Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

The Vision of the Valley of Bones

37 The Lord laid his hand on me and brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord to the middle of a valley that was filled with bones. ² He led me here and there throughout^[a] the valley, and I was amazed to see that the surface of the entire valley was covered with myriads of very dry bones! ³ The Lord^[b] asked me, “Son of Man, will these bones ever live?”

“Lord God,” I replied, “you know the answer to that!”^[c]

⁴ Then the Lord told me, “Prophesy to these bones. Tell them: ‘You dry bones, listen to the message from the Lord: “ ⁵ This is what the Lord God says to you^[d] dry bones! ‘Pay attention! I’m bringing my Spirit into you right now, and you’re going to live! ⁶ I’m going to grow tendons on you, regenerate your flesh, cover you with skin, and make you breathe again so that you can come back to life and learn that I am the Lord.’”’”

The Bones are Raised to Life

⁷ So I prophesied, just as I had been ordered to do so. Immediately there was a noise and a rattling—and then all of a sudden the bones came together by themselves! Each bone came together, all of them attached together!^{[e] 8} As I continued to watch, I saw tendons growing on the bones,^[f] and muscles growing and covering them, and then skin covered the flesh from above. But the bodies weren’t breathing. ⁹ Then he ordered me, “Prophesy to the Spirit, Son of Man. Tell the Spirit, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Come from the four winds, you Spirit, and breathe into these people who have been killed, so they will live.”’” ¹⁰ So I prophesied as I had been ordered, breath entered them, and they began to live. They stood on their own feet as a vast, united army.

The Vision is Interpreted for Ezekiel

¹¹ “These bones represent the entire house of Israel,” the Lord^[g] explained to me. “Look how they keep saying, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our future is lost. We’ve been completely eliminated!’ ¹² “Therefore prophesy to them, and tell them, ‘Watch me! I’m going to open your graves, lift you out of those graves, and bring my people back into the land of Israel. ¹³ Then you’ll learn that I am the Lord, when I’ve opened your graves and caused you to come up out of them, my people. ¹⁴ I’m going to place my Spirit in you all, and you will live. I’ll place you all into your land, and you’ll learn that I, the Lord, have been speaking and doing this,’ declares the Lord.’”

A Song of Ascents

A Prayer for Mercy

⁶ To focus our minds on the human nature leads to death, but to focus our minds on the Spirit leads to life and peace. ⁷ That is why the mind that focuses on human nature is hostile toward God. It refuses to submit to the authority of God’s Law because it is powerless to do so. ⁸ Indeed, those who are under the control of human nature cannot please God.

⁹ You, however, are not under the control of the human nature but under the control of the Spirit, since God’s Spirit lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of the Messiah,^[a] he does not belong to him. ¹⁰ But if the Messiah^[b] is in you, your bodies are dead due to sin, but the spirit^[c] is alive due to righteousness. ¹¹ And if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, then the one who raised the Messiah^[d] from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive by his Spirit who lives in you.

The Death of Lazarus

11 Now a certain man was ill, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. ² Mary was the woman who anointed the Lord with perfume and wiped his feet with her hair. Her brother Lazarus was the one who was ill. ³ So the sisters sent word to Jesus^[a] and told him, “Lord, the one whom you love is ill.”

⁴ But when Jesus heard it, he said, “This illness isn’t meant to end in death. It’s for God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” ⁵ Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. ⁶ Yet, when he heard that Lazarus^[b] was ill, he stayed where he was for two more days.

⁷ After this, he told the disciples, “Let’s go back to Judea.”

⁸ The disciples told him, “Rabbi,^[c] the Jewish leaders^[d] were just now trying to stone you to death, and you are going back there again?”

⁹ Jesus replied, “There are twelve hours in the day, aren’t there? If anyone walks during the day he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. ¹⁰ But if anyone walks at night he stumbles, because the light is not in him.” ¹¹ These were the things he said.

Then after this, he told them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I’m leaving to wake him up.”

¹² So the disciples told him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.” ¹³ Jesus, however, had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was speaking about resting or sleeping.

¹⁴ Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died. ¹⁵ For your sake I’m glad that I wasn’t there, so that you may believe. But let’s go to him.”

¹⁶ Then Thomas, who was called the Twin,^[e] told his fellow disciples, “Let’s go, too, so that we may die with him!”

Jesus the Resurrection and the Life

¹⁷ When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus^[f] had already been in the tomb for four days. ¹⁸ Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, about fifteen stadia^[g] away, ¹⁹ and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. ²⁰ As soon as Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home.

²¹ Martha told Jesus, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²² But even now I know that whatever you ask of God, he^[h] will give it to you.”

²³ Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.”

²⁴ Martha told him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.”

²⁵ Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life.^[i] The person who believes in me, even though he dies, will live. ²⁶ Indeed, everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe that?”

²⁷ “Yes, Lord,” she told him. “I believe that you are the Messiah,^[j] the Son of God, the one who was to come into the world.”

²⁸ When she had said this, she went away and called her sister Mary and told her privately, “The Teacher is here and is calling for you!”

²⁹ As soon as Mary^[k] heard this, she got up quickly and went to him. ³⁰ Now Jesus had not yet arrived at the village but was still at the place where Martha had met him. ³¹ When the Jews who had been with her, consoling her in the house, saw Mary get up quickly and go out, they followed her, thinking that she had gone to the tomb to cry there.

³² As soon as Mary came to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell down at his feet and told him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn’t have died.”

³³ When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who had come with her crying, he was greatly troubled in spirit and deeply moved. ³⁴ He asked, “Where have you put him?”

They told him, “Lord, come and see.”

³⁵ Jesus burst into tears.

³⁶ So the Jews said, “See how much he loved him!”

³⁷ But some of them said, “Surely the one who opened the eyes of the blind man could have kept this man from dying, couldn’t he?”

Jesus Brings Lazarus Back to Life

³⁸ Groaning deeply again, Jesus came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying in front of it. ³⁹ Jesus said, “Remove the stone.”

Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, there must be a stench by now, because he’s been dead for four days.”

⁴⁰ Jesus told her, “I told you that if you believed you would see God’s glory, didn’t I?” ⁴¹ So they removed the stone.

Then Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for hearing me. ⁴² I know that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.”

⁴³ After saying this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” ⁴⁴ The man who had died came out, his hands and feet tied with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a handkerchief. Jesus told them, “Untie him, and let him go.”

The Jewish Council Plans to Kill Jesus^(A)

⁴⁵ Many of the Jews who had come with Mary and who had observed what Jesus did believed in him.