Joy That Was Set Before Him

With spring in the air and light increasing daily, it is a time of hope and renewal, especially for us in Alaska! Spring always brings with it: Gethsemane, Good Friday, and Easter. Though Easter has already come this year, one phrase that caught my heart and mind lingers still. It is found in Hebrews 12:2: “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (KJV, emphasis added).

What was “the joy that was set before” Jesus Christ?

In 1973, as a foreign exchange student in Vienna, Austria, I had the opportunity to travel to Poland and visit the German concentration camp at Auschwitz. A painting, painted by one of the prisoners, hung on a wall of artifacts in the museum. It depicted an endless line of prisoners, carrying a man on a pallet. He wore a plated crown of thorns, like Christ had worn. He had a robe draped around his shoulders. The painting portrayed that the artist felt the prisoners had suffered as much as Christ.

I thought about the horrific suffering of the prisoners. I had seen with my own eyes the barracks, the ovens and piles of human hair, eyeglasses and suitcases; the ashes and artifacts of lost lives.

During the last 24 hours of Christ’s life, he “who knew no sin” suffered in Gethsemane and on the cross. Some believe that Christ’s ordeal was just the physical pain that Christ suffered as a mortal man, including the shame, trial, beatings, and ultimately the crucifixion. It was like the two thieves who were crucified beside him.

If what He suffered was just the physical torment of that day, then the painting in Auschwitz would have rung true to me. They had suffered as much as a mortal men could suffer. Many endured years of pain, starvation and torment, lost all of their loved ones and then lost their lives as well. Christ’s death was brutal, but they had suffered much and died too.

Jesus Christ did not just suffer His own death on the cross. He overcame death so that like Him and through Him, we would be resurrected too. He suffered every heartache of separation, pain, and agony of every individual in Auschwitz and every other concentration camp. He suffered not just for those years of war during World War II, but for every war, in of all of history. He suffered every infirmity, every sorrow, every hurt and lack brought on by our own sins or by the sins of others that hurt or afflict us; even an infinite atonement. In short, He suffered for the sins of the world. He suffered all of it, because he loved us.

“Surely, he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows… he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.” (KJV Isaiah 53:4)

What allowed him to do this? What allowed Him to suffer for the sins of the world? Jesus Christ knew what He was doing. He wanted the “cup to pass from Him,” (KJV Mark 14:39) because He understood fully how brutal it would be, even for the Son of God, but He wanted to do the will of the Father more, for our sakes. He and the Father loved us and could do this for us! This was “the joy that was set before Him.” It brought him joy to know that He would give us life; that our physical death would be swallowed up in the victory of the resurrection. It brought Him joy to know that he would give us Eternal life with the Father and himself, if we would but choose Him. It brought Him joy to know, that having suffered everything we would suffer, he would know how to succor His people; that he would be able to help us overcome the world; to ultimately reunite us with our Heavenly Father and each other, forever. That was “the joy that was set before Him." His love for us allowed Him to suffer for our sins and willingly lay down His life, for us.

Some will heed His call to “come unto me." (KJV Matthew 11:28) Some will follow the enticing’s of the spirit to repent and forsake the world and the things that separate them from God. Some will choose to follow Him in word and deed for the remainder of their days, that through faith on Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of hands, and enduring to the end, they will be made perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. To those, he grants eternal life, which is to dwell with Christ and His Father forever. My hope and prayer is that you will choose to receive this most precious gift of Jesus Christ’s in your life, even life eternal which is of and through Jesus Christ who is indeed the “author and finisher of our faith.” (KJV Hebrews 12:2)

Virginia (Ginger) Pettijohn is a retired US History and Civics Teacher which she taught at Wasilla Middle School for 32 years. She and her husband were both born in Alaska and have 5 children and 14 grandchildren. They are all members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.