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Stumbling Towards the Tomb in the Dark
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Hespeler, April 05, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Easter Day
Jeremiah 31:1-6, Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24, Colossians 3:1-4, John 20:1-18
The Gospel of John tells a slightly different story of Easter morning from the other gospels. The other Gospels tell us about several women coming out to the tomb as the third day after the crucifixion dawns. They may be sad and confused, but at least they are together, and they walk in the early morning light.
But John starts the story like this: “Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb.” John invites us to imagine Mary all alone and stumbling in the dark at one of the hardest moments in her life.
When John tells us this, I do not think that he is trying to contradict or correct the accounts in the other Gospels. He may be aware that there were other women who were there.
Symbolic
This adjustment to the story is more symbolic than literal. Throughout this Gospel, the image of people walking alone in the darkness comes up a few times. It always means that someone is lost, confused and doesn’t understand what Jesus is talking about. That is what John is telling us about Mary at this point in the story. He is also warning us that we might have the same problem this Easter morning.
And Mary’s failure to understand what Jesus is about is put directly on display. She arrives at the tomb and sees one thing and immediately jumps to the wrong conclusion. She sees that the protective stone has been removed from the tomb, and she doesn’t even bother to investigate. She doesn’t even look inside (perhaps because it is still so dark), and just jumps to a conclusion: “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.”
The Story Mary Tells
We know what that missing stone means, don’t we? It means that Jesus is no longer dead. It means that he is risen and that death has no dominion over him and that because he lives, we may live also.
But what story does Mary tell herself? She tells a story of theft, “They have taken the Lord.” She tells a story of doubt, “We don’t know.” Most of all, she tells a story of a mysterious “them,” a seemingly all-powerful enemy who is intent on destroying whatever hope or comfort she might find in this deeply troubling world.
The story that Mary tells is a false narrative, but maybe we could forgive her for it. She has stumbled upon a confusing situation in the dark. Who wouldn’t jump to the worst conclusion? But, once established, her belief proves remarkably resilient.
After she tells her false story to the male disciples, she returns to the tomb with Peter and another disciple. It is now full morning and, in the light of day, the disciples turn up more evidence for what has happened. They turn up linen wrappings that had been on Jesus’ body, and the cloth that had been on his head rolled up separately.
Evidence of the Grave Clothes
This new evidence goes against Mary’s story. What kind of evil grave robber “them” is going to take the trouble to carefully unwrap and fold the linens? This new evidence apparently convinces one of the disciples to believe something different, though we’re not told what.
But Mary, what does she do with this new information? Is she willing to revise her story? Not for one minute! She has a narrative, and she is going to stick with it.
The two men leave to mull things over, but she remains firmly committed to her story. She remains alone and weeping at the cave, still firmly believing that the insidious “they” have done something cruel.
Heavenly Visitors
The next test of her commitment to her tale comes in the form of a heavenly apparition. She looks into the tomb to see two angels sitting there. Note that John doesn’t say men dressed in white like some of the other Gospels. He doesn’t say that they looked kind of like angels. It was apparently obvious that they were angels.
This is the clearest indication yet that Mary’s story is wrong. Why would angels show up at the scene of a random grave robbery? But is Mary at all willing to revise her interpretation of the events? Not for a moment. Indeed, she repeats the exact same story to the angels: “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.”
Why, Nothing Less than the Appearance of Jesus Himself!
By this point, it is clear that Mary is so committed to her story that nothing will shake her from it. I mean, sure, if the risen Jesus himself were to come and stand right in front of her then she would have to admit that her story is wrong, but anything short of…
Wait, what? Are you telling me that that is exactly what happened next, and she still wouldn’t let go of her narrative? She was so lost in her story that she didn’t even recognize the man that she had followed for years. She assumed he was a landscaper and actually accused him of working with “them” in their horrible crime? This I’ve got to see.
Well, what do you know! I guess Mary Magdalene was really that committed to her story.
A Warning About False Narratives
What is John trying to say by telling us the story in this way? As I have already said, I do not think that this is coming out of a concern to relate exactly what happened as it happened. No, he points us to a deeper meaning here. He is warning you, me and all of us that we too are stuck in false narratives.
We come here on this day to celebrate the resurrection. We claim to believe that, on that Easter many years ago, the stone had been rolled away and the tomb was empty. But sometimes we, like Mary, get stuck in our narratives about what these things mean.
Our narratives are not necessarily false. We tell ourselves that this event proves to us who Jesus is – that he is the one who has revealed God to us. And we tell ourselves that, because he rose from the dead, we too may hope to live again after we die. Those are good and comforting truths.
