Solomon said that “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance,” and “he that hath a merry heart hath a continual feast,” and “A merry heart doeth good like medicine.” (Provs. 15:13,15 and 17:22) In this world of ever-present conflict, confusion, war, sickness, natural disasters, and political bombshells almost daily, a person with a merry heart is increasingly rare.
When a couple got married in the Mosaic dispensation, God instructed (through Moses) that the husband was, for one year, not to go to war; not to engage in business; and, positively, he was to stay at home for the first year of the marriage to “cheer up” his wife. My guess is that about six months into that year, the wife was looking at her calendar wondering how long it would yet be before her husband would be getting out of the house and going to work! Anyway, interesting, isn’t it, that his main assignment for the first year of the marriage was to “cheer up” his bride! (Deut. 24:5)
In three or four New Testament snapshots of Jesus in action, He instructed persons to “be of good cheer.” These occasions are inspiring and instructive.
The first occurs and is recorded in Matthew’s gospel, chapter 9. The occasion is that of a paralytic who was carried to Jesus on his bed by four of his friends. The house in which Jesus was teaching was so packed with people that the sick man’s friends had to remove tile from the roof above where Christ was standing; then he was lowered down into the room to where Jesus was. Matthew tells us that Jesus, “seeing their faith, said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee.” (Matt.9:2) There was no penance, no probation, no purgatory, just “thy sins be forgiven thee!” This is before Christ would later say to the bedridden man, “Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thy house.” Is there any greater reason to be cheerful than to know your sins are forgiven? The palsied man was sick, to be sure, but his greatest need was not for physical healing but for soul salvation, which, because Jesus saw his faith, he received first and foremost! “Gone, gone, gone, gone, yes my sins are gone; now my soul is free and in my heart’s a song! Buried in the deepest sea, yes, that’s good enough for me; I can sing eternally, praise God, my sins are gone!” (Helen Griggs) No wonder Jesus said, “Be of good cheer!”
Then, in Mark’s gospel, chapter 6, our Lord employed those words again. Just the day