larshaukeland

Son of man, can these bones live? Ezekiel 37:3

After an impossible day that began in horror and ended in complete devastation, Jesus body was buried and sealed into a tomb. Guards surrounded it ensuring no one would steal the body and make impossible claims. I wonder if any of the disciples slept that night? I wonder what those whom Jesus had healed dreamt about? What stories did they tell around the table that night?

Or were they all just silent?

The day after was the Sabbath, and as was the custom, everyone got up and headed for the Temple. Lazarus, newly raised from the dead would have been there with his sisters. The disciples and friends of Jesus, his mother and family were there too… maybe they all walked together, maybe tears were still flowing as they climbed the temple steps.

On this particular Sabbath following the Passover and during the feast of unleavened bread, every year the same passage of scripture was read. And as the hopes and promises of Jesus fought for their lives within the hearts of the people, the Priest turned to the Book of Ezekiel and read,

“The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”

I said, “Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones and say to them, ‘Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord! This is what the Sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”

So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them.

Then he said to me, “Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, breath, from the four winds and breathe into these slain, that they may live.’” So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet—a vast army.

Then he said to me: “Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel. They say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is gone; we are cut off.’ Therefore prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: My people, I am going to open your graves and bring you up from them; I will bring you back to the land of Israel. Then you, my people, will know that I am the Lord, when I open your graves and bring you up from them. I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live, and I will settle you in your own land. Then you will know that I the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, declares the Lord.”

The Gospels say that as Jesus died, graves opened and the dead rose. I wonder if any of them had seen the tombs that had already opened and the once dead walking among them, maybe they were sitting next to some of them even as they heard these words read, prophesying in their bodies what was coming on the following sunrise…