December 14
“Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people.”
Luke 2:10 (NASB)
Our world is well into the third decade of the third millennium. When the decade began, the world sensed new, big optimism. No one expected what happened—with speed, depth, and breadth—to pummel the entire human race.
As I write this 2022 Christmas devotional, the world still sits under a gloomy cloud: a pandemic that is threatening comebacks, a European war that could escalate, and an economy that is in the unpredictable dance between inflation and recession.
If I were to place a word on the global situation, it would be “joyless.” Our entire world belongs to the Joyless Club, filled with sadness and dismalness, dreariness, and depression. This is a joyless world.
In one of Jesus’s birth narratives, the Lord’s angel announced joy to shepherds groaning and grieving under social, economic, and political heaviness. “Do not be afraid,” the angel said, “for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people.”
“Do not be afraid” is a standard greeting in the Bible because fear and joy do not go together. Since this message arrives from heaven, it generates confidence, assurance, and enthusiasm despite the shepherds’ membership in the Joyless Club.
God’s angel brings “good news.” In the middle of bad news, sponsored news, and fake news, there is good news, true news, and real news to be heard, received, and experienced.
This good, true, and real news from heaven is filled with great joy—literally, mega-joy.
Joy is much more and very different from happiness. Happiness is hollow, shallow, and thin. Joy is deep, weighty, and thick. Happiness can be faked. You can fake the emotion with yourself and others. Joy, however, sends signals that you cannot fake—to yourself or to those who are watching.
Happiness is temporary. Joy can be sustained, even eternally.
Notice that this good news of great joy is to “all the people” In its historical reference, it is a joy to all the people of Israel to whom the hearers belonged. It is also a joy to the world, for later in the same book, the invitation of the good news goes in all directions of the compass (Luke 13:29), with forgiveness preached in Jesus’s name to all nations (24:45–47).
Like the angelic host, we shall sing and bring “Joy to the World” to the Joyless Club year-round and worldwide.