When Sarah heard that she would be giving birth to her own baby boy, she threw back her head and laughed out loud. She laughed at the very idea of an old woman having a baby. She had prayed for a son of her own, but as time passed, her dreams gave way to despair and finally, to acceptance. And now, it seemed comical to hear such a ridiculous thing- so she laughed right out loud... and one of the visitors heard her. He heard Sarah laugh, and he asked a question that each of us must answer: is anything too hard for God? Should we pray for things that don't seem possible? Should we believe in things that we can't explain? Is God just in the "comforting" business, or can God also be in the "transformation" and even the "miracle" business?
Centuries after Sarah heard that she would give birth to a bouncing baby boy, an eccentric prophet was lifted up by the Spirit of God and deposited in a valley of dry bones. The people of God had hit bottom. It was a time of utter despair... and the prophet found himself in a valley of dry bones. The bones were piled deep and he couldn't begin to count them. But it was their "deadness" that was especially sobering. The bones were very dry, not sort of dry, and they were very dead, not dying! It was a daunting spectacle, but unlike Sarah, Ezekiel did not laugh...when God asked him a question that each of us must answer: can these dry bones live? Can they stand up and dance? Can they take on life and begin again? Well... can they? Is anything too hard for God? And the prophet answered correctly when he said, "O Lord, you know." Speak to them, son of man, and call them back together. That's what God commanded and when His prophet obeyed, the dry bones came back together- foot bone to ankle bone to leg bone- and human forms took shape. And when the prophet was commanded to call the Spirit into them, the bones came to life! They came to life... and stood as a vast army, and with ears of faith, we can still hear their "amens."
Centuries later still, an ordinary Jew died in a little village outside of Jerusalem. His name was Lazarus and when he became critically ill, his sisters sought help from their friend, Jesus, because they believed that he could heal their brother if he got to them in time. But as it turned out, Lazarus had been dead for four days by the time Jesus arrived. Martha met him first and she expressed a feeling that some of us may have had in our own lives. "Lord," she said, "If you had been here, my brother would not have died." If you had been here, my brother would not have died, and her sister, Mary, said the same thing. It was a time of great grief, and the Bible says that Jesus' heart broke when he saw the emptiness in their eyes and the pain that they were enduring. He sobbed- and he would be overwhelmed with grief again before he resurrected Lazarus- because broken dreams, dry bones, and dead brothers... are worth crying about. Then he told them to roll away the stone that covered Lazarus' tomb. "Oh no," Martha tried to say, "You're too late. My brother's been dead for days and we can smell him from here."
We can smell him from here. My brother is not only dead-he is rotting. And then, Jesus asked her the same question that he asks us- Is anything too hard for God? Can God resurrect a dead man? Can God restore rotted flesh? Can shattered pieces be picked up and reassembled and become new again? Today, as we get nearer to Good Friday... we come to the question that Jesus asked Martha before he resurrected her brother. "Do you believe in the resurrection?"he asked. And when Martha said that she believed that there would be a resurrection on the last day, Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?" Mary, Judy, Joan, Dave, Harold, Jack, and all the others... do you believe this? When you get right down to it, is this all there is... or is there life beyond the grave? Is Good Friday the end of it, or will we also dance for joy on some Easter morning? That's the question. What is your answer?
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