Impossible Joy

In Genesis 37, when Joseph’s tunic was brought home to Jacob, torn and covered in blood:

“Jacob tore his clothes and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days. Then all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. And he said, ‘Surely I will go down to Sheol in mourning for my son.’ So his father wept for him” (37:34-35).

For 22 years (by my calculation), Jacob grieved the death of his favorite son. He spoke of the loss when all the brothers returned from their first trip to Egypt; Judah explained his father’s grief when they were detained from returning on their second trip. Jacob’s life was marked indelibly by the pain of losing Joseph.

Which, to me, makes Genesis 45:25-28 all the sweeter:

“Then they [all Joseph’s brothers] went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. They told him, saying, ‘Joseph is still alive, and indeed he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.’

“But he was stunned, for he did not believe them. When they told him all the words of Joseph that he had spoken to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.

“Then Israel said, ‘It is enough; my son Joseph is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.’”

What impossible joy! What wonder! What ecstasy, to be granted the reunion for which he had spent so many years longing, weeping, heart-broken!

I was reflecting on what it might say of God, that He would build such a story into His Word. What does it point to?

I think of the synagogue leader who was seeking Jesus’ help for his sick daughter, only to be delayed by another woman needing healing. He got word, the daughter was dead. But Jesus, coming and touching the child’s hand, called her, and “immediately, the girl got up and began to walk” (Mark 5:42).

Consider the widow whose son died, walking and wailing in the funeral procession. Jesus told her, “’Do not weep.’ And He came up and touched the coffin, and the bearers came to a halt. And He said, ‘Young man, I say to you, arise!’ The dead man sat up and began to speak” (Luke 7:13-15).

Perhaps the encounter that best defines what all this means for us is the one that brought Jesus Himself to tears, the death of His friend Lazarus. Jesus had something in mind when He heard of Lazarus’s illness: “So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was” (John 11:6).

When Jesus arrived on the scene, Lazarus was dead, his sisters grieved, and Jesus Himself wept.

At the gravesite, Jesus commanded them to roll away the stone (and a skeptical Martha reminded Him of the stench that would testify to four days of decay in her beloved brother’s body).

Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?” (11:40).

So they removed the stone. And Jesus looked upward and prayed:

“’Father, I thank You that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me, but because of the people standing around I said it, so that they may believe that You sent Me’

“When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, ‘Lazarus, come forth.’

“The man who had died came forth” (11:41-44).

Why did Jesus linger, so that His friend died before His arrival? Why did He speak to Martha, promising that if she believed she would see the glory of God? What was His ultimate aim in raising this friend from the dead?

I wonder if all of these stories were recorded so that we could have snapshots of the impossible joy that Jesus will give to everyone who believes in Him--and to show the radical glory that belongs to the One who wrecks the misery of death and vanquishes its stranglehold on this broken world.

See John 11:4: “But when Jesus heard this, He said, ‘This sickness is not to end in death but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.”

And John 11:25-26, as Jesus talks to Martha: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.”

These foretastes may be meant to point us to the final triumph:

“But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, ‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’

“The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:54-57).

When Jesus said, “It is finished,” it meant that death could no longer win in any who trust Him.

Death, grief, loss are all a part of this world. But one day, no matter the sorrow, Jesus in His exquisite triumph will fill our broken hearts with a joy that seems impossible, unimaginable, inconceivable to us now. His glory will shine, and our hearts, like Jacob’s, will be revived.

Hasten the day.