3/3/1963

Scripture: Matthew 9: 10-15.

Last Wednesday evening, at Union Lenten services, the preacher used as his theme, “Lent Means Springtime.” He called attention to the fact that it is springtime in Palestine; that it is a season of the lengthening of days here too; and that it suggests to people the joys of springtime. We could pursue the thought further.

We have become accustomed to the thought of Lent as a time for earnest reflection on the events of our Lord’s life leading to his passion, crucifixion and resurrection. We address ourselves to spiritual discipline that may seem a bit somber. Probably we miss the best part of it if we forget the joy of our Lord and our own joy in His service.

And so I suggest that we think today of the Master’s joy. We have not infrequently had our attention called to his sorrow and self-sacrifice. We read in the Old Testament of the man of sorrows, despised, ejected, and acquainted with grief. And we project that description upon Jesus. He did know sorrow. But that was not his basic nature. He was a man of joy --- even his self-sacrificing decisions were joyful decisions.

Note carefully the picture given of Jesus in today’s Scripture reading from Matthew, especially in the last two verses of the lesson. Here he sits at dinner. He is plainly happy. He is with his friends and is helping people who need help. Some of his friends are not the kind of people who are approved by the strict Pharisees. But that bothers him not one bit! Jesus so rejoices in his work that he compares himself and his disciples to a bridal party.

Even when we turn from such a scene as this to think of Jesus’ persecution, we find the note of joy repeated over and over. “Rejoice in that day,” he says, “and leap for joy.” [Luke 6: 23]. According to Paul, who learned so well the spirit of the Master, “The fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace.” [Galatians 5: 22]. Wherever Jesus was, one of the most familiar expressions on his lips was, “Be of good cheer!” Consider the power to make people happy, to make life worth living for others, that lies in such an attitude. The Master must have known well the Proverb: “Heaviness in the heart maketh it stoop, but a good word maketh it glad.” [Proverbs 12: 25].

Years ago, a Boston newspaper printed this little item: “The day was dark and gloomy, but Phillips Brooks walked down through Newspaper Row and all was bright.” Are you willing to commend your Christian gospel by such an attitude? For the gospel does mean “good news.”

Jesus found joy in so many directions. There were plenty of anxious people in his time, just as there are in ours. We all have our share of anxiety. But Jesus has a way of saying, “Why are you anxious concerning clothing? Look at the lilies in the field. They are not forever working and busy spinning cloth. Yet not even King Solomon was dressed so fine as one of these.” [Luke 12: 27].

There was a wedding in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there. So was he; and his disciples, too. He loved a joyous occasion. [John 2: 1-11]. He enjoyed nature, he liked friendship, he was fond of social life. And so are we. Jesus loved good health. He spent much of his time bringing healing to the bodies and spirits of people. He loved the best reading at his disposal, and he became perfectly at home with the writings of the prophets. His joys were fine and clean and wholesome.

It might be well to think deeply of the distinctly religious sources of Jesus, joy; but one can see it easily without having to dig very deeply for it. And seeing his joy so readily, we may very well ask ourselves: “Where do I look for my happiness?” Do I have to be teased by the exotic or fired only by the unusual? Or can I find joy in watching birds at a feeder; in reading a good book? in meeting with many kinds of friends? in tackling the jobs that I can do right at hand?

Note the joy in Jesus’ parables -- those short, pointed stories by which he does so much of his teaching. He tells of a woman who lost a valuable coin somewhere in the house. After diligent search she finds it and she tells her neighbors, “Rejoice with me, for I have found what I lost.” And Jesus says to his hearers that there is joy like that in God’s realm over one sinner who repents of his wrong. [Luke 15: 8-10].

One of his best known parables has to do with a shepherd who got ninety nine of his sheep home and safely shut in the fold at night. But there was supposed to be a hundred sheep. So the shepherd goes out looking for the one that was lost. He keeps at the search until he finds it, and brings the poor tired beast home on his shoulder rejoicing. And he calls to his friends and neighbors saying, “Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.” And Jesus says that there is more joy in heaven over the recovery; of one repentant sinner than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance. [Luke 15: 3-7]. What lovely extravagance there is in that statement of Jesus! And how it illuminates his idea of joy!

