Joy. That’s the word to think about over the Easter weekend and into whatever the summer brings. Don’t take my word for it. Joy. It’s the gospel truth. Go and see for yourself. Luke’s Gospel starts and ends with it.
The angels told the shepherds and anyone else who later read Luke’s Gospel, “I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be for all the people.” Thirty three years later after the trauma of the crucifixion, and the shock of an empty tomb, the disciples were confronted by the risen Jesus. “Look”, said Jesus and showed them his hands and feet, unmistakably nail-marked, the wounds of crucified love. “And they disbelieved for joy.” The joy of good news, the birth of a baby who is God with us, and meeting the risen Jesus who is God with us!
Joy for the Christian is more than happiness, that inner effervescence that bubbles up in laughter, good feelings and celebration. Oh, it is all these, but it has a deeper source and more enduring impact. Christ is risen! Death is overcome! Love has won! Because of Jesus’ resurrection life erupts in hope, and light radiates from the darkest of human experiences.
This past year we haven’t done a lot of rejoicing. It has been difficult enough just to get through each day, week, month, with much of what brings joy into our lives either closed down, restricted or unable to be shared with others. Christian joy is not some superficial denial of how hard life can sometimes be. But for us as Christians the resurrection is the anchor truth of faith, hope, love and peace.
The joy of the resurrection comes to us when we look with as much honesty as we can on life in all its brokenness. The cross helps us to do that. Our Saviour bore in his own body, heart, mind and soul the full weight of sin, evil and a broken creation: hate, violence, lies, betrayal, cruelty, all the dark forces that together inflict suffering on human lives and insinuate themselves into human cultures, societies and systems.
The world did its worst, and God acted for the best. The resurrection is God’s victory over all that breaks human hearts, destroys our hopes, wastes every joy, and dares defy the Eternal Love whose response is the sacrifice of God’s own Son. No wonder Easter is about joy!
The last two verses of Luke’s Gospel show that the great joy of the Saviour’s birth where the story began, had come full circle in the mighty purposes of God. The bleak sorrow of the Saviour’s death where it looked like the story ended, was eclipsed by the rising of the sun, and the rising of the Son. “Then they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. ( Luke: 24.52)
Such joy has a permanence happiness can never have. Such joy depends not on our life circumstances, but on the pivotal circumstance of that historic moment when the tomb became redundant, and Jesus burst the powers of death by being raised in the power of the God of life, love, hope and peace. Jesus is risen!
Of course we still have the everyday struggles of trying to make our lives work. We still go through situations of bereavement and grief, illness and weakness, anxiety and depression. But Jesus is risen!
This past year’s losses and sorrows, the tedium and the loneliness, the restricted freedoms and uncertain future, are not going to disappear. We remain in the grip of a pandemic and the world still seems unsafe, uncertain and often either afraid or defiant. But. Remember Luke’s bracketed occasions of joy. This is still a world in which Christ was born in joy, and God made himself known; a world where Christ died for the sins of the whole world; and a world in which resurrection has happened, to the rejoicing of heaven and joy to the world.
Christ has come. Christ has died. Christ has risen! Hallelujah.
Joy is to know in mind and heart that we are held in the eternal love of God in Christ.
Joy is to know our sin forgiven, and our hearts reconciled and at peace with God.
Joy is when our life is given purpose, direction and meaning in worship and service to the God who calls us in Christ.
Joy is trusting the guidance and gifting of the Holy Spirit, and the grace sufficient.
Joy is to pray as God’s children, to the one we call Father, in the name of our Saviour, in the power of the Spirit.
Joy is the environment of heaven, and we are citizens of heaven on earth.
“Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him.”
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