Yet so Much Joy
Atheists, pagans, and unbelievers would say Christianity is the faith of sinners with broken hearts, but Christians know a joy foreign to these unbelievers. The pagan world denies its sin and perpetually pursues happiness. As a result, pagans call Christians fools, because Jesus said, “Blessed are those who mourn,” Matt.5:4a. The unbelievers claim they are happy, sinless, and smarter than Christians, yet by denying their sin and sorrow, they never know true joy. Please join me as I explore the paradox of the brokenhearted Christian who is so full of the joy that the pagans lack.
Christ calls people to mourn and weep over their sins (James 4:8-10, “Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”) Christ expects his followers to examine their lives for sin (Psalm 19:12 “How can I know all the sins lurking in my heart? Cleanse me from these hidden faults.”) Again and again Christ calls us to realize the horror of our sin (Gen. 6:5-7, “The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them,” Romans 6:23a, “For the wages of sin is death.”)
Christ himself wept and sorrowed in this life (Isaiah 53:3 “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering,” Luke 19:41, “As he approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it,” Luke 11:35 says that as he saw the sisters cry, “Jesus wept.”) Jesus warned his followers they would experience sorrow too, and in John 15:18, he said, “If the world hates you, remember, the world hated me first.” Thus the Lord calls his followers to humility in their suffering (Matt.18:1 + 4 “whosoever… shall humble himself as this little child the same shall be the greatest in the kingdom.”)
Furthermore, even when we admit to our sins, Christ also told us we would suffer if we follow him (Phils. 1:29 “For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him.”) At the time of Christ’s life, the Greek culture despised humility, so Greeks despised Christians and persecuted them. While they were relentlessly pursuing physical pleasures, the unbelievers then and now were feeling superior to Christians. Pagan culture demanded leisure, reduction of pain, convenience and physical satisfaction over all other concerns. They laughed at the Christian belief of self-control. Pagans tried to deny their sorrow with liquor, illicit sex and the pursuit of pleasure. Yet the more the pagans pursued pleasure, the more elusive it became.
The Christians, whom the unbelievers mock, admit to their sin and sorrow. They grieve over the sin, and they admit life’s pain hurts them. They mourn deeply before the Lord, yet Christians do not remain in their sorrow. Once a Christian accepts God’s forgiveness for her sins, she has freedom from that sin (Psalm 103:12 He has removed our sins from us as far as the east is from the west.) And when Christians mourn before the Lord, he comforts them (“Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted,” Matt. 5:4. “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,” Rev.21:4, “You do not grieve like the rest without hope,” 1Thes.4:13b.) The sin and sorrows the Christian confesses to the Lord ease away. Christians experience true joy, because they fully express (to God) the bad things (sin, sorrow, despair), and then they receive God’s healing. Once she surrenders her sin to God, God casts it into the sea, so the Christian will never feel shame over her sin anymore.
Yet because pagans try to cover up their sin and sorrow, it never goes away but instead leaves them with a rotten foundation. Pagans always try to cover up their sin, never experiencing healing, so they never experience true joy. By denying and running away from sin and sorrow, pagans never experience freedom (“Truly I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin,” John8:34.)
Christians have nothing to cover up. So once a Christian deals with her sin and broken heart, she can develop all of her abilities with joy, to God’s glory. She finishes as the one with true joy and healing, hiding nothing, and not confined by that hiding. She has nothing to hide and everything to celebrate. Jesus makes the paradox true.
We must have mercy for our unbelieving friends and family members, because their laughter rings hollow. Just like Beleshazzar (Daniel 5:1-31) who drunkenly partied while his city was under attack, these people truly fear their sins and sorrows, but they pretend they do not. By partying in his palace, while Babylon was under attack, Beleshazzar tried to distract himself from the terrors outside this city. But God called Beleshazzar to account in Daniel 5:22-23a, “But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven.” Beleshazzar denied his sin and sorrow, and he was killed that very night.
All nonbelievers will have to admit to their sin on the day of judgment, even those who live to old age as rich people. Then they will realize that denying their sins and pain was foolish. Long before judgment day, believers experience joy on earth, due to the sins they confess and the sorrows they allow God to comfort. Christians do start out with broken hearts but they go on to live as people of intense joy, so vastly different from the unbelievers who mock the confessing Christians.
I pray I’ve blessed you with this week’s post. Please let me know if I can encourage you and pray for you to ease your sorrow too. May the Lord favor you this week.