JOY
Matthew 11.
Dear Lord God, heavenly Father: Your Son, our Savior, said that we are to rejoice and be exceedingly glad even when we are persecuted. John the Baptist was treated with contempt, put into prison unjustly, and suffered death for Your name. Teach us from his example and our Savior’s words to rejoice always (1Th 5:16), to receive great joy from Your glad tidings (Lk 2:10), to find joy in every station (ELH #424:5), and for the joy of the Lord to be our strength (Neh 8:10). Help us confess Your name with joy. Amen!
Dear fellow redeemed in Christ, who is Himself all our joy: Grace and peace be unto you from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
The third candle on the Advent wreath – the pink or rose-colored one – is for joy. This Sunday is titled Gaudeté, a Latin word that means “rejoice!” It’s the Advent Sunday of Joy. This week is about joy.
But it’s hard to see it in today’s gospel. It’s hard to see joy there. This is how it is for Christians. This is how it is with joy. It’s often hard to see it.
Here in Matthew 11, there’s enough sadness and suffering to fill a book. First, John the Baptist is “in prison.” His preaching and baptizing is in the past. The time when people would go out in droves, curious to see the wild looking man in the desert, is in the past. The days when his own disciples surrounded him, that’s in the past. There are just these two disciples now.
He’s in prison, living in the dark, shut out from the sunlight and the world outside, not for doing anything wrong, but because he did what was right in God’s eyes, he was faithful. He spoke God’s truth that condemned Herod’s adultery who then unjustly put John in prison. We know not long after this, John will be put to death, thanks to Herod’s lust and Herodias’ hatred. His death will bring deep grief to Jesus – who, when He hears of it, goes off alone to pray.
It feels like there’s no joy here. There’s a contrast with how it all began for John. There was “joy and gladness” at his birth. “Many rejoiced at his birth … many rejoiced with” his parents. Even when he was in the womb, and the virgin Mary visited John’s mother Elizabeth, John “leaped in her womb for joy” because he was in the presence of the Savior, who was in Mary’s womb.
There’s only joy in John’s birth, which increases the feeling of sadness here.
We think this is the saddest thing. We wonder how there’s any joy here. We still have to get to the main things in this text; there are two main parts:
First, we hear that John “sent two of his disciples and said to Jesus, ‘Are You the Coming One, or do we look for another?’ ” People have wondered if this is John questioning Jesus, having doubts about Jesus. But that isn’t so. He always pointed to Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” He had said, “I have seen and testify that this is the Son of God.” John isn’t doubting. Right after this Jesus declares that John is not like “a reed shaken by the wind.” But John sent these two disciples to Jesus because they were still refusing to accept John’s testimony that Jesus was the Lamb of God, and to follow Him. John sent them to Jesus, for Him to answer them.
To Jesus, this is a greater sadness than John being in prison. John, in prison, has a Savior through faith in Him. John believes. These two don’t. Jesus says, “Blesséd is he who is not offended in Me,” about them. They don’t believe in Him. They don’t follow Him. He’s an offense to them. What’s sad is that as long as they resist Him, they are lost eternally.
The second part of this is that the crowds aren’t offended at Jesus but now look down on John. Jesus says, “What did you go out to see?” – then says: “This is he of whom it is written: ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face, who will prepare Your way before You.’ ” Jesus is saying that the messenger, John, and the One he pointed to, Jesus, go together. Faith comes through the word John preached. Reject John, and you reject Jesus.
The largeness of the crowds doesn’t add up to joy for Jesus. He knew their hearts. They were only following Him to see more miracles. They did not repent, as John said to, in his preaching. They didn’t follow Jesus as the Lamb of God, the one who goes like a lamb to the slaughter. They will be offended at this, and will depart from Jesus, turn against Him. So although they were drawn to Jesus, they didn’t really have Him. They were living in the dark, the darkened heart and the darkness of unbelief.
What we learn about joy here is: to not be fooled by appearances. John, in prison, had joy. In prison he actually wasn’t living in the dark, since by faith he had Jesus, the Light of the world. John “came to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe” (Jn 1:8) – John too. The Light, Jesus, “the true Light which gives light,” didn’t desert John in prison. These others – without faith in Jesus – didn’t have that. Any joyful experiences or feelings they may have, would vanish into nothing. They live in the dark, and “great is that darkness!” (Mt 6:23) – something Jesus Himself said.
So we can begin to see what joy is. It doesn’t depend on whether crowds of people love you, whether you get respect or attention from anyone, whether life turns out as you wanted, whether you still love what you do, whether you’re rich or poor, whether you’re in a prison or a beautiful home, whether people or things are taken from you, or whether you feel secure. It doesn’t depend on what’s going on, whether things are up or down, good or not.
That’s what we naturally think, of course. When things go against you or you get discouraged or life is just hard, you can conclude that you’re without joy, or the joy is gone for you. But that’s a misunderstanding of what joy is. Often we mistake joy for happy feelings. Happiness goes up and down, but joy – since it’s from God – is always there. You see this in the words from Jesus that we are to “rejoice and be glad” if we’re persecuted for His sake. God says it’s possible to have joy even in suffering. Joy is always there.
But we will still struggle to have it. Joy is a gift from God. It comes from hearing the Gospel. Joy comes second after “love” in the listing of the fruit of the Spirit. So the way the Bible defines it, joy is a fruit – direct result – of faith.
That means joy is part of our new nature, the “forgiven self” – which must struggle against the old Adam, the “sinful self.” Often the sinful self – the part lacking joy – is stronger than the forgiven self, and suffocates joy. When this happens we can condemn ourselves and think, I’m just not a joyful person, my faith is lacking. But lacking joy isn’t lacking faith. Christians are not always joyful. At times it’s easy to rejoice, at times you can’t see any good.
What’s happening is that joy is getting pushed down. Because the devil is behind this, this struggle for joy isn’t only emotional, it’s also spiritual.
For a Christian, the opposite of joy is something that is one of the so-called “seven deadly sins,” the one often referred to as “sloth.” That’s not a great translation of its Latin name: acedia. Acedia isn’t laziness or boredom, which is what sloth sounds like. It’s a spiritual condition: restlessness, apathy, being unable to enjoy what you’re doing or things you usually enjoy. It’s the op-posite of joy: a loss of enjoyment, loss of purpose, going through the motions, being disinterested. It’s a spiritual numbness. It’s a sin because it takes you away from care and concern, turns you away from God and your neighbor, it turns you inward, self-obsessed. It keeps you unthankful. So what do we do?
The wrong way is to think you just have to be more joyful, to manufacture it. That doesn’t work. You can’t just decide to feel it. Joy isn’t from the Law nor is it a work of the Law, it’s all Gospel – it only comes from the Gospel.
Joy comes from hearing the Gospel, from knowing Christ, receiving His forgiveness and comfort, being sure that God gives you eternal life. We see this in the Christmas Eve gospel: the first thing the angel tells the shepherds after “Fear not!” is “behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.”
For a Christian, joy comes not from the inside, but from outside us, as a gift coming from God to you, produced by God in you, through the Word. As we sang: “Dear Christians, one and all, rejoice … Proclaim the wonders God hath done.”
This is the Bible’s definition of joy. It’s the real thing. Joy resides in heaven, the place of ultimate perfect joy. God shares it with us: divine, heavenly joy. His joy breaks into this world where sin and sorrow dwell. It breaks into this world in Jesus. So make it personal: in Jesus this joy from heaven breaks into your life, into your day, into your sadness or suffering, to give you a joy that doesn’t depend on circumstances and that is strong in the Lord. It depends on Jesus: you’re so important to God, He sends Jesus to bring you this joy.
It comes through the Word, by hearing the Word. It’s what the Gospel is: good tidings of great joy. The Gospel is about joy! Despite things we may be feeling that come from inside, the joy God gives in the Gospel is all around us, it surrounds us. Learn this: joy is the basic environment of a Christian, it’s our default, because we have the Gospel. We want to carry this joy, for others to see it on us and in us. Joy turns us back toward love, back toward God and our neighbor, being able to take joy in God and in our neighbor’s blessings.
The only way there would be no joy for us is if Christ had not come. Because He did come, you know this joy always surrounds you, and unlike happy feelings it’s not temporary but eternal. This is what you see in the Lord’s Supper. It’s the sacrament that emphasizes joy – having full joy in His presence, as John the Baptist demonstrated in utero.
Joy comes to us from the Gospel, it’s a gift the Holy Spirit produces, but we don’t only receive it. The Spirit affects your will so you are able to do it, to be joyful, to work with Him to battle the devil and resist the devil’s attacks on joy. This statement has helped me: “Sometimes *joy comes to us,* and sometimes *we need to go to it,* but it is always there, a promised fruit of the Spirit” (S. Pietsch, “The Soul Care of Pastors With Depression,” Concordia Journal 51:4). Sometimes joy comes to us – either in the Word or just suddenly breaking in – and sometimes we need to go to it.
Because joy is something you practice. You find what the activities are that activate your joy, and do them. God created such things to help you battle the darkness, and to increase your joy. This isn’t the first step – the Gospel is – but it’s how you battle with joy: to take joy in God’s gifts and give thanks to Him. (Giving thanks is joy’s gateway.) He promises to give you His joy and keep you in it unto eternal life, where you will only increase in joy. Amen!