The word joy is making its annual appearance in our joyless world this month. We might call joy a crossover word – explicitly linked to the story of Jesus’ birth, it also appears with holly and candy canes for completely secular purposes. “Christmas Joy” is the title of a cheesy Hallmark movie I have not seen and don’t plan on seeing (If I haven’t seen it, how do I know it is cheesy? As I said, it’s a Hallmark movie.)
So, what is joy? Specifically what is Christmas joy, if not a cheesy Hallmark movie?
The small group Becky and I are a part of, our Life Group, met earlier this week and we talked about joy using as our text the story of the angel’s message to the shepherds keeping watch over their flock by night. “Good news of great joy that will be for all the people” the angel says. And then he fills the message with meaning, “For to you is born this day in the City of David a savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
But what is joy, this response to the good news of the birth of Christ? What is Christmas joy, Christian joy? Joy is mentioned nearly 200 times in the Old and New Testaments, but our lexicons won’t help much in getting at its meaning. The Hebrew word is said to mean “gladness, joy, mirth, rejoicing.” The Greek word is defined as “joy, rejoicing, happiness, gladness.” Joy is common to the human experience. We know it when we see it.
The Bible offers a crossover definition, something that is common and everyday, and something that is a fruit of God’s own Holy Spirit.
The Psalmist speaks of joy when grain and wine abound. (Psalm 4:7) Proverbs says joy is good medicine. (Proverbs 17:22). The preacher of Ecclesiastes famously adds, “I commend joy, for man has nothing better under the sun but to eat and drink and be joyful, for this will go with him in his toil through the days of his life that God has given him under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 8:15)
So, joy is like an abundance of grain and wine. It is the best medicine and to be highly commended. But wine and grain sometimes run out and there is nothing left to eat and drink in our toil throughout the days God gives us. Maybe everyday joy is more like happiness.
Christians like to distinguish between joy and happiness, and rightly so. Joy, as fruit of the Spirit, is not circumstance dependent. Happiness requires a pile of presents under the tree and dissolves in a moment when expectations are not met.
What then, is joy – Christmas joy, Christian joy? The angel who appears to the shepherds tells them the great joy of which he speaks is rooted in the birth of a savior. Jesus, the Savior, tells his disciples, “no one will take your joy from you.” (John 16:22)
Christian joy is like an abundance of grain and wine. It is a good medicine. But it is more. It lasts and is not dependent on eat and drink or a pile of presents under the tree. I think that when you’ve been around Christians for a while, you know joy when you see it. For sure, joy is to be found in the news of the birth of a savior once in David’s royal city. But you see Christian joy, Christmas joy, in those who know and live the good news.
What is Christian joy? The lexicons aren’t much help. At the end of the Acts account of the ministry of Paul and Barnabas at Antioch in Pisidia, we are told, “the disciples were filled with joy and with the Holy Spirit.” (Acts 13:52). What is Christian joy – Christmas joy? Find someone filled with it and then think about what marks their way of life – love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Who helps define joy for you? (Becky and I came up with a list.)
Joy? Sometimes you know it when you see it. One of the many things I like about our friends in the Life Group is that they are a joyful lot.