The Arrival of Great Joy
Two years ago, as we unpacked our Christmas boxes and did our annual purge of decorations, our old J.O.Y stocking-holders wound up in the pile for the thrift store. The immediate cause was the arrival of baby Mercy, born earlier that year. Three letters are inadequate to hold four stockings. But perhaps there’s also a theological reason to let the JOY holders go: might it be the case that plain “joy” undersells the glory of Christmas?
Matthew and Luke accent different aspects of the birth story, but they sing this note in unison: Christ’s coming is not simply an occasion for joy but great joy.
GOD’S WORLD OF JOYS
In the beginning, the God of joy made a world of joys—a creation full of good, altogether “very good,” and primed to delight his creatures (Genesis 1:31; 2:9). We too have tasted his goodness in his world, even on this side of sin’s curse. We have experienced, however meagerly or infrequently, the blessed emotional surges of God-made delight—in a kind word, in a warm embrace, in our team’s victory, in a cool breeze, in good food and drink. We know normal joy.
But Christmas is not normal. Christmas, the Gospels say, is great joy. God set Christmas apart. He himself has come down in the person of his Son. The long-awaited Savior is born. When the angel heralds Christ’s arrival, he says, “I bring you good news of great joy” (Luke 2:10). And when the wise men travel from far and find him, “they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy” (Matthew 2:10).
This is significant because while the Bible is replete with “joy”—more than two hundred times in an English translation—instances of “great joy” are numbered in single digits. “Great joy” is rare and climactic. At the anointing of King David’s own son as his successor, at the height of Israel’s kingdom—“great joy” (1 Kings 1:40). At the restoration of the Passover after generations of neglect—“great joy” (2 Chronicles 30:26). At the dedication of Nehemiah’s rebuilt walls after the return from exile—“great joy” (Nehemiah 12:43).
Joy is the stuff of every day; “great joy” is kept for the highest of moments.
Other than Matthew’s and Luke’s mentions of “great joy” at Jesus’s birth, both Gospels celebrate “great joy” at his resurrection and ascension (Matthew 28:8; Luke 24:52). Acts 15:3 mentions “great joy” at the surprising and wonderful inclusion of the Gentiles in God’s new-covenant people, and how else could Jude 24 speak of our coming into God’s own presence without describing it as an experience of “great joy”?
THEN CAME (GREAT) JOY
“Great joy” at Christmas tells us something profound about God and how he works in our world. God gave us a garden in the beginning to prepare us for a garden-city in the end. God made the world to remake it one day. God gave a first covenant to surpass it with a second. God made a world of joys to surpass them all with the treasure hidden in a field and the pearl of great price: and the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord.
God gave us everyday joy to accentuate and deepen the experience of great joy. There must be joy before there can be great joy. We must know good before we can know better. God designed his world of joys to prepare us for great joy in his Son.
How, then, is the joy of Christmas not just normal but great?
GREAT HEIGHTS
The angel who heralds “great joy” in Luke 2:10 does not come alone: “Suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!’” (Luke 2:13-14).
Note the great heights of this joy—from the surface of the earth all the way up to the heights of heaven. Such news captures not only lowly shepherds but even the hosts of heaven, who long to look into these things (1 Peter 1:12). And as God’s glory rises to the highest places, so does our joy. In both Matthew 2 and Luke 2, “great joy” comes together with worship and praise.
“The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen” (Luke 2:20). The magi “fell down and worshiped him” (Matthew 2:11).
GREAT LENGTHS
Christmas joy also goes to great lengths. This is “good news of great joy that will be for all the people” (Luke 2:10). All the people. Not just kings and high-ranking officials but blue-collar shepherds. Not just Jews, but Gentiles. Black and white. Women and men. Laymen and clergy. Plumbers and dentists. This is no tribal joy quarantined in Jerusalem but great joy extended to all kinds of people, in every place, at every time.
GREAT DEPTHS
Christmas joy also goes to great depths. Here is a joy deeper than every fear and grief—deeper than every sorrow and pain. This great joy comes into a world of great sin, great fear, great sorrow, great suffering. In fact, this child, who is joy incarnate, will be a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and it will be his great suffering that secures for us the great joy (Isaiah 53:3-6).
From his birth in Bethlehem to his death on a cross, this joy was great enough to endure being born in obscurity and laid in a manger, and having no place to lay his head. He was to be rejected by his own people, delivered over to their authorities, and betrayed by his own friend.
But this great joy could not be extinguished. It cannot. It is too high, too long, too deep—even for death itself. And our joyful Savior is now with us to the end of the age, strengthening us in every fear, cheering us in every grief, holding us in all our suffering. Until the day when he unseats every sorrow, he promises, “No one will takeyour joy from you” (John 16:22).
This is an extract from The Christmas We Didn't Expect, a new Advent devotional from David Mathis, executive editor for Desiring God. These reflections help us to lift our eyes to the wonder of the incarnation and worship the one who came to save us and make our futures certain. This new book has sold out globally until the new year, but the ebook is still available.