It's a strange scene no matter
what standards one uses to measure it. God's prophet, Ezekiel,
is standing in a large valley filled with the dry skeletal remains
of hundreds of thousands of people. God says to Ezekiel, "Preach
to these bones, Preacher, and tell them about life." Now
for certain there are mornings when every pastor wonders if anyone
is really listening but this has to be the extreme limit!
God asked Ezekiel, "Can these dead remains be restored
to life?" Ezekiel gives the only answer possible. "Only
you know that, Lord." Then God says, "Preach to the
dry bones. Tell them I will cause my breath, my Spirit, to enter
them and they shall live."
So Ezekiel begins to preach. As he did the dry bones began
to move and to reconnect. Flesh came on them and skin covered
them, but there was no breath. So God said to Ezekiel, "Preach
to the winds and ask them for the Spirit to breathe on these
who are dead so that they might live." So Ezekiel preached
to the winds and the breath came and breathed Spirit and Life
into the bones.
We so very much need to ask ourselves this morning whether
or not we believe we can be made to come alive for in so many
ways we can be almost as dead as the dry bones. It is much more
than being exhausted from too much work or activity. It is much
more than being tired from lack of sleep. Our condition is due
to the lack of our living by the power of the Holy Spirit because
we have allowed ourselves to be deceived into thinking there
are many other things that are more important. We have been misled
into believing these other things can bring us life, but the
truth is they don't.
We have a second strange story in our lessons for today. This
one is found in John 11, the story of Lazarus, the deceased brother
of Martha and Mary, who was brought back to life by the power
of God working through Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
In the first twelve chapters of John there are a series of
seven signs designed to reveal the true nature of Jesus. Raising
Lazarus from the dead is the seventh and final sign. John also
uses a series of stories that prompt Jesus to reveal His identity
by saying, "I
am" and then He adds the description. We need to remember
that when Moses asked God to tell him who He was God said, "I
am who I am."
Jesus offered the Samaritan woman at the well His Spirit saying
He was living water. He later fed a large multitude of people
and told them, "I am the Bread of Life." Later, He
helped a man blind from birth to see and then told him, "I
am the Light of the world."
In our story today a man has died. He is a close friend of
Jesus, as are his two sisters, Martha and Mary. The sisters had
sent for Jesus because their brother was seriously ill. Jesus
delayed in coming and Lazarus died.
The sisters were upset not only because their brother had died
but also because they felt that had Jesus been there the death
could have been prevented because, as we read in verses 22-23,
Martha says, "Lord, if You had been here, my brother would
not have died. Even now I know that God will give you whatever
you ask." What an unbelievable faith statement! Martha
is saying she believes Jesus has such favor with God that anything
Jesus wants to happen will occur.
How many of us have faith enough to believe that God can bring
us life no matter how dead we are? How many of us are in fact
able to recognize and admit how dead we are? It is not a sin
to be dead; death is a result of sin not the sin itself. However,
it is sinful to remain in death when we are presented with the
One who has the power to bring us life.
Jesus attempts to comfort Martha. Many of us, no doubt, have
attempted to use the same comfort. "Your loved one will
be given a new life." Martha, sobbing and maybe raising
her voice, says, "I
know he will rise again in the resurrection, BUT I WANT HIM HERE
NOW! I MISS HIM AND I NEED HIM!" Many of us have felt that
way about loved ones we have lost.
There is some comfort, maybe even a lot in our belief that
they will live eternally with God. But we miss them in the present
moment. I met a man last weekend that had been in an accident
in which a teenage boy had been killed. The man and the boy's
family believe in eternal life but oh how they desire to have
the young man back with them.
Here in the John narrative we come to the pinnacle of the Gospel.
Jesus looks at Martha with her searching, tear-filled eyes and
He declares, "I am the resurrection and the life. Those
who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone
who lives and believes in me will never die. DO YOU BELIEVE THIS?
Martha said, "Yes, Lord, I believe you are God's
Anointed One coming into the world."
DO YOU BELIEVE THIS? It depends how the question is asked.
One inflection indicates you expect a positive response. Another
inflection suggests that nobody could possibly believe something
so impossible. How do you hear the question being asked? Do you
respond positively or do you dismiss the possibility as being
absurd?
The apostle Paul did not think it was absurd. He wrote to the
Romans in Chapter 8 verses 6-11, "To set the mind on the
flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and
peace (or wholeness). For this reason the mind that is set on
the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God's
law — indeed
it cannot, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the
Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit
of Christ does not belong to Him. But if Christ is in you, though
the body is dead, because of sin, the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from
the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will
give life to your mortal bodies also through His Spirit that
dwells in you."
DO YOU BELIEVE THIS? DO YOU BELIEVE THIS? DO YOU BELIEVE THIS? |
