“Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.” – Ezekiel 37:5

What does a white boy from wealthy Fairfield County, Connecticut know about racial injustice?

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Personally, I have done extensive research on the subject of American slavery and have written three novels on the subject. So, I know something of it intellectually but in the Biblical sense of  “knowing” I know very little.

In my church I am thrilled to see a vision of heaven unfolding – a growing congregation experiencing a dynamic mix of generations, economic classes, cultures and races. We love one another and the differences fade away as the image of Christ in us surfaces. We don’t always get it right but with the Godly grace we have been given, we strive to extend that grace to one another.

Many of us within our congregation have been praying for years that the Lord would move us from a fairly racially and culturally homogeneous community with a smattering of minority members (my wife jokes that she was one of the few minorities – she’s Greek) to what we are becoming. God has wonderfully answered our prayers. Yet, one of the great challenges is not fully comprehending or appreciating the wounded-ness that many arrive with. We strive to understand but many of us can’t fully ‘know’.

Watching the video of the heartlessly, cruel death of George Floyd, I cried out, “Why doesn’t someone jump in to stop this?” I realized they were literally the same words I cried out a few weeks earlier watching the torture of the perfectly innocent Jesus in scenes from The Passion of the Christ. Man’s horrible inhumanity to man (and often on the basis of race, culture and religion) is so regrettably nothing new. It only underscores how desperately we need a Savior – a loving God to save us from ourselves.

Demonstrations of people who ‘know‘ something of being mistreated in ways I ‘know’ little of cry out, “I can’t breathe!” They are not just echoing the words of a dying man, they are crying out to say that they know of injustice. They’ve experienced the suffocating knee of the evil one pressing down on their necks.

The real enemy works to pit us one against the other and we are all too often so quick to fall in line. Before these demonstrations were hijacked by anarchists doing the ‘Ruler of this World’s’ bidding, many demonstrators were genuinely crying out from their heart. Crying out for what? Their hearts desire is that the blatant evil be exposed, justice prevails and change results.

I don’t doubt their efforts can lead to some change. No one should doubt that on the whole, over the years in the US things have changed for the better. But the condition of the heart can not be legislated clean. It requires surgery by a Savior.

The ‘Prince of Peace’ actually said this in Matthew 10:34 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword.”

Is Jesus advocating violence? No. Jesus is saying that he did not come to carelessly scatter peace about through inspiring platitudes. This kind of peace has no sustaining power to take hold and truly change the corruption in our hearts. So, what did Jesus bring? He brought a sword (machaira). Jesus is saying that he came to cut deep to the bone or to the very heart of the matter so people can truly be healed from their deepest wounds.

What has transpired since the horrible event has left me and so many others shocked, appalled, angered and confused – and from so many various perspectives. Yet, the core, selfish evil in man’s hearts can only be changed by the power of God entering into the individual’s life to perform the required surgery of the heart.

I was recently reading in Ezekiel and so much of what is occurring today spoke to me. The Prophet says in 11:19 – And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,

And when I watched the news and heard the multitude cry out, “I can’t breathe” it brought me right back to Ezekiel 37:1-10 (NRSVA)

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 a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all round them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry. He said to me, ‘Mortal, can these bones live?’ I answered, ‘O Lord God, you know.’ Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.’

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. I looked, and there were sinews on them, and flesh had come upon them, and skin had covered them; but there was no breath in them. 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.

Prophesying is merely hearing God’s voice and then being God’s mouthpiece. The Goodness, Righteousness and Truth of God’s word is what can breathe life into the bones of people dried up by the evil of this world.

So, how do we as Christ-Followers respond to these events rocking our world? By listening for God’s voice guiding and directing each one of us. Many will be guided one way and many will be guided another way. We listen and obey, not judging others for how God is directing them. All, ultimately being led to be His tool to breathe life into dry bones.

Ultimately, we can not ignore the truth as Christ-Follower’s that we are called to be people who extend God’s healing and comfort to each other and to those near and far. We don’t have to have experienced what others have experienced and fully know their pain to enter in to provide healing and comfort. Jesus consistently, healed individuals of their physical and emotional wounds that led to ultimate spiritual healing and restoration from death to life.

I recommend, as with Ezekiel, that each one of us listen for God’s voice and then obey. And, with great anticipation we let God breathe life into the dead bones so that the vast multitude will cry out in relief,

“Finally, I can breathe!”