“Elizabeth’s Question” (Luke 1:39-45) - Hope Is on the Way III –

Pope Fransis

Christianity Today magazine from this month covered Pope Francis on the front page. From secular journalists to charismatic Christians so many people are taken with Pope Francis. If you ask 100 random people about the Roman Catholic Church, you will see a few thumbs up, and many will express their ambivalent feelings. Some will be hostile. But if you ask about Pope Francis, the responses will be overwhelming positive. Why so many people thrill to the new pope? It is because people see that he takes his faith beyond words to a life of action. His preaching is simple and straightforward. He lives out what he preaches. He pursues the joy of poverty. He is the first pope to have taken Francis of Assisi’s name, who chose the path of poverty. Pope Francis does care about the poor. He consistently offers himself as a servant. When he was an archbishop, he took the bus to work. Since his election, he has refused the papal crown, apartment and red leather shoes. Of course, these decisions are symbolic, but symbols matter. We find authenticity in his words and deeds. We find the joy of servanthood in his gestures of poverty.

The Joy of Elizabeth

In the Bible there are many people who found the joy of servanthood in their lives. Elizabeth was one of them. In today’s scripture she is filled with joy when Mary comes to see her. Elizabeth knows she plays just a supporting role, not a central role, in God’s plan, but she is full of joy not because of her own baby John but because of Mary and her baby Jesus. Elizabeth says to Mary, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!” (v. 42) Then, she asks herself, “Why am I so favored?” (v. 43) Elizabeth knows well who she is. She knows she is just a humble beneficiary of God’s grace. She knows she is called as a servant of God, she is content with her identity, and she rejoices in the Lord. This is the joy of servanthood!

The Joy of Servanthood

The enemy says to us, “Be the master of your life and captain of your soul!” This is not a new message. Satan has always said, “If you want, you can be like God” (Gen 3:5). But this is the great deception of Satan. And we know the result of this. When Adam and Eve tried to become like God, it immediately broke the relationship with God and took away the joy of fellowship with him. True joy abides with God, and it comes down from God. We have this joy only when we have a right relationship with God. We have this joy when God is our Master and we are his servants. We have this joy when God is our Shepherd and we are his sheep. The word “JOY” itself tells us the secret of true joy: “Jesus first, Others second, and You third.”

One time I heard a story from one pastor. A man came to the pastor and said, "I don't know what's wrong with my life, but that first Christian joy I knew has passed by. I still live a moral life. I go to church. But how can I recover the lost radiance of my faith?" His pastor said, "This is what you should do: go to the store and buy a big basketful of groceries and go to an address of a poor family I will give you. Then when you have given your gift, you sit down with them to find out what they need. Let them know that you are interested in them and that you are their friend. Then lead them in the Lord's Prayer before you leave, and the radiance will come back." 

We are called as servants of God and all people. In 2 Corinthians 4:5 Paul says, “For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” Joy overflows when we know who we are and get back to our place in God’s plan. After Jesus begins his ministry, all the people are flocking to him. John’s disciples are not happy about this and one of them says to John the Baptist, “Rabbi, that man who was with you on the other side of the Jordan – the one you testified about – well, he is baptizing, and everyone is going to him.” Yes, from a human point of view, John the Baptist is in decline. He is brought into sudden prominence but in less than a year he is now fading into the mists of history. He must be confused whether he is on the right track or not. He must be confused about his own identity. But against all expectations he says to the disciples, “You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must increase; I must decrease” (John 3:29-30). At this crisis of his life he finds his identity in the word of God and puts God first in his life. Then, he experiences full of joy. This is the joy of servanthood.

The Joy of Servanthood in Suffering

An everlasting joy does not come from our circumstances. It comes down from God. It comes down from perfect submission to God. Jesus is our perfect example. Although he was God himself, he didn’t come to be served but to serve God and his people. He submitted to God in perfect obedience and rejoiced in him. And he said to his disciples to follow his example for them to experience his joy. He said, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). Jesus said this on the night he was betrayed. When God is the Master of our lives and we are his servants, we can have joy in the midst of bad circumstances, in the midst of suffering, because that joy comes from something bigger than our circumstances. When Apostle Paul was in prison in Rome, he said to the Philippian Christians, “Rejoice and rejoice with me!” (Phil 2:18) How is it possible that the person in prison is able to say, “Rejoice” to those outside of it? It is possible because although Paul’s body was bound with fetters, his spirit was free in the Lord. He was able to rejoice in suffering because he was in the right place where he should be as a God’s servant.

One of the deep sources of inspiration that I found was a German pastor-theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I was taken with him not because of his preaching or theology, but because of his life. I found the joy of servanthood in his life. He was brilliant and courageous. When Hitler began to take power, Bonhoeffer saw the danger immediately and spoke out clearly. But eventually he was too threatening, so his international friends advised him to flee. He fled to the United Kingdom and the United States, but his conscience troubled him. On July 7, 1939 with war clouds gathering over Europe, he returned to Germany on the last scheduled steamer, and he wrote to his friend, Reinhold Niebuhr, “I have come to the conclusion that I made a mistake in coming to America. I must live through this difficult period in our national history with the people of Germany. I will have no right to participate in the reconstruction of Christian life in Germany after the war if I do not share the trials of this time with my people.” When he got back to Germany, he began an underground seminary. He was caught, arrested, and put in concentration camp. During that time he ministered to other prisoners and guards. During the Advent of 1942, just a few months before he was arrested, Bonhoeffer distributed his final letter to his friends. In the letter he talks about “the joy of God”: “A sort of joy exists that knows nothing at all of the heart’s pain, anguish, and dread; it does not last; it can only numb a person for the moment. The joy of God has gone through the poverty of the manger and the agony of the cross; that is why it is invincible, irrefutable. It does not deny the anguish, when it is there, but finds God in the midst of it, in fact precisely there; it does not deny grave sin but finds forgiveness precisely in this way; it looks death straight in the eye, but it finds life precisely within it.” Bonhoeffer clung to this joy after his arrest and during his 18 months in Nazi interrogation prison. He suffered from the loneliness of separation from his family. He suffered from illness. But this invincible joy from God preserved his life to the end.

The Joy of God

Christ's joy was made complete when he became a servant and redeemed us through his obedience even unto death. Joy does not come from getting stuff, but it is from giving up self. We are made to have joy when we put God first, others second and ourselves third. The greatest joys in life are in serving God and others. In this blessed season of Advent let us not just wait for Christ our joy; rather, let us go out to him, let us go out to the places where we are called to serve. And the joy of God, invincible joy will be ours, and our joy will be complete. Amen.