Big Joy

“Joy to the world! The Lord is come! Let earth receive her king!”

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Something occurred to me the other day when “Good King Joy” by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra came on at my house in the midst of a Christmas playlist.

The song starts dreamily, with a solo vocal singing the first two lines of “Joy To The World” over the top of a repetitive keyboard line and some slight guitar texture. Soon enough, though, in typical TSO fashion, big, distorted guitars and pounding drums take over and march through an instrumental medley of “Good King Wenceslas” and, again, “Joy To The World”. There isn’t really even a groove to this part of the song, so to speak; just a thundering, face-melting recitation of familiar Christmas melodies.

It’s a great example of what TSO does so well with their Christmas records and why, I believe, their unconventional approach to holiday music became such a grand slam.

They make joy out to be a big deal.

It got me to thinking.

So much of the Christian concept of Christmas is of the “Silent Night”, “Away In A Manger”, nativity-scene-in-front-of-a-church-on-a-snowy-evening variety. The secular Christmas songs swing and bop but the sacred ones are slower, reflective, and formal. This isn’t a problem, necessarily, but it tends to instill in people’s minds a categorical concept of what we celebrate every year that leans toward the, shall we say… small side. Many of us picture a calm, quiet, reverent scene in front of a manger where shepherds and wise men stare noiselessly at a sleeping baby and his perfectly angelic mother and where even the livestock rest contentedly off to the side. Everything is serene, placid and still.

What this tends toward for many of us is a tendency to see the joy that Christmas exists to celebrate as something small, private and docile… almost fragile. But the reality is far different.

The Bible tells us that when the angel appeared to the shepherds to announce the birth of the savior, “the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.” The multitude that then joined with the one angel who delivered the message to praise God should probably be assumed to have only compounded the completely overwhelming, mind-boggling nature of the moment. My best guess is that it was probably shockingly loud, bright, and intense: more rock ’n’ roll than lullabye; more TSO than boy’s choir.

Here's the point: the joy of Christmas is no small matter. It is indescribably huge. It is reflective and deep, yes, but it is also a proclamation to the world that the King of the Universe has arrived on earth to ransom His people and begin the reclamation of His rightful kingdom. The joy of Christmas is a juggernaut of unstoppable hope and gladness that cannot be snuffed out by the power of the mightiest empires or the most intense demonic hostility.

It is victory over death.

It is life without end.

It is meaning and purpose and goodness in the cosmos and at the most fundamental core of reality.

It is a God who loves - enough to come so close as to take on our very humanity, with all of its sweat, stink, blood, disease, and weakness in order to free us from our own self-imposed slavery.

Christmas is a freedom song of emancipated slaves; a war song of victorious saints; an anthem for citizens of a kingdom that will never end.

Christmas is BIG, brothers and sisters. The joy it creates is big. Unfathomably big. Indescribably big. Incalculably big.

So, this season, don’t let your Christmas worship and reflection be *only* solemn, still and quiet. Let your soul rejoice in the unutterable hugeness of what has been done for you by a God who loves you so much that it will take you an eternity to understand it. Let your heart rest, but also let it shout with its most powerful, ear-splitting voice. Feel the smile of God upon you when you consider that baby in the manger, and smile right back when you look up to see Him rejoice over you.

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“The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; He will rejoice over you with gladness; He will quiet you by his love; He will exult over you with loud singing.” - Zephaniah 3:17

“Then he said to them, ‘Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.’”
- Nehemiah 8:10

“And He came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was His custom, He went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and He stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to Him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’

“And He rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.’” - Isaiah 4:16-21