Ezekiel 37:1-14

The book of Ezekiel spans a tumultuous period in the area surrounding Jerusalem. Assyrians had destroyed the northern kingdom, but now they were overtaken by the Babylonians. Babylonians fought Egyptians, with Jerusalem caught in the middle. This was the first exile of Jews to Babylon. Then the walls of Jerusalem were breached and the temple was burned. Some say there never was a temple, but we can verify the major political movements and that's what's important here.

It was in exile that Ezekiel became a priest. I should mention this book of the Bible is our sole source for this character. As in this passage, he had a few visions. They start out pretty ugly, predicting the history I just mentioned, but they start to turn toward hope by time we get to these bones. The bones representing the previous destruction. Somehow all of this is supposed to teach us that God is in charge, and will be known, and there will be restoration. Christians of course see the promises of restoration as the promise of Jesus.

In theological terms, Ezekiel shows us that God is not limited to the temple in Jerusalem. A defeat like this usually marks the end of a religion. Before the exile, there were stories, some of them written, but they weren't synthesized into the collections that are now so familiar. Whether they truly had visions like this or simply wanted to preserve what they felt was their superior culture in the face of these evil empires, we don't really know.

What we end up with is, some impenetrable logic. God made promises, and they appear to be broken, but He also told us we had to uphold our end of the bargain, to follow his laws. If we don't, He'll show us He is in charge and then He'll help us get back to our former glory, providing we are good from now on. It's sounds crazy when you read about “dem bones” dancing around, but here is how it is translated into modern language at biblica.com;

God is free to judge, and he is equally free to be gracious. His stern judgments on Israel ultimately reflect his grace. He allows the total dismemberment of Israel’s political and religious life so that her renewed life and his presence with her will be clearly seen as a gift from the Lord of the universe.

With that, anything that happens fits the narrative. It allows for total defeat and it justifies war. Here judgment on Israel reflects His grace, but in other times, that judgment is dished out by Israel on others. When Christianity is finally embraced by an empire in the 4th century, that logic is used to dismember quite a few other cultures.

Romans 8:6-11

The theme today is spirit and breath being blown into mere flesh and bones. This passage from St. Paul could be seen as a continuation of that idea from Ezekiel, or a bit of a departure from it, as here in notes on this passage from John Wesley:

There is therefore now no condemnation - Either for things present or past. Now he comes to deliverance and liberty. The law of the Spirit - That is, the gospel. Hath freed me from the law of sin and death - That is, the Mosaic dispensation.

Are we now free from this cycle of being blessed for following the law and condemned for not? If the Spirit is in us, it appears we are. But Paul leaves us here with a requirement of having the Spirit, but not with a way of knowing if we have it. Worse, he tells us our bodies are dead, so don't look there, I guess. This is the worst aspect of Paul for me, constantly denying that anything from the body is to be accepted as anything but sinful. He puts no value in sensations or feelings. There are too many stories of young people struggling with what this means to trivialize it. Life has no real value according to Paul, you live only because of God, and you submit to that. This, like Ezekiel, opens the door to fundamentalism, where whatever laws and rules and definitions of righteousness can be sold, those are the path to grace. Whatever joy you might get from just being alive, doesn't matter. People close to you die, they have eternal life now, so you should happy. This is why some call these religions “death cults”.

John 11:1-45

This story is unique to John's gospel. You will probably hear from the pulpit that it contains the shortest sentence in the Bible, “Jesus wept”, translated slightly longer in the link I provide. More noteworthy is you don't hear much about Jesus showing emotion like that. The personality of Jesus is quite different in this gospel. Jesus seems to know everything that is going to happen. Since this was written much later, and people are familiar with the stories, it would seem a bit strange if they knew more than Jesus, as the story unfolded. The theology of God coming down to be with us had also been well developed by this time, so this story shows Jesus as more God-like and gives this show of emotion to say he is like us.

The story comes just before the passion narrative. It is the last of many miracles Jesus has performed and that have attracted followers. This is probably a statement that, if you are trying to say you are the messiah that's one thing, but showing you have power over death is going to get you in a lot of trouble. But that turns out differently than the Romans expected, as we'll see in the next few weeks.