Joy to the World

Epiphany of Our Lord

Last week we sang “Joy to the World” to celebrate the birth of our Lord. It is one of the most popular Christmas carols of all time. However, it does not mention any of the things we might associate with the Christmas story, such as angels, the manger, shepherds, or even Jesus by name. As you read the words again, it could just as well celebrate Jesus’ second coming, couldn’t it? “Joy to the World” is also different from other Christmas carols because it was based on a Psalm rather than the New Testament, Psalm 98 in fact, which might explain the lack of the usual Christmas imagery.

“Joy to the World” was written by Isaac Watts, who died in 1748. In the bulletin you will find copies of both the hymn and of Psalm 98. If you are like me, you probably wouldn’t have realized one was based on the other unless someone told you or if you read about it on Wikipedia. But both are indeed joyful songs, extolling the Lord’s righteousness and His providing our salvation. As all people are called to sing His praises, the earth itself and all it contains also are called upon to proclaim the “wonders of His love.”

So what do you think: does Joy to the World speak more to you about Jesus’ birth, or to His eternal reign? Or both? “Joy to the World” is also unique in that it sings not just of joy but also of thorns and a curse. Can you image the songs of joy on the day of His second coming, but also the doom of judgement upon the unrighteous?

Now most of the hymn is straight-forward, but verse three is kind of peculiar:

No more let sins and sorrows grow, Nor thorns infest the ground; He comes to make his blessings flow Far as the curse is found.

My struggle in understanding this verse when we sing it comes from the way it is phrased musically. After repeating “far as the curse is found” three times, I lose the connection with the start of the phrase, “He comes to make his blessings flow.” This makes the whole verse confusing. It helps me to read it straight through rather than singing it with repeats: “He comes to make his blessings flow/Far as the curse is found.” Doing so makes the promise clear that someday Jesus will bring an end to sins and sorrows. Certainly we look forward to the day when all evil is done away with, and the earth is free from thorns and other nasty things. We want Him to come and let His blessings flow, cleansing our world and making all things new!

But what is this odd phrase: “far as the curse is found”? If you guessed it refers to Genesis 3:17, you are correct! After Adam ate the fruit of the tree God commanded them not to eat from, Adam was told: “Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life.” So, in other words, the Messiah “comes to make His blessings flow” over the whole earth, covering and cleansing the world of the original curse of sin and disobedience. As you might have noticed, this verse was not based on anything in Psalm 98, but from the pen of Isaac Watts with a nod to Genesis 3, reflecting his Calvinistic theology, with its emphasis on the total depravity of mankind. With all this in mind, it seems more likely that “Joy to the World”, at least in this verse, points to the Second Coming rather than the first, doesn’t it?

Watts also believed that Old Testament Scriptures were only valuable if they pointed to the New Testament, where the prophecies and promises of the Old Testament are fulfilled. Do you agree with that? I don’t know. In the end, claiming that “Joy to the World” proclaims both the first and second coming of Jesus makes more sense to me, for remember that Jesus was both fully human and fully divine. He was both born as a human baby boy but also reigns forever in Heaven. At some point, Jesus became both; just when is still debated, but we celebrate this reality today, with the church-y name of “The Epiphany of Our Lord”, the revealing of the divine nature within the human body of Jesus.

When someone says “epiphany” today, they usually mean that a thought has suddenly come to them, usually a bright idea that seems to solve an ongoing problem. Here, in Jesus, we have the solution to our world’s problems, but it may not seem sudden to those of us looking back on an event long ago, and knowing that centuries of prophecy preceded it. In the Eastern Church, the Greek Orthodox and others, Jesus being revealed as fully human and fully divine is celebrated in remembrance of Jesus being baptized by John. Here in the Western Church, we celebrate this with the coming of the wise men from the East, but many other things witness to it also: the star, the virgin birth, the visits from angels. Where the wise men fit in is definitely unique. In coming to worship Jesus, they have followed written prophecies as well as this sign from nature, the star. And while many Jews would reject Him, Jesus is accepted by these practitioners of a different religion from a land far from Israel!

