By Sharon Gauthier (Chicago, USA)

Joy to the World, the Lord is come.  Let earth receive her King.  Let every heart prepare Him room.  And heaven and nature sing.  And heaven and nature sing.  And heaven and heaven and nature sing.

Isaac Watts, 1719

A few years ago, I was invited to speak at a women’s Christmastime luncheon.  The title of the message was to be “Joy.”  When I first heard the theme, I had two reactions.

First, I thought, “What a wonderful topic!”  When I hear the word joy, I can’t help but to feel joyful!

Yet I also had another reaction:  “I am having one of the most emotionally difficult years in my entire life.  Am I the one who should talk about joy?”  You see, my father had passed away just four months prior.  Happiness seemed far removed.

But that’s the beauty of the word JOY.  It’s not the same as happiness.  Happiness depends on our circumstances.  Happiness comes and goes.  Joy comes from the inside; actually, it comes from God.  Joy doesn’t depend on our circumstances, but joy comes in spite of our circumstances.

Let’s take a closer look at JOY as we consider the words of this Christmas hymn.

“Joy to the world, the Lord has come.  Let earth receive her King.”

In Luke 2:8-11, the angels said they were bringing good news of great joy!  The gospel is news of great joy.  The news wasn’t just going to bring them joy, it was joy!

New Unger's Bible Dictionary defines joy as “a delight of the mind arising from the consideration of a present or assured possession of a future good.” (emphasis mine).

What does that mean?  Joy comes from hope.

The gospel is a message of joy, because the gospel is a message of hope.

Jesus came into the world at a time when there was not much hope:  the Jewish people were oppressed (ruled by a foreign power).  They were poor (the wealth was in the hands of the conquering power or the Jews who cooperated with the foreign power).  They believed they were no longer in God’s favor, as they associated God’s favor with material “success.”  Those who did have a hope based it on winning over God’s favor.  Consider the Pharisees, who essentially believed, “If we work extra, extra hard then we can win God’s favor back.”  However, eventually that perspective provided no hope because they could never be perfect.  They were doomed to fail at some point.

Then enters Jesus!  Jesus restored hope.  Jesus came into the most hopeless of circumstances and brought joy.

In John 6:35, Jesus declares, “I am the bread of life.  He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty.” What a hopeful promise for one in need.

In Luke 4:16-21, Jesus gives hope to the sick.  He opens their eyes to see that their illnesses are not a curse from God.  Witnessing Jesus’ power over illness gave them hope.  (Keep in mind, everyone who Jesus healed ultimately died of something, so the goal wasn’t to stop death and make everyone well, but to give them hope that illness and death were not the end.)

Jesus gave hope to those in mourning.  He had power over death.

Jesus gave hope to those who were poor.  Money wasn’t the only thing of value.  They could be rich in things that mattered even more than money.  They could hold their heads up and be joyful even when they didn’t have a cent to their name!

When I have a hard time finding joy in my life, it’s often because I’ve stopped having hope.

Interestingly, the words of the song “Joy to the Word” were written by a man who would have had every reason to feel hopeless.  Isaac Watts lived in England in the late 1600s and early 1700s.  He was born during a time when the Church of England was greatly persecuted.  His father was even put in prison for his religion.  Isaac was also a sickly and frail man; so sickly, in fact, that when he became a minister, after one year he was given an assistant to do much of the work of the ministry because he was too ill to do it.

Certainly here is a man who would not have much to be joyful about.  But Isaac Watts wrote more than 300 hymns and spiritual songs (pick up any hymnal from any church and you’ll see his name on many of the songs).  He was quoted as saying before his death, "the most learned and knowing Christians, when they come to die, have only the same plain promises of the Gospel for their support, as the common and unlearned; and so I find it. It is the plain promises of the Gospel that are my support; and I bless God that they are plain promises; that do not require much labour and pains to understand them; for I can do nothing now but look into my Bible for some promise to support me, and live upon that."

He had hope.  It was that hope that led him to write words like, “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 didn’t write it as a Christmas song.  In fact, he wrote it as a hymn to reflect Psalm 98 when David wrote:

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth,

burst into jubilant song with music;

make music to the Lord with the harp,

with the harp and the sound of singing,

with trumpets and the blast of the ram’s horn—

shout for joy before the Lord, the King.

Let the sea resound, and everything in it,

the world, and all who live in it.

Let the rivers clap their hands,

let the mountains sing together for joy;

let them sing before the Lord,

for he comes to judge the earth.

He will judge the world in righteousness

and the peoples with equity.

Psalm 98:4-9, NIV

“Joy to the earth, the Savior reigns.  Let men their songs employ.”

The second verse of the hymn talks about how mankind and even the rocks and hills will repeat the glorious sound of joy that comes from Jesus.  (Just think: all of nature backs up the message of God’s good news to mankind!)

We’ve discussed how Jesus brought us joy by giving us hope.  The natural reaction would be to repeat that good news of joy to others!  It’s human nature to spread good news.  It’s hard to keep it in.

Take a moment to read Romans 5:1-5.  Now, that’s good news!  It is news of hope.  It is news that will bring comfort and joy to the ears of others.

But for me, sometimes I am afraid of sharing that good news.  Sometimes it’s because I lose my own joy and my own hope.  How can I be inspired to share the good news with others?  Embrace hope and decide to give others hope!

Like in the time of Jesus, we live in a time of hopelessness.  We see our friends, our neighbors, our co-workers, our family, and even ourselves putting our hope in things that fail us.

The Jews of Jesus’s day were ruled by a foreign power that had no compassion or concern for them.  Without God, we are ruled by foreign powers—materialism, immorality, greed, jealousy, addiction, and more.  These “foreign powers” have no compassion or concern for us.  They destroy us.

With God, we are united with the One who loves us.  We are in the care of the true Shepherd and Overseer of our souls. (1 Peter 2:25)

Most of the Jews of Jesus’ day were poor.  Without God, we are poor.  No matter how much money we may have, it will never feel like “enough.”  There will always be someone with more.  We have a thirst that remains unquenched.

With God, we are enough and all that we have is enough.  (1 Timothy 6:6-8, Matthew 6:33)

The Jews of Jesus’ day believed that God’s favor had left them.  When we turn away from God and look only at our circumstances, we may doubt His favor.  We may doubt His love.  We may even doubt His very existence.

With God, we open our eyes and see the Lord’s favor all around us—in the relationships we have in Christ, in the power of the Holy Spirit living in us, and in the salvation we have through Jesus.  His favor is not something we earn, but something He freely gives. (2 Corinthians 6:1-2)

Want to bring joy to the world?  Bring hope to the world.  The gospel of Jesus is hope.  Joy to the World!

Want to take it a step further? 

Take this Holiday Challenge:  Share the joy of Jesus with at least one person over the holiday season.  Ask, “Do you have a favorite Christmas song?”  Then mention what you have learned about “Joy to the World.”  Read Luke 2:10 and talk about why the good news is news of great joy!