“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?”
Easter is approaching and thoughts are turning towards resurrection and new life. However, resurrection presupposes death. Grief and loss are a part of life, death is inevitable, but we know that it is not the end of our Christian journey. One day we will see our loved ones again, whole and complete, alive in Christ Jesus. We ourselves will be renewed. Today during worship we heard the reading from Ezekiel about the Valley of Dry Bones. It is a mesmerising account of God’s power over life and death; without this power, resurrection cannot happen. With the developments in the medical field doctors are able to resuscitate patients; people who have been pronounced clinically dead have been brought back from the edge and have been revived. But this is not resurrection. Only God himself has the power to resurrect the dead.
The prophet Ezekiel is a first hand witness to the dry bones coming together and being wrapped in sinew and flesh, and then God breathes life into the resurrected bodies; it’s an awesome vision of God’s work in the world and his work among humanity. It prefigures the restoration of the house of Israel to their own land and shows that God keeps his promise to his chosen ones. The Lord says in Ezekiel, “I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people; and I will bring you back to the land of Israel.”
We believe, as Jesus himself taught, in the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come, and Jesus asks us, “do you believe this?” To believe means that one is counted among God’s number, and to believe in Jesus, God’s only Son, means that resurrection is assured. Everlasting life has been promised to those who believe.
God’s power to resurrect does not just apply to the end of our journey on earth, it happens as part of our path as human beings, when we are broken down, when we are grieving, when we feel dismantled by life, just like the bones in Ezekial’s valley, dried up and scattered. God picks us up and puts us back together again, breathing new life into our broken lives, rebuilding us, stronger and sturdier than before through his great love for us.
Tell Out My Soul 
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