For those of us who are merely human, worshipping the divine and participating in God’s plan for our world, we are to wait for Jesus to return, and until then, proclaim to the world what He has already accomplished. Remember Simeon and Anna, waiting in the Temple for the Messiah to be presented. We now wait for Jesus to come again, and complete what was started when He was born. As we sing in “Joy to the World”, we celebrate Jesus’ first coming into our world as we look forward to His return.

In some hymnals you will find an alternate to “far as the curse is found.” It reads:

No more let thorns infest the ground, or sins and sorrows grow; wherever pain and death are found he makes his blessings flow.

This version appeared in 1991, so it is a little more modern, but softens the origin language. Do you like it? It seems more appropriate somehow for a Christmas carol, but does not have the sense of completion found in the original, where the curse of sin is covered by the grace of Jesus. Perhaps the original is more meaningful for us during this time of Covid-19: we look forward to the day when not only humankind but the entire world is cleansed of sin and death, when the earth itself proclaims God’s salvation, and “heaven and nature sing” “the wonders of His love.”

Now even if we think that “Joy to the World” sings of Jesus’ return, that does not mean we just sit around waiting until then. As Isaiah says:

Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the LORD will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Isaiah 60:1-2)

Our light has come, now it is time for us to shine! Although Jesus has not yet completed the New Creation, we still look for and witness to God’s grace at work in our world, as we prepare for His return. The earth itself may still have thorns and suffer from the curse of sin, but it also proclaims the beauty and grace of God’s providence, as we should, too. As Paul writes in Ephesians:

Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him. (Ephesians 3:8-12)

We too might think that we are the least of the saints, but this same grace has been given us, and we continue the work begun by Paul and the early church to make known the “wonders of His love.” All of this was planned out by God before the creation of this world, not only Jesus’ first and second comings, but our place in this plan. Those of us who enter the story in this in-between-time, after Jesus’ birth but before He returns, are to celebrate the first shining forth of God’s grace in Jesus while we prepare the way for His return. We may be living in a dark time right now, but even into this darkness that we know and experience all too well, shines the light of Jesus.

King Herod may have been on the wrong side of history, but he did give us one bit of worthy advice, when he told the wise men to search for the baby Jesus. We like the wise men from the East continue to search for Jesus in our world, even though we have already found Him. In this dark time, we continue to look for Him at work, as the Holy Spirit continues to shine forth God’s grace. And when we find Him, we are to proclaim His glory, as we do every Sunday here, and every day at home and in our world. Matthew tells us that after Herod sent the wise men away:

they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road. (Matthew 2:9-12)

We too kneel down and pay homage to our Lord and Savior. We too give him our offerings and gifts, both material and spiritual. As God gave us this greatest gift of Jesus, we give back our hearts and lives, the greatest gifts we can offer. But also like the wise men, we leave here with a warning. Until Christ returns, we persevere under that original curse, struggling against the forces of sin and evil. We live in a dark time, but into that darkness, we carry the light of Christ.

Our challenge right now is to carry that light into a world going through a dark time. We must be diligent in our daily prayer and Bible reading times, preparing our hearts and minds, focusing on God’s promises in Jesus. Only then will we be prepared to go out into the world and spread God’s grace through our words and deeds. Each of us does this in our own way, according to how God made each one of us and gave us certain gifts, and we must always be prepared to share the light of Jesus when the opportunity arises.

So go forth from here, shining that light. Resist the darkness, seeking to be faithful disciples, living according to the righteousness of Jesus and witnessing to His saving grace. Know that the Spirit is with you and will guard your hearts and protect you from evil. Wherever you go, proclaim the Good News of Jesus’ virgin birth, life, death, resurrection, abiding presence in our lives, and immanent return in glory, singing:

Joy to the world! The Savior reigns! Let all people their songs employ; While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains Repeat the sounding joy!