We’re citizens of the kingdom of
heaven, and yet we’re not there yet. Sometimes it feels
like we’re separated from God. We’re aliens in a land
where we’re oppressed by the devil and the world for confessing
Jesus, and where we must struggle against our own sinful nature, which
constantly wants to forsake God and run after false gods.
We’re in a time of testing. It’s a time during which
the Lord is working repentance in our hearts, so that we might return
to Him in faith and walk in His ways. It’s a short season
to be sure, but a season which often feels like it will never end, a
season in which we often feel dry and dead like the bones which Ezekiel
sees here.
Perhaps you’re feeling like that today.
There are many things that can make us feel dry and dead. Age can
make us feel this way; the older we get, the more dry and dead we
feel. Problems and trials in our lives can make us feel this way;
they can sap our strength and even our will to live. A sense of
helplessness and hopelessness can make us feel dry and dead. Sin
can make us feel dry and dead; like the Israelites we have our own
idols we need to repent of. Or the fact that we’re not
getting enough of the Word of God can make us feel dry and dead; just
like not eating or drinking can make us feel tired and weak, so can not
eating and drinking the Word of God on a regular basis. And so,
you too need an Ezekiel, someone whom the Lord has called and sent to
proclaim His Word to you, in order that your dry, dead bones might be
brought to life again and you might live.
That’s why the Lord has instituted the office
of the holy ministry, the office of the pastor, so that through me,
just as through Ezekiel, the Lord might speak His Word to you and
breathe His Spirit into you, so that you might live. And just as
Ezekiel could take no credit for bringing these dry, dead bones back to
life, so neither can I. It’s the Lord who does the work
through His Word. Here God says, “I have spoken, and I will
do it.” Even though it’s the pastor’s voice
that you hear, when the pastor speaks God’s Word to you,
it’s God Himself speaking to you. It’s as Jesus says
to His Apostles, “He who hears you hears me.”
It’s the Lord’s words I give you. It’s His
forgiveness I proclaim to you, and I do this in His stead and by His
command, just as Jesus said to His disciples, “Receive the Holy
Spirit. If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if
you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” And
so, the pastor is put there by the Lord to be used as His instrument to
speak the Lord’s words to you and to deliver His gifts of Holy
Baptism, His Holy Supper, and Holy Absolution to you -
“holy” because these things belong to the Lord, not the
pastor. It is through these means that the Lord is breathing His
Spirit into you, bringing life to your dry, dead bones.
Usually, when you think of something being dry, you
think of it as needing water, like a dry desert. Here, the dry
bones which Ezekiel sees are enlivened by a wind or a breath.
Interestingly, the word for “wind” or “breath”
in Hebrew is the same word for “Spirit.” This, then,
is not just any wind. While most winds actually dry things up
even further, this wind - the Holy Spirit - gives life. We see
this in the beginning where God formed man out of the dust of the earth
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a
living creature. It was God’s breath that brought the man
to life in the first place. It is God’s breath - His Spirit
- that brings man to new life now. Then it was into man’s
nostrils that God breathed the breath of life. Now it is into
man’s ears that God breathes the breath of life, as man hears the
Word of God. And here too we are not far off when we say that dry
things need water, because it is through the waters of our Baptism that
the Spirit breathed this Word of life into us in the beginning, giving
us new birth through this washing of the water and the Word. And
now He continues to breathe His Word of life into us, not only by daily
applying the water of our Baptism to us, but by speaking to us the
enlivening words of forgiveness for the sake of Christ crucified for
our sins and by feeding us on the body and blood of Christ.
Jesus illustrated the enlivening power that the
proclamation of His death has, when water flowed from His side on the
cross. Through the Word about Jesus crucified for you, God
breathes into you His Spirit, the living water that comes from Jesus,
the water He gives you through His Word and Sacraments, in order to
bring your dry, dead bones back to life - life which you have now even
during your exile here in this world, as well as life to come in the
new heavens and the new earth with the Lord in glory.
The vision of Ezekiel points us to both. Not
only does the Spirit give us life now as He pours Jesus into us by way
of His Word and Sacraments, but this life also includes the life to
come at the resurrection of our bodies. Not only have you been
brought out of the graves of your spiritual death, but you will be
brought out the graves of your physical death, when on the Last Day as
the Apostle Paul says, “The Lord Himself will descend from heaven
with a cry of command, with the sound of the trumpet of God. And
the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who
are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the
Lord.” The exile is going to come to an end, and
we’ll leave this life in which we are but strangers, and go to be
with the Lord in our eternal home.
In the meantime, here in this place God is breathing
into your bodies life through the Word about Jesus. God has not
abandoned you; you are not separated from Him, even though it may feel
like it sometimes. Here in this place all those things that cause
dryness in your bones - age, sickness, trials, helplessness, anxiety,
and sin - are all swallowed up in the flood of God’s grace and
mercy towards you for Christ’s sake. Jesus came to take on
your dryness and deadness on the cross, so that you might not remain
dry and dead but have eternal life. With His words, “I have
spoken, and I will do it,” God has spoken and has done it in
Christ. And because of that, you can be sure that none of the
things of this life that threaten to dry you up and bring you to the
grave can overcome you, because they have been overcome by Jesus.
Notice how that when the bones came to life, they became an exceedingly
great army. Why an army? Because they will have to fight
against the forces of evil, the enemies of Christ and His Church, which
would try to sap you of the Word of God, dry your bones, and bring you
to death again. But Christ, the Lord of hosts, has already
defeated them with His death and resurrection. In Him you cannot
be overcome by them. In Him you are more than conquerors,
partakers of the victory that Jesus has already secured for you.
So, while there may come those times when like the
Israelites you too might say, “Our bones are dried up, and our
hope is lost, we are completely cut off,” remember the
Lord’s Word and promises. Remember your Baptism and come
here to receive once again the breathe of life and the living water of
the Spirit as you hear your sins forgiven and as you feed on the body
and blood of Christ at His Table. Then your bones will be given
new life, your hope will be restored, and you will be reconnected with
the Vine, Jesus Christ, receiving the strength from Him to wait
patiently for His return and to stand firm in the faith until He
does. And as the Scripture says, “He who began a good work
in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus
Christ.” He has spoken, and He will do it. Amen.