Your Bones Shall Flourish

 4th Sunday after Pentecost – C (Proper 9)                                                   LSB #’s 846, 673, 919
Text – Isaiah 66:14
 
You shall see, & your heart shall rejoice; your bones shall flourish like the grass; & the hand of the Lord shall be known to His servants, & He shall show His indignation against His enemies. 
 
YOUR BONES SHALL FLOURISH
 
 
Growing up in Michigan,  winter was a common experience,  but it wasn’t until I was living in the state of Idaho,  that I experienced temperatures as cold as   20 degrees below zero.   What struck me one day, walking across a parking lot,  is that I noticed  I could feel  the bones in my legs  as my feet pounded across the pavement.  ‘Chilled to the bone’  took on new meaning. 
Bone-tired  is another idiom we are used to.  I’ve been there many times while growing up & doing manual labor for farmers nearby.    As an electrical contractor one job was completely rebuilding the electric service, & replacing all the electric panels,  for a restaurant.  My partner & I worked 29 hours straight through  to get it done.  I was bone-tired by the end. 
Proverbs 14:30 tells us, “A tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy  makes the bones rot.”  (ESV)    In one memorable vision, God painted a picture for the prophet Ezekiel of a valley filled  with dry bones.   Those bones represented the nation of Israel  after they died to the true God  by worshipping things that were no god at all. 
If you cut yourself off from the source of life,  it is certain  that death will follow.    The exhilarating hope of entering the Promised Land  was cut off  from the source of life years later  by the people themselves.   They were exhausted – mentally,   physically   & spiritually.  Weariness that feels like it has seeped into your very marrow  had become their lot. 
The Israelites knew what it was to be bone-tired.   In the context of Isaiah 66,  they had suffered through the exile, cut off from their land & from their God.  When some were allowed to return in anticipation of the great blessings they’d been promised,  they found only  further suffering.   After Persia’s defeat of Babylon, the small groups of exiles who returned to Judah faced hardship,  famine,  political in-fighting  & economic oppression.  Their weariness, after generations of slavery & humiliation, made their lives a challenge. 
We know that weariness in our lives.   Fortunately, for most of us,  such bone-tiredness is an occasional experience.  For others, though,  it is a way of life.   People living on the fringe  are so exhausted on a daily basis  that bone-tired is the only way they know how to live. 
Depression, anxiety,  marital or family strife, financial instability, ill health – those & others  can make us so crushingly weary  that we can’t imagine feeling truly alive again.  Throughout history,  snake-oil salesmen have made their living  off of people who are searching for a solution to their weariness.  St. Paul warned about those salesmen:
“I know that after my departure  fierce wolves will come in among you,  not sparing the flock; & from among your own selves  will arise men speaking twisted things,  to draw away the disciples after them.”  (Acts 20:29-30 ESV)   Jesus acknowledged our weariness & explained where it came from: “The thief comes  only  to steal & kill & destroy.”  (John 10:10a ESV) 
And Satan does that, not only through outright violence,  but through more subtle attacks like depression, anxiety, ill health, financial instability & marital or family strife.   He tempts us through manifest sins, or attitudes like arrogance & pride.   There are hundreds more ways  in which Lucifer paints a very dark & troubling picture of our lives. 
Jesus was born into human flesh  so He could endure & conquer that dark & troubling picture.  He did not shy away from our struggles & suffering  like someone superior to us who does not relate to the weariness we feel.  In Jesus,  God became our brother.  His name Immanuel means “God with us.”   
Because Jesus has lived & conquered the weariness we experience,  while He walked this
earth,  He proclaimed, “I came that they may have life  & have it abundantly.”  (John 10:10b ESV)    That statement is in conflict with what you & I often see  & with what we feel.   Those words of Jesus confront us  with a question: “Do we believe & trust those words of Jesus,  or do we not?” 
Do you believe what you see & what you feel,   or  do you believe & trust in the Words & promises of God’s Son?   Do you believe the hopeless, dark & troubling picture of Satan,  or the “life abundantly” picture of Jesus?   That is the crux of the Christian faith – the daily battle between our sinful nature  & our saintly nature. 
Remember the picture  that God painted for Ezekiel? 
