Jesus, Man of Joy

"Therefore God, your God has set You above Your companions by anointing You with the oil of Joy." Hebrews 1:9

I absolutely LOVE this passage. It it referring to Christ being anointed with the oil of joy.

I am not sure how many of us ponder on the fact that Jesus was a man of joy. People followed Him around and wanted so much to be near Him that He rarely could get away in private. Why do you suppose? If He was hellfire and brimstone people may of fallen down to be saved but they weren't likely to crave to be in His presence, more likely to crawl away and lick their repentive wounds.

I have this little book that was given to me by a person I never met and long since lost contact with her. But it is a book by Sherwood E. Wirt. He wrote it on the joy of Christ. I also read the follow up books by Bruce Marchiano and a DVD series on the life of Christ... I don't recall the name of it but, I always remember it as a happy Jesus movie... :)

Seriously...if you think about... He had to have charisma, charm, personality, lots of Big happy joy, kindness, love and again..charisma that was and is larger than life for people to follow Him and that the world still, not even meeting Jesus the man, feels His presence in the form of joy, unspeakable joy.

He was anointed with the oil of joy.

I like how Sherwood describes some of his ideas of parables that Jesus told... Where as I have always seen Him stern as he seriously told these parables... like a parent telling a child to be good and adding the warnings... but Sherwood talks about Jesus telling these parables with not only authority but charisma, joy, laughter and one of a very good nature. I like how he describes the time when this one.... I think Gentile (could be another race) woman wanted Jesus to heal her daughter and He tells her that it was not right to feed of the children's bread and she tells him that even the dogs get the crumbs...Sherwood describes Jesus as smiling with a twinkle in His eye and telling her to go as her daughter was healed...

Nehemiah promises us that the joy of the Lord is our strength and Jesus tells us that the things He has spoken to us so that His joy may remain in us and that our joy may be full. Imagine!

And what about Pain? How can we have joy in the midst of pain, trauma, unspeakable tragedy?

I think its a debate that can never be satisfied. Personally, for me, I just simply find it as part of the journey. I never know when tragedy will strike me or my family. I only know that I want to be able to rush under God's wings and to know Him so well that I feel that I can do just that. I don't want to be in the middle of a tragedy and not know that I can run to Him.

For me, in a nutshell... I do not believe God is the author of horror, torture, abuse etc... I don't believe He shakes His head and says 'go right ahead and inflict such cruelty as it is My will.".... I think however that its part of this life and God will turn tragedy into beauty and He ultimately always wins.

Regarding personal pain... Sherwood puts it like this:

"Pain does have this positive value: It will bring to a halt our indulgence in wasteful and useless thoughts, and force us to concentrate on more important matters. It can even galvanize us into action. A young boy growing up in a Christian home in Ohio had left home and was working on a canal boat when he injured his foot while chopping wood. H contracted blood poisoning and soon became an invalid. During the long, painful months in bed he resolved to seek an education upon recovery. He studied for the ministry but then became a teacher, then a school principal. During the Civil War he joined the 42nd Ohio Volunteers, became a hero during the fighting in Shilo and Chickamauga, and rose to major general. After serving in Congress and U.S. Senator, he was elected President of the United States. It was wihle lying in bed in pain that he decided to change the direction of his life. His name was James Abram Garfield.
When in pain we can also call to mind our obligations to those we love and accomplish tasks that we keep putting off. We can offer up prayers long unsaid and read chapters in the Bible long neglected. We can even recall friends in far worse pain than we are suffering and make fresh contacts with them in the Lord. Thus time spent in pain can be used eventually to reorient our lives. Pain has a way of drawing Christians to their knees in prayer.

and so forth...

Love the book! Love the image of Jesus smiling... laughing... love, kindness... joy.