The Great Requirement
Nehemiah 5:1-13
If you want to learn what a person is really like, ask three questions: What makes them laugh? What makes them weep? What makes them angry? It’s the last of these questions which catch us off guard as Christians. One of the calls to the Christian life is to get angry. Yet many of us have this misconception that as Christians we are forbidden to get angry. We read a lot in the Bible about God’s anger. One example is when God got angry at the Israelites when Moses went up Mt. Sinai to be with God and the people became frightened and made false idols they could worship. We read in the Bible that God is also angry at the neglect of widows, strangers and orphans. Now the two things which anger God the most is the worship of other gods by God’s people and injustice and our lack of response to it. Our Scripture today is about anger regarding injustice. Injustice is any action which inflicts undeserved hurt or unfairness. Injustice occurs when people with power and influence act against or fail to act on behalf of people without power.
The fact is Jesus got angry over the things which upset God. The time Jesus is most remembered for his anger occurred when he entered Jerusalem during holy week. Jesus went to the temple to worship and when he got there, he looked around and saw what was happening in the outer courtyard of the temple and got angry. He began to drive out the moneychangers and cried out, “My house will be a house of prayer but you have made it a den of robbers.” You will remember that it was the Passover Festival, one of three religious festivals which the Jews were required to attend. So literally 10’s of 1000’s of people had descended on Jerusalem. They came from many nations and thus had different currencies. So the Jews set up tables and would charge a fee to exchange the pilgrim’s money and charged them exorbitant rates. These people had come not only to worship God but to offer sacrifice. For those traveling a long distance, it was next to impossible to bring animals with them. So they had to buy a dove or pigeon or sheep from the money changes. They couldn’t buy it from people out in the street where they could get it for a fair price, they had to buy it from the moneychangers. It was another way to rip off the pilgrims. And Jesus became angry that such cheating and stealing was occurring in God’s house, so angry that he turned the tables over to disrupt their business. Just as Jesus gets angry at the things which anger God, we need to get angry about the things which upset God.
When Jesus went to the temple in his hometown, he chose to read from Isaiah 61. Now given that it was a Jewish audience, they would have been aware of the passages which surrounded the one Jesus chose. The 59th chapter reads, “the Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice.” God was appalled that there was no one to intervene on behalf of the poor and the powerless. Jesus picks up the scroll and begins to read, “The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.” How will you know that the kingdom of God has come here on earth and that the Messiah has arrived? Because there will be justice brought to the poor. Yet throughout Scripture again and again we see that the religious faithful didn’t get it. The problem is not those outside the church but with those inside the church. So when Jesus is talking about the lost and the blind, guess who he is talking about? Religious leaders.
God calls us to faithfulness. What is the true measure of faithfulness? It is never about having correct belief but instead justice centered action. Micah 6:8 gives us the Great Requirement: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Today in 2008, people will argue about women in ministry or argue whether the divorced can have full rights and privileges in the church or fight against homosexuality or abortion when Jesus didn’t have a word to say any of those. Yet justice and God’s concern for justice is mentioned over 500 times in the Scriptures! So often, the church is silent about justice. Our Scripture today is about justice.
Through the first 5 chapters, Nehemiah has had to confront one difficult challenge after another. In chapter one, he was faced with a personal challenge of having a broken heart over the devastation of Jerusalem and the call of God to rebuild it. In chapter 2, he had to ask the King for a leave of absence and for supplies and financial support. In chapter 3, he had to convince the Israelites to leave their homes and livelihoods and work until the wall was complete. In chapter 4, he dealt with the challenge of escalating opposition against the Jews rebuiding.
