We thought Messiah had finally come for us.

But today his body lies in a tomb and the snakes who put him there are still in charge of our country and Temple.

Some of us are doubting. All of us are afraid and confused and just heartbroken.

But we’re here together. It’s the Sabbath after Passover, the day before the Feast of Firstfruits, so thousands have gathered with us at the Temple to hear a reading from the scroll of Ezekiel.

These words were written long ago when the LORD led the prophet to walk through a valley filled with bones. Dry bones.

Even here now on Jerusalem’s highest hill, our hearts are down in the valley, walking in the shadow of death.

“Can these bones live?’ the LORD asked Ezekiel.

“Sovereign LORD, only you know,” he answered.

Then the LORD gave Ezekiel a message to proclaim to the bones.

“I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”

Ezekiel 37:5b,6

The sages say someday the Messiah will come and breathe life into the dead. But not today.