Recalled to Life—Act 4
Ez. 37, John 1, 11, etc.
4/24/11—Easter Sunday
3KCOC
Introduction: Dickens and the Robertson Fire
Most of you have heard of Charles Dickens’ book The Tale of Two Cities. Many of you may have read it. If you have, you might remember a phrase from early in the book, “Recalled to Life.” Early in the story we are introduced to Dr. Manette, who has been imprisoned in France for eighteen years, apparently in almost total isolation. The effects of this imprisonment have been so severe that Dr. Manette is reduced to a death-like existence while still alive in the body. Those who care about him or ready to receive him out of prison and they use a phrase to describe what they will do for Dr. Manette, “Recall to life.” Dr. Manette had known death, but his friends want to call him back to life.
Our world considers death as the point of no return. Therefore, the phrase “recall to life” is an oxymoron in the ears of many. You can’t be recalled to life once dead. But the Bible, and our Christian story, tells a much different story. It tells a story about when conditions were at their worst, when hope was dead, that God through his Son Jesus Christ came to us to recall us to life. We are not created for death. We were created for life, but unfortunately we chose death in that Garden so long ago. We were in a prison of our own making and there was no escape until we were recalled to life.
I stood on the ashes of Steve and Alisha’s house this week and looked at death. No, there was no human death, but there was the death of a home, a dream, vegetation, and even animals. The fire had left death in its wake. Can God recall us to life in the midst of such tragedy? Many of you have stood on your own pile of ashes, sometimes literal, sometimes figurative. You have seen your dreams destroyed, your loved one taken, your self-worth demolished. Your life may have been as much a pile of rubble as this once proud house. I don’t know what reasons brought you to be with us this Easter Sunday, but I know the question that must be addressed in your heart: What can Jesus do with the rubble of my life? Can he make it live again? Can he restore my dreams and my hopes? Can he recall me to life instead of death?
A man named Ezekiel once encountered the same questions. His nation, his temple, and in many ways his faith were a pile of rubble. Ezekiel and his people were in exile. As a nation and a people they were dead; the dream was over. Then God came to Ezekiel in a vision and asked him a question that would change everything, that would recall Israel to life. Read Ez. 37. 1-14.
Move 1: Can these bones live?
We have been going through the story of the Bible in six acts and have covered the first three. Act 1: God alone creates a very good world and places man and woman in a garden to be stewards over creation. Act 2: Satan leads humans away from God by enticing them to rebellion, and as a result creation ceases to be what God intended, evil proliferates, and falls into crisis. Act 3: God chooses Abraham and his descendants to counteract the damage caused by Satan and human rebellion with the intention of blessing all nations through the chosen nation of Israel. It is in this “act” in which Ezekiel finds himself and in many ways it is the most difficult.
It appears that things have not worked out as God intended when he chose Abraham. Instead of being a blessing to the nations, Israel has been unfaithful and profaned the name of Yahweh before the nations. They have been exiled to Babylon and their temple and capital city lie in ruins. Ezekiel himself was from a priestly family and took great personal pride in his service to the temple. Now that symbol of God’s presence was rubble, no more than a heap of ashes. Ezekiel may have been a prophet, but he was not immune to discouragement and maybe even despair.
So, God gives him a stunning vision, a way in which God often communicated with Ezekiel, but this one is personal. Ezekiel sees a valley of dry bones, innumerable to his eyes. Can there be any doubt as to what they represented? This is Israel, their hopes, their temple, their nation, and the majority of their people all lying before Ezekiel as bones that are called “very” dry. They are long dead and forgotten.
God asks Ezekiel a stunning question, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Ezekiel can’t bring himself to say “yes.” What God is asking is impossible. He prefers to pass the buck and so says, “O Sovereign LORD, you alone know.” Ezekiel doesn’t want to completely give up hope, but he can’t muster it within himself. Have you ever felt like Ezekiel? Your life and hopes lie before you like dry bones and you want to believe they can live, but you just can’t get your hopes up again. That is Ezekiel.
But God commands him to prophesy to the bones. You have to love the imagery, “Dry bones, hear the word of the LORD!” When the word of the LORD comes something amazing is going to happen. From the word of the Lord came the universe. From the word of the Lord came the banishment from the Garden. From the word of the Lord came God’s election of Abraham and Israel. From the word of the Lord came judgment, exile, and death to Israel. From the word of the Lord then, dry bones will live!
I would have loved to have heard that sound and seen Ezekiel’s face as those bones began to rattle, as they began to form human beings, a whole army! And as God’s breath gave them life, recalled to Life was the nation of Israel! And they would return to their homeland; they would rebuild Jerusalem and their temple, and they would await the coming of the Messiah to usher in the age of salvation.
Move 2: Life comes near.
And so we come to Act 4, which tells the story of how the source of life itself took on human life in order to grant us eternal life. Listen to how John tells the beginning of this part of the story. Read John 1:1-18. Do you understand what John is telling us? He brings together all the aspects of the story. That same Word who created the world, was the Word who was with God and who was God. That Word who was God is the one in whom life existed. He gave that life to us as his creation. But we chose darkness and death. But instead of giving us over to death, life itself comes to us in the flesh (and the Word became flesh). He who is the source of life comes to recall us to life by giving us the opportunity to be children of God through faith in him. Darkness and death can be vanquished in favor of light and life or so John claims.