“The hand of the Lord was upon me, & He brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord & set me down in the middle of the valley;   it was full of bones.    And He led me around among them, & behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley,  & behold,    they were very dry.  And He said to me, ‘Son of man,   can these bones live?’”  (37:1-3a ESV) 
Would Ezekiel believe what he saw with his eyes,  or would he believe in the power of God’s Word?   The valley of dry bones represents the nation of Israel  after they died to the true God  by worshipping things that were no god at all.   They cut themselves off from the source of life.   Could their bones live?   In the OT reading, Isaiah was telling them  they would:
“You shall see, & your heart shall rejoice;  your bones shall flourish like the grass; & the hand of the Lord shall be known to His servants, & He shall show His indignation against His enemies.”  (Isaiah 66:14 ESV)    How do those words relate to your life?    No matter how dark & troubling the problems of your life are,  can your bones live? 
Remember, Jesus does not deny the dark & troubling aspects of our lives.  He came  to be with us  precisely in those struggles & suffering.  He gives us hope in His very body & blood, “I have said these things to you,  that in me  you may have peace.   In the world you will have tribulation.  But take heart; I have overcome the world.”  (John 16:33 ESV)   Christianity is not a Pollyanna faith.  It does not deny the picture that Satan paints for us.   Our struggles & our sins are all too real,  but we take heart  because Jesus has overcome this world. 
The dark & troubling picture that Lucifer paints is real,  but for God’s children,  it is not eternal.  It’s temporary.   The picture that God paints for you, “You shall see,  & your heart shall rejoice;  your bones shall flourish like the grass,” that one  is eternal.   In heaven,  there’ll be no ‘chilled to the bone,’  & no one will ever be ‘bone-tired.’ 
In this life, Spring is a reminder of the new life to come.  It was here  not long ago.  Did you see,  & were you grateful for,  the blossoms?   They tell us  a plant is flourishing.   The Hebrew word translated into ‘flourish’ is actually ‘blossom.’   We could translate the text this way, “You shall see, & your heart shall rejoice;  your bones shall blossom like the grass.”
‘Chilled to the bone’ & ‘bone-tired’ are true pictures of life here,  but they are temporary.   The far more beautiful picture of our bones blossoming like the grass  is something that we do experience, in small ways in this life,  but it is a true & permanent picture  of the eternal life to come,  for all who believe & trust in  the Words & the promises of Jesus. 
In the context of Isaiah,  there were those like Daniel who understood why Jerusalem was punished,  mourned over it,  & trusted in Yahweh’s promise to restore her.  They maintained true faith in the midst of the exile. 
Though Yahweh’s promises to Judah are fulfilled in their return from exile, nevertheless their return from Babylon was not a full restoration of Israel: David’s kingdom was not restored.  Israel remained under foreign rule.  The Messiah had not yet come.  Peace & the glory of the nations (66:12a) had not flowed into Jerusalem.  
The promise in the sermon text is that the hearers will see,  rejoice,  & thrive.  Those who
trust in Yahweh’s promise to restore His people to Jerusalem will be comforted & live.   Those who scoff & reject His promise will be subject to His wrath & punishment. 
In our culture of abundant material blessings, people are still searching for solutions to their weariness.  Deep within our bones  we are weary & broken,  yet deep within our bones God’s nurturing love reaches  & restores.  Jesus came to restore us from the crushing load of guilt;  to restore us from broken health,  from broken lives,  & from broken spirits. 
Do you believe the dark & troubling picture of Satan,  or the “life abundantly” picture of Jesus?   Both are real,  but Jesus came to rescue you  from Satan’s picture,  & to deliver you into His own picture,  of abundant life.   In a sense, everything in this life is merely a picture, because none of this   is forever.   Heaven  will be far more than a picture,  & it will never end. 
Thus, we find ourselves in a similar situation as Israel in exile: as they awaited the return from exile, we await  the restoration of all things on the Last Day.  In the meantime,  we,  as they once did,  live by faith in the word & the promises of God.  One day  our very bones  will blossom forever.  Amen. 
 
 
 
Jerusalem,  my happy home,  when shall I come to thee?   When shall my sorrows have an end?   Thy joys  when shall I see?        Thy gardens & thy gallant walks  continually are green;   there grow such sweet & pleasant flowers  as nowhere else are seen.        O Christ,  do Thou my soul prepare  for that bright home of love   that I may see Thee & adore  with all Thy saints above.  Amen.  LSB 673:1, 3, 6.