Tonight we are reading through Ezekiel 37. Throughout the Old Testament, and especially with Ezekiel, we see Jesus Christ prefigured. St. John says that he writes and organizes his Gospel “so that you may believe.” John 20:31. Last week in Ezekiel 34 we looked at God as the Good Shepherd of Israel which Jesus applies to himself in John 10. In both Ezekiel’s prophecy and John’s Gospel, this Good Shepherd discourse is followed by a discourse on the resurrection. In Ezekiel 37 it is the Valley of the Dry Bones and in John 11 it is the raising of Lazarus thus further emphasizing that the promises made by God in Ezekiel are fulfilled by God through Jesus.
Dinner tonight is at 6. You do not have to read anything to join us and participate in the discussions. The menu is roast pork with fingerling potatoes and mixed vegetables. Hope to see you here.
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the valley; it was full of bones. And he led me around among them and there were very many on the surface of the valley and they were very dry. And as I prophesied, there was a sound and a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. . . . . Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone lay against it. Jesus said, “Take away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, by this time there will be an odor, for he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you have heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said these things, he cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Ezekiel 37, 1-2, 7, 10; John 11: 38-44.