October 7, 2026 -- Day Seven of Joy: Luke 4:42-43 & Hebrews 12:1-2
/People loved by the Father, in the Spirit's power: Sh'ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!
42 And when it was day, he departed and went into a desolate place. And the people sought him and came to him, and would have kept him from leaving them, 43 but he said to them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well; for I was sent for this purpose.” Luke 4:42-43
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2 ESV
My friend Melissa just sent me two pages of the artist Makoto Fujimura’s book, Art + Faith. He coined this compound word “Border-stalkers”. He describes them this way: “They cross tribal norms to see the whole, to navigate in between the walls erected to protect the tribes” (page 15). And then this “As border-stalkers, artists are often found at the margins of society, meandering into the borders of established thought patterns…These border-stalking voices are essential for a Kintsugi mode of theology that mends the broken fissures of our cultures and helps all of us to listen to the voice of the Spirit (page 46).
Who is Jesus? He is the ultimate border-stalker. He crossed from the norm of heaven to the sin-fractured tribal chaos of earth. He could have been content to stay in one place. But for the joy set before Him (that of reconciling men and women to God for the glory of God) He went to the forgotten, the marginalized, below-the-line people.
Joy. Jesus could endure suffering because of the weight of God’s glorious plan filled His imagination and His soul.
Joy. Jesus moved from town to town because good news is too much for any people in just one place. It can not be contained. That is joy—something which bursts like a fountain—welling up from the soul and drenching those around with everlasting (or ever-laughing) life.
Joy. Jesus spent time alone in desolate places. These were times of with His heavenly Father. Sweet communion.
Joy. Jesus knowing broken, spiteful, hurting, sinful, rebellious, scornful people would be put back together. Kintsugi is the art of mending with gold what is broken. Isn’t that the perfect illustration? Jesus’ work is the gold mending our brokenness so that the whole of what we are in Him is infinitely better than what we were. His gleaming brilliance has restored us.
Joy for the Christian is that Jesus is restoring us.
Joy for the Christian is the work of the Holy Spirit overcoming our fixation on our brokenness. The Spirit lifts our eyes so that we can see the perfectly refined righteousness of Christ applied, and still now being applied to us.
Joy for the Christian is having a heavenly Father Who knows full well all our sinfulness, knows the measure and destruction of everyone, and has measured out His penalty, in full measure, against Jesus.
Joy for the Christian is knowing Jesus’ sacrifice, perfect and complete, has granted Him the highest place of honour at the Father’s right hand.
Joy for the Christian is knowing Jesus is praying for us, so that we will be with Him in glory. Jesus is not angry at the fact He had to save us. Not embittered by the battle He’d undertaken. It was, as the Hebrews writer said it, “the joy set before Him”. The result is our joy-filled trust in Him is care-free.
Triune God, You are the joy of the believer. Father You are the source of joy; Jesus You are the foundation of joy; Spirit of the Living God You sustain the virtue of joy in my life. Triune God, my joy, from the fullest pleasures life might offer, I turn away, unfilled, looking to You in the full knowledge and expectation in You alone is found all bliss, gladness and life. Amen.
https://youtu.be/2ar76T6OGoU?si=mS6O6illmEM2jmEO