Probably most of us begin seeking joy through getting --- “If I can just get that car, won’t it be a thrill!” “If only I can get the girl I want, the man I choose, we’ll live happily ever after.” “Maybe, if I can find the right church, I’ll get the peace and satisfaction and assurance that I want.” And then, if we are fortunate enough to learn the lesson, we find that there is joy in giving; in serving; in sharing. Can you remember doing some kindness for a person who had no special reason to expect it from you? Wasn’t there a special kind of joy just in the doing? A lot of Jesus’ joy was in finding people who needed what he could do for them and in giving them what he knew they really needed.

When he said, “He that would be greatest among you shall be your servant,” [Matthew 23: 11], he wasn’t taking away the joy of life. He was suggesting that this is the very place that joy appears -- in serving.

A group of young folk were talking about religious experience, as though that were something special and not quite like the supposedly normal experiences of people. They got into the discussion far enough so that they were asking themselves and each other: “Well, just what is a religious experience? Have I ever had what I’d call a religious experience?” After a little more thought, one boy said, “You know, this is so simple that I don’t suppose I should even mention it. But I was shoveling the snow off our sidewalk the other day. I got to the end of our walk and then I remembered that the woman whose house faces the next stretch of sidewalk was not really well enough to shovel her walk. She is not as strong as she used to be, and she has been sick lately. Probably it would make her sicker yet if she had to lift all that snow. Well, I just decided to shovel off her walk myself. It took a little while, but not too long. And it’s the funniest thing, how good I felt about it! I was really so happy about having done a little thing like that that I felt that God must be happy over it, too!”

Perhaps it is not necessary to get so profound over what religious experience is. Possibly there is more real joy to be found in ordinary possibilities around us than in all the “getting” and struggling we can think of.

Sometimes there is sheer joy in just doing the day’s job well. Jesus had a story about that, too. We often call it the parable of the talents. One of the real points of the story is that Jesus had the lord of the household heartily commending each one of the fellows who did the best he could with the job entrusted to him. In the story, Jesus has the lord of the household saying, “Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things; I will set you over many things. Enter into the joy of your lord!” [Matthew 25: 14-30].

When we turn aside from some immediate pleasure for the sake of character, we may get mightily impressed with how much we have sacrificed! Jesus was impressed with how much a man had gained by doing his job well. Consider what you and I gain by any sacrifice we ever make for character: (1) The approval of God through conscience; (2) the satisfaction of overcoming our moral enemy; (3) the greater power to conquer the next time; (4) the approval of those who care most for us; (5) the increased power of usefulness to others. How small the sacrifice becomes, compared to what we have gained! Surely that kind of sacrifice can be made with joy. For no one ever finds any real, solid and permanent satisfaction in doing wrong.

Jesus suggests that joy is found where many fail to look. See what he includes in the beatitudes! Blessed --- that is to say, happy --- are the poor in spirit, the meek, those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake. [Matthew 5: 3-12]. How many are those who would disdain such estate! How many books and hymns, and even sermons, pity Jesus because of his suffering! He himself spoke of his own life, even with its persecutions, as a blessed, that is happy, life. Consider the exhaustless sources of Jesus’ joy: (1) his trust in his Father; (2) his boundless hope for the future; (3) his consciousness that he had found God’s will for him and that he was doing it; (4) his sense of God’s approval on his life; (5) his knowledge that he was doing a great and lasting service for people. Think of each of these sources in its application to your own life. Perhaps there is joy to be found where you and I have not thought to look for it!

Sooner or later, the circumstances of any life become adverse. For no one fully escapes misfortune. This knowledge raises the question: are all your joys at the mercy of things that may happen to you? Have you any resources of joy that no person, and no misfortune, can take away from you? Jesus spoke also to this contingency when, after recognizing that his followers had, or would have, sorrow, he said, “but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one takes away from you.” [John 16: 22]. His own sources of joy are quite independent of man’s hostility or adversity in circumstance. Probably every one needs such reserves of joy as Jesus had in the upper room on the week of his passion.

The New Testament is the most joyful book in the world. It opens with joy over the birth of Jesus. It ends with a superb picture of a multitude which no one could count singing hallelujah choruses. You always find the note of joy wherever you look in the Book.

Even when a company of friends gather for a farewell supper before their leader is taken to be tried and crucified, Jesus says to them, “There things have I spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” [John 15: 11]. Followers of him, who had caught his spirit, could endure all sorts of persecution; --- flogging, imprisonment, numerous indignities and dishonors --- and, like Paul, come up singing. You will find Paul dictating from prison, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.” [Philippians 4: 4]. There is tragedy enough in the New Testament to make it the saddest book in the world. Instead, it is the most joyful.

