The Lutheran Hour
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"An Open Grave"
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Text: Ezekiel 37:13
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Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! The Holy Spirit comes bringing light to those whose days are dark, whose bones ache with the agonies of life. Today He comes leading us to believe on God’s gracious gift contained in the resurrection message: the Savior has risen from the dead.
“Boo Boo brought back to life.” That was the line in the Sunday paper that attracted my attention. The article told of how a retired Arkadelphia, Arkansas, nurse had made a normal, family visit at her brother’s home. But Marian Morris, that was the retired nurse’s name, did not find things normal. Observing unusual activity at the small pond behind the house, Marian went down to investigate. There, at the foot of some agonized relatives she saw the dead, the drowned, body of Boo Boo. Although it had been years since Marian had practiced CPR, reacting, almost by instinct, she dropped to her knees; tilted Boo Boo’s head back and began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. She didn’t give up, and her efforts paid off. Boo Boo’s eyes fluttered and then opened. As the newspapers told the story, Boo Boo had been brought back to life.
A wonderful human interest story? Not exactly. You see, Boo Boo is not a human; Boo Boo is a chicken. That’s right, a cluck-cluck feathered chicken. True, Boo Boo was a special chicken, an exotic chicken, a precious pet; but Boo Boo was still a chicken. I have to confess to you as hard as it is for me, a city boy, to think of having a chicken as a pet; it’s even harder to grasp the mental picture of a trained nurse bending down to blow air past the beak of a chicken, pet or not. When I see a dead chicken, I think, “Shake and Bake,” and not artificial resuscitation.
I know, I know, there are probably 10,000 people out there, listening to this message, who once considered a chicken to be their closest friend. Please don’t write to me and call me an animal hater; don’t picket my office with placards reading, “Chickens Are People, too.” I don’t hate animals. But I do have my standards and I draw the line with performing mouth-to-beak resuscitation on a chicken. That line, in case you’re wondering, extends to reviving goldfish, turtles, and pet snakes.
But that’s all off topic. The real topic today deals with bringing the dead back to life. And when I say, “the dead,” I mean dead people, not dead chickens. Can dead people be brought back to life? That was the question God asked Ezekiel in a vision which is recorded in the 37th chapter of that book which bears his name. God allowed His prophet to see a valley filled with the bones of dead people. Well, he didn’t need the expert Crime Scene Investigation teams of New York, Miami, Las Vegas or Muleshoe, Texas, to tell him these people were dead and Marian Morris was not going to bring them back to life, no matter how long she performed CPR. Ezekiel reported that those bones were “dry.” That’s right, just like in the song: “dem bones, dem bones, dem dry bones.” Which is just another way of saying that these people were really, really dead. Death had put those bones there; decay and decomposition had left them stark and stripped.
Although the Bible doesn’t say it, Ezekiel might have wondered, “Who were these people that have been reduced to nothing more than being piles of bleached bones? What happened to them? What brought them to this?” Good questions, and for me to give you an answer, I have to give you just a smidgeon of history. Ezekiel was a prophet who lived in the dark days of Judah’s Babylonian Captivity; which was about 600 years before Jesus was born. As had happened many times before, Judah turned away from God, and as also had happened many times before, God decided to punish them. The punishment came in the person of the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar.
In a great battle, Nebuchadnezzar, with his Babylonian armies, took out the forces of Egypt, and became masters of most of the mid-east, including the kingdom of Judah. Many of the people of promise, the prophet Ezekiel included, were dragged away from their homes and transplanted to Babylon. There they faced the cold, hard facts that they were going to end their days in exile and slavery. Insult was added to injury when they got word from home that their capital city of Jerusalem had been destroyed and the great temple, the center of all their spiritual activities, had been leveled.
The news was crushing. There was no hope of going home – there was no home to go back to. Their personal lives, their spiritual lives were over. No wonder the people said: “Our bones are dried up and our hope is gone; we are cut off” (Ezekiel 37:11). Ezekiel’s questions had been answered. These dry bones were people who should have been happy, but who were not; who should have had a future, but did not; who should have had hope, but could only see a future filled with doubt, despair, depression, and dejection.