Stories About “Them”
But are we still stumbling around in the dark, failing to appreciate all that it means that the stone has been removed from the tomb? For example, one of the false narratives that Mary embraces in the dark is that some mysterious “them” is still in charge of the story. “They” are stealing and creating doubt.
Who, I wonder, are our mysterious “them”? Who are the ones that we think are taking the incredible victory of Easter and turning it into theft and doubt?
Using the Power of the Resurrection for Control
Some of “them” may be Christians, or at least claim to be. “They” are those kinds of Christians who steal the power of Jesus’ resurrection and use it to control others. “They” say that unless you live out the Christian life exactly as they tell you to and believe what they say you must believe, you cannot be saved.
That is a false narrative. The victory that Jesus won over the grave is a victory won for all. He did not release you from the chains of death only in order to imprison you to someone who claims to speak in his name. The victory that Jesus offers, you can receive on your own terms by simply trusting in him and what he has done.
Those Who Use the Message to Victimize
Or perhaps “they” are those who steal the message of Jesus and use it for things contrary to what Jesus stood for. “They” may hate or exclude the stranger in the name of Jesus. “They” may victimize the poor, the minority or the marginalized and claim that it is only what Jesus tells them to do.
Did Jesus bust out of the tomb so that such things could be done in his name? Of course not! But how many Christians are caught up in thinking that this is what the Christian faith is all about?
Breaking Out of False Narratives
And what will it take to break some people out of such false narratives? You can show them the evidence, the folded grave clothes. You can give them Jesus’ clear teachings about loving your neighbours even when they are hated Samaritans. You can repeat the Beatitudes until you are blue in the face, and they will only accuse you of being too woke.
Why, even if you sent angelic visitors to tell them what the message of the resurrection is, they would still be stuck.
And if Jesus himself were to appear to them in the form of a migrant landscape worker, or someone living rough, or suffering from a mental health crisis, would that convince them? You would hope so, but it doesn’t seem to be happening.
Jesus Appears
Jesus appears in this world all the time. We see that in the famous Parable of the Sheep and the Goats in the Gospel of Matthew. There, Jesus speaks to both groups and tells them that they have seen him. “I was hungry and you gave me food,” he says to the sheep, “I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.”
So Jesus does appear to people who hold onto this false narrative all the time. But when he appears, for example, in the form of a migrant farm worker, hard working, but possibly inadequately documented, do they see the risen Christ? No, they only see a gardener and probably a gardener who is dangerous and scary, a gardener no doubt working for the dreaded “they” who are trying to destroy our way of life.
Don’t Be Like Mary
Do not be too hard on Mary. She may have come to the risen Jesus in the dark and, as a result, she embraced a false story of what had happened. And it was a story that she had a hard time letting go of.
We do the same thing. We fail to embrace the full meaning of the resurrection too. We, too, become attached to the false stories that we create. And they are stories of powerlessness, victimization and fear.
Jesus Changes Her Narrative with One Word
But I have good news on this Easter Sunday. Mary is just like us. She came to the resurrection in the dark like us. She clung to her false stories about what had happened, just like we do. But she did not leave that tomb in the dark. And when she left, she left her falsehoods behind.
How did that happen? What made the difference? Only one thing, but it was everything. Jesus said one word to her; he called her name. And suddenly the darkness lifted, and all the truth about what Jesus had accomplished for her came crashing in on her. She knew she had seen the Lord and joyfully shared that good news with the others.
I know that you may be struggling in the darkness today. I know that, as you look around at the disturbing events surrounding us, you have been telling yourselves stories about a dangerous and all-powerful “them.” You have stories of fear, anxiety and powerlessness that haunt the corners of your mind.
Jesus is Calling
But the risen Jesus is calling out to you today. And he is calling you by your name because he has known you from before the foundations of the earth. The only question is, will you hear him calling? Will you drop all of the falseness you’ve been clinging to and cry out “Rabbouni” with Mary? Will you let his death and his resurrection teach you better?
The stone has been rolled away from the entrance of the tomb for you. Embrace the whole truth of what that means for you today.
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Holy Saturday
Good Friday
He Rode Them Both
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Hespeler, March 29, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Palm Sunday
Isaiah 50:4-9a, Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29, Matthew 21:1-11, Philippians 2:5-11
Christian tradition decided a long time ago that the first Gospel in the New Testament was written by a man named Matthew. This has made the Gospel particularly important to the church because it assumed that this was the same Matthew who was counted as one of the twelve disciples.
