Eat What is Rich, Drink What is Sweet

When the walls are rebuilt and the doors installed and the exiles returned, Nehemiah gathers the people for the public reading of God's law. The people kneel low, worship, and weep as they hear the words of the law read aloud. Because they know that they have a long history of transgression. But Nehemiah, Ezra, and the Levites instruct the people not to weep but to rejoice! Today is a day that is holy to God. Despite their covenant unfaithfulness, God has remained faithful. The joy of the Lord is their strength. So they are told to eat what is rich and to drink what is sweet - and to send portions to those who have nothing!This is how we too - in Christ - respond to the law and the Word of God! We behold the holiness and goodness of God, and we fall down, worship, and weep! (Like Isaiah before the throneroom or John in the Revelation, our own unworthiness floods over us.) But our strength and our hope and our joy is not in our merit but in Christ's! Today is his, and he is holy! In him, there is fullness of joy! In Jesus, our weeping finds its end (its culmination), and our hearts are turned to dancing. So we eat and drink what is rich and sweet! And we do so with unbridled generosity. Because, after all, we rejoice because the generosity of God has been poured out on us - that generosity must spill over!