“Ask and you will receive, so that your joy will be the fullest possible joy” (John 16:24b)
Wonderful though English is as a language, its very sophistication can lead us to be unaware of what we mean. Happiness and joy are too easily interchanged. It is possible to be unhappy but joyful and visa versa. It’s important for Christians to distinguish.
When Wesley wrote “And can it be that I should gain an interest in my Saviour’s Blood”, which is my favourite hymn you should know, he was writing about joy. The realisation here is that our lives have meaning and purpose whatever the world throws at us.
This is different from the sensation that we get from, say, passing an exam or receiving a gift. It is also different from the emotional sense when the meeting goes our way, or our team wins at something. Those things are merely happiness.
Jesus’ life and works as we know them do not say much about being happy. His example is that our persisting through; the betrayal of friends, the hatred of the establishment and the persecution of the powerful. So, when He teaches that we should approach God ‘in Jesus’ name’, He is telling us that our joy is fulfilled when, and only when, we are prepared to live our lives in the same manner as Jesus did.
That means being aware that joy is not at the same thing as happiness, rather, that joy is there even when happiness is not.
The talented 18th Century philosopher Jeremy Bentham, whose body is on display in a case at UCL, in trying work out a functional moral code because religions have failed to be consistent, wrote about utilitarianism. This is a very influential philosophy in our world. He pointed out that all creatures respond to pleasure and pain, and that people live their lives seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. This seems to be true on the whole. However, his pupil J.S. Mill and his collaborator Harriet Taylor Mill, both very effective philosophers, in analysing Bentham’s claims, concluded that this leads to ‘pig philosophy’. That in struggling to achieve great things, people must put aside their immediate pleasure. Education shows that to be right. Try learning a new language for example.
Our problem in this regard, here in the twenty first century, is that our societies are really all about short term happiness. Immediate gratification. Promotion and titles. New glittery things that cost a lot. Winning. Our message for the world, given to us by Jesus, is hard to promote when that world is so full of prompt pleasures. Why would people give up on the search for trinkets and entertainments in order to learn about a 2,000-year-old teacher who suffered and died?
Well, the answer is in our living for the joy that Jesus taught. It is so plainly different from the happiness that our world sells that our living it would be visible.
However, many Christians want it both ways. You can’t have that. Church is about being a beacon of joy. Having a meaning and purpose far beyond the gee-gaws of gratification.
Joy is really all about the shocking realisation that ‘I have gained an interest in my Saviour’s blood’.
John Cartwright
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