Texts: Ezekiel 2:1-6; 2 Corinthians 12:2-10; Mark 6:14-29
I've mentioned from time to time that a friend of mine is doing some scholarly work on the theological implications of the holocaust. He sends me some drafts and I send back some comments, and so on; and one of the things I have urged him to do is to think about the holocaust in terms of the exile to Babylon. We think of the holocaust as being uniquely horrific, in part, because it took place in living memory – it's part of modern history – the wounds from it are still very raw. Think of the furore that ensues whenever any prominent person casts doubts on the holocaust. Would there be the same hue and cry if an historian doubted that the exile to Babylon took place?
But if we place ourselves back at the time of the exile – if we put ourselves in the shoes of the Jews of that time – would it have seemed any less terrible than the holocaust seems to us today? What could be worse than your capital city destroyed, your temple pillaged and left in ruins, and your people – those who had survived the siege and then the slaughter that followed defeat – carted off as prisoners by the invading army? Wouldn't it have raised some of the same questions about the providence of God for those people as the holocaust does for the people of today?
And here's where things get worse. Suppose a prophet were to arise in Israel today and started to tell the people that the holocaust was all God's doing, and they deserved it because of their disobedience to God's Law How would that go down? But that's exactly what happened at the time of the exile – not after it was all over and the remaining exiles had been set free – but while the exile was still in force. That's precisely what we are dealing with in our first lesson this morning. Although scholars can't agree on the exact dating of this episode, because the dates given don't exactly add up, it is clear that Ezekiel's vision and call came to him in Babylon – in exile. And his calling was to do exactly what I have just been talking about.
He was to tell the exiles that they had it coming to them – that it was God's way of punishing them for their disobedience. No words of comfort or reassurance here. No words of regret. No words of hope. Just blunt words of condemnation and a call to repent. And I say it again, to get some idea of the force of these words, transpose them to the context of the holocaust – it doesn't bear thinking about, does it? Yet this was Ezekiel's calling, and the message he was to preach.
No wonder he was warned that the task would not be easy! He was told that the people were stubborn and rebellious – perhaps they were – but wouldn't they have some grounds for it? Might they not be wondering where their God was when the Babylonians came calling? Don't we often feel most like questioning God when something has gone disastrously wrong? We can't match Job's eloquence, but we understand his feelings!
However, we have started Ezekiel's story in the wrong place today. We have literally started in chapter 2, with him lying face down in the dirt. We need to remember why he is lying face down in the dirt. He is lying face down in the dirt because he has just received the most amazing vision of the glory of God – not in the temple where Isaiah received his – but there in exile in Babylon! The God of Israel has not stayed behind weeping over the rubble that was once his holy resting place; but has gone with his people into exile. That's the wonderful news – the good news – that is given first to Ezekiel.
And what does that remind us of as Christians? The resurrection appearances of the risen Christ, doesn't it? All was defeat and hopelessness on Good Friday – where was God when this terrible thing happened – when our enemies prevailed? Has he abandoned us? No, here he is – he has raised Jesus up – put him back on his feet by the same Spirit that lifted Ezekiel back to his feet. That's what makes the good news good – not that all opposition has been vanquished – not that everybody is now a believer – but that belief in God is once again made possible. Ezekiel saw God and believed despite the exile and all the terrible suffering associated with it; Mary Magdalene and the disciples saw the Risen Christ and believed, despite the terrible suffering that reached it's conclusion on the cross on Good Friday.
With that confidence in God, Ezekiel was able to carry out his mission to his fellow exiles, to call them to repent, to call them to turn back to God. And the same is true of the Christian message. At the time of Christ the people had reason to feel sorry for themselves. They were in their own land, of course, but under foreign domination. In a real sense, they felt exiled from God. Yet when that great prophet, John the Baptist, appeared he brought no word of comfort or reassurance. He brought the same message Ezekiel brought; repent, turn back to God. Was his task any easier than Ezekiel's? Were not the people of his time every bit as stubborn and rebellious as those of Ezekiel's time? Jesus found them so.
And so did St Paul; and when we think of him, suddenly we hear those echoes again of that earlier story of Ezekiel. Like Ezekiel, St Paul finds himself face down in the dirt; like him, he hears a voice calling upon him to get up and get going. Like him he is to go to forth and proclaim God's message. And like him, he will find himself facing every conceivable form of hostility and opposition. But he never wavers, because he has seen the Lord, he has heard him, and so his faith is made strong. As the God of Israel was with Ezekiel in Babylon, so he is with Paul in Corinth and all the other Gentile, unbelieving places in which Paul finds himself.
And the pattern is the same in the gospel reading. First comes Jesus, who builds up the faith of the disciples in him; and then he sends them out into the disbelieving world, knowing that they too will face hostility and opposition. They do their best and meet with some success, but something is missing. The Spirit has not yet come upon them; they have not yet been clothed with power from on high. They have not yet seen the vision of one like a Son of Man raised up. But when they have – when they have seen the risen Christ – when they have been empowered from on high by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost – they are unstoppable.
And they have one great advantage over Ezekiel. The exile is finally over for ever. In Christ, God was reconciling himself to the world. That's how St Paul put it. He might just as easily have put it in terms of the restoration, the return of the exiles to the holy land. We are no longer estranged from God. We have been set free to come home.
That's the message the Church has been given to proclaim to the stubborn and rebellious people of our time. Of course, we face hostility and opposition – at least, we would do if we were true to our calling.
But compared to Ezekiel, we've got it easy.
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