I never noticed it before.
The words sat in my head as I tried to absorb their meaning.
“In that same hour he (Jesus) rejoiced in the Holy Spirit.”
It could have very easily slipped by my notice again, but I probed deeper.
The commentary said it really meant, “thrilled with joy.”
Charles Spurgeon said…
“This is the only occasion in the gospels where it is specifically said that Jesus rejoiced. It stands alone; yet we should not think that Jesus never rejoiced other times. We do not hear that he laughed, though it is thrice recorded that he wept; and here for once, as quite unique, we find the inspired assurance that he rejoiced.”
Charles Spurgeon
I think there is a reason Jesus was known more for his sorrow than his joy. Grief is inherently isolating and lonely. We can easily find friends who will rejoice with us, but it is harder to find someone to walk with us down the dark path of sorrow. Ever since the darkness came and changed me, I have been daily comforted by a Savior who does not shy away from the depths of my pain but walks with me in the lonely valley.
But this…he was thrilled with joy in the Holy Spirit!
What caused him to be thrilled? And why is this instance, important enough to be the only time recorded in Scripture, though he was most certainly joyful at other times?
He had just sent out 72 people, two by two into every town and place where he was about to go (check out this fascinating story in Luke 10). They were to prepare the way for Jesus, making the hurting, broken world ready for him. That nameless group of 72 people obeyed and experienced the incredible power of God to cast the demons themselves out of people. They weren’t known, were even slightly rebuked for focusing on the power that was displayed through them and not delighting in the one whose power it was. Nevertheless, Jesus was thrilled with joy over the work of his people: over the Holy Spirit that was shining so brightly through them. He was thrilled with joy that God the Father was accomplishing his great plan of salvation through them.
There are times when I get discouraged and feel that God is much more delighted in others; in those who do this life (or could do my life) so much better.
But today, I bring to mind the nameless 72 people.
They had a name, one now known only to God himself.
Nevertheless, they had a name.
And though sometimes our acts of obedience may never be known to others around us, we are known to God.
And as we display his love to a hurting world, Jesus is sitting by the right hand of the Father in heaven, and he is thrilled with joy!
After Caleb ran ahead to heaven, I have often been encouraged to keep going by the thought of my future heavenly homecoming when Caleb will give me one of his big hugs and say, “I’m so proud of you, mom.”
Luke 10 reminds me that it is not only Caleb who is cheering me on.
“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”
Hebrews 12:1-2
Can you picture all the hundreds or thousands of people cheering us on? “Be encouraged, be faithful, don’t give up, you can make it,” they say as they gaze eagerly down at us. “Continue to lean on the love, strength, and forgiveness of Jesus, and know that it is ALL BECAUSE OF HIM!”
“You shall no more be termed Forsaken, and your land shall no more be termed Desolate, but you shall be called My Delight Is in Her, and your land Married; for the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you.”
Isaiah 62:4-5
God himself delights in us! Not because we are perfect, or do and say the right things. But just because. And we look to him who is. I have learned how closely grief and joy are to one another. I believe the heart of God simultaneously aches with grief with us as we grieve the sorrows and pains of this life, and at the same time is thrilled with joy as we walk in obedience to him and experience the power of God in and through us.