That meant that this Gospel was written by an eyewitness – someone who was there and saw almost all of it for himself. It certainly made it much more important than the Gospels of Mark or Luke, which were seen more as second-hand accounts.
Tradition and Text
But I want to stress that tradition is not the same thing as biblical text. The Gospel in the original manuscript was written anonymously, and the title, “According to Matthew,” was only added later.
Today, those who study the gospels generally agree that this Gospel was not written by somebody who was there. It is generally dated to about 90 AD, after the original Matthew would have died. It also never claims to be an eyewitness account and shows many indications that it was not written by someone who was there.
Copied from a Source
The most important indicator is that Matthew (and I am going to continue to call him Matthew because it’s the only name we have) copied many of his stories from one of his sources, which was the Gospel of Mark. Whole long passages are word-for-word the same. That can only be explained by somebody copying somebody else’s work. And why would you copy the story if you were there yourself?
Why, even the story of how Jesus called Levi to be his disciple is copied straight out of the Gospel of Mark with only one significant change: Matthew changes the name of the disciple from Matthew to Levi. According to tradition, this is supposed to be the author’s own story! So why wouldn’t he tell it in his own words?
So, the scholarly conclusion is that Matthew, whoever he was, wasn’t there. That doesn’t take anything away from the magnificence of this Gospel. Matthew did not need to have been there to do an amazing job of pulling together his sources and knowledge to write one of the most amazing pieces of literature in the ancient world.
The Desire to Be There
But man, you can tell from the way he wrote that he would have liked to have been there. He is always drawing from his sources to give extra details and pack them with as much meaning as possible. And I get that, don’t you? Wouldn’t you have loved to be there too?
Take the events that we celebrate this Sunday. Who among us wouldn’t want to have been in the throngs that turned out to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem? That’s why we still re-enact it year after year, to find all of the depths of what it was like to be there.
Matthew tried to do that too. As he wrote, he did his best to immerse himself in the scene. I think it must have gone something like this.
Mark’s Palm Sunday Story
Matthew looked down at the scroll of what would someday come to be called the Gospel of Mark. It was unwound on the table before him. He had drawn from it again and again as he wrote his gospel up until this point. But now, the book was building up to the great climax of its story as Jesus arrived in Jerusalem before Passover.
As Matthew read through the account, he was captivated by the description of how Jesus had obtained a colt and rode it into town to the wild acclaim of the people.
Now, Matthew knew that the choice of a ride was not an accident. The particular beast had been chosen quite intentionally. Mark, the gospel writer, had gone out of his way to include that detail because he knew that it meant something. Jesus himself had likely made the choice because he too knew that a colt would make an important symbolic statement.
Making the Reference Clear
But Matthew was worried. He was afraid that his readers might not be as smart as he was. (This is, of course, an irrational fear that many writers suffer from.) His readers might not pick up right away that the colt was a reference to a particular scripture – a prophecy in the Book of Zechariah.
And so, Matthew decided, as he had done so many times before in his writing, that he needed to include the quote. This was not as easily done as you might think. He could not just Google the Book of Zechariah and then copy and paste. He could not even reach for a bound copy of what we would call the “Old Testament” on his shelf.
Finding a Copy
Any scroll was rare and expensive. Matthew had already blown most of his budget for this Gospel by commissioning someone to painstakingly copy out the Gospel of Mark by hand. So he could hardly afford a scroll of Zechariah. There were no public libraries. Even in synagogues, scrolls of the minor prophets were rare.
Matthew headed out to visit all of his wealthy and learned friends until he found one who had a precious copy of the Greek translation of the Book of Zechariah. Then he had to scroll through it (and this was in the days when scrolling was not just done with fingertips!) until he finally found the right passage.
He took out his tablet and carefully scratched the verses into the wax with a stylus: “Tell the daughter of Zion, Look, your king is coming to you, humble and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.”
A Problem
As he returned home, he kept mulling those words over in his mind. Matthew was certain – as many early Christians were certain – that just about everything that Jesus did, he did to fulfill the scriptures. That meant that the words of Zechariah predicted that, one day, Jesus would come and ride into Jerusalem just as Zechariah had said. So, if Matthew wanted to know exactly what it was like to be there, he could just read the description of the prophet.
But, as he looked down at the words he had scratched into the tablet, there was a problem. The prophet had said that Messiah would come riding, “humble and mounted on a donkey, / and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” How could that be, he wondered.