Now we come to chapter 5 and Nehemiah’s faced with what may be his biggest challenge yet. There’s a word in verse 1 that sets the tone for chapter 5 it’s the word, “against.” Strife was brewing and tension was mounting, because some were victimizing others during harsh financial times. First, famine is upon them. The crops have not produced as they should, and so the people have been low on food for some time. Second is inflation. Everything from food to clothing is rising in price. This is only exacerbated by the third issue which is lost productivity. Because people have taken time off work to rebuild the walls, they have neglected their crops, their livestock and their business, further worsening their financial situation. Fourth is heavy taxation. The Persian monarchs were known for imposing a heavy tax burdens upon the people, a tax rate of close to 60%, leaving most living on the brink of poverty. Fifth is exploitation. To make matters even worse, the wealthy were making loans with exorbitant interest rates. Families had to choose between starvation and servitude. Foreclosure is on the rise. Creditors are taking away their property and some families are forced to sell their children into slavery.
So it is their own fellow Jews who are taking advantage of the poor and those living month to month. In our Scripture today, Nehemiah is talking about the nobles and the religious leaders of his own people. They were living in the midst of the work of God but because of their wealth and position, they were blinded to the needs and hurts of the poor and powerless. They were blind to the injustice around them and the call of God to live out the Great Requirement. One of the issues we see in the Scripture today is slavery. Let us not forget that though slavery ended here in our nation’s dark history almost 150 years ago, slavery is still a very real issue in the world today. 27 million people are enslaved today. Mike Slaughter tells the story of the Zambian boys choir who sang in his church. A man masquerading as a religious missionary came to a Zambian Village and promised the parents that the kids would be well fed, paid for the concerts they sang, educated and then come back and he would build all new homes for their families. They sang upwards of 7 concerts a day and this man never educated the boys or paid them and yet he made up to a million dollars a year off of them. And Mike says his church, thinking that they were supporting a missionary’s efforts to improve the lot and life of poor African children and their village, unknowingly contributed to their slavery. Slavery is still happening.
When we exploit other people for the sake of our personal gain, we violate the Great Requirement. Whether we are aware or not, we can become part of the problem. We can exploit people for our own benefit, and not know it, even when we purchase something like a Tommy Hilfiger shirt. We have to become informed consumers. I can go to the store and buy a shirt and have hand in slave labor. This is one reason John Wesley in his day banned the consumption of rum, not because it was alcohol but because it was made with slave labor. The Great Requirement isn’t to believe in justice but to do justice, to love mercy and walk with your God.
After Jesus read this passage, the listeners would have known what Jesus left off. Let me read it to you: “They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated; they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations.” So the responsibility of those who have submitted themselves to the kingdom of God, is to rebuild, restore and renew. Rebuild, restore and renew. That is the task set before us in New Orleans, not just buildings and streets and schools but people. Yet I know a whole lot of church people who are so heavenly minded they are of no earthly good. They may talk about being saved and yet they are just sitting around waiting to be taken to heaven. Jesus wasn’t crucified and then resurrected to take people to heaven but to transform this world and through my life and yours so that it becomes the kingdom of God. God’s purpose is to transform people whose priority will be to rebuild, restore and renew the broken, the poor, the oppressed and the powerless.
This is what it means to live out the will of God. It’s about demonstrating the purpose of heaven so that when people look at us, they see what God intends for our life. When you take a stand for the kingdom, when you seek to work to advance the kingdom of God, opposition will arise. Sometimes you just have to go through months of months of difficulties and attacks until you see the light of resurrection in your life again. John the Baptist was the messenger sent by God to announce the coming of the Messiah and call the people to prepare through repentance. John was such a thorn in the side of the king that Herod had him arrested and put in prison. Prisons were dark dank, cold and rat and cockroach infested places and it is in such circumstances that John began to have doubts. So he sent one of his followers to Jesus to ask if indeed he was the Messiah and this is what Jesus said, “Go back to report to John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised and the good news is proclaimed for the poor.” This is not only what Jesus did, but what we as followers of Jesus are called to do as well. To be a part of the work of God in the rebuilding of the city is to understand that we are to be a recovery movement for the world. God doesn’t create junk. We are here to rebuild and restore people’s lives, no matter who they are or what they have done. And that means getting angry over injustice and moving against it.
