Against All Hope

The certainty of what is not seen

Can these bones live again?

A man is led by the Lord to a valley full of bones.

There were many bones, scattered everywhere. And they were very dry.

There was no movement. There was no sign of life. There was no reason, before his eyes, to hope that those bones would live again.

Then the Lord asks:

“Son of man, can these bones live again?”

And the man answers:

“O Sovereign Lord, you alone know.”

The prophet did not know how those bones could live. But he did not say it would be impossible either.

He acknowledged that the Lord knew what he did not know.

That vision was given to Ezekiel in a moment of deep hopelessness. But its image also invites us to look at humanity and at our own lives.

How many times do we find ourselves facing situations in which we cannot see any hope at all?

How many times do we look for a way out using all our knowledge, our strength and our ability, without finding an answer?

The question remains:

Can these bones live again?

Perhaps the answer begins when we acknowledge something very simple:

Man looks for life. God is the source of life.

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Where does life come from?

In the valley of dry bones, the Lord commands Ezekiel to proclaim his Word.

The prophet obeys.

The bones begin to come together. They receive tendons, flesh and skin. But there is still no life in them.

Then the Lord commands him to prophesy to the spirit, so that it may come and breathe on those dead.

And they live.

Ezekiel proclaimed the Word. But it was not his ability that produced life.

Man takes part. The Spirit gives life.

And this is not the first time we find this relationship in the Scriptures.

In the beginning, the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

God said: “Let there be light.”

And there was light.

Much later, John began his gospel by announcing:

“In the beginning was the Word.”

And he added:

“In him was life, and this life was the light of men.”

Jesus also declared:

“The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.”

Word. Spirit. Life. Light.

They are not simply four names for the same thing. But they are deeply related in what the Scriptures reveal to us.

The Word proclaims. The Spirit gives life. Life comes from God. And the light shines on men.

What the bones could not produce, the Lord gave them.

And it was in this same God, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence what does not exist, that Abraham placed his trust.

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Against all hope

The Lord called Abraham and made him a promise:

“I will bless you […] and you will be a blessing.”

He also promised him descendants, when human circumstances no longer offered any hope that this would happen.

Abraham was old. Sarah was barren.

But Paul wrote about him:

“Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed.”

Abraham did not ignore the condition of his own body or Sarah's situation.

He acknowledged reality, but kept trusting the one who had made the promise.

Paul explains that Abraham believed in God, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence things that do not exist.

As in the valley of dry bones, hope was not in what man could do, nor in what he could see.

It was in the one who had made the promise.

And the blessing would not end with Abraham.

Paul explains that, through Christ Jesus, the blessing promised to Abraham came also to the other peoples, so that we might receive, by faith, the promised Spirit.

And what does this Spirit accomplish in those who receive the promise?

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The Son and the many brothers

John presents Jesus as the only begotten Son, highlighting his unique condition.

Paul presents Jesus Christ as the firstborn among many brothers.

And he explains that we are called to be conformed to the image of the Son.

In another letter, he expresses his desire:

“Until Christ is formed in you.”

It is not only about knowing information about God.

It is about a transformation of our own life.

Jesus said:

“I am the light of the world.”

And he also said to his disciples:

“You are the light of the world.”

The light does not have its origin in us. But we are called to manifest it.

And Paul reveals something extraordinary when he speaks of the mystery that God chose to make known among the peoples:

“Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

Hope is not in becoming sufficient by ourselves.

It is in the life of Christ being formed and manifested in us, by the work of the Spirit.

And, if it is the Spirit who gives life, our first attitude is to listen.

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Listening, awakening and walking

The Scriptures invite us, again and again, to listen.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

And also:

“He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says.”

It is not enough to hear sounds with the ears. We are invited to understand with the heart.

And what we begin to understand can transform the way we live.

That is why we find another call:

“Awake, you who sleep, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Awaken. Rise. Walk.

But how can we walk without knowing the whole road?

“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.”

A lamp does not necessarily light up the whole road. But it offers light for the next step.

So we go on knowing and go on to know more.

We learn to listen before speaking.

We learn to trust even when we do not understand everything.

And we begin to offer not only our words, but our own body, our own life, as a living sacrifice to God.

The Word we hear begins to find expression in what we do.

And, as we walk, our understanding can also deepen.

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The waters that grow deeper

In another vision, Ezekiel sees a river flowing out of the sanctuary.

First, the waters reach the ankles.

Then, the knees.

Then, the waist.

Finally, they become too deep to cross on foot.

The vision announces waters that bring life and restoration wherever they go.

But we can also look at this deepening as an image of our journey.