Hebrew Poetry
Ancient Prophets gave their oracles in poetry. And in Hebrew poetry, the lines don’t end in rhyming sounds. It was more like rhyming meanings. In one line, you would say something one way, and then in the next, you would say the same thing just using different words.
Matthew was a very smart man, but he probably didn’t speak Hebrew. And nobody had ever explained to him how ancient Hebrew poetry worked. So, when he read that verse, he didn’t realize that Zechariah had been writing in poetry and talking about the same donkey in both lines.
So, as far as Matthew could see, the prophecy said that the Messiah had to ride in on the backs of two beasts. And Matthew knew that the Old Testament was a reliable source for the events of the life of Jesus.
Fixing the Contradiction
There seemed to be a contradiction in his sources! Mark had clearly described Jesus riding in on the back of one donkey, but Matthew had just learned that there must have been two.
So what did Matthew do? Well, actually, it was the easiest problem to fix. Just because Mark had only mentioned one animal didn’t mean that there couldn’t have been more. So, when he sat down again to continue his Gospel, he just “corrected” Mark’s little omission.
He expanded Jesus’ instructions to the disciples when he sent them to get his ride. Surely Jesus must have actually said, “Go into the village ahead of you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied and a colt with her; untie them and bring them to me.” And so that is what he wrote in his papyrus scroll.
Corrected Version
And then, when the disciples return, Matthew corrected Mark’s story to say, “The disciples went and did as Jesus had directed them; they brought the donkey and the colt and put their cloaks on them, and he sat on them.”
And, in between the instructions and the result, just so no one would miss the point he was making, Matthew wrote in these words: “This took place to fulfill what had been spoken through the prophet: ‘Tell the daughter of Zion, / Look, your king is coming to you, / humble and mounted on a donkey, / and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.’”
Did Matthew realize how much trouble he would cause for readers with his little correction? Did he anticipate that people would find the image of Jesus riding on the backs of two beasts at once so ridiculous that their imaginations refused to picture it altogether?
Not Seeing Matthew’s Picture
The triumphal entry into Jerusalem is one of those stock images in Christian art. People have been painting and drawing it for centuries. But if you go through that history, you will not find images that depict Jesus riding on two animals.
What are we supposed to do with the fact that the Gospel of Matthew insists that Jesus rode into Jerusalem on the back of two donkeys? The reaction of the church over the years has been to ignore it or pretend that the detail is not there.
Some English translations have even obscured what the Gospel says, like, for example, the King James Version that translates the verse like this, “And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon.” That kind of obscures the fact that the original text says that Jesus was sitting on both animals.
Respecting the Writer
But I respect the writer of the gospel too much to pretend that he didn’t write what I know he wrote. If you are going to accept the whole of Scripture as being inspired by God, then you have to accept all of it, even the parts that seem to be based on a mistake, right?
It was a misunderstanding of the Old Testament text that led Matthew to tell it the way that he did. But if so, and if it was inspired, that simply means that it was God’s will for Matthew to make this mistake and so tell the story this way. God, after all, can inspire scripture in any way that God wants!
Finding the Message
And that means that there is a message waiting for us in this odd detail in Matthew’s story. What then are we supposed to learn by imagining Jesus straddling his legs over the backs of two beasts like a circus performer?
The message, to be sure, is that Jesus’ coming is a fulfilment of scripture. Matthew makes that explicit. But there is surely more to it than that.
Young and Old Together
I think it means something that Matthew insists that Jesus didn’t just ride the parent, but also the child. Surely there is a message for the church in that.
Sometimes we think that it should be enough to take care of the traditions of our foremothers and forefathers. Riding in on the back of our longstanding Presbyterian traditions alone should be enough to get people to turn out in droves and cheer us on in our mission.
But Matthew here reminds us that there has to be a role for a new generation, a younger donkey. We must be open to new ways of being. And that younger generation must not merely be there to spectate and cheer us on, but be allowed to carry this enterprise in new directions – maybe even down a few Jerusalem side streets. We need to respect the baby donkey enough to let it carry Jesus into the world in its own way.
Personal Message
And what personal message might there be for you in this odd part of the gospel story? Well, let me ask you. Which beast are you riding on your spiritual journey? Are you riding on the back of the steady, reliable forms of your faith that you have always counted on? Or are you perhaps always jumping on the back of the young donkey and riding after every new and trending idea and practice?
Most people tend to go in one direction or the other. Many of us believe that tradition should triumph over all, while others will get so lost chasing after the latest thing that they forget where they came from.