Doubt, despair, depression, dejection. It is quite possible that those words are more than familiar to the hearts and minds of some of The Lutheran Hour listeners this day. Doubt, despair, depression, dejection. Doubt that anyone loves you, cares, or is concerned about you. Despair that your future holds only gloomy shadows and darkness. Depression that no matter what you do, it will not be enough; no matter how hard you try, you will fail; no matter how long you struggle and strive you will not succeed. The dejection of being surrounded by shades and shadows which leave you feeling so forlorn and forsaken that every part of your body and soul, even your very bones feel dead and dried up. Doubt, despair, depression, and dejection can do that, can’t they? A wicked world with all of its sins, sadness, and sorrow, its hurts, hatreds, and horrors can do that. Terrible things which come from within us; tragic things thrust upon us from outside – these all take their toll. Pleasure never satisfies; contentment never comes; tomorrow remains unwelcomed. You silently, wonder, “Will things ever change? Will they ever get better?” God asked the same question of the prophet, albeit in a little bit different way. The Lord asked: “Can these dead bones live?” It was His way of saying: “Can hope ever come to the hopeless?”
I can give you two answers to that question. First, there is humanity’s answer. As a parish pastor, I have stood at the death beds of all kinds of people, rich folk and poor, loved ones, and those who were alone; infants, children, teens, young couples, mature adults, and the elderly. I have been in the world’s best hospitals, and listened to some of the greatest medical minds in the world find themselves compelled to confess: “We have done all we can. Barring a miracle, there is no hope.” I have heard the pain poured out from the hearts of those who were hurting; whose marriages were ending; whose children were wandering; whose health was eroding; whose jobs were concluding; who seemed desperate and doomed to failure. As I listened, I thought to myself, “Barring a miracle, there is no hope.” I knew that it was impossible, humanly impossible, for those dry bones to be brought back to life.
The prophet Ezekiel knew the same. When God asked, “Can these bones live?” there was only one logical, sensible, reasonable answer: “Of course not. It’s impossible.” But Ezekiel did not give a logical, sensible, reasonable answer. Instead, knowing that with God all things are possible, Ezekiel gave another answer, a better answer, the answer of faith. Without having seen, without knowing just how dry bones could be resurrected, the prophet gave a hopeful reply. He said, “O Lord, God, You know.” And God did know. And God showed the prophet. He said, “Ezekiel, speak to these bones. Tell them the words which I give you…. and My words will come bringing hope, and life, and change, and salvation.”
Ezekiel did as he was instructed. I could tell you what happened next, but it’s better for you to hear the inspired words of the prophet, himself. From 2,500 years ago these words come to you. Listen as Ezekiel writes:
And as I prophesied, there was a sound, and behold, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to 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 (God) said to me, “Prophesy … and say … 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.
Can dry bones live? They can… but not by their own power. Dry bones can live, when a miracle takes place. And if you hear nothing else I say today, hear this: it is God’s gracious will to give you a miracle. Through His Son’s sacrifice, and by the Spirit’s power, dry bones, your dry bones can live. If Scripture says nothing else, it says this: God can, and will bring life to the driest of bones. See Adam and Eve after their disobedience. Death, earthly and eternal, is their unavoidable, unenviable future. But God gave this condemned couple redemption reprieve. God guaranteed that His perfect Son would take their place. God promised to substitute His Son’s perfect life for their sinful ones. This was God’s promise, and at the Savior’s empty tomb He fulfilled that promise. As a result of that promise, our first ancestors found tomorrows’ terrors had been taken away and hell had lost its horrors.
Dry bones can live when God’s miracle takes place. Abraham was dried up by old age, but God granted a miracle and an heir was provided. Moses was exiled from Egypt, but God granted a miracle and the shepherd lead God’s people, out of slavery. Dry bones can live when God provides a miracle. When God’s people were being persecuted by the Philistines, God granted a miracle and with the sling and stone of a shepherd boy, gave a victory to His forces. Read Scripture. Take a look. See God grant His miracles and provide hope where there is none. Daniel lives through a night in the lion’s den; three men find God’s company and are delivered from a fiery furnace. I could go on.
Indeed, I will go on. I will go on talking about God’s miracles which defeat the devil’s tools of doubt, despair, depression, and dejection. Go to Bethlehem; see the birth of God’s Son, the divinely promised, angel-proclaimed Good News of great joy which is for all people. Jesus entered this world so dry bones might live. Look at His ministry of grace. The Bible describes those years this way: The blind receive their sight; the lame walk, lepers are cleansed; the deaf hear; the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them. By God’s miracle, through His Son’s care, dry bones lived. See a Samaritan adulteress at the well; to her Jesus brought forgiveness. See Jericho’s despised tax collector, Zacchaeus. To his home Jesus brought salvation and self-respect. Look at the thief that hung next to Jesus on the cross. If there was ever a man without the possibility of hope or happiness it had to be that man. Agony was all that was left to him; and death was certain. Still, even as He died, Jesus granted a miracle of forgiveness, and the Holy Spirit breathed life into that dying man’s bones. To the malefactor, Jesus said, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.”
