Category: News

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Hespeler, April 12, 2026 © Scott McAndless – Second Sunday of Easter
Acts 2:14a, 22-32, Psalm 16, 1 Peter 1:3-9, John 20:19-31

Poor Thomas. He always gets a bad rap, doesn’t he? What do people remember about Thomas? Do they remember that he was brave? When Jesus said he was going to go to Judea because Lazarus had died, and things were looking dangerous, Thomas said to the other disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” But do we call him Thomas the Brave? No, we do not.

What Do We Call Thomas?

Or at the Last Supper, when Jesus said, “And you know the way to the place where I am going,” everybody else just stared at their feet. They had no clue what he was talking about, but none of them wanted to say. And so, guess who spoke up and said what everyone was thinking? “Thomas said to him, ‘Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?’”

And if Thomas hadn’t said that, would we have ever gotten one of Jesus’ best quotes: “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”

But do we call Thomas the “that’s a good question guy”? Do we call him the guy who says what everyone else is thinking? No, we do not.

You all know what we call him, don’t you? He is forever and always “Doubting Thomas.” And how fair is that? After all, it was really only just that one time.

Not Even Condemned for It

And it is not even as if the Bible condemns him for doubting that one time, nor does Jesus. Yes, Jesus does tell Thomas to stop doubting. But he only says this after he has shown Thomas his hands and his side, which was the condition that Thomas had set in order that he might believe.

We have turned Thomas into a story about the danger of doubt. And, as a result, we have piled guilt and shame onto the heads of anyone who has ever asked a question or expressed a doubt. We told all those people who had legitimate doubts that they should suppress them. We made them hide everything that they were thinking. This has made some people afraid of their own thought processes. And how many, when they couldn’t do that, just abandoned the faith as a result, feeling as if there were no place for them in the church and that they would never belong?

But Thomas is not Doubting Thomas. He is Thomas the Brave. And he is especially the guy who is not afraid to say what everyone is thinking. And we need more of his kind in the church today.

One Thing Wrong

That is not to say, however, that Thomas didn’t get anything wrong. And, because he did, he had to live with his doubts for much longer than was necessary.

Yes, I do have one question for Thomas today. I want to ask him, “Why weren’t you there?” That is the one thing in this whole story that is never addressed. Think about everything that had happened leading up to the beginning of our reading this morning.

At Their Worst

This group of disciples had just been through the worst events of their life. Their friend, and the wisest and best person among them, had been arrested. He had been rushed through a mockery of a trial and crucified.

Not only had they been devastated on a personal level, but they had also had all of the hopes that they had built up around this man dashed at once. He had announced a new kind of kingdom, one in which even people like them could have a place. Oh, they had had extremely grand visions of what that might look like.

But it had all come crashing down around them. And they had fled in confusion and fear. But today, on the third day after all this had happened, the first day of the week, the old gang was getting together. They were gathering, perhaps, to commiserate and to remember the good times. But they were also gathering to work through some disturbing and confusing things that had happened over the past few hours.

Confusing Situation

First, Mary had flown in with a wild accusation that the tomb where Jesus had been laid was open and some mysterious people had stolen his body. Peter and one of the others had gone to investigate, but had come back with nothing clear to report, only more questions. Why would grave robbers bother folding up the grave clothes, or even want to leave them behind in the first place?

And then Mary, looking even more crazed than the first time, had run in to declare, “I have seen the Lord.” It seemed as if the people in the group were slowly going crazy, and so they all gathered to try and work all of this stuff out. Except they weren’t all together, were they? One of them hadn’t shown up for the old boys’ reunion. Where was Absent Thomas?

Where Was Thomas?

He probably would have said that he was too busy. He had no time because he had to get his beard trimmed. Or maybe he had a big bet on his favourite team in the chariot races, and he just had to be there to cheer them on. Or, for all I know, he was playing hopscotch or throwing stones in a lake.

The first lesson of time management is that it is not about how much time you have. Everyone has the same amount of time. It is about what your priorities are. If something is important to you, you will make time for it. And if you consistently can’t make time for something that you claim is important to you, it is probably not the priority that you think it is.

They Needed Thomas

So, if Thomas was not there with the others on the first day of the week, it was because it was not at the top of his priority list. And that was a big loss for the other disciples, because they were in a fragile state. They could have used Thomas the Brave and Thomas who can say what everyone is thinking. The power of the group was lessened because Thomas didn’t feel it was important to provide his unique strengths.

