Surprised By Joy

Zephaniah 3:14-20

Introduction

I remember in university the challenge of picking courses because certain courses had required prerequisites. You couldn’t just jump into a course, you had to look what courses you needed to have already have. The idea was that one course prepared the way for the other courses because one curriculum was built on the other.

Thinking about that, what prerequisites would be required to experience joy? I think that if we asked random people on the street what was needed to have joy, they might say something like: money, a satisfying job, good health, a happy family, and so on. You can see why people would say those things. The popular understanding is that joy is dependent on circumstances. This is the whole marketing strategy behind lotteries. If you can get enough money to change your circumstances, then you will have joy.

But that is not the biblical understanding of joy. The Bible speaks a lot about joy but rarely if ever connects joy with comfortable and pleasant circumstances. Circumstances might make you happy but they do not give you joy.

This is important for us because not only can we not guarantee pleasant circumstances at Christmas, very often there are difficult circumstances. Some of our loved ones may have died around this time and if not we are definitely thinking of them during the holidays. There is added financial and relational pressure. We thoughtlessly wish people a Merry Christmas as if wishing it would make it so. Not everyone is going to have a Merry Christmas.

Thankfully the Bible points us toward a deeper joy, one that not only adapts to difficult circumstances, it even presupposes it.

Let us take a look at another of the prophets and find out what we can learn about joy in a hectic world.

Zephaniah and Joy

Much of what we have been looking at in this Advent series takes place for the course of a century in which life was being turned upside down. The Assyrians had taken Israel but then the Babylonians had taken down the Assyrians. On the other side were the Egyptians, desperately trying to hold onto some control of the area. In the middle was Judah, a much weaker kingdom since the time that David reigned in Jerusalem.

Zephaniah prophesied in these uncertain days and one of the things that he spoke of was joy. Zephaniah told the people: “Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem!” The problem was that there was nothing about their circumstances that suggested joy was a natural reaction. Why should the people rejoice?

The answer is very important to them and to us: “The Lord, your God, is in your midst.” The presence of God was with them and God was at work. The people who heard this prophecy may not see the final results of what God would do but they could at least see that God was working. This is really the same principle that was at work in the themes of hope and peace. We do not have to see the final results to experience hope and peace, nor do we have to in order to experience joy.

It is likely that the original audience was surprised to be called to rejoice. What was there to rejoice over? But that’s the point. The question is not about what there is to rejoice over, it is who is there to rejoice over. These people were in covenant relationship with God. No matter how difficult things got, God was not going to abandon them. Happiness might be difficult, but a joy based on the presence of God was a very real possibility.

Jesus and Joy

Joy is also very much tied up into the life and ministry of Jesus. The first person to recognize Jesus was John the Baptist, when they were both in their mother’s womb. Elizabeth stated: “For as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for joy.” There was nothing about life circumstances to give that joy, John didn’t even know there was something like life circumstances. John was in the presence of Jesus and that gave him joy.

The message of the angels to the shepherds was: “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people.” Jesus hadn’t done anything to change circumstances yet but he had come into the world and that was enough to bring joy.

Jesus himself experienced joy but not because he had an easy and comfortable life. The author of Hebrews says something strange: “Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” Where is the joy here? Even if we define the joy as the resurrection, Jesus had to go through the cross to get there. 

This is the Jesus that we are in relationship with. Jesus is our Lord and he is our joy giver. Some mistake this as a promise that Jesus will give us easy lives, with all of the wealth and the health we could ever want. We do not see those promises in the Bible and it was not the experience of Jesus and the apostles. They all experienced a life of difficulty and yet in the midst of that, we see lives filled with joy. It was not a pretend joy where a person forces a smile in the midst of great grief. Rather it is joy based on the presence of the Lord.

Conclusion

Do you feel like you have a reason to have joy? What would a reason for joy look like? C.S. Lewis, when he wrote his story, titled it Surprised by Joy. He saw experiences of joy as being road signs that pointed him to God. C.S. Lewis said this about joy:

“If you want to get warm you must stand near the fire: if you want to be wet you must get into the water. If you want joy, power, peace, eternal life, you must get close to, or even into, the thing that has them. They are not a sort of prize which God could, if He chose, just hand out to anyone.”

If you want joy, don’t look for a better life, one without any difficulty. If you want joy, get close to the one whose presence brings joy. God came into the midst of the people in the days of Zephaniah. God came in a more powerful way through the person of Jesus Christ. God is still present with us today in such a way that brings joy no matter what our circumstances might be. 

I can not promise you that life will get easier. But I can tell you that real joy is not based on how easy life is. Joy is based on the presence of God. Soak up God’s presence in whatever way you can this Christmas and let his joy fill you.