“You are the Joy of Christ”
Hebrews 12:1-3
Have you ever wondered what it was like for God to put on skin and become a living, breathing human being?
It couldn’t have been easy.
Think about it; Jesus experienced the ordinary pains we experience.
He knew what it was like to have a cold, perhaps the flu and even a stomach bug.
He experienced hunger, thirst, and discomfort in its many forms.
He was tempted, in every way that we are tempted, but never gave in.
He even knew what it was like to have bad breath and perhaps a toothache.
And he hung out with us, which as we all know, is not always easy.
We can be cantankerous.
We can be grumpy.
We sometimes say mean and hurtful things to one another.
We are often selfish and unconcerned about the feelings of others.
But Jesus loves us anyway.
He ate with people like us.
He hung out with some real scoundrels as well, such as tax collectors who were robbing their people—stealing from the poor and oppressed.
He had to deal with the religious establishment that was jealous of His popularity and thought of Him as a lawbreaker and a blasphemer.
They were always after Him…
…out to get Him.
And yet, the surprising testimony of the Gospels is that Jesus was a man of unparalleled and unshakeable joy!
The angels announced His birth as “Good news of great joy.”
He compared His Kingdom to a wedding banquet, and compared Himself to a Shepherd Who searches for a lost sheep until He finds it.
And when He finds it He joyfully puts it on His shoulders and goes home.
Then He calls all His friends and neighbors together and says: “Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.”
He also compares Himself to a woman who loses a coin and searches and searches for it.
And when she finds it, she calls her friends and says, “Rejoice with me…”
He even compares Himself to the father of a wayward son, who throws a huge party when the son returns home.
In those parables we are the sheep that has been found, we are the coin, we are the son and we are invited into the party.
Jesus rejoices in finding us!
How does that make you feel?
(pause)
It was not easy for the Creator of the Universe to put on flesh and dwell among us.
But He did it for…
…what are we told here in Hebrews Chapter 12?
He did it for “the joy set before him.”
He did it for the joy of being with us.
He did it for the joy of finding us.
He did it for the joy of saving us.
He did it for the joy of bringing us joy.
And that joy springs from His love for us.
(pause)
Hebrews was written to an oppressed group of early Jewish Christians who were living in the midst of the Hellenistic culture of the Roman Empire.
They were being persecuted for their faith, and many of them were thinking about giving up.
In Chapter 12 the author compares the Christian journey to a race, a race which has already been run by a “great cloud of witnesses” who are cheering them on toward the finish line.
And he is encouraging them to let go of anything and everything that might be hindering them from continuing the journey…
…the sin that trips them up and the fear of persecution.
He calls them to “run with perseverance the race marked out” before them—and who marked it out?
Jesus, the pioneer, and perfecter of faith.
They are to keep their eyes fixed on Him.
They are to follow His example.
Jesus came to this earth and became one of us for the joy of being with us, the joy of reconciling us to Himself, the joy of saving us.
But, like I said, it wasn’t easy for Him.
If the Hebrews think they have it hard, just think of what Jesus endured for them.
Think back to the Garden of Gethsemane.
His soul was “overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death.”
Think of His agonies of being betrayed by a friend.
Many of us have been betrayed by friends or lovers.
We know how that feels.
What if our friend or lover had told the authorities where to find us in order to arrest and kill us?
That is what happened to Jesus.
After He was arrested, Peter denied even knowing Him, and most of the other disciples fled for their lives.
He was tried by corrupt rulers who made up lies about Him, and then He was mocked, spit upon, whipped, and made fun of by Roman soldiers.
Then He was nailed to a cross—He was crucified, which was the most degrading, disgusting, and agonizingly painful way to die.
And He endured it, “scorning its shame,” for the joy of finding and saving His lost sheep, His lost coin, His lost child—that is you and me and everyone else on this earth!
We are the joy of Christ!
Again, how does that make you feel?
This life is hard, and many of us find it difficult to experience joy in the midst of so many troubles.
Perhaps we are Christians who are becoming weary of going against the grain of the culture, getting up and coming to church, loving others who don’t return our love—you name it, you live it.
What is Hebrews telling us this morning?
Keep your eyes fixed on Jesus.
Because no matter what the world may tell us, no matter how badly we may hurt, no matter what others think of us or what we think of ourselves—we are so very important to God.
We are God’s joy!
And it’s a joy so deep and durable that it willingly entered the jaws of the most horrible pain and death.
One of the most astounding promises that Jesus made on the night before He was put to death is that He will not leave us to our own paltry sense of whatever human joy or misery we may have.
He wants His joy to be our joy!
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you.
Now remain in my love.
If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love…
…I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
That’s it.
That is how we experience Christ’s joy.
His joy is found in loving us and so our joy is found in loving one another—as He has loved us.
And that’s the key, we experience the joy of Christ when we love one another as He has loved us…
…it’s not a selfish love…
…it’s not a “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch your back” kind of love…
…it’s not based on some sort of exchange…
…like, if you love me I’ll love you.
No.
It is an unconditional love.
It is a love that does no harm to another person.
It is a love that does not covet.
It is a love that turns the other cheek and goes the extra mile.
It is a love that does not judge.
It is a love that shines as the light of the world…so that others will see this love and glorify God because of it.
It is a love that adds flavor to and preserves the earth.
It is a love that bears good fruit.
It is a love that feeds the hungry, gives something to drink to the thirsty, is hospitable to the stranger, gives clothes to those who need them, looks after the sick and visits those in prison.
And Jesus says that when we do this for other people, we do this for Him.
That is how in-solidarity Jesus is with humankind.
That is how closely connected His joy is with our joy.
Those who have ever served others out of an unconditional love for God and neighbor know this joy.
It is the reason we were created.
It is in Whose Image we have been created.
We are created in the image of the One Whose joy is found in loving people.
On the night Jesus is betrayed He prays to His Father, “Now I am coming to you, and these things I speak, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.”
Jesus is the most joy-filled Being in the universe.
As a human He was the most satisfied soul Who ever lived—so satisfied that He embraced the greatest anguish.
And now, wonder of all wonders, He not only wants to make us happy, but He pours His own joy into us.
John Piper writes: “Christ not only offers himself as the divine object of my joy, but he pours his capacity for joy into me, so that I can enjoy him with the very joy of God.”
In Matthew Chapter 25 Jesus says twice, “Enter into the joy of your master.”
So, brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter how difficult this life may get…
…and it will be difficult…
…no matter how much the enemy will work to ruin your faith…
…no matter how tempting it may be to give up and stop running the race…
…let us remember that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses who have gone before us and are cheering us on and waiting for us at the finish line.
Let us not get caught up in the things of this world, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and causes us to fall flat on our face.
And let’s “run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith.
For the joy set before him…”
And we are that joy…
… “he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that [we] will not grow weary and lose heart.”
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
May it be so.
Amen.
