THE Christian Church throughout its history has universally pictured Christ Jesus as "the man of sorrows." This subject has always been a favorite one with the theologians; many a discourse has had for its theme the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah, with its wonderful word painting, where in prophetic vision the Messiah is depicted as "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." Each year the Lenten season is made a solemn anniversary of the sufferings of our Lord. Artists have presented the same subject,— the last supper, the agony in the garden, the cross-bearing, the crucifixion, have been painted again and again, and musicians have reiterated the same solemn theme.
So accustomed have we become to this view of the Master that we sometimes forget there is another side to the picture,—forget that although there were deep shadows of sorrow and woe, yet there were high lights of bliss and joy. Although Jesus did experience on the side of his humanity the depths of unutterable woe, yet there was in his earthly experience an underlying current of the truest, purest peace and joy, a peace so deep and abiding that he leaves it as his last precious legacy to his disciples, a joy so immeasurable that his last petition is that his joy might be fulfilled in them; so that while we may not question the appropriateness of the title, "a man of sorrows," yet we feel that Jesus may even more fittingly be called the man of joy.
He was the man of joy because he brought joy to all who would accept his ministrations. His mission was to open the blind eyes and the deaf ears, and to set the captive free from the bonds of materiality and suffering and sin. From his life has streamed a flood of joy which has irradiated the centuries and illumined the path he pointed out. His teachings were of life, of love, of joy. "I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." "If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death." And though dimmed by misconception, this flood of joy has in some measure irradiated all the centuries of the Christian era.
This gleam of joy shines out through all the Bible narrative, from the earliest prophecies to the last encouraging message to his disciples when he vanished from their sight. In the prophecies, while there are passages which portray the Messiah as "oppressed and afflicted," "brought as a lamb to the slaughter," yet there are others which are one grand anthem of joy. Concerning his advent there was much of joy. When the angel made the announcement to Mary, she was hailed as "thou that art highly favored," "blessed art thou among women," and was told that the child which was to come should be great, and should be called "the Son of the Highest," and that he should "reign over the house of Jacob for ever," and that of his kingdom there should be no end. When Mary visited her cousin, Elizabeth's salutation was full of joy, and Mary's reply reechoed the same strain: "My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour." At the time of Jesus' birth the shepherds in the field were hailed with the joyful salutation, "Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people." Then followed the announcement of the birth of "a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord," ending with the angelic chorus, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men." Wise men, following the star, "rejoiced with exceeding great joy," and when they had found the child, and had opened their treasures, "they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh."
Covering the period from his babyhood to his twelfth year there is but one short passage: "And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him." A child who was growing mentally and physically, who was "filled with wisdom," and upon whom "the grace of God" rested, could not fail to have been happy and joyous. When he was twelve years of age he had so increased in wisdom that the doctors in the temple "were astonished at his understanding and answers." Of the following eighteen years, until his public ministry, we have the same testimony, for we are told that he was subject unto his parents, that he "increased in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man." Surely this must indicate a joyous youth and young manhood. At his baptism, his first public appearance, he received the announcement of his heavenly Father's approval, for a voice came from heaven, saying, "Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." In the temptation which followed there would seem to have been little of joy, but we know that nothing brings a truer, purer happiness, and a more spiritual uplift, than temptation overcome; and we are told that when the tempter had departed "angels came and ministered unto him."
Jesus' first miracle, so called, was on a joyous occasion, when at a wedding feast he turned the water into wine. His first preaching was the proclamation that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, and of this time it was said, "The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up." And his was the greatest of joys, the healing of the sick and the sinful; for every Christian Scientist knows that there is no joy equal to that of proving the power of Truth by the restoration to health and joy of the suffering and sorrowful. For three years he went up and down the land, "teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. . . and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments, and those which were possessed of devils, and those which were lunatick, and those that had the palsy; and he healed them."
Through him came also to his disciples the joy of ministration and healing. The seventy, after being sent forth on a mission of healing, "returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name;" and "Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, . . . that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes;" and turning to his disciples, he said, "Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see." Nor was his joy-bestowing power limited to the healing of disease. His own prophecy was fulfilled, "The dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live." We are all familiar with the incident in his life when he and his disciples, approaching the city of Nain, met the funeral procession of the young man, the only son of his widowed mother. Can we picture a greater joy than must have come to Jesus when in obedience to his word the youth sat up and began to speak, and was delivered to his mother? And again, later in his life, a similar and more personal joy was his when at his command his friend Lazarus, after four days in the tomb, came forth and was restored to his sorrowing sisters.
Yet these glorious and joyous proofs of the allness of God were only the outward manifestations of Jesus' constant communion with Spirit, of his realization of his oneness with his Father, which was the source of all his joy-creating power, and was itself a joy deeper and more profound than all else. Even on the night of the last sorrowful supper, with the shadow of the great trial falling across his path, and when all the malignity of the "world's hatred of Truth"(Science and Health, p. 50) was poured upon him, still he speaks of peace, of joy,— "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you." "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." "Ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you." And in his last prayer he says, "These things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves."
Then followed the time when all the seeming powers of evil were working their will with him, and when an agony beyond human conception wrung from him the last despairing cry; and yet even this was only the dark portal through which he passed to his crowning joy and triumph, when the power of Truth and Love burst the tomb and rolled the stone away and he walked forth victor over the last enemy,—even death itself. Can we picture what must have been his joy and the joy of his followers when he returned to his sorrowing disciples to comfort them, and to prove to them the divine sonship and power? Then followed the walk to Emmaus, the morning meal on the shores of Galilee, the forty joyous days which he spent with his disciples preparing them for their great mission, and "speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." And when at last he vanished from their sight, he left behind him a flood of joy so abiding, so complete, that the centuries of misconception which followed have not wholly obscured it.
In these later years, through the understanding which Christian Science is bringing to us, this obscurity is dissipated and Jesus' last prayer answered, for his joy is being fulfilled in our hearts. As Christian Scientists we are learning to follow in the way he pointed out, and are striving to be worthy of his commendation: "Well done, thou good and faithful servant: . . . enter thou into the joy of thy lord."