At the beginning, we know little.

As we walk, we notice new connections between what we hear and what we live.

Our understanding grows deeper.

Until we begin to recognize that knowledge, however precious, does not allow us to control all things.

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding.”

The river is greater than we are.

And there is something especially beautiful in that vision: its waters do not stay still. They go on and bring life wherever they pass.

Jesus also spoke of rivers of living water that would flow from within those who believed in him.

John explains that he was speaking of the Spirit.

The life we receive was not meant to end in us.

The river grows deeper. And its waters go on.

Just as the waters of the river go on, bringing life wherever they pass, we too are sent into the world.

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Sent to love

Jesus said to the Father:

“As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”

And his prayer was not limited to those disciples.

He also prayed for those who would come to believe through their word.

What does it mean to be sent?

Christ means Anointed. Messiah also means Anointed.

Jesus declared that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him, that he had anointed him to proclaim good news and had sent him.

Anointing and sending are deeply related, although they do not mean exactly the same thing.

After the resurrection, Jesus said to the disciples again:

“As the Father has sent me, I send you.”

And he breathed on them, saying:

“Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Paul also affirms that God anointed us, sealed us and put the Spirit in our hearts.

This does not mean that we become the Messiah. But that, belonging to Christ, we share in his life and are called to cooperate with his work.

We can go back to the valley of dry bones.

Ezekiel proclaimed the Word. But it was the Spirit who gave life.

Paul planted. Apollos watered. But God gave the growth.

Jesus called Lazarus out of the tomb. And he told the people to take off his grave clothes and let him go.

In all these episodes, we find people taking part in a work whose life and power do not come from them.

We are not the source of life.

But we can proclaim the Word, offer our hands, welcome, serve and help the other to get up.

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A new commandment

And Jesus gave us a new commandment:

“Love one another. As I have loved you, you must love one another.”

Loving as Jesus loved involves learning to give up the pretension of living only for ourselves.

He called us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him.

Paul invites us to offer our own body as a living sacrifice.

So faith begins to show itself through love.

The other can be reached by this kindness.

Not because we are able to produce life in him, but because we put ourselves at the disposal of the one who gives life.

We were not sent to condemn the dry bones. We were called to proclaim the hope of life.

And it is precisely in this life of faith and love that we begin to understand Jesus' call to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

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The Kingdom and rest

Jesus taught us:

“Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.”

And Paul wrote:

“For the Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

The journey teaches us that God's righteousness is not an achievement of our self-sufficiency.

It is by faith that we receive and learn to live this righteousness, which shows itself in love.

And, as we walk, we find another invitation from Jesus:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”

Jesus does not simply call us to abandon all activity.

He invites us to take his yoke and learn from him, who is gentle and humble in heart.

But the Scriptures also say:

“Let us, then, make every effort to enter that rest.”

How can someone make an effort to rest?

The call in Hebrews is related to perseverance in faith and obedience, in contrast to the unbelief of those who did not enter the promised rest.

It is not about producing rest by our own ability.

It is about persevering in trust in the one who offers it.

Rest is not the end of the journey. It is a new way of walking.

We keep working, serving and loving.

But we no longer need to live as if everything depended on us.

“Unless the Lord builds the house, the work of the builders is in vain.”

We learn to trust.

And in this trust we can experience, from now on, righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Even when, before our eyes, we cannot see any hope at all.

Like Abraham, we are invited to trust the one who gives life to the dead.

We do not understand everything yet.
We still face difficulties.
We are still walking.

But rest can already be part of the journey.

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Until there is no more night

The Scriptures present the story of many men, many peoples and many generations.

We find faith and unbelief, obedience and disobedience, love and violence, hope and despair.

We find man trying to live by his own ability.

And we find, again and again, the mercy of God.

Everything that was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that, through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.

The Bible begins by speaking of light.

And ends by announcing:

“There will be no more night.”

This promise points to a fullness that we still await.

But the light already shines.

The Spirit already gives life.

And the rest offered by Jesus can already be experienced by those who believe.

Between the valley of dry bones and the promise that there will be no more night, we are invited to listen, awaken, rise and walk.

To know and go on to know more.

To offer our life in love.

To seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And to trust the one who leads us, even when we cannot see the whole road.

Because the path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, which shines brighter and brighter until the full day.

And the one who began by looking at a valley of very dry bones may discover that his hope was not in the ability of those bones to live.

It was in the one who gives life.

Christ in us, the hope of glory.

To the glory of God the Father.

The light keeps shining. The Spirit keeps giving life. And hope remains.

Until there is no more night.