The Joy of Christ in John

Christ only seems to have ‘emotions’ in the pejorative sense because we conflate joy with its opposite.

One of the major themes of the fourth gospel is grace, charis. It makes its appearance in John almost immediately, where it is closely related to John’s well known divine Logos. At 1:15 the Logos is said to be have been made flesh, and made to dwell on the earth. This is Christ as the instantiation of God. On earth, this embodied Logos, Jesus, is said to be ‘full of grace and truth’. This is recapitulated more literally:

And from his fulness have we all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1:16-17)

Another related term is used prolifically within the gospel the meaning and force of which is somewhat easier to discern. Joy or χαρά is important in Jesus’ exhortations and consolations to his disciples. One of the most illustrative instances in which joy is central to Jesus’ mission is John 15:9-13.

As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love [ἀγάπη]. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy [χαρά] may be in you and that your joy [χαρά] may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.

Love is fundamentally related to joy. Κeeping the commandment of loving as Jesus loves is the only way to achieve authentic joy. Joy may only become fulfilled if love is present. Note how Christ makes a model of himself, as an exemplar of joy. He wants his followers to attain his own type of joy. They have not yet achieved it, but are still in a state of λύπη.

Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices [χαρήσεται]. You will grieve [λυπηθήσεσθε], but your grief [λύπη] will turn to joy [εἰς χαρὰν γενήσεται]. (John 16:20-21)

So with you: Now is your time of grief [λύπη], but I will see you again and you will rejoice [χαρήσεται], and no one will take away your joy [χαρά]. (John 16:22-23)

We see that Christ presents there being a certain and inevitable passage from sadness to joy — and this happens via agape. He has already made an example of this passageway, for we have already seen him experience his alleged tarache, in this case ‘com-passion’, a form of pain (λύπη) when he cries for Lazarus’ sisters. But to say that Jesus weeps from compassion is a confusion of terms. For if he has already instantiated divine agape, he has already achieved joy and therefore exudes it on every occasion.

Using Stoic terminology, Christ here exhibits not the pathos of lupe, but rather an eupatheia of joy. The positive emotion of joy is his own ebullience fueled by his state of love. As we saw above in John 15, agape was the necessary condition for joy. Since Jesus has loved his disciples as his father has loved him (John 15:9), and thus instantiated divine love, we might say that he has achieved what virtue is in the Christian tradition. Insofar as he instantiates this virtue, viz. agape, he effectively is imperturbable, because he has overcome lupe via agape. He cries not out of any grief, but as an example for all to make the passage from lupe to joy via love. His apparent 'compassion' does not have its basis in ‘passion’ at all, but in an overflowing love: Bless the cup that is about to overflow, that the water may flow golden out of it, and carry everywhere the reflection of thy bliss!