“I’ve got bad news and I’ve got bad news. What do you want to hear first?” I’ve lost count of the number of times someone has asked me that. I don’t know about you, but I ALWAYS want to hear the good news first. But Nehemiah 8:9-12 reminds me once again that it’s better to break the bad news first. There’s a method to the madness. It’s only when we realize just how bad the bad news that we realize just how good the Good News is.
As a result, a very strange thing happened one day in Jerusalem. What begins as a funeral turns into a party. Let me explain. God’s Law absolutely crushes God’s people. It exposes their sin. It makes it painfully clear that they can never save themselves through obedience. The bar of perfection and holiness is way too high. The result is death and separation from God. Think of the most painful funeral you’ve ever attended. And then realize that it’s yours! I told you this is bad news. This is exactly where God’s Gospel comes to our rescue. That’s when we realize that God does for us what we could never do for ourselves. He saves us when we could never save ourselves. What was our funeral is now a party! You see, it’s only when we realize just how bad the bad news that we realize just how good the Good News is.
Let’s crank up the Hot Tub Machine for Jerusalem in Tishri 1, 445 BC. God’s chosen people are steadily coming home to the Promised Land after an extended period of captivity in places like Babylon and Persia. We arrive at a citywide Bible study. People pack the square to hear Ezra read from the first five books of the Bible (Neh 8:1-8). He’s one of the greatest Bible teachers anyone has ever heard (Ez 7:6, 10). The dude reads Scripture for nearly six hours! The huge crowd breaks up into smaller groups to discuss what they’ve heard and what they should do about it. It’s not long before tears begin to flow.
Nehemiah, Ezra, and the rest of the small group leaders go out of their way to tell the people that this is no time to cry. “And Nehemiah, who was governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, ‘This day is holy to the LORD your God; do not mourn or weep’” (v9). They tell the people today is a day to celebrate God. He’s circled this day on the calendar to party. Twice in those first five books, the LORD tells His people about an annual shindig one the first day of the seventh month called the Feast of Trumpets (Lev 23:23-25; Num 29:1-6). And wouldn’t you know it, that’s today! Not once, not twice, but three times Nehemiah and the other leaders that “this day is holy” and not to mourn, weep, and grieve (v9, 10, 11).
But no matter what they hear from the platform, the huge crowd cries. “For all the people wept as they heard the words of the Law” (v9). Instead of cheers, there are tears. That’s what the Law does. It crushes us. It destroys us. God’s Law sets His holy standard so high that we can never, ever meet it. We would have better odds lacing up our Air Jordans and trying to jump from Earth to the moon. Yeah, good luck with that. Just in case you need a reminder of just how you and I stack up against God’s Law, let’s take a quick look back at some of the lowlights of the Pentateuch. The Creator gives Adam and Eve access to the goodness of the entire garden but tells them to stay away from one tree for their own protection. Ever seen the meme “you had one job”? It started in Eden. Yeah, their disobedience was the epic fail of epic fails. Over in Exodus, God gives Moses His Top Ten. If you fool yourself into believing you’ve nailed those, you need to check Jesus’ little ditty called the Sermon on the Mount. Then there’s that feel good book called Leviticus where God goes into meticulous detail about His sacrificial worship system. Most of us can’t even read through Leviticus much less do what it says. And in case we’re not crushed by now, there’s Deuteronomy. God uses Moses to drop the hammer of His Law one more time to make sure we get it through our thick skulls that obedience is impossible.
God’s Law causes us to cry because it’s impossible to obey. That’s exactly the point. Think of the law like a medical diagnostic tool. An MRI. A CT scan. An x-ray. If you want to know exactly what’s wrong, you put on one of those breezy medical gowns and get climb inside. Doctors use this amazing technology to figure out what’s going on inside you. God uses the law to reveal the cancer of sin in each one of us. But there’s one problem. As great as these diagnostic marvels are, they can’t heal. No matter how many times we climb into the MRI machine, it can never heal me. It only reveals what’s wrong. God’s Law reveals my sin. The prognosis is terminal. The bad news is bad. REALLY bad.
Nehemiah tells the people that while the prognosis is fatal, there is indeed a miracle cure available to each and everyone there. “Then he said, ‘Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the LORD is your strength” (v10). The governor announces that this is no funeral but a party. Stop crying. Start eating. Stop mourning. Start drinking. And make every effort to take the party to those who didn’t have anything to bring. Get your eyes out of the mirror and stop obsessing over your sin. It’s time to get your eyes on the goodness of our gracious God and party!
With the bad news still ringing in their ears, the people undoubtedly hear the Good News. While God’s Law is the diagnostic tool, God’s Gospel is the therapy. He does for us what we could never dream of doing for ourselves. God sets the impossible standard. He exposes our sin. But He doesn’t leave us there. He meets that impossible standard for us. That’s why the Apostle Paul wrote to his buddies in Rome about how God is both the “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” (Rom 3:26). The Son of God came on His amazing rescue mission to do everything we couldn’t. He lived the perfect life that we failed to live. He died the death for our sin that we should have died. He rose to glorious new life that we don’t deserve. In the middle of His incredible Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells the crowd that His mission isn’t to toss God’s standard in the trash but to be obedient to it on our behalf. “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Mt 5:17). We experience the healing of the Gospel when we place our trust in what Jesus has done what we couldn’t do.
The people of Jerusalem back in 445 BC didn’t know all the specifics about the resurrected Rabbi/Carpenter from Nazareth that we do. That’s why they call it “BC,” as in “Before Christ.” But the Old Testament is full of promises of One who is to come. That promise starts just after the Fall (Gen 3:15) and is a consistent theme throughout. Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites explain that Messiah is coming to heal. He’s coming to restore. He’s coming to save. He’s coming to dry their tears.
The bad news is REALLY bad. But the Good News is SPECTACULARLY good!
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