We’ve been taught how to suffer like Jesus. To be sure, Scripture reveals a suffering Jesus. But the Scriptures also reveal a happy Jesus. Jesus’ first miracle wasn’t at a grave site. It was at a party.
Back in Jesus’ day, weddings were a big deal. The wedding reception wasn’t a four-hour shindig with bell-shaped mints, a punch bowl, and a disco ball. The party lasted for days. It was considered bad manners to exhaust the supply of food or wine. But something embarrassing happened at the wedding in Cana. The hosts ran out of wine. And Mary, the mother of Jesus, found out about it. So she marched over to her son: “They have no more wine” (John 2:3).?
At first Jesus said it was not his time to perform miracles. But then, for some reason, he reconsidered. He ordered helpers to fill jars with water. He then turned the water to wine—the best wine.
Jesus gladdened a wedding. Jesus was the life of the party.
Jesus was the kind of man who didn’t despise parties, jubilant crowds or noisy children. He was regularly in the company of friends. He enjoyed the dinner table. Imagine the happiness at the occasion of a child’s healing, at the side of Lazarus’s tomb, at the home of the Emmaus travelers. See Jesus, surrounded by children, when he said, “Let the little children come to me.” What child would ever draw near to a killjoy Jesus?
Examine Scripture in light of Jesus’ character of gladness. When we do that, we discover that happiness isn’t unholy after all. It’s just misunderstood. Scripture reveals a Jesus who delights in people. Today, let us delight in him.
Jennifer Dukes Lee is the author of The Happiness Dare. You can connect with her on Twitter and Instagram at @dukeslee. Take her quiz at www.TheHappinessDare.com and discover what truly makes you happy. This devotion is adapted from The Happiness Dare copyright © 2016 by Jennifer Dukes Lee. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved.