Can dry bones live? They can when God provides a miracle. And a miracle for the entire world is exactly what God provided in the community of Jerusalem almost 2,000 years ago. The city which had seen the miracles of the Savior’s suffering, sacrifice, death, and resurrection, was privileged to see another, life-giving, eternity-bestowing miracle. Fifty days after Jesus had risen from the dead, the Holy Spirit came upon God’s gathered people. Announced by the sound of a rushing, mighty wind, and evidenced by living, non-burning flames which sat over the heads of each, God announced that salvation had been won, and should be shared, with every man, woman, and child. On that day, in a multitude of languages, for the very first time, Jesus’ spokesmen proclaimed the miraculous message that the world had, literally, been dying to hear. They said: Jesus has been born to be your substitute; Jesus has died to take away your sins; Jesus lives so that all who believe on Him with repentant hearts, can live forever. They told the world that dry bones can live!
It was a transforming day, and the world has never been the same since. Let me tell you what I mean. Before Pentecost, Jesus’ disciples had been self-centered, always arguing about who would be first in the kingdom of heaven. Before Pentecost they had tried to keep little children from seeing the Savior. Before Pentecost they had doubted Jesus’ power; misunderstood His message; and tried to talk Him out of fulfilling His mission. Before Pentecost they made promises they didn’t keep and boasts they couldn’t fulfill. Before Pentecost, they slept rather than prayed; they ran when they should have stood; and were cowards when they should have been courageous. Before Pentecost, they complained and criticized, nagged and nitpicked.
But with the coming of the Spirit, the disciples were transformed. They became bold witnesses, proud proclaimers of the Gospel. Sure of their forgiveness, positive that heaven awaited them, they went out and shared with all the world, even as I am sharing with you today: When Jesus Christ is your Savior, your dry bones will live. There is no future so bad, so bleak, that the Christ cannot make it better. There is no sadness so profound, no sorrow so potent that it can defeat the Holy Spirit. Through Jesus’ story of salvation which is God’s Holy Word, the Holy Spirit leads you to your Savior. The Holy Spirit puts muscle, and sinew, and flesh on our dry bones by assuring us that when we deserved hell, Christ gave us heaven; that when we were trapped in a hopelessness, the Savior is hardly helpless. In Jesus, the Spirit gives our dry bones the power to be conquerors – no, more than conquerors over life’s sins and sorrows.
Can dry bones live? The science-fiction movie Jurassic Park, and please don’t forget that second word, fiction, said “Maybe.” Some of you who are struggling to keep abreast of the latest scientific breakthroughs in cloning, concede: “Possibly, someday.” The millions of you who are mesmerized by the flickering episodes of CSI are weekly astounded at the information which a corpse can divulge. You think, “Probably.” Still, on this Lord’s Day, humanity’s answer to the question, “Can dry bones live?” must remain a helpless, humble, “no.” The power to bring life to dry and dead bones remains in God’s hands, not ours. Still, this Pentecost Sunday, we are able to give thanks to God for His Son, His Spirit and the salvation story which brings life out of death.
Do you remember, how, at the beginning of this message, we talked about a chicken which was brought back from the dead? Won’t you allow me to finish with another story, a people story, about people coming back from the dead? You know, even with all of our medical and legal knowledge, the exact moment between being alive and being dead can sometimes become blurry. That blur was far bigger in the 1800s. Back then people were afraid to be declared dead, when they were still living. Millions were terrified that a coma, a stroke, or a fever might leave them catatonic and some well-intentioned, but ignorant, individual might end up burying them alive. Sideshows played on those fears by displaying caskets whose lids bore evidence, real or manufactured, of the death struggles of an individual who had been interred while still living. To prevent such a terrible thing from happening, caskets were equipped with a cord which rang a bell which was located above ground. From this invention, we get the expression, “being saved by the bell.” Now, although I can’t tell you if that contraption ever brought somebody back from the dead, if anybody was actually “saved by the bell;” I can tell you that millions have been saved by the blood – Jesus’ blood. I can tell you that the Holy Spirit has made dry bones live in the lives of millions whom He has brought back from doubt, despair, depression, dejection, and death. He can make dry bones live. If you need to know more, call us at The Lutheran Hour. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions and Answers) for June 4, 2006
TOPIC: The Gospel Of Judas – part 1ANNOUNCER: What is The Gospel of Judas? I’m Mark Eischer, here with Pastor Ken Klaus.
