“He went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God: and the twelve were with him,” Luke 8:1.
“And the twelve were with him.” What a privilege to journey with Jesus as He infected Galilee with the joy of the Gospel!
The people never forgot it. The command to rejoice that echoes through Paul’s writings, the songs of victory from the scenes in Revelation, have their origin in this Man of joy. Luke especially takes pains to establish the personality of Jesus as one who created joy. For this reason, some call His story the Gospel of joy.
Why did Jesus attract such crowds? We might create many lists. No one had ever spoken like Him. He spoke with authority and simplicity. He healed people. He taught them about God in a way that made Him real to them. He offered them hope when they thought themselves hopeless. Once started on its way, the joy traveled with Jesus all the way to the cross, and then on through the Resurrection to the ends of the world, where today it touches you and me.
No wonder the poet protests:
“Man of sorrows, what a name, for the Son of God who came, ruined sinners to reclaim.”
That He wept and sorrowed we know, but these contrasted with the “glad tidings” and “great joy” that flowed from His ministry.
In many ways Mahatma Gandhi tried to model himself on Jesus Christ. He moved through India at the center of great crowds. He taught a gospel of hope. He loved people and tried to uplift the outcast and the despised, as Jesus did. Yet, he never could do what Jesus did.
The bullet that ended Gandhi’s life did nothing to redeem sinners, but the nails that pinned the Sinless One to the cross provided life for all.
Jesus had the right to preach glad tidings because He could provide the power to make joy everlasting. Forever after, the disciples remembered. And after His death, they found His joy continued not just in their hearts, but in its power to attract and change lives everywhere.
When we, as members of the Southern Union, quest to minister to our cities and surrounding communities, let us remain assured that our Lord not only travels the streets with us, but He will also travel to the crowded places of our lives. He will come to the quiet corners nobody else sees.
Finally, the transmitted joy that Jesus imparts is not doom — it is glad tidings. That means Good News and tidings of joy. That is simply the message that the Kingdom of God is at hand. God is stepping into human situations. Heaven is in the process of invading Earth:
He’s walking into hospitals. He’s stepping into broken homes. He’s moving through troubled minds. And most importantly, Jesus is coming again to intercept time with eternity. What an amazing opportunity to share this hope.
“We can impart only that which we receive from Christ; and we can receive only as we impart to others,” The Desire of Ages, p. 370. – RCS
Southern Union | June 2026
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