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Marked Devotional 27

by David Joynt on April 01, 2022


MATTHEW 11:17 | 17‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.’

To expand this idea of rejoicing in our salvation, you will need to think of this kind of joy as a habit or practice. One of the goals of worship is to give joy a foothold in our lives. Deep rooted joy, in our eventual complete victory over death and darkness, is freeing. We can face pain and tragedy and come alongside others in their suffering, without becoming anxious and panic-filled.

One of Jesus’ most poignant frustrations with contemporaries was with their inability to respond rightly to struggle and to salvation. They couldn’t mourn at the brokenness in themselves or the world or revel in the grace and the glory of the kingdom. Their hearts had no spiritual range.

How deep is your sorrow?

How big is your joy?

Tags: joy, sorrow

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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