And the religion which expresses itself in this book, and which issues from it, is the most joyful. Christianity is a singing religion. There are three great missionary faiths common to the earth: Islam, Buddhism and Christianity. Islam does not have hymns; the followers of Mohammed are not taught to sing. Buddhism has been trying to sing, and Japanese Buddhism at least has endeavored to compete with Christianity by copying some of our songs. A couple of generations ago this song turned up among the Buddhist gathered:

O for a thousand tongues to sing my holy Buddha’s praise;

The glories of my teacher great, the triumphs of his grace.

And so it continues through a couple of stanzas more in plagiaristic parallel to one of the great Christian hymns.

So the attempt is made to graft Buddhism’s pessimistic thought of life on to a little of the radiant hyumnology in which many generations of Christians have spontaneously burst into song.

Behind the joyful book and the joyful Christian religion stands a joyful personality. Medieval art that painted Jesus in mournful pictures is proved wrong by the records of his life and the consequences of his influence. Look further at his life! On two occasions when Jesus took special pains to justify his conduct to his enemies, he was explaining to them why his disciples were so joyful. At one time [Mark 2: 18, 19] he justified the refusal of his little company to fast. A good Pharisee always fasted twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, whether he felt like it or not. Jesus says that insincere, forced abstinence, is useless. He and his disciples are as happy as a bridal party and do not wish to fast.

This was a very skillful way to put the matter because, according to Jewish law, a bridal party was always exempt from fasting. The Pharisees had no right to interrupt this continuing “bridal party” with their fasting regulations! This is not to say that Jesus forbade fasting. He surely did not. He himself fasted, in effect, for forty days in the wilderness, while he prayed and meditated on his mission. [Matthew 4: 1-2]. It was no formality. It was the purposeful laying aside of many concerns for a time in order to find out what his life meant. We could use the 40 days of Lent for the discipline that “becomes” a disciple of Christ, if we care to. It is a possibility, not a requirement --- not a burden, but a joy. Albert Stauffacher has an interesting suggestion or two along this line on the fourth page of today’s Sunday Bulletin.

There was another occasion when Pharisees complained because Jesus welcomed sinful people to his fellowship. Jesus told them [Luke 15] that the work he was doing in finding lost people and bringing them back to their true life is the most joyful work in the world.

The reason for Jesus’ joyfulness corresponds to a universal truth that the happiest people on earth are those who are doing the most for others. Jesus defines greatness in terms of usefulness. He loves his life, glories in it, finds it by losing it, would be miserable if deprived of its ways. And in loving his kind of life, he is quite unimpressed by what we think of as sacrifice. That has also characterized some of his disciple. David Livingstone, after terrible sufferings in Africa, was asked about his sacrifice in order to open up the dark continent to Christianity and civilization. He said quite emphatically, “I never made a sacrifice in my life.”

Another reason for Jesus’ exultant spirit is basic. He had the most joyous idea of God that was ever thought of. He taught his disciples that they could take the finest and most beautiful aspects of living -- like fatherhood -- lift them up to the best that one can imagine, and then say “God is much better than this.” He would say to his hearers, “If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good gifts...” [Matthew 7: 11]. This is the most joyful thought of God that we know.

Jesus taught us to interpret God in terms of the very best that we can imagine. It was a scientist, Sir Oliver Lodge of the University of Manchester, who had sensed this method of Jesus in thinking of God, who said, “I will not believe that it is given to man to have thoughts, higher and nobler, than the real truth of things.” This thought of God is Jesus’ special contribution to the world, and no other has ever compared with it in joyousness. No gloomy soul ever had such a jubilant conception of Deity. Out of this joyous thought of God comes boundless hope. The most significant fact about Jesus’ joy is that the sources of it are not at the mercy of men and circumstances. It is the kind that “no man can take from you.”

The Master commends to each of his disciples this kind of joy. He continually said to his friends then, and says to us now, “Be of good cheer.” And even better than the getting of such happiness is the giving of it by grateful disciples.

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Delivered in Wisconsin Rapids, March 3, 1963.

Also at Waioli Hiu’ia Church, March 4, 1973.