Joy in Heaven: A Meditation on Luke 15

What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them,

doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness,

and go after that which is lost, until he find it?

And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.

And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours,

saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.

 I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth,

more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.

I have heard over the years many theories about what pleases God.  There’s a common refrain that being attached to this or that social justice motif brings pleasure to God, or perhaps more piously postulated as Christians working to bring God’s Kingdom down to earth in some politically tangible way.  Moving from the outside world of politics and social justice campaigns to inside the Church itself, there are suggestions that a particular form of worship pleases God, or particular songs, or particular instruments, or a particular way of holding one’s hands, or a particular kind of dress (for both laity and clergy), or a particular building style, or any host of man-made customs. And while it’s certainly true that some customs are much more appropriate in the House of God than others, attempting to tie such menial contrivances to God’s pleasure or joy is ignorant at best, and at worst a kind of unbearable hubris.  Who are we, after all, as creatures of infinitely lower dignity and capacity than the eternal divine majesty of God Almighty, to attempt to tell God what should and should not please Him?  Do I really think that I can manipulate God’s emotions the way some slick politician, praise band, or charismatic preacher can manipulate the hearts and minds of impressionable people?

At root, our human pride always seeks to find something in ourselves that grants us dignity before God, as if of ourselves we have some standing before God which requires His respect.  Unfortunately, given our fallen and sinful state, there is nothing we can do of ourselves that pleases God, and there is nothing in us that has not been twisted by our own pride and wickedness.  Not only are we originally created inferior to God as our Creator, but our fallen evil nature constantly seeks to take glory and honor from God which He has not given.  This impulse of our fallen nature moves men to think themselves capable of moving God to pleasure or joy by their own efforts, and thereby securing for themselves some reward or payment from God as a just desert.  Not surprisingly this motive is found in nearly every pagan religion across the globe, where man has tried to build his religion toward God without the guidance of His Word and Spirit.  Where fallen man attempts to reach and satisfy God through his own works, there inevitably emerges a religion which reflects man’s twisted and fallen nature, and which cannot ever please or satisfy the only true, holy, and almighty God.

Once we come to understand the absolute futility of pleasing God on our own terms or through our own works, we are prepared to listen to God’s solution to our problem.  God’s Law, written generally into all of nature so that every armchair pagan philosopher can grasp its basic tenets, yet explicitly revealed in Holy Scripture, prepares each and every human heart to despair of their own ability to reach, please, manipulate, or bring joy to God.  God’s Gospel, however, revealed in Holy Scripture as the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the salvation of condemned sinners through the forgiveness of sins by grace through faith in Jesus, lifts the despairing human heart into the joy and peace of God.  God’s joy is not something we give to Him, but rather something that He gives to us—it is what Jesus secured for the whole human race through His Cross, when He took our sinful wickedness and condemnation upon Himself, so that He might give His grace, mercy, love, compassion, joy, and eternal life back to us.  God does not present Himself as one to be manipulated by sinful men, but rather as the One who calls all fallen sinners to repent and believe in Him through the power of His Spirit working through His Word.  How then do sinful people enter into the joy of God in heaven, but by trusting in the gracious invitation God makes to us by His Word?  It is such faith and repentance which brings every lost sinner into the joy and celebration of heaven, where God and all His Holy Angels, His Prophets and Apostles, and all His blessed saints and martyrs of every time and place, rejoice in grandeur surpassing earthly understanding for every soul saved from perdition.

Where does God’s Word of Law and Gospel meet you this day? Are you still striving to please God through your own works and manipulations, thinking you have something in you which God is obliged to honor and reward?  Are you exhausted from your fruitless and vain pursuits to bring joy to God by your own offerings of service, praise, plans, or contrivances?  Are you at last despairing of any reason why God would take joy or pleasure in you, for you have come to understand the totality of your fallen depravity, and your utter inability to climb out of your sins and into the holiness of God’s presence?  Take heart, dear Christian!  Hear the Word of the Lord which calls you to repent of your fallen wickedness, of your pride, of your attempted manipulations of the King of the Universe.  Hear the Word of the Lord which speaks to you life and forgiveness and mercy and hope, all for Christ’s sake.  Hear the love which God has had for you from before the foundation of the world, which moved Him to seek and to save you from the despair and vanity of your fallen works by the shed blood of His Only Begotten Son, that whosoever would repent and believe in Him might not perish, but rather be given His eternal life.  Hear the Word of the Lord reveal to you that God’s joy is manifest to you in Jesus His Son, and that He has always been beckoning you back into the fellowship of His eternal joy through faith in Him.

Be of good cheer, for God has not commanded that you bring Him joy, but that you receive His joy by grace through faith in His Son—a faith and repentance He brings forth in you through the power of His Holy Spirit, working through His Holy Word.  Hear Him.  Repent, believe, and live.  Amen.