Exposition for Palm Sunday Eve

What follows is an exposition of tomorrow’s lectionary readings for Holy Communion. It is exegetical, not homiletical.

Ezekiel 37.21-end; John 11.45-end

CONTEXT

The word of the LORD comes to Ezekiel who is in exile (Ezekiel 1.1-3). In 2 Kings 24.10-17, we read that Jerusalem was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, the king Jehoiachin was deported, along with officials, soldiers, craftsmen and many others except the poor, and the treasures of the temple and the palace were taken. A puppet king, Zedekiah is appointed. This took place in 596 BC, and Ezekiel’s message in exile is that Jerusalem and the temple will be destroyed and more people will be taken into exile. This is recorded for us in 2 Kings 25 and Ezekiel 24. This took place in 587 BC. The reason for this is the rebelliousness of God’s people (Ezekiel 2.3). They have done wickedness, broken God’s laws and not walked in his ways, they have committed idolatry, even in the temple, and there have been false prophets proclaiming peace where there is no peace. God’s people are not alone: they are just like the other nations (Ezekiel 25. and so judgment is proclaimed against the nations who are also wicked and proud and rejoiced in the downfall of God’s people. There are shafts of light throughout Ezekiel’s prophecy, but this whole section is one where God promises rescue, restoration and blessing.

THEME

God will bring his scattered people back to the land under the rule of one shepherd-king descended from David, and they will be cleansed and so enjoy a new relationship with God forever.

A NEW GATHERING

There will be a united people of God in the land God promised to give them - vv. 21, 22, 25 and 26.

A NEW KING

They will be united in the land because they will live under the rule of one king; one shepherd will gather them together and care for them. He is a descendant of David and this reign will last forever - vv. 22, 24, 25. This picks up on what has already been said in Ezekiel 34, where we read that there will be a shepherd over God’s people who will seek them out and gather them into the land and will feed and heal them. He is both the LORD, YHWH, and a descendant of David.

A NEW RELATIONSHIP

The people will enjoy a new relationship with God. They will be cleansed from their idolatry and sin which defiled them in God’s sight and brought his judgment upon them. But more than that, they will be changed so that they will not do it any more (vv. 23, 24). They will enjoy a new covenant relationship with God, which will last forever. God will dwell with them in their midst. The covenant refrain which goes back to God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 17 and repeated to Israel in Leviticus 26.12: “They shall be my people, and I shall be their God” - vv. 23, 26, 27. The idea of the covenant of peace looks back to the end of chapter 34, where God promises fruitfulness in the land and security from the enemies of God’s people. The promise of change looks back to Ezekiel 36.25-28, where God promises to sprinkle them clean, remove their hearts of stone and replace them with hearts of flesh, putting a new spirit, his Spirit in them, so that they walk in his ways, and again, the covenant promise is restated.
This new covenant relationship is generational, extending to children and children’s children.

Finally, there is the hint that this blessing is not restricted to the people of Israel, but extends to the nations - in v. 28, we see that the effect of what God does for his people is that the nations will know that he is LORD.

Israel’s subsequent history, including the return from exile into the land, never comes close to fully fulfilling these promises. As with all God’s promises, they find their “Yes” in Christ (2 Corinthians 1.20), and we see that in the reading from John.

FULFILMENT

This episode comes after the raising of Lazarus when many believed in him (John 11.45). Others tell the chief priests and Pharisees (v. 46) who gather together the Jewish ruling council and plot to work out what to do. They are afraid that because of the miracles he is performing, people will follow him and the Romans will come and intensify their conquest of the region, destroying the city and the nation itself. Caiaphas speaks and he is thinking in terms of the future of the nation in regard to the Romans. It is better that Jesus dies so that he doesn’t get a following and the Romans come and destroy them. However, his words have a deeper significance. As we saw earlier the nation faces death because of its rebellion. Jesus dies, so the nation doesn’t die, but lives and is gathered together in fulfilment of what Ezekiel prophesied. But Jesus doesn’t just die for the nation, but the children of God who are scattered abroad. This looks back to what Jesus has just said in John 10.16, where he says that he has other sheep who are not of the fold of Israel whom he must bring so that there is one flock and one shepherd over them. He is referring to God’s elect throughout the world, who as we have seen are in the same predicament as Israel. It is through Jesus death that they are cleansed so that they have life and a new relationship with God. In the other gospels at the last supper, Jesus says, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood which is shed for the forgiveness of sins”. Jesus is the shepherd-king who is both the LORD and a descendant of David, the Word made flesh (John 1.14) who according to his human nature was descended from David (Romans 1.3). This is what we remember on Palm Sunday as Jesus comes into Jerusalem as a king before he goes to his death on the cross. As the hymn has it:

Ride on! Ride on in majesty!
In lowly pomp ride on to die.

The hope he brings is vaster than one people enjoying blessing in one fruitful country, but a new heavens and new earth which his people will inherit, where there is no pain, suffering, tears or death, where God “will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21.3). The miracles he performed were in a sense a preview of this.

IMPLICATIONS

Individual - as we look at our lives, we may well feel that we need cleansing from the wrong we have done and we may well be acutely aware that we are powerless to change. We resolve to alter our way of life but fail. Even if we aren’t aware of it, that’s the predicament we’re in. God invites us to respond to Jesus as the people did in v. 45, to believe in him, to trust in him as our Saviour and come under his shepherding rule; it is in Christ that we receive what God promised in Ezekiel 37 - cleansing from sin, new power to live God’s way as he changes our hearts and gives us his Holy Spirit, and a new, everlasting relationship with God. At whatever stage we are in our Christian lives, we need to keep depending on Christ for growth in holiness.

Family - this promise of cleansing and new relationship with God applies to children and children’s children. This is why we have a responsibility to baptise our children, admitting them into the covenant people and signifying God’s promise to them, and bring them to respond in faith to what God promises his people in baptism.

World - we live in a divided world torn apart by hatred and war. God in this passage promises in Christ not just to unite Israel, but his people from among all the nation scattered on the earth. This is the hope we are to hold out to our world in our own proclamation and in our lives; our life as the church has to reflect that unity which is the purpose for which Christ died, welcoming and serving, rather excluding those from other countries, cultures and social backgrounds, promoting peace and integration rather than division.

In Christ, God is creating a new, united humanity in perfect relationship with him, walking in his ways as they were made to, living in a fruitful world.