Are you a happy person? If you think you are, why are you happy; when are you happy; and most importantly, do others see it?
There is a story about a boy who had to wear braces on his legs in order to walk. He was a cripple. He fell a lot. But even though he frequently found himself sprawled on the ground, he went everywhere. One day he fell at the top of the school steps and tumbled all the way down. The teachers were afraid. They ran to him and asked if he were hurt. The boy lifted his head and smiled at them saying, “No, I'm not hurt. I've learned how to fall.”
For his few short years, that boy had learned something that it takes many people a lifetime to learn, if they learn it at all. He had learned how to be happy when things didn't go right. He could even smile if he fell and hurt himself. Can you?
In our Epistle Lesson this morning God tells us to be happy all the time. Paul writes, “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus” (1Thess.5:16). No matter what happens, the Christian is happy for he remembers how much God has done for him in Christ.
So, dear friend, when you feel sad or upset, even on the verge of tears, ask yourself a simple question as a member of God's family of faith: “Where is my joy? ” Then start thinking of how good God has been to you in Christ. It's what Isaiah pointed the Old Testament believers to in our text in their sad times.
I. Here, in Christ who freed me eternally.
This is a text that focused Israel on the coming Savior. In fact, it did more than that. The Savior, who was still some 700 years off in the future, actually spoke to them here in a loving, comforting, and encouraging way.
Think of it. The Messiah, who wouldn't be born in Bethlehem for another 700 years, talks to His people way ahead of time. It would be like hearing your great, great, great, great, great, great grandchild talking to you even though you die centuries before he's born. How strange is that! But that's what we've got here. The Messiah speaks to Israel 700 years before His birth.
A voice from the manger talks to His ancestors! Why? Because Israel needed to hear directly from the One whom God appointed to relieve their misery. And they were truly miserable. There was little reason to be happy for they, too, had fallen with a fall much greater than tumbling down a few steps. They had fallen from God.
The Messiah begins, “The Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor…to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release for prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”
Every description here is couched in the picture of an Old Testament festival called “The Year of Jubilee.” Israel was to celebrate it every 50 years. When the Jubilee Year came, all debts were cancelled, all slaves were freed, and all inheritance land was returned to the original owners. The past was forgiven and forgotten, the slate wiped clean, and everyone had a new beginning. To those oppressed by debt, slavery, and loss of status, all was restored to them by God's gracious decree (Lev.25) every 50 years. It was a year of happiness, a year of jubilation.
Now, why was that picture important to the people to whom the Messiah, born 700 years later, spoke in our text?
Because by the time Israel heard this, they were a sad and distressed people, languishing in captivity in Babylon . They had lost their homes, lost their families, lost their land, lost their freedoms – lost everything to the mighty Babylonian army from the east that overran them. Why did it happen? Because they had disobeyed God and would not turn from their ways set against Him. So, He allowed them to be taken captive and lose their land. They were prisoners, in two ways – outwardly to Babylon , inwardly to the sadness and distress that afflicted their hearts for their sin.
That's what sin does when it takes over our lives. It imprisons us without and within. It can't make us happy. Oh, sure, our flesh enjoys its wayward ways for a time, but we become prisoners to destructive behavior that affects us in body and more so in soul. Sin separates from God (Is.59:2). Continue to live in it, and you push God further away. Without Him at our side, no lasting happiness can be found.
Think of it this way. Were Adam and Eve happy the day they disobeyed and were driven from the Garden of Eden? Was Cain happy the day he walked out of God's presence after murdering his brother Abel? Was Judas happy the day he got his money for betraying Jesus and went out to hang himself? Are you happy when you break God's commandments? Your flesh may delight because it fulfilled its lustful desires. But each disobedience estranges you to God. It deepens the debt, impoverishes the soul, and imprisons both body and spirit.
Have you ever been poor? Have you ever been in debt? Have you ever lost your house? Have you ever been jailed? Israel was all of these. And the worse part was the harm their sin had caused within them. If you can't be happy within, if you can't be at peace with God, you can't be happy at all. Think of it this way.
A child once asked her mother why the neighbor always looked so mean. “She just smiles a little bit with her mouth,” the girl said, “and then it stops.” Her mother replied, “It's hard to smile on the outside when you don't smile on the inside, too, isn't it?”
So here's the question, dear friends. How do you get happy on the inside? King David had the answer when he wrote (Ps.4:7): “God has put gladness in my heart.” What made David say that? If David were to be happy, God had to do it because David had made a mess out of things. And God made him happy by showing him mercy and by promising to love and help me. He would free him from his sin eternally.
The same was true with Israel . They had made a mess out of their lives. They caused the problems. But God in His grace would help and free them. He did it by sending the Savior to pay for their sin. That Savior came to them here in our text to assure them that He would replace their sorrow with joy, their pain with happiness, and that He would restore their fortunes by bringing them back to His side. In a display of unmerited love, Christ forgave and smiled upon them. And if God smiles upon you, dear friend, you can be happy – on the inside and on the outside.
Where is my joy? It is here in Christ who frees me eternally. If I must fall, may I fall not into sin but into the arms of Christ; He frees me and shields me and causes me to stand firm in Him.
II. Here, in Christ who clothes me gloriously.
So it was that God's people proclaimed, “I delight in the Lord; my soul rejoices in my God. For He has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.”
O boy, some more Old Testament pictures. But this time they are portrayals of the happiness a Savior brings to the lives of His people. Let's get at the pictures by first addressing you men.
Guys, have you ever worn a cummerbund? If you've put on a tuxedo, more than likely you've also put on a cummerbund. It's the silken sash that's worn around the waist and is a traditional part of a groom's clothing. Now, what good are they? What do they do? They seem to serve no practical purpose. So why wear them?
In the Old Testament guys didn't wear cummerbunds. They wore festive turbans similar to a priest's turban. And the bride wore lots of jewelry. So, why do brides and grooms wear dresses with long trains, and cummerbunds, and turbans, and jewelry? They serve few practical purposes except that they mark a very, very happy and special day.
When Christ frees His people eternally, He also clothes them gloriously in His own robe of righteousness. When He puts those garments of salvation around them, He is just as happy and giddy as a bride and groom are when they put on their special wedding accessories.
Such happiness on God's part should never cease to amaze us, especially when placed right next to the picture of God's distress at the disobedience of His people towards Him. Can we honestly believe God rejoices to take such wayward children back?
Yes! Just as He rejoiced in bringing back His captive people in the Old Testament and in binding up their broken hearts in the grandest Year of Jubilee that Israel ever experienced. God joys to clothe us gloriously in a Savior, a Savior whose birth we are about to celebrate. That, dear friends, is grace, pure grace that makes us happy, too, on the inside!
Where Is My Joy? It is here in Christ who clothes me gloriously and makes me happy within. And when you're happy within, you will smile on the outside as well with a happy life that gives praise to God before those around you. That's how God makes His “righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.”
“I delight greatly in the Lord; and my soul rejoices in my God” for He has freed me eternally and clothed me gloriously in Christ. Do others see it in you? God grant it in our lives of faith for Jesus' sake. Amen.