We have been watching a show about aliens living among us. It is a typical plot line. The aliens visit us in peace or so it seems, but their true intention is to scope out our planet, as their planet is dying. They seem cordial enough, but misunderstandings between our leaders and theirs escalate a conflict. This is coupled with information that their planet is dying sooner than expected. They have 2.5 billion people who instantly need a place to live, so the solution is obvious. The overwhelming majority of the human population will need to be removed…permanently.
Do you know why that type of plot works over and over again? Because it is predicated upon the assumption that when there are conflicting interests people will always choose their welfare over others, even if it means annihilation to masses of people. Aren’t you glad that isn’t how God operates? God could have chose self-preservation and left us to death. By coming to give us life we discover that he chooses to die. John is subtle about telling the story at first, but we quickly discover that when this Word showed up in the flesh, he did so in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
Move 3: Death meets the Resurrection and the Life and loses.
Jesus came to teach us that we could all have the reign of God in our life; we could all experience the eternal life he came to grant. Listen to what Jesus told the Samaritan woman he met by a well. Read John 4:13-14. This life is not just about a life that begins after death, but begins as soon as we give our life to Jesus. This is how we are recalled to life.
But not everyone liked Jesus’ message of eternal life being offered to all people. They thought it was too inclusive and was presumptuous for Jesus to offer it. They didn’t see that the one who gave us all life is certainly qualified to offer it again. They didn’t see who he was at all. They just wanted to get rid of him.
John 11 is a place where we see this desire escalate. Jesus raises a dead man four days in the grave named Lazarus. Listen to his claim about how he could do this when he was talking to Martha, Lazarus’ sister. Read John 11:25. Jesus in effect is saying that when death meets the resurrection and the life, death ceases to exist for the believer. He or she cannot be killed, cannot be made to cease to exist, because Jesus has granted them life from himself. And then as to eradicate any doubt about it; he goes out and raises Lazarus from the dead. Yet, here is what his opponents thought of it. Read 11:47-53.
And so everything comes to a tipping point as the plot moves toward Jesus’ death. Even if Jesus could raise Lazarus, what if you killed the source of life? The Jewish leaders plot his death, but John tells us it is for a greater purpose. Jesus would die for Israel and all those who would be called children of God. He would die to give us life permanently. And so a short time later the Jewish authorities got their wish and Jesus was crucified. And Jesus lay in that tomb for part of three days and the tension is palpable. Is it over again? Have all the hopes for the salvation of the world finally been vanquished? Or as God asked Ezekiel, “Son of man, can these bones live?” His disciples certainly didn’t think so, but then Sunday came.
Move 4: Jesus recalls you to life; will you answer?
The various resurrection accounts are too numerous for us to recount today, but it seemed that everyone was in on getting to see Jesus except poor Thomas. Some of the women are the first to find an empty tomb that Sunday morning and then Jesus appeared bodily to Martha. Jesus then appears to all of his disciples, but for some reason Thomas is not with them. Now where was Thomas anyway? Maybe he was tired of this resurrection nonsense and didn’t want to hang around the others. Here’s what he had told them. Read 20:25. Another week passes and Thomas is with them this time and what happened next changed Thomas and many of us forever. Read 20:26-31.
Thomas finally got it. He correctly concluded that indeed Jesus must be his Lord and God when he encountered the risen Lord. He found Jesus had been recalled to life never to give it up again. Jesus tells him and all of us, “Stop doubting and believe.” Jesus especially blesses those who would believe him without seeing him as Thomas had to do. But what’s the resurrection of Jesus all about? John tells us in those last two verses. That we might believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing we might have life in his name.
So, when you are looking at a pile of ashes or your life lying in ruins, then face the question Ezekiel did all those years ago, “Son of man, can these bones live?” Can Jesus give life to our broken dreams and our broken lives? Can he give rain to a dry earth, as we will pray for tonight? Can he even give you life in the face of death? Whatever your reason for coming here today, Jesus would say to you, “Stop doubting and believe.” Discover the blessedness that comes in believing in the resurrected Lord that you have not seen, but whom you can know with all of your heart.
Nothing else really matters in comparison. Death surrounds us and will claim us all, both spiritually and physically, unless we allow Jesus to recall us to life. That is what Act 4 is all about. He has come to give us life that by believing in him we might never die. But Dr. Mannette had to give up the former existence of death to truly enjoy life. And so you too have a choice. Will you allow Jesus to recall you to life or will you choose to stay in death, a valley of dry bones. The word of the Lord has come to you; we pray that you will receive it; we pray that you will live!
Invitation: Live!
The invitation is simple come to Jesus and live! It is simple and yet many reject it. Sometimes dead people are hard to convince to live. Or maybe they don’t know they are dead. Believe me without Jesus we are all dead. Jesus comes to give life; please accept his offer today!
