Beatitude(s) of Joy

Today, the Sunday of the pink candle, more on that later, the candle of joy. We have aligned the Beatitudes with the four Sundays of Advent as part of our comparing the traditional interpretations with that of Dallas Willard, perhaps finding some new to go with our old. I’m abandoning that approach this morning because Willard doesn’t really offer us anything new that I can see.

But apparently what’s true of styles can be true of Beatitudes as well; what’s old is new again. As segments of religious America continue their relentless march back into Pharisaism, the words of grace Jesus spoke seem quite as alien as if they had come from beyond the Milky Way.

The Paradox of Joy

For many in the kingdom, happiness and joy are synonymous terms which often results in disappointment.

It is true that the word “blessed” can be translated happy.

But for us, happiness is mostly circumstantial, existing only as long as the fortunate circumstance does.

Surely Jesus meant something more.

Joy is something more, something unique.

Only the third candle has a unique color, pink, the liturgical color of joy.

In the Bible, joy is often mentioned in the most unhappy of circumstances.

Matthew 5:10–12 NIV84

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

1 Peter 4:12–14 LEB

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal among you, when it takes place to test you, as if something strange were happening to you. But to the degree that you share in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, so that also at the revelation of his glory you may rejoice and be glad. If you are reviled on account of the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.

James 1:2–4 LEB

Consider it all joy, my brothers, whenever you encounter various trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.

This is the paradox of joy.

We can call it happiness if we like, but it is happiness rooted in more than circumstances.

It’s root allows it to bloom even in adversity.

The despised, dismissed, disregarded ones.

Whenever righteousness becomes mainstream, we know we have lost the plot.

The truth is, no matter how many “good ole days” stories grandpas told their grand-kids in whatever epoch of history, there has never been a time when righteousness was the majority opinion.

Apart from any scriptural definition, righteousness may be described as the right thing being done for all classes of people in general and individuals in particular.

When we see that justice is one expression of righteousness, we see how short has been the supply of righteousness in human history.

When we supplement our definition with Jesus’ words about what is right, the disparity grows.

Mark 12:31 LEB

The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Luke 6:31 LEB

And just as you want people to do to you, do the same to them.

Yet, there are people who persist in doing the right thing for as many as come within their sphere of influence.

If we follow Willard, these are not yet people inside the Kingdom doing right, but those yet outside who still have a desire to do the right thing, to go against the flow.

This seems to be a legitimate understanding because in our own day, there are people who seemingly have no connection to the Kingdom devoted to doing the right thing for all kinds of people.

And, in our country at least, they are despised and dismissed and disregarded for their trouble.

Sadly, much of the persecution today comes from within the “kingdom.”

For those who see in Jesus their something more, the Kingdom of the Heavens is open to them.

It is not a place free from persecution for doing right, as many of us know; but it is a place where right is valued by the King, even if not by all the subjects.

It is the promise that our personal kingdoms are enmeshed with THE Kingdom and opens its resources for doing righteousness to us.

It is the “not yet” hope of the day when righteousness isn’t just the mainstream, but the only stream.

The rejoicing ones.

Some call vv 11-12 an expansion of the eighth Beatitude specifically for those within the kingdom; others call it a ninth Beatitude. Doesn’t really matter.

Certainly, Jesus got much more specific about the nature of the persecution.

Verbal abuse, physical abuse, gossip and false testimony.

But the reason for the abuse is not just righteousness; it is Jesus himself.

Standing with Jesus, counting the red-letters as important will likely bring as much, or more, persecution from some who claim to be in the Kingdom as from those without. Martin Theielen, writing about toxic evangelicalism, wrote that one characteristic of this form of “Christianity” is they have jettisoned Jesus. Russell Moore related to an interviewer he had been approached by pastors whose congregants have dismissed the Sermon on the Mount as “liberal talking points,” or too weak for our time. The son of an ex-president campaigning for his father asked an audience of young people, “Jesus said turn the other cheek. How’s that working for you?”

My daddy grew up a tenant-farmer, a sharecropper. He attended as a boy the first church I ever pastored. It was a bigger church back then, filled with prosperous farmers, maybe a few merchants. He told me the story of a less-prosperous man who wanted to join the church. He was told he needed to go home and pray about it over the week to make sure Jesus really wanted him in that church. He came back a week later and told the church it was okay; he didn’t want to join them after all. Asked if Jesus had shown him this, he simply replied, “I asked Jesus, and he said not worry about it. He said he’d been trying for years to get in and y’all wouldn’t let him in either.” Apocryphal or true? I don’t know, but sure seems like it could be.

It is in the promise the paradox of joy is on display.

Rejoice is pushing it, but “be glad” literally means jump for joy.

The circumstances Jesus mentioned certainly don’t seem a reason to jump for joy.

The promise of a great reward in heaven isn’t materialistic; it speaks to the fact our lives are grounded in something deeper than “here” with its ups and downs.

But we also jump for joy because of our spiritual family tree of both the famous and unknown.

“My body is broken. I go to my fathers. And even in their mighty company I shall not now be ashamed.” (Theoden’s last words, Tolkien, The Return of the King)

Joy to the world, the Lord is come Let Earth receive her King Let every heart prepare Him room And Heaven and nature sing He rules the world with truth and grace And makes the nations prove The glories of His righteousness And wonders of His love