“You love justice and hate evil. Therefore, O God, your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.”
This verse is taken from Hebrews 1, where the Son of God’s status is being made known. That last part of the verse evokes an interesting suspicion. Was Jesus the most joyous person the world has ever seen? This thought kinda blew my mind. I never would have described the Jesus I grew up hearing about as joyful. I picture him tossing tables and weeping behind closed doors. I paint him as pensive, not that I blame the guy. After all, he lived his whole life knowing that he would die a young and gruesome death. For three years he was hated for stirring up traditions, made claims no one else dared to make, and was a teacher to a group of people who rarely seemed to grasp the material. It seems like every time he turned around someone wanted him to heal something or answer a question. If anything, I would bet the man was mournful and maybe even a bit frustrated. On the other hand, if joy comes from God the Father, and Jesus, being God’s Son, has perfect union with the Father, then who else could compete with him in terms of joy? If Jesus didn’t have joy, who does? In actuality, Jesus being the most joyous person that ever lived starts to make perfect sense. What’s amazing here, is the fact that Jesus had joy in the midst of all the anguish he went through. But how? Let me tell you what I think. Everything he went through didn’t steal his joy, it gave him joy. Jesus was fully obedient to God. Not only that, but He wanted the things God wanted. He wanted to glorify God, and God wanted to rescue mankind from depravity. Thus, to please God, to fulfill God’s plan, to be obedient to God, gave Jesus great joy. And since Jesus never disobeyed God once, I can only imagine the amount of joy he must have had. May I learn his love for justice and his hatred for evil in my life.