The Power of Joy

“For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross” (Hebrews 12:2). It was the power of joy that Jesus could profit from. More exactly it was the power of the hope for joy, a joy not yet experienced, that carried him through what he was experiencing: being crucified.

Even more, his crucifixion came, not as a tragedy that overtook him unbidden, but one he saw coming early on (Matthew 16:21). He bore the shadow of a cross every day we walked. On the last day he willingly submitted to a cross that was heavier than he could even carry (John 18:6).

Yet more still, that future joy was not just to his own benefit—as in relief from agony; it was a suffering for the benefit of others—us. The features of that cross event play out in our experience who pick up crosses and follow him to Calvary. That hope for joy empowers us to persevere.

When it was over for him, he “sat down on the right hand of God.” And if we “endure with him, we will also reign with him” (2 Timothy 2:12). These bread and wine emblems of his endurance put us in connection with the whole process that leads disciples of Jesus to the right hand of God.