Christ’s JOY

The fruit of the Spirit is…joy” (Gal.5:22). As a fruit of the indwelling Spirit’s work there is joy in the heart of the believer. So too in the heart of Jesus as he lived, served, and suffered here on earth. In him, too, the fruit of the Spirit was joy.

Paul’s words about the Spirit’s fruit are from his letter to the Galatians. In one of his other letters he describes himself as “sorrowful, yet always rejoicing” (2 Cor.6:10). Imagine that you have in your hand a piece of rope or cord and the strands are not all of the same colour. Some are black and others are white. In Paul’s life as a Christian and a minister there was a similar blending of sorrow and joy. It was never just the one or the other. There was always an intertwining of the two. Lots of things saddened Paul: the unbelief of his fellow Jews (Rom.9.1-2); the scandalous behaviour of those who were Christians merely in name (Phil.3.18-19); the shortcomings of fellow believers (2 Cor.2.4); his struggles with his own sinful heart (Rom.7:14-24). At the same time, however, there were lots of things that made him glad. He could say in fact that he was always rejoicing. Sorrow and joy continually co-existed in the apostle’s heart.

How was it in this regard with Jesus? Do we see the same intertwining in him? There is no question as to the sorrowing. The black strands are only too visible in the cord of his life. As prophesied by Isaiah, he was “a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief” (Ch.53:3). We read, for example, of his tears. He wept at the grave of Lazarus. He wept over the city of Jerusalem. But his sorrows were far from occasional. Ponder what it must have been like for him with his holy and loving heart to be living in the presence both of sin and its dreadful effects and you are driven to conclude that sorrow for Jesus was a constant. In no-one more so.

So the black strands were there. What about the white? Paul could say that though he was sorrowful he was always rejoicing. Was it the same with Jesus? There is an old tradition to the effect that Jesus never smiled. He always looked sad. Men have debated whether he could ever have laughed. What are we to think of that? Did the sufferings of his sensitive nature and the burden of the world’s sin so weigh on him that there was little by way of joy? Or may we argue that on the contrary no more joyful man has ever lived than Jesus? In the cord of his life were the white strands as conspicuous as the black? Those are the questions this post will attempt to answer!

A couple of foundational texts before we launch into our subject. The first is from John 15. The Lord is impressing on his disciples the importance of keeping his commandments so that they might abide in his love, “just as I have kept my Father’s commandment and abide in his love” (v.10). Then he says this: “These things I have spoken to you, that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be full” (v.11). The more the disciples had of Jesus’ joy the more full would be their own joy. There is a further mention of Jesus’ joy in his prayer in John 17. With reference to his disciples he says, “But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves” (v.13). The Saviour was eager for these men to share in his joy, indeed to be full of his joy, and that is why he had spoken to them as he had done.

Jesus, then, was no stranger to joy – for all the depths of sorrow that he plumbed. His experience of it was instead so rich and full that if his joy is ours our joy will be full as well. Let’s try and get some glimpses of it. In what kind of things did Jesus take joy?

God’s good gifts      

We may think of Jesus rejoicing in God’s good gifts. Toward the end of his first letter to Timothy Paul speaks about God as a God “who richly provides us with everything to enjoy” (Ch.6:17). In his great kindness he has filled this world with things for our enjoyment; things that give us pleasure. What a long list it would be if we were to try to make it an exhaustive one! So many things come readily to mind: the marvels and beauties of creation, marriage and family life, the strength and energy of youth, tasty food, good health, a satisfying job, bumper harvests, the happiness of little children, loyal and loving friends, and the pleasures of art, music, and literature. On and on we could go!

It is true that we do not need the Spirit’s saving presence to enable us to enjoy these things. Unbelievers can and do take immense delight in them. But there is something special that happens to our joy when the Spirit does come. It is given its proper Godward direction. The Spirit delivers us from such an absorption in the gifts that we have no thought for the divine giver. In all these good things we see the kindness of our Father in heaven. We receive them with thanksgiving. They deepen our love for him. They move us to delight in him.

Now if all of that is true of us, notwithstanding our remaining sinfulness, how much more of our perfect Saviour! Yes, there was much around him that made him sad. But there was much around him, too, that filled his heart with delight. This was his Father’s world. It was indeed his own world in which he had taken pleasure from the beginning. And seeing it now through human eyes and experiencing it now in sinless human nature most certainly did not annul that pleasure. On the contrary, we can be sure that in all the things that his Father had made and in all the good gifts his Father had given Jesus took a richer, deeper, fuller, purer joy than any human has ever done since the days before the fall.

The good news God anointed him to preach  

We may think of Jesus rejoicing in the good news God anointed him to preach. It is a Sabbath day in Nazareth, Jesus’ hometown, and who should be in the synagogue but Jesus himself. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah is handed to him and he reads from chapter sixty-one words that were having their fulfilment in himself: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Luke 4:18-19).

The message God gave to Jesus was not like the one he gave to Jonah. It has been said of Jonah that he was “the one only prophet of God into whose mouth was put nothing but the language of wrath” (Hugh Martin). “Yet forty days, and Nineveh will be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4). In Jesus’ mouth we hear the language of wrath as well. No-one spoke more explicitly and frequently about hell than he. Hell, however, was only the dark backdrop to his message. God had not sent him into the world to condemn the world but so that through him the world might be saved (John 3:17). His was a message of salvation. And his miracles were in keeping with that message. They gave the people foretastes of the blessings that would be theirs if they believed the good news of the kingdom. His good works and his good news went hand in hand. And in that good news we trace another of his joys. He had been anointed to preach good news. Don’t we delight in that good news ourselves? Don’t we account it the best news in the world? How much more the one who knew as no-one else did just how good it was! We are at no loss to account for Jesus’ joy when we think about him having such a glorious message to preach and such choice blessings to offer to one and all.

To be continued…