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, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his 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. John 15:9-12
Joy = xará (χαρά)
To me, the verses above in John have been like a Rubik's Cube. I kept moving the parts - love, commands, joy - around, trying to make sense of them. I have written before about having trouble grasping joy. But this time, as I looked at the meaning of the Greek word translated joy above, the light broke through and I felt the last piece slide into place.
As in the movie Princess Bride, the word does not mean what I think it means. The definition says nothing about emotions or feelings. It does not focus on me at all. But rather, it turns and looks in wonder at God. The word simply means the awareness of God's grace and favor; it is "grace recognized." And if joy is grace recognized, then I begin to see why I have had such a hard time with joy.
Xará is one of three cognates of, or words that derive from, the root xar- "favor, disposed to, inclined, favorable towards, leaning towards to share benefit." The three are xaírō ("rejoice because of grace"), xará ("joy because of grace") and xáris ("grace" the Lord's favor – freely extended to give Himself away to people because He is "always leaning toward them").1
If you have never felt that kind of favor inclined towards you from humans, especially from your parents, then it is hard to recognize it from God. "[T]he Bible teaches that grace is completely unmerited. The gift and the act of giving have nothing at all to do with our merit or innate quality (Romans 4:4; 11:5–6; 2 Timothy 1:9–10)."2 If all the "favor" or approval you ever received was, or was perceived to be, earned, dependent on approved performance, fulfilling the fantasies and demands of others, then the idea of unmerited grace is foreign. Certainly, joy because of grace is a mystery.
The Bible is clear that God's joy, love and grace are all bound up together in Christ Jesus. According to Romans 5:6-8, grace is a demonstration of God's love.
You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless (sick, without strength, feeble, insufficient, unimpressive), Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
I know and believe this passionately. But I am beginning to see that for a long time I have been chained, deeply and unconsciously, to the insufficient and unimpressive parts of the above translation. The recognition, the awareness – the joy – of God's unmerited grace has been like brilliant sunlight shining down briefly through a hole in dark clouds. Like a bright light hidden under heavy blankets of oppression. Maybe that is why Jesus said, "No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light (Luke 8:16)." Maybe it's so that I can see it too.
Jesus' joy is also the awareness of this grace. The grace that demonstrates the Father's unconditional love. The grace and love demonstrated (freely extended to give Himself away) by Jesus who would endure the cross "for the joy set before him" (Hebrews 12:2).
So, joy is not just another performance – how high I can raise my hands, how loudly I can sing. It is not another opportunity to fail to get it right, to be insufficient, unimpressive. But rather, it is "merely" a recognizing, an acknowledging, an awareness of the gift offered in his outstretched hands -
the sun on my face
bird-joy greeting the dawn
the unfailing Presence
a Father's love leaning towards me
blood running down a wooden cross
… fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame … Hebrews 12:2 (NASB)
He is not here; he has risen … So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy (grace recognized), and ran to tell his disciples. Suddenly Jesus met them. "Greetings (Rejoice!)," he said. They came to him, clasped his feet and worshiped him. Matthew 28:6-10
1 All definitions from Bible Hub https://biblehub.com/
2 What is the definition of grace? Got Questions https://www.gotquestions.org/definition-of-grace.html
Image, A shaft of sunlight pierces the threatening clouds, by Mark Levisay https://flic.kr/p/J9cBSr
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