‘Yes!’ Is the answer according to Easter which we celebrate this month. The resurrection of Jesus from the dead proves this, and by faith in Him we too will be raised to everlasting life!
But you may recognise this question from the Old Testament book of the prophet Ezekiel, immortalised in the old song ‘them bones, them bones, them dry bones now hear the Word of the Lord’.
Ezekiel was a young priest about to begin his ministry when Babylon invaded and overran Israel taking most of the young men including Ezekiel back to Babylon in chains and slavery with no temple of Jerusalem (which they destroyed), no ministry and no hope. God shows
the young Ezekiel a vision of a valley full of dry bones, and asks this question to Ezekiel ‘Can these bones live’?
Interestingly, Ezekiel doesn’t say ‘yes’, or ‘no’, or even ‘I don’t know’, but ‘O Lord God You know’. Sometimes we do not know – usually we don’t – but we trust in a God who holds and controls the future whom we serve according to His good will and purpose.
As we look at our many old churches across the land we might ask ‘Can these STONES live?’ But again we look to a God of hope and resurrection who knows.
Before God raised Jesus gloriously from the dead he wasn’t much more than bones, knowing the horrors, brutality and cruelty of Roman crucifixion and the scourging Jesus also endured. And the disciples were disillusioned without hope ‘we had hoped’ they say to the ‘stranger’ they meet on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus on that first Easter evening, who turns out to be the risen Lord Jesus!
Followers of Jesus are people of faith and hope not people who know it all. We trust and believe in a God who loved us, sent Jesus to save us and conquered death in raising Jesus to life on that first Easter Day.
Please join us at our 5 churches over Holy Week and Easter as we remember God’s gift of love to us in the life of His Son Jesus, and His power for us as we joyfully celebrate on Easter Sunday. See all our services and events on this website.
Timothy Wilson