Waiting with Joy: Joy as Resistance

The theme for the third week of Advent is joy. Sometimes it is difficult to wait with joy as we witness violence, evil, and dehumanization all celebrated in the name of God. How do we embrace joy when the world seems to be unraveling around us? How do we rejoice when people suffer, when communities grieve, and when the powerful continue to oppress the vulnerable? Perhaps the answer is that joy, properly understood, is not an emotion we experience when life is going well. Joy is an act of resistance. It is a refusal to surrender our hope, our humanity, and our commitment to God's vision for the world.

Upon returning from exile and encountering devastating circumstances, the prophet Isaiah proclaims a vision of hope and joy. The people have returned to their homeland, but their homecoming has not brought the restoration they anticipated. Jerusalem lies in ruins, the community faces economic hardship, and the wounds of displacement remain. The work of rebuilding is both physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. The people must imagine a future when their present circumstances offer little reason for hope.

It is in this context that the prophet Isaiah proclaims, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners" (Isaiah 61:1). He continues, "To provide for those who mourn in Zion—to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit" (Isaiah 61:3a). Despite the fact that home was not a place of safety and security, Isaiah chose to embrace joy.

Isaiah's vision of joy is informed by God's commitment to liberation and restoration. This is not joy that asks the oppressed to overlook their suffering or encourages the brokenhearted to pretend that everything is fine. It is joy rooted in God's promise to transform the conditions that produce oppression, grief, and despair. The promise of gladness comes alongside the promise of good news for the poor, healing for the brokenhearted, and freedom for the captive.

Joy is resistance to the destruction of God's world. It resists the lie that oppression is inevitable, that suffering is unimportant, and that the powerful will always prevail. Isaiah's proclamation insists that the devastation of the present does not define the possibilities of God's future. To embrace joy is to begin living in anticipation of that future, even while the work of restoration remains unfinished.

In 1 Thessalonians, the Apostle Paul invites his listeners to "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you" (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Initially these words might sound like an invitation to perpetual cheerfulness or a command to be grateful regardless of what happens. But the literary context reveals a community wrestling with grief and uncertainty.

Earlier in the letter, Paul addresses the Thessalonians' concern for fellow believers who have died. He does not dismiss their sorrow or suggest that faithful Christians should not mourn. Instead, he reminds them that they grieve differently because their grief is shaped by hope: “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died” (1 Thessalonians 4:14).

Christian joy does not eliminate grief. It refuses to let grief become the whole story. Because Jesus has died and been raised, death does not have the final word over those whom God loves. The resurrection announces that the violence of the world, the reality of loss, and even the grave cannot ultimately defeat God's purposes.

Joy is resistance to death. It is a stubborn proclamation that even death does not determine the limits of our hope. It is resistance to the forces that treat some lives as disposable, to the violence that destroys communities, and to the despair that tells us nothing can change. We can mourn honestly while continuing to hope boldly. We can acknowledge the reality of death while bearing witness to the God who raises the dead.

Paul continues his letter with a prayer that brings the hope of Advent into conversation with the Wesleyan understanding of entire sanctification: “May the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept sound and blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this” (1 Thessalonians 5:23–24).

The God who calls us is also the God who transforms us. Entire sanctification is not an escape from the world or a withdrawal from its suffering. It is God's work of transforming us in love, shaping our hearts, our relationships, and our embodied lives toward holiness. This transformation enables us to resist the forces that deform our humanity and estrange us from one another. As God's grace forms us in holy love, we become people who can embody God's peace in a world marked by violence. We can extend compassion where there is cruelty and cultivate belonging where people are excluded.

And there is joy in this promise. Our transformation does not depend solely on our strength or our ability to repair the world through our own efforts. Paul declares, “The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do this” (1 Thessalonians 5:24). We rejoice because God's sanctifying grace is at work in us, even if our transformation remains incomplete. We rejoice because the God who calls us to holiness is faithful to the work of making us holy in love.

Joy is resistance to the forces that deform us. It is a refusal to allow hatred to shape our hearts, cruelty to determine our practices, or injustice to define our communities. Sanctifying grace does not make us indifferent to the world. It forms us to participate more fully in God's work of healing and restoration.

The Gospel of John introduces another aspect of joy through the witness of John the Baptist. John is sent from God “to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him” (John 1:6–7). The Gospel is careful to clarify that John himself is not the light, Instead, John comes to bear witness to the light. When religious authorities question his identity and demand to know who he is, John refuses the titles they offer him. Instead, he identifies himself as “the voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way of the Lord’” (John 1:23).

John's witness is important because he proclaims the coming of Christ in a world (like ours) that has not yet been transformed. The light has come into the world, but the world remains marked by darkness. The promised Messiah is approaching, but the people still live under the weight of political domination and religious expectation. John does not pretend that liberation has already been fully realized. He calls people to prepare the way.

This is the tension of Advent. We embrace joy in what God has done and what God has promised, while as we wait for the fullness of God's kingdom. We bear witness to the light without pretending that the darkness has disappeared.

Joy is resistance to despair. Like John the Baptist, we are called to testify to the light even when we cannot yet see the fullness of its triumph. Our witness is not that the world is already as God intends it to be. Our witness is that the darkness does not overcome the light, and that the One who comes is worthy of our hope, our allegiance, and our lives.

Therefore, joy is not the same as happiness. Happiness often describes a feeling shaped by our circumstances. Joy can coexist with anger, sorrow, exhaustion, and uncertainty. Christian joy does not require us to minimize injustice, ignore our grief, or manufacture a positive attitude in the face of suffering. Instead, joy is grounded in the character and faithfulness of God. It sustains our resistance to the powers of death and destruction while equipping us to participate in God's work of salvation and sanctification.

In his book Martin & Malcolm & America, theologian James Cone emphasizes the role of laughter in the lives and activism of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. He writes:

“To fight for life is to experience the joy of life. To laugh, to have fun, is to bear witness to life against death. Therefore, let us laugh, let us shout for joy, not as an indication that we are no longer angry but rather as a sign that we have just begun to fight” (Cone, 309).

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X smiling together

James Cone reminds us that joy is not the opposite of anger or resistance. We can be angry about injustice and still laugh. We can grieve the violence inflicted upon our community and still celebrate the gift of life. We can recognize the vastness of the struggle before us and still experience the joy of being together, loving one another, and refusing to surrender our humanity to the forces that seek to diminish it.

This is the joy of Advent. We rejoice not because oppression has ended, death has disappeared, or the world has finally become entirely sanctified. We rejoice because God is faithful. We rejoice because Christ has come, Christ is present among us, and Christ will come again. We rejoice because God's grace continues to transform us into people of holy love. We rejoice because the light shines in the darkness.

As we wait for Christ, may our joy be more than a feeling. May it become a form of resistance: Resistance to oppression, resistance to death, resistance to dehumanization, resistance to despair, and resistance to every power that contradicts God's vision of abundant life. May we laugh, sing, worship, love, and work for justice, not because the struggle is over, but because God has called us to participate in the work of making all things new.

This Advent, may we wait with joy. And may our joy bear witness to the world that we have not given up for the light is still shining in the darkness.

If you are interested in further dialogue about the content on this page, you are welcome to contact Mat Thomas at pastor.mat.thomas@gmail.com

Rev. Dr. Mat Thomas