A, Lent 5 - Ezekiel 37:1-14 "A Bone to Pick"

Dry bones in a dead paddock paints a picture of desolation!  What was once covered in life with flesh and sinews is now deserted of life lying in the dust.  Dry bones tell us death has put an end to life.

There’s not much one can do to make bones live.  But bones have been used by people since the earliest of times to make tools, such as knives, hooks, and spears.  Still bone a lifeless object can be used to take life away when it’s used as a weapon.  But then again bone has been used as needles, buttons, and in corsets.  Yet still it’s used as a result of the lifeless cravings people had in the Garden of Eden.

Ezekiel, under the hand of God, had a vision of a valley of bones.  These bones were dry as dry.  They were completely void of water, of life.  But these bones were not the bones of animals.  No!  They were human bones!

It might be one thing seeing bones of animals lying out in the open, but human bones in mass numbers, surely would run a chill up anyone’s spine.  The sight of human skulls and empty bodily frames would cut to the bone of any living person.  We’re thankful we are spared having to witness such a gut-wrenching sight.  But, in the past some have uncovered mass graves from human atrocities such as those of World War Two and more recently in places like Bosnia.

But even so these bones were discovered in graves; however, the bones Ezekiel saw were in a valley, out in the open.  Only the bodies of those most contemptible would be left out to rot for all to see.  There would be no honourable burial for those who defiled themselves while alive.  One only has to think of Jezebel, the evil wife of King Ahab, who was thrown into the street, trampled by horses, and eaten by dogs.  Only the despicable would be left this way. Human bones scattered like excrement exposed for others to stand on.

And so, God shows Ezekiel bones exposed like these.  Thousands upon thousands of human fragments absent of life, bones as dry as… a bone!  Left desolate, deserted, defiled, and dead!  And God asks Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live?” To which he replies, “O Lord God, you know.” (Ezekiel 37:3)

God addresses Ezekiel as “the Son of man”.  Immediately this title might resonate within as the title Jesus used of himself over and over again on his march to the cross.  To be a “son of man” is being a son of Adam, a human, a created being from the earth who’s received the breath of life from God. 

Jesus is the Son of God and the Son of Man.  The eternal and omnipresent Son of God is born the Son of Mary, the Son of Man, in the line of Adam!  Created out of Adam as a servant to those of Adam!  The Son of humanity is also the servant of humanity!

  Ezekiel is called to serve God in this vision by serving these bones.  The question is asked if the bones can live.  We might say in despair, “God only knows!”  But Ezekiel replies, “O Lord God, you know.”

And he did know.  When we look at the context of this vision from chapter 37 in between chapters 36 and the latter half of chapter 37 we see God is restoring his creation and his people from their desolation to the chosen land once given to them.  God was promising to turn the desert back into a fertile place, a land of milk and honey, a place of promise, appearing like the Garden of Eden, with a shepherd serving them as King David once did.

Why was God doing this?  For the sake of his holy name.  He says, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.  I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.  And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.  And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.  You shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.”  (Ezekiel 36:22,25–28 ESV)

God had a bone to pick with Israel, and like a bone picked clean by a dog, God had reduced his wayward people through exile and hardship leaving them as dry as a bone chewed clean by dogs.  Not only did he cut to the bone, he left the bone bare and now sends his servant Ezekiel, a Son of man, to be his mouthpiece of life, breathing God’s word back into Israel’s parched desolation.

Even greater than Ezekiel, God the Father sent his Son Jesus Christ as the Son of Man as his servant to restore holiness to all of humanity. And God still seeks to cleanse through Christ, he seeks to sprinkle his grace and mercy on all, cleansing from the idols that seem to pop up in our lives, to daily wash those who allow the Holy Spirit to drown the old sinful “bones” through repentance and resurrect us in forgiveness and faith.

Yes!  God has a bone to pick with you and me, but he has picked us clean in Christ.   But now we’re called to make no bones about it.  Like heart-warming soup on a cold winter’s day, we’re called to swallow the truth of his word with confidence and ease.  Rather than make bones about it, or to put bones in the soup, let God’s way be your way to his glory.

Make no bones about it – Jesus sees you in the hardships of your human existence.  And not only that – like Lazarus you are his friend, and he weeps over what your sin does to you.  But God has done something about it.  He left Jesus languish on the cross, to pay the price of your sin.  We hear Jesus’ heartbreaking cry of our human condition, “My God, My God why have you forsaken me.”  (Psalm 22:1, Matthew 27:26) 

These words recorded first in Psalm 22 also testify to Jesus’ wretched bones on the cross, “I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like wax; it is melted within my breast…  I can count all my bones — they stare and gloat over me; they divide my garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots.” (Psalm 22:14,17–18 ESV)

Your bones, the bones of all believers, the bones of Israel are now bound together by the sinews and flesh of Christ.  Our bodies are not left desolate in the desert for dogs to digest.  No!  Our graves are made holy by God and the Son of Man is returning to roll the stone away from our graves and our lives of sin.  Jesus promises to raise you to life, not in the earthly kingdom of Israel, but in fellowship with him together with the Father and the Holy Spirit in his Holy Kingdom of Heaven.

For… “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.” (Ezekiel 37:12–14 ESV) Amen.