What we see in Chapter 5 is Nehemiah’s response to injustice. Five things we learn from Nehemaih. First, think before speaking. While Nehemiah was very angry, verse 7 says that he took the time to “ponder” the charges before he accused the nobles and officials. The New English Bible puts it this way: “I mastered my feelings.” The Hebrew literally means, “My heart consulted within me.” Instead of just “going off” on the people in the heat of the moment, Nehemiah paused, took a deep breath and thought about it for a while. He did what Proverbs 16:32 challenges us to do: “It is better to be slow-tempered than famous; it is better to have self-control than to control an army.” After thinking things over, Nehemiah decided to publicly confront the people whose selfishness had created the strife. Since it involved the whole nation it demanded public rebuke and repentance.
Second, speak up. “So I continued, "What you are doing is not right. Shouldn’t you walk in the fear of our God to avoid the reproach of our Gentile enemies?” After recognizing the situation, and the burden on the people and the division it has caused amongst God’s people, Nehemiah doesn’t stop speaking but cries out for justice. He doesn’t speak for himself. He speaks out for God and speaks out against that which stands against God. Too many times we think we can negotiate with the devil and you don’t negotiate with the devil. You call the devil by name and you exorcise the devil. You know why a lot of people in the world today don’t give any credibility to Christianity? Because the church isn’t doing anything! Or if they decide to take a stand, they do so on polarizing surface issues like women in ministry or homosexuality. I don’t care where you stand on those issues. There are arguments and use of Scripture to support both sides. But my position is this: until we make the main thing the main thing and we begin to get it right, we’ve got no business dealing with anything else. What is the main thing? Making disciples of Jesus Christ and to do justice, to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” The church needs to speak out definitively against evil. Elie Wiesel, Nobel Peace Prize Winner and concentration camp survivor writes, “There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.” This is not a time to be quiet. This is a time to turn up the noise.
Third, meet face-to-face. Confrontation is caring enough about another person to get the conflict on the table and talk about it. But don’t do it over the phone or through email. (Matthew 18). Nehemiah went right to the source of injustice in verse 8 and confronted the people with what they had done wrong. No one likes confrontation but when we ignore this critical step we often end up talking to someone else about how we’ve been offended by someone else. When you go to a third party you create a “communication triangle.” So go directly to the person you’re upset with. If someone comes to you to express anger at another person, your first question should always be, “Have you talked to him? Have you met with her?”
Fourth, call people to repent. “I and my brothers and my men are also lending the people money and grain. But let the exacting of usury stop!” In other words, stop charging interest and immediately give them back their fields, vineyards, olive groves and houses, and also the interest you’re charging them."” Not only is he speaking out, he gets up and starts to do something about it. “Then I summoned the priests and made the nobles and officials take an oath to do what they had promised.” What can we do when we all commit to repent of our ways and do together is much greater than what I can or you can do on your own. There is power in numbers.
Fifth, seek resolution and restoration. Our goal in stopping strife or confronting conflict should always be resolution and restoration of the relationship. Wilbur Wilberforce was converted to Christ under the ministry of John Newton who had earned a living as a captain of slave ships, then had an encounter with Jesus Christ and repented, became a pastor and then penned the hymn, “Amazing Grace.“ “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” Two years after his conversion in 1788 Wilberforce began introducing an anti-slave trade motion in Parliament. John Wesley who banned Methodist from buying rum because it was a product of slavery wrote Wilberforce and said this: “Be not weary in well-doing but go on in the name of God and the power of his might, and finish the work that God has made you to do.” Every year the legislation was rejected but Wilberforce didn’t quit. In 1804 a crack in the door opened when Parliament passed an anti-slave trade law which made illegal the trade of slaves but slavery was still legal. He kept fighting the good fight. Wilberforce worked tirelessly to abolish slavery and in 1833, almost 47 years later, Parliament passed a bill banning slavery. Three days later, John Wilberforce died, because he had finished the work God had sent him to do.
What does the Lord require of you? Not to believe in justice but to do justice, love mercy and walk humbly with your God. Sisters and brothers, Be not weary in well-doing but go on in the name of God and the power of his might, finish the work that God has made you to do
