Are Christians ALWAYS bubbling with Joy?

It should give you the greatest comfort and joy that the Bible is filled not only with evidence of joy, but also of times of no joy. And that does not mean the Holy Spirit is absent...

Jesus is the very offspring or fruit of the Holy Spirit. He is God the Son, filled with the Spirit of God by nature. The Spirit descended upon him in the form of a dove to begin his public ministry. “This is my Son whom I love!” the Father spoke from heaven (Matthew 3:17). He lived a full and human life, with the range of human thoughts, feelings and emotion, but all without sin. We have them all too, yet with sin. But that doesn’t mean that the feelings we have—so far as Jesus himself had them—are nec- essarily sinful in and of themselves. Thus it’s by no means sinful not to feel joy in life “out of season.”

As a baby, Jesus cried and was hungry. Later he was tempted (Matthew 4:1). He was tired (Mark 6:31). He wept ( John 11:35). He was angry (Matthew 21:12; 23:1ff.). He was frustrated with his disciples on many occasions (Matthew 16:23; 17:17). He was deeply “troubled” (Mark 14:33). He was “annoyed” that little children were prevented from seeing him (Mark 10:14). He mourned and felt compassion (Luke 7:13). He was sad and mourned when Johnthe Baptizer was murdered (Matthew 14:13). He was

disappointed by nine lepers who failed to return (Luke 17:17). He felt dishonor and pain over his own family (Matthew 13:57). He felt rejection (Matthew 21:42). He anguished over Jerusalem (Matthew 23:37). He had angst over people seeking his death (Matthew 26:1ff.). He experienced betrayal (Matthew 26:24). He was sorrowful “even to the point of death” (Matthew 26:38). He felt disappointment (Matthew. 26:40ff.). He felt deserted (Matthew 26:56). He felt indignant over false accusations (Matthew 26:57ff.). He felt pain (Matthew 26:67). He felt sorrow over ridicule and insult (Matthew 27:29). He felt the abandonment of the Father (Matthew 27:46). He felt death (Matthew 27:50).

Some old Lutheran theologians defined joy as an affect or emotion; a sort of happiness over a past event remembered, a present happy reality experienced, or a future happiness expected. Jesus looked to the Word of God regarding the future, and it sustained him in the joyless present. “Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1–2). Moments such as the Transfiguration or his bap- tism—“This is my beloved Son!”—were joyous past events, were remembered by Jesus (and actually grabbed hold of him!) during the joyless times. And these events are the same for us because in our baptism the Lord speaks the same Word to us: Beloved!

One must read all of Psalm 22 to comprehend what Jesus was thinking on the cross. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” was spoken in the pit of joyless hell, abandonment by God. And yet in the misery, the future joy of what he had done was con- templated and believed, though hardly experienced. “They

shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this” (Psalm 22:31).

It gives me the greatest joy to know that Christians, while filled with the Holy Spirit, are not always filled with the greatest joy, or joy at all. Far from it. The joy of the Spirit is often a “joy set before.” That’s the secret to living a good news life in a bad news world.

Matthew Harrison, A Little Book on Joy