They gathered without his calm and rationalistic presence. And yet, despite that lack, they experienced something fantastic. They experienced for themselves the power and the reality of the resurrection of Jesus. It turned out that it was really Thomas who was missing out because he decided that he had other priorities.

Radical Practice

The fact that the appearances of the risen Jesus in the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John occur one week apart on the first day of the week is not just a matter of coincidence. We know that the earliest Christians very quickly settled on one practice. They met on Sundays.

This was a radical innovation for one reason above all others. Virtually all of the earliest followers of Jesus were Jews who had been taught from the cradle that the proper day for religious practice was the Sabbath day, the seventh day of the week, the day we call Saturday.

And calendars matter to people. They will fight you if you try and change their calendar on them. People do not change their longstanding cultural traditions lightly. Something must have happened that made a big impression to persuade them to do that. And we are told that that really impressive thing was none other than the resurrection of Jesus on the first day of the week.

But it was not just a one-time reality for them. Jesus didn’t just rise that one time. They also discovered that, when they gathered together on all subsequent Sundays, even if there were only two or three of them, the risen Jesus would be right there with them in their midst

Table Fellowship with Jesus

Jesus, during his life, had had the habit, as a sign of the kingdom of God, of inviting all sorts of people to his table. It didn’t matter who they were. They might be prostitutes or tax collectors. They might be rich or poor, outcasts or strangers. All of them would find a place at Jesus’ table.

And so, whenever the earliest Christians wanted to recapture what it had been like when Jesus was around, they would share the same kinds of meals, welcoming all comers.

They experienced more than commiseration, good food and fellowship when they did that. They experienced the presence of their risen Lord. That was how they knew he was risen. Not merely because of the testimony passed down from the apostles. They also experienced it for themselves when they gathered as something that eventually came to be called the church.

And that is what these two appearances, one week apart on the first day of the week, are referring to. This is John’s way of reminding his readers of their own practice of gathering as the church, even though, of course, this practice had not yet been established within the setting of this story.

Thomas Misses the Experience

And with this in mind, Thomas becomes a very important lesson for the church. The church, represented symbolically by the disciples gathering on a Sunday to eat together, collectively experiences the reality of the resurrection of Christ. But, since Thomas is absent, he does not participate in that experience. As a result, he is left in doubt and disbelief.

But when, the following Sunday, the “church” gathers again, this time Thomas is present. This time he too is able to experience the power and truth of the resurrection. He experiences it so powerfully that he cries out, “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus Shows Up

What is the message in that for the church today? Am I suggesting that the risen Jesus is going to show up here one Sunday morning and, if you don’t make it here every week, you might miss it and you’ll regret it?

Well, I wouldn’t put it exactly like that. But there is some truth there. Jesus does show up in the life of the church. He has promised that he would.

I know that he’s not going to show up and go around the room, inviting us to put our fingers in the holes in his hands or our hands in his side. But Jesus does show up here. I know that many have experienced his presence in quiet ways and in powerful ways.

They have experienced a spiritual presence. They have seen Jesus in the face of their brother or sister in Christ. They have been introduced to him in the music, the words or the preaching.

Not About Being Present at a Certain Time

I’m not saying this in order to make anyone feel guilty because they cannot or they choose not to show up to church every Sunday. Don’t get me wrong, I would certainly love it if all of you did that all the time, but I also recognize that modern life is really complicated and that we are all pulled in many different directions for some very good reasons.

And anyway, it is not as if I am saying that Jesus only shows up here between 10 and 11 am on Sunday, because he doesn’t. I have seen Jesus very much present in a kind volunteer helping someone on Food Bank Day. I have seen Jesus show up to provide someone with just the right piece of clothing in unexpected and near miraculous ways through Hope Clothing.

No, there are no rules that you have to be a part of the church in specific ways or at specific times. I’m not going to pile one more feeling of obligation onto the heads of any of you. You already have enough of that in your life.

Experiencing the Risen Jesus

But the message of Absent Thomas is that the experience of the Risen Jesus is something that any of you can have in your life. But Jesus never promised you that it would come to you all on your lonesome. Jesus rose from the dead for the assembly of God’s people, and it is in those assemblies that Jesus makes himself and his resurrection power fully known to his people.

Those assemblies can take the form of high liturgical church services or the prayer meeting of a small group. They can be about believers coming together for works of service, to sing, to share a meal or to do a hundred other things. The one common denominator is that Jesus is there when the church gathers.

And there will be moments when the power of that presence will break through to you. Unless, of course, you are just an Absent Thomas.

Join us on April 12th!

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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.

Join us this morning at 10:00 am

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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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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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