KLAUS: Hi, Mark. And hello to the listeners.
ANNOUNCER: Should Christians be concerned about this recently discovered, so-called Gospel of Judas? The way you hear it talked about in the media, it would seem that if that gospel is right, then the Bible is wrong. And if the Bible’s wrong, so would be many of the things that we as Christians believe.
KLAUS: Well, first, let’s give the document’s history. It was discovered in the 1970s in a cavern near El Minya, Egypt. The leather bound papyrus was written in a Sahidic dialect. The document wandered around for years among the antiquities dealers of Egypt, then in Europe, and finally the U.S. It sat for 16 years in a safety deposit box in Hicksville, New York. It was eventually purchased in 2,000 by a Zurich dealer: Frieda Nussberger Tchacos. The manuscript is now called the Codex Tchacos. When Ms. Nussberger-Tchacos couldn’t sell the documents, she turned them over to the Maecenas Foundation for preservation and translation. The plan is, after scholars are done with it, to give the manuscript back to Egypt where it will be held in Cairo’s Coptic museum.
ANNOUNCER: Now, in recent years there have been stories about some purported relics that really turned out to be fakes. Could that be the case here?
KLAUS: Probably not. The National Geographic Society has spent a bundle researching the authenticity of the manuscript.
ANNOUNCER: OK, so let’s assume this is a legitimate manuscript from the ancient world. How old is it?
KLAUS: It would have been written around 300 AD, give or take a few years, although the Greek original might have been older.
ANNOUNCER: And does this manuscript come as a surprise to us?
KLAUS: No, not at all. The church father, Irenaeus, he said: This is a fictitious history, they call it The Gospel of Judas. The church always knew the book existed, we just didn’t have a copy of it.
ANNOUNCER: Is that a significant point?
KLAUS: Yeah, it really is. You know, we have hundreds and hundreds of ancient copies of the other Gospels. They were widely accepted and copied. This manuscript was neither. That’s why we had to wait so long to find it.
ANNOUNCER: And does this Gospel of Judas take a different point of view from the other Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John?
KLAUS: Yeah, it does. It depicts Judas as the only disciple who really understood Jesus. It talks about how Judas was motivated at Jesus’ suggestion to betray Him, not act independently. And second, the Gospel offers a new creation story. This evil world was brought into being by a bloodthirsty under-god, rather than the true God.
ANNOUNCER: Well, just on those two points alone, if the creation story isn’t true, and the passion didn’t happen the way the Bible says it did, then Christians don’t have a whole lot to hold on to.
KLAUS: There would be many, including myself, who would agree with that. Many more who would be more than glad to see Christian doctrine tumble like a house of cards.
ANNOUNCER: And, is that possible?
KLAUS: Absolutely not.
ANNOUNCER: And why not?
KLAUS: Mark, I can see that this is going to be a two-parter. I don’t want anyone to have any doubt as to the validity of their faith. So, before we run out of time, and we will continue with this next week, let me say this: the Gospel of Judas is being heralded as being a document equal with the rest of the Bible – it isn’t. People are also saying that the Gospel of Judas provides evidence that the church has, for 17 centuries, been engaged in some secret cover-up so that people can’t know the truth. It hasn’t been. It isn’t now.
Mark, the apostles, Peter, James, John, all were aware that there were and would continue to be other so-called gospels – fake, pretend gospels that would purport to tell the “real truth” about Jesus and His mission of salvation. You know, Saint Paul never heard about The Gospel of Judas, it was written after he and the other apostles were dead, but he gave the church in Galatia, and us, the following warning. He wrote: I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel- not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the Gospel of Christ. But even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. (Galatians 1:4-8)
ANNOUNCER: So Paul is saying that there’s really only one Gospel and it comes to us directly form God. And that Gospel simply is this: that Jesus Christ died for us sinners and He has risen from the dead to give us eternal life as well. And we’ll have much more to say about this so-called Gospel of Judas next week, so we hope you’ll join us then. This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“Come, Oh, Come, Thou Quickening Spirit” arranged by Henry Gerike. Used by permission
“Komm, heiliger Geist, Herre Gott” arranged by Arthur Preuss. Used by permission
“Oh, That I Had a Thousand Voices ” arranged by Chris Loemker. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC