In the lead-up to Christmas this year we’re focusing on four great themes: hope, peace, joy and love.
Many churches have Advent candles and they associate these four themes with the first four Advent candles. The fifth candle is for Jesus. The last two Sundays we looked at hope and peace; today we look at joy.
Our key verse is Luke 2:10 – one of the best-known Christmas verses:
‘And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you GOOD NEWS OF GREAT JOY that will be for all the people.”’
‘Good news of great joy’? That sounds good! But suppose I ask you, what exactly is this good news? Or, what kind of joy should we experience? Or, do you have that joy? What would you answer?
IN A MUDDLE WITH WORDS?
Paul talks about people who get into quarrels about words. We don’t want to do that! But I think we need to spend some time on the word ‘joy.’ Briefly, there are three ways to understand this word. They aren’t the same, and if we get into a muddle we just create a difficulty for ourselves.
Let me start off with what I’ll call A POPULAR UNDERSTANDING. In this understanding, joy is something for a special moment. It makes you want to leap in the air and shout ‘Yay!’ We talk about ‘a burst of joy’ or ‘our hearts swelling with joy.’ We watch a sunset. We see our grandchildren after a long time. Joy!
Second, there’s A DICTIONARY UNDERSTANDING. The Oxford English Dictionary, one of the most authoritative dictionaries there is, says that joy is ‘a vivid emotion of pleasure arising from a sense of well-being or satisfaction; the feeling or state of being highly pleased or delighted; exultation of spirit; gladness, delight.’ Let me break it down. The dictionary actually gives FOUR definitions of joy! In the first, joy is a vivid emotion. That’s the same as the popular understanding. But the dictionary gives three further definitions of joy. Joy can be a ‘feeling or state of being highly pleased or delighted.’ It can be ‘exultation of spirit.’ It can be ‘gladness, delight.’
So the dictionary definition of joy is much broader than the popular understanding. This helps me to resolve a problem I have.
What’s the problem? Paul wrote a list of ‘fruit of the spirit’: love, joy, peace, patience and so on. Joy is second in the list. The fact that joy comes second makes me wonder if it’s a particularly important fruit. So, I know I should have joy. It’s something the Holy Spirit should be producing in me. But I evaluate myself. I ask, ‘Do I have joy?’ I’d be very inclined to say no! I’m often grumpy and bad-tempered. Maybe I’m tired; maybe I’ve got too much work. I definitely DON'T have a feeling of joy that makes me want to leap in the air and shout ‘Yay!’ But that’s looking at joy in the popular understanding. The dictionary shows me that there are other forms of joy. A ‘feeling or state of being highly pleased or delighted’ is also joy - and I can honestly say that I have that. So, I have joy. I just don’t have the popular-understanding kind of joy. The joy I have is a quieter joy. I might not even describe it as joy, because I have it in my head that joy is a heart-swelling, leap-in-the-air kind of emotion.
But there’s a third understanding. You’re probably thinking: ‘popular understanding, dictionary understanding … what’s left?’ The answer is, A NEW TESTAMENT UNDERSTANDING. We have the word ‘joy’ in our verse. It’s written in English. But that's the translation of a word which was originally written in Greek. The meaning of a word in one language often doesn’t map exactly onto the meaning of the closest word in another language. The way the Bible uses the word joy is different from the popular understanding and different from the dictionary definition.
‘Joy’ is ‘chara’ in Greek. It’s probably pronounced ‘khara’ but I’ll stick with ‘chara.’ Are any of you thinking that ‘chara’ sounds familiar? Maybe you know the word ‘charis.’ That’s the word from which we get ‘charisma’ and ‘charismatic’ and the name ‘Charis.’ ‘Charis’ means ‘grace’, ‘favour’ and ‘kindness.’ And ‘chara’ means ‘joy.’ Curious! What’s the connection between favour and joy? It isn’t difficult. When someone shows us favour, we usually experience joy. ‘Charis’ produces ‘chara.’ In the Bible, it is pre-eminently God who shows people favour.
THE NEW TESTAMENT UNDERSTANDING of joy is a feeling or attitude that comes from recognizing that God has shown us favour, that he’s given us a gift, that he’s bestowed grace.
I asked three questions at the beginning. My second question was, what KIND of joy should we experience? I think we can now suggest an answer. We often feel joy when we receive a gift, especially when it’s something we really want. A Christian’s joy is very like that. We recognize that God has freely given us an enormous gift. Maybe when we first realize what God has done, we’re bowled over. Maybe we have a leap-in-the-air kind of emotional response. But after a while, we settle down. The joy is still there but now, it’s a quieter kind of joy. It’s still joy, but it's expressed in a different way.
My third question was, do you have that joy? Maybe not a vivid emotion, but nonetheless a quiet joy? I hope you do. If we grasp what God has done for us it would be strange not to have joy.
That leads us back to my first question. Do we grasp what God has done for us? What is this good news the angel spoke about? We haven’t answered that yet. Why should Christ’s coming bring us joy?
WHY SHOULD CHRIST’S COMING BRING US JOY?
The angel appeared to some shepherds 2000 years ago. He told them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord.’
The angel gave the answer to why we should feel joy. Let’s look.
The angel said, ‘I am bringing you good news of great joy.’ Then he starts his second sentence with ‘For.’ So here comes the explanation. There is only one explanation. ‘… unto you is born … a Saviour.’ That’s the key fact. The other parts of the sentence give additional information, but this is the core. 'Unto you is born a saviour.'
The angel clearly took it as a given that humankind is very much in need of a saviour. Because humankind needs a saviour, and a saviour has now come, that’s ‘good news of great joy.’
Of course, if we don’t think humankind needs a saviour, or we have no desire to be saved, then this won’t be good news. There are a lot of people like that.
So, who is this ‘saviour’? A baby has been born?! Some saviour! But wait until you hear who this baby is!
The angel explained that this saviour is ‘Christ the Lord.’ The word Christ is full of meaning. 'Christ' is a Greek word; the equivalent Hebrew word is 'messiah.' Either way, it means ‘the anointed one.’ In the Old Testament people ANOINTED someone to show that they were APPOINTING them to a particular position. So, for example, the prophet Elijah anointed Elishah. Moses anointed his brother Aaron. Samuel anointed David. But above all, God promised that he would send HIS anointed one. When Jesus started his ministry, in possibly his first sermon he announced, ‘THE LORD HAS ANOINTED ME to bring good news to the poor…’ God had promised a messiah, an anointed one. And now, he’d come! Yay! Sounds good!
But what about ‘the Lord?’ It gets better!
We’re looking at Luke 2:11. The angel says, he is ‘Christ THE LORD.’
Let’s have a couple of cross-references. Verse 9: ‘And an angel of the LORD appeared to them, and the glory of the LORD shone around them.’ Who is ‘the LORD’ here? Clearly, God.
Now look at v.23. It starts, ‘as it is written in the Law of the LORD.’ Who is the LORD here? Again, it’s clearly God.
The word that's used for ‘LORD’ in verses 9, 11 and 23 is the same. It’s the word ‘kirios.’ In verses 9 and 23 LORD clearly refers to God. So it would be extremely strange if LORD didn’t mean God in verse 11! When the angel says ‘Christ the Lord’ we need to understand that THE LORD means God. This child who has been born is God! Talk about an important person coming to sort out a problem! It beats Boris Johnson flying to Brussels.
So, the angel tells us why his news is ‘good news of great joy.’ We need a saviour and a saviour has come. He is none other than the anointed one the prophets looked forward to, and none other than God himself! Isn’t that great news!
We could stop there but I’d like to dig a little deeper. I said earlier that if we’re going to have joy at this good news, we need to see why it’s such good news.
We have five Advent candles. We take four to represent hope, peace, joy and love, and the fifth candle represents Jesus.
In the accounts of the Christmas story in Matthew and Luke, the words ‘joy’ and ‘peace’ each come a couple of times. The words ‘love’ and ‘hope’ don’t come at all. Of course, the IDEAS of love and hope are very much present. God sending his son into the world is an act of love and it certainly gives us cause for hope. But neither the angels, nor John the Baptist’s father Zechariah, nor Mary, nor any of the other observers of these events use the words ‘love’ or ‘hope.’
However, there is another word which they do use. In fact, they use it more often than peace or joy. Mary uses it twice, and Zechariah uses it twice. Can you think what it is? It’s the word ‘mercy.’ Mary says:
And his MERCY is for those who fear him from generation to generation … He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his MERCY … [Luke 1:50 and 54]
Zechariah recalls God’s ‘MERCY promised to our fathers.’ He speaks to John and tells him, ‘you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways, to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins, because of the tender MERCY of our God …’ [Luke 1:72 and 76-78]
Mary and Zechariah didn’t mention God’s great love or how Jesus’ coming gave them cause for hope. What they emphasised was God’s mercy.
Mary was clearly full of joy. She said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour.” Zechariah seems very happy too.
Mercy is all about getting something when you don’t deserve it. Unmerited favour. Mary and Zechariah knew that this was what it was all about. Humankind had no right or claim to receive kindness. Mary and Zechariah didn’t in any way DESERVE to have Jesus enter their lives. And yet, that was what was happening. Wonder of wonders, God in his mercy, had reached out to humans.
Mary and Zechariah didn’t just recognize how great God’s gift was. They recognized how undeserving they were; how undeserving humanity is. And recognizing this, they appreciated the gift all the more. We teach our kids to sing ‘Wide, wide as the ocean.’ Do you remember the line, ‘I though so unworthy’? It’s the truth. We’re unworthy, but God still gave us his son to be our saviour.
What do we do? How do we respond?
The angel told the shepherds to get on down to Bethlehem and see Jesus! How did they react when they saw him? Many English versions say they were amazed. Some versions say they wondered or that they marvelled. I like ‘marvelled.’ How would you react at seeing one of the deepest mysteries in the universe: the word made flesh, lying in a manger, with no power, no pomp and no wealth? I think we need to do the same as those shepherds: to gaze at Jesus and marvel, to reflect on the gift.
But perhaps there’s something else we need to do. David wrote, “I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love…” It’s as if he’s giving himself a prod. He’s telling himself to rejoice. Yesterday Priscilla [my wife] and I caught up with some old friends. One, Katy, read a poem she’d written. She reflected on the difficulties of 2020 and looked forward to 2021. She remembered God’s love and his promises. In the last verse she wrote:
So I will rejoice
For today and for the days to come
For the many blessings
I will be grateful and thankful
I will live, love and be joyful.
[Catherine Dean]
I really liked it. Katy said, ‘I will rejoice … I will be grateful and thankful.’ Sometimes we need to give ourselves a prod. There will be moments when we feel up. The tomatoes are growing nicely. Our team wins. There will be moments when we feel down. We have too much work. We put a dent in the car. But there’s something so much bigger going on!!! Though we are so undeserving, God has shown us mercy. Give yourself a poke! Remember that! Rejoice!
Talk given at Rosebery Park Baptist Church, Bournemouth, UK, 20th December 2020