But what does Jesus, interpreted for us by Matthew, have to say to that? What if he is saying that the best way to proceed is to stretch your legs over both the donkey and her colt? What if that includes respecting the spiritual journeys of others and being willing to learn from them too?
Following Jesus
We enter into Jerusalem today with Jesus, “humble and mounted on a donkey, and on a colt, the foal of a donkey.” The road that lies before us will not be all palm branches and cheers. Following in the way of Jesus will include rejection, betrayal and taking up your cross to follow him.
But we will follow. We will gratefully climb onto the back of both beasts because we know what lies beyond the cross and the grave. But, for that, you’ll have to stay tuned, as we continue the story next week.
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Down Into the Valley of Bones
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Hespeler, March 22, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Fifth Sunday in Lent
Ezekiel 37:1-14, Psalm 130, Romans 8:6-11, John 11:1-45
The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of the Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Minab, Southern Iran. Or at least, it set me down in the middle of what was left of it. And there really wasn’t much left of it.
As I walked around the place, I saw that it was full of rubble, burned schoolbooks and clothing. I also saw the burnt-out casings of the three Tomahawk missiles that had struck the place.
But what I saw most of all were the bones – bones that I do not want to describe because I cannot remember them without feeling sick.
Despite all my revulsion, the Lord led me around all of them and made me look at them. For somewhere between 168 and 180 people had died there. Most of them had been young girls. So, yes, there were very many bones lying in that place, and they were very dry.
A Question About International Affairs
And the Lord said to me, “Mortal, can these bones live?” And I knew that that was a very difficult question, because it was not just a question about those poor girls.
It was a question about the state of international relations, which had functioned in a certain way ever since the end of the Second World War.
It was a system that had never been perfect, and had hardly prevented the worst of atrocities. Nevertheless, it had provided a rules-based order. There had been rules about how war was conducted and, if they weren’t always followed, at least everyone pretended to follow them, and that made things more predictable.
A Broken Order
But I knew that this blast had happened on the first day of a war that had not been declared and for which no one had even given a reason – at least not a reason that they hadn’t contradicted with another reason the next day. So, the question about the bones was also a question about whether there was a way back to a predictable world order. Or had everything simply fallen apart permanently?
Humanity and AI
But, more than that, it was a question about humanity. I knew, you see, that this school had not been struck by accident; it had been a deliberately chosen target.
How the target had been chosen, though, especially troubled me. Apparently, a huge database of dangerous military targets had been fed into targeting system created by Palantir, which was powered by Claude. Claude is the Artificial Intelligence made by Anthropic.
So, it seems that an AI chatbot sorted through all of these potential targets and selected the elementary school as a high priority. This was likely because the school had been on land that had been part of a military facility about a decade ago.
So, as I stood on those ruins, I could not help but wonder whether, if human beings had bothered to check the chatbot’s recommendations, they would have noticed that its intelligence was out of date.
Any Way Back?
So, the question of whether these bones could live was also a question about whether there was any way back from the world that we are building, or whether we will simply hand everything over to Artificial Intelligence, including the power of life and death.
So, as I stood there in the ruins of that place, I knew that I could not answer the question. And so, I turned to the Lord in despair and said, “O Lord God, I hope you know because I certainly don’t.”
Rushing to the End
The story of Ezekiel in the valley of the dry bones is one of those stories that I think we hurry through too quickly. It is like what we do every year at Easter. No one wants to spend their time thinking of all the sadness and sorrow of Good Friday; we are in a rush to get to the victory of Easter.
In the same way, we read this story of Ezekiel, and we want to rush to the end and start singing about Dem Dry Bones, and how “The foot bone connected to the leg bone, the leg bone connected to the knee bone, The knee bone connected to the thigh bone,” and so on.
But, just like Easter means nothing without Good Friday, this story of Ezekiel loses all of its meaning if we don’t spend some time in that disturbing valley filled with dead dry bones before we start singing about raising them bones up.
Ezekiel’s Mood
And the valley of bones that Ezekiel saw was not just any valley of bones. I’m not sure how much of it was something that he actually saw and how much of it was a vision. It probably doesn’t matter. Whatever he experienced, Ezekiel was seeing it because he was totally dispirited by recent historical events.
Ezekiel was depressed, and probably clinically depressed, because of the devastating defeat of the people of Judah by the armies of Babylon. The Babylonians had literally slaughtered the Judeans in huge numbers and left their bodies to rot in a particular valley. The bones that Ezekiel saw (whether in a vision or reality) were the bones of his countrymen. It was a devastating sight.
And so, the question that came to him, the question of whether the bones could live, was not just a question about the possibility of resurrection for the dead. It was a question about the possibility of there being a future for his people.
Spending Time in the Valley
And, for me, that means that you have to spend some time in a valley full of bones before you can really understand what Ezekiel’s vision is about. And the most recent valley of bones that I have had to deal with is that elementary girl’s school in Iran. What happened there has shaken so many of the things that I had assumed about this world and how it is supposed to work.
But that is hardly the only example of such disturbing events. For you, maybe, the valley of bones is found on the plains of Gaza, where nobody knows how many children have died in the famine and bombing campaign over the last few years. Or we could talk about the valley of bones that is Ukraine. We could talk about the streets of Minneapolis.
There are many signs around us that something is going on in this world that is disturbing and frightening, and it makes us wonder whether we will be able to find ourselves a way back to a world that makes sense anymore.
About Feelings
This is mostly about feelings and not logic. It was not as if Ezekiel had done an analysis of the political situation in the ancient Near East and come to the rational conclusion that the Babylonian Government had committed a violation of the rules-based order. He had had a look at recent events and it made him feel as if his world was falling apart.
We can disagree about matters of national and international policy. We can argue that this government or that government has only done what they had to do. I’m sure we could all make some reasonable points on such questions. But the valley of bones is not about such reasonable arguments. It is about what the events make us feel. And as I talk to a lot of people today, they are all feeling a lot like Ezekiel.
Prophetic Speech
But here is the hope in this story. Ezekiel did not leave that valley that day an emotional basket case. And why not? Because once God had taken him into that valley, God gave Ezekiel something to do. “Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.’”
Speaking the word of the Lord is the job of prophets. They are called to go into any situation – whether it be a bombed-out classroom or an abandoned battlefield – and declare the truth about it.
People (and especially powerful people) hated the prophets because they never sugar-coated the truths they proclaimed. They certainly didn’t use diplomatic language. To speak the word of the Lord was to speak the kind of truth that people didn’t want to hear.
Speaking the Word of the Lord
And I do believe that God is calling on faithful disciples to speak the word of the Lord in the same way today. That may mean speaking honestly about the foolishness of certain international policies rather than being sycophants who tell their leaders how brilliant they are. That may mean calling out things like racism, genocide and authoritarianism when they are undeniably present.
Speaking such a word is never easy, but Ezekiel’s vision makes it clear that there is no way out of the valley of bones until we dare to do that. It is only after he has the courage to prophesy to the bones – to prophesy to the truth of the situation – that something finally happens.
New Possibilities and Strength
“So I prophesied as I had been commanded, and as I prophesied, suddenly there was a noise, a rattling, and the bones came together, bone to its bone.” So you see, once we are willing to speak the truth about the situation, it becomes possible to start to rebuild, to set up a new skeletal framework on which we can build a better world.
“I looked,” Ezekiel goes on, “and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them.” The flesh and the sinews (which are connected to the muscles) speak to the possibility of action. You have strength within you, God is showing Ezekiel, to act for peace, and hope and a more just world.
The Breath
Yet, despite this, Ezekiel notes that there is still something missing. “But there was no breath in them.” Breath, in Ancient Hebrew, is the same word as wind. It is also the same word as spirit. Breath, in ancient thinking, was the one thing that made the difference between life and death. When God creates Adam, for example, God first shapes him and then breathes life into him.
But breath, which is also spirit, means much more than that. It is whatever gives our life meaning and purpose. And, in many ways, I think that it is the lack of such spirit that is killing us today.
All of the discouraging events that are taking place – our own personal valleys of bones – seem to be constantly giving us all the message that we have no agency. We are simply pawns in the big game being played by the presidents and oligarchs. We need a new spirit to blow through us.
“Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, mortal, and say to the breath: Thus says the Lord God: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’ I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived and stood on their feet, a vast multitude.”
Valley of Bones Events
The world is a disturbing place these days. That is a message that I constantly get when I talk to people. And there are certain events that I would call “valley of bones events” that seem to get through to us and bring that home to us in powerful ways. The bombing of an elementary school did that for me recently.
And do you know what the people who think they are in charge want you to do when you feel like that? They want you to be cynical. They want you to give up and go along with what they say has to happen to keep you safe.
But the wind of God is there. It is ready to be summoned from the four corners of the earth and blow into the hearts of God’s people. That is the job of the prophets among us – those who are empowered by God to speak the truth to the situation in which we find ourselves.
We don’t have to give in to the cynicism and powerlessness of the present age. That is the good news that we can all find, even if it feels as if we have stumbled into a valley full of bones on our way to finding it.
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Did He Hear What They Said?
Watch sermon video here:
Hespeler March 15, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Fourth Sunday in Lent
1 Samuel 16:1-13, Psalm 23, Ephesians 5:8-14, John 9:1-41
Did the blind man hear it when the disciples started talking about him to Jesus? They say that if you lose one of your senses, the remaining ones become sharper and more sensitive to compensate. So, I imagine his hearing was quite good.
He must have heard the disciples say, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” It was a question about him, but they did not have the nerve to speak to him directly. I have always found it much more wounding to overhear someone say something bad about you behind your back. Wouldn’t you all just prefer that they say it to your face?
What the Question Meant
And note that their question had nothing to do with anything that was under his control. They did not raise any concerns because he had blocked their way on the sidewalk or had dared to ask them if they had any spare change. The question was provoked by his mere existence. Why did this man exist with his disability?
What’s more, it was not even really a why question. They were not asking Jesus why this man was blind; they knew why he was blind. He was blind because somebody had sinned.
That was obvious to them. Somebody had done something that meant that this man deserved to go through his entire life never seeing the light of day, never seeing the beauty of a sunset, never seeing the smile on a loved one’s face.
They were certain of that. The only question in their minds was who had sinned and made it so that his affliction was deserved. And they had narrowed down the suspect list to two.
He’d Heard It Before
Yes, I am pretty sure he heard them. He immediately understood all of the assumptions that they were making, because they were hardly the first. He heard this kind of question all the time – so often that there were days when he almost wished his hearing wasn’t so good.
How do I know that he heard it all the time? Well, I am not blind, nor do I suffer from any other visible disability. I’m not sure that I would call my hearing excellent; it is probably not as good as it used to be. But even I have heard enough people making those very assumptions to know that it would have surrounded him constantly.
How We Ask Today
Now, today you don’t really hear people use the kind of religious language that the disciples use here; I don’t hear people speculating literally about “who sinned.” But I know very well that when people see any tragedy – whether it be a disability or a trauma or an injustice – they immediately jump to questions that mean the same thing.
You hear about a woman assaulted or raped, and people ask, “What was she wearing?” Or, “What was she doing there?” Are they not essentially asking who sinned that this terrible thing happened? And are they not implying, at least in part, that it was the victim who sinned?
And, once you realize that, you begin to hear that question everywhere. We’ve heard it many times this year already. “Why did she move her car forward?” “Why did he bring a legally permitted and licenced handgun to a protest?” “Why did the people of Gaza elect a Hamas government that came to power before many of them were born?” “Why did those schoolgirls in Iran live under a dictatorship for so long?”
Social Issues
The same assumptions are often brought to the discussion of social issues such as poverty or lack of shelter. It is always easier for people to talk about these problems in terms of the faults or shortcomings of the poor than it is to talk about the structural issues in society that perpetuate such problems.
We don’t ask questions about who is profiting from the crisis or why wealth has moved upward so radically in recent decades. We ask questions that assume that the poor are lazy or lacking in initiative. Who sinned? Not the rich! It must be the poor who sinned!
Hurtful Questions
Such questions are often very hurtful because they send a message to those who have suffered a tragedy that they somehow deserve the terrible thing that have happened to them. It is an additional attack against someone who has already been wounded. And it is especially hurtful when the question centres on something about the person that is beyond their control, as is the case of the blind man.
It can also deny the dignity of people who have suffered. Take the blind man for example. The disciples’ question reduced the man to nothing more than his disability. His very existence became a tragedy. Are they not suggesting that the world would be a better (or at least a less troubling) place if he did not exist?
When all you see is someone’s disability, you miss all of the things that make them a rich and full person. The blind man had an inner life, deep thoughts and passions. He had people he loved and people who loved him. To reduce him to a moral problem cruelly stripped him of the value of his human being.
Not to Be Cruel
I don’t really think that people do this because they are trying to be cruel. They do it because they are afraid. When they see sickness, tragedy or disability, they must come to terms with the simple truth that terrible things happen in the world all the time.
When people see that, it reminds them that such terrible things could happen to them or to the people that they love. That is terrifying. And so, people need some way to reassure themselves that they are safe, that tragedy does not happen arbitrarily. The world seems a safer place if there is some moral logic to it.
Blaming the victim, figuring out who sinned so that the tragedy is a deserved thing, gives us that feeling of safety. If bad things happen because people sin, then I can be safe if I don’t sin. And, yes, of course, that feeling is false; it is based on a lie. But people have been comforting themselves with lies since forever.
Internalized Question
So yes, the blind man heard them. What’s more, he had heard the question formulated in various ways so often that he had internalized it. He too spent way too much time wondering what he had done to deserve the darkness that he lived in. And to the extent that he had internalized it, the darkness had spread beyond his eyes to affect his very soul. But that was all about to change in dramatic fashion.
He heard the disciples’ question, but surely he could hear Jesus’ response as well. And if what the disciples said was just more of what he heard all the time, he definitely perked up his ears to what Jesus said. “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”
The Rest of the Story
And I actually don’t want to go any further than that in our reading today. I know that Jesus’ opening words are usually overshadowed by what comes next. The story after that quickly becomes a miracle story, and everyone loves a good miracle story.
This one especially has all kinds of memorable details. Who can forget the image of Jesus playing in mud made with his own spit? It is a callback to the story of God making adam in the Book of Genesis out of the mud. It is such a hands-on image of Jesus’ healing ministry – like literally hands-on.
And sure, the miracle is also such a wonderful parable of the key point of this chapter, that Jesus has come to be the light of the world. And we can rejoice in the light that came into that blind man’s life – not just into his eyes but into his entire soul.
The Healing Before the Healing
But before we move on to all of that, let’s talk about the healing Jesus performed for that man before he knelt down and started playing in the dirt.
“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus said. With just a few words, Jesus tore apart the message this man had heard all his life. No, his disability was not something that he deserved. His blindness was not a curse. And he was more, much more, than his disability.
And this is not just Jesus’ message for that man. It is for all of us. He is giving us all the message that terrible things do happen in this world, and we may never know why. That is a hard and perhaps frightening truth, but we do ourselves no favours by refusing to face up to it.
Jesus’ Message to the Victims
Even more important, Jesus is telling us that our common reflex of blaming the victims for their tragedies is not only wrong, it also is cruel and as destructive to ourselves as it is to the victims.
This becomes plain as Jesus continues. “He was born blind,” Jesus declares, “so that God’s works might be revealed in him.” Now this one is a bit trickier because people sometimes misunderstand it.
Sometimes people take that to mean that, if you have suffered in some way, it is because God has wilfully afflicted you in order to bring some good out of it. But I don’t accept that. The God I know through Jesus does not willingly afflict anyone with anything. God weeps at anyone’s suffering. That’s the God revealed to us through the crucified Christ.
No, what this is saying is that sometimes tragedy will happen. We may never know why. Perhaps God knows, but if so, I doubt we have the capacity to understand such reasoning on a godly level.
Don’t Make the Struggle Worse
Because of this, I would strongly encourage you, when you are struggling with some tragedy, that you do not cause yourself pain by agonizing over the question of why God let this happen to you and what you are supposed to do in order to bring something good out of it.
If you have been hurt, you have been hurt. I will not pile on top of that any obligation to figure out why. I will not ask you to manufacture some positive spin on it. Tragedy is tragedy. Whatever you feel about it is only your natural and very human reaction, and there is nothing wrong with it.
Seeing His Value and Worth
So, if Jesus is not saying that God willfully afflicts people with terrible experiences, what is he saying? He is looking at this blind man and not defining him by his disability. He is looking at him and seeing him as a human being who has value and worth because he is a child of God.
In other words, it doesn’t matter what you have suffered. It doesn’t matter what lack others see in you. It doesn’t matter what shortcomings you see in yourself. God’s works can be revealed in you.
Revealing God’s Works in Him
And, yes, I am very aware that God’s works were revealed in that particular blind man with the healing of whatever was wrong with his eyes. But if you think that is the only way, then you are not reading this story right.
God’s works were revealed in the light that came into his soul and not just his eyes. They were revealed in the testimony he went on to give to the community. They were shown in the extraordinary wisdom and courage he demonstrated while doing it. The potential for all of that was already in that man before Jesus ever put mud on his eyes. He already had the potential to reveal God’s works before Jesus came along.
Revealing God’s Works in Us
And it is important that we keep that in mind because we may not always receive the kind of healing we crave most. Jesus never promises that. But all of us have within us that same potential. That is why Jesus went on to say, “We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night is coming, when no one can work.”
And, as I said, I’m sure that the blind man had great hearing and that he heard that too. And hearing that had as much to do with how he revealed God’s work as did the application of mud to his eyes.
So, I guess that only leaves us with one question. The blind man heard it, and he did something about it. What about you? Do you hear what Jesus is saying? And what are you going to do about it? How will you make sure that God’s works are revealed in you?