Read: Luke 10:1-23
Joy is a strong emotion. It is a feeling of intense happiness or pleasure that occurs when something good happens. Such joyous feelings can easily be felt when your actions lead to favourable outcomes. Joy isn't so common when the going is tough. At such times you can seem to experience more bad than good. As a result you find many, many reasons for not being joyful. One episode from the life of Jesus illustrates this point.
When Jesus knew his death was immanent, he proceeded to Jerusalem, passing through Samaritan villages along the way. To let the residents of these hamlets know he was coming, some of his followers were sent ahead. On at least one occasion the locals indicated they did not want to show him and his followers any hospitality whatsoever as Jesus happened to be going to Jerusalem. You see, the Jews and the Samaritans did not get along well together for historical reasons.
Disgusted, two of the disciples - John and James - offered to pray fervently for the destruction of the town by heavenly flames. (Barbecued Samaritan, nice). Twisting towards the pair, Jesus reprimanded the men for making the naughty comment. Instead, the group moved on to a different place. And as they passing through the countryside, someone approached Jesus and offered to become a follower. In reply, Jesus spoke about being homelessness, emphasising he was nothing more than a couch surfer.
Sometimes Jesus spotted potential followers and asked these people to come with him. A few did, but most made excuses. One said he had to arrange a funeral for his dad. A different person said he wanted to say farewell to his relatives first. Yet despite these negative responses, more than seventy were commissioned by Jesus to go ahead of him into villages. But acknowledging there were not many of them, he asked to group to pray for more workers before they left.
The messengers were told to pick a house at random after arriving in a town. They had to offer the head of the house a blessing of peace and accept any food or drink he might offer them. In return, the men were required to cure those who were ill and to tell the locals, "God's kingdom soon comes." In fact, even if they weren't welcomed, they still had to preach the same message in the streets. In at least three towns - Korazin, Bethsaida and Capernaum - the resident didn't repent.
When the messengers returned to Jesus, they were joyful because even demons had been overcome. Jesus was pleased with the result. However, he reminded them to be joyous not because they had received the power exorcism, but because their identity was known to God. Jesus himself rejoiced. His joy, though, was spiritual rather than emotional for he knew his hard times on the road had led to a revelation of the Fatherhood of God. Such is a lesson all of us can learn - perserverance pays off.
Prayer: Jesus. When the road we travel along is long and hard, help us to presevere, so we might eventualy come to know both emotional and spiritual joy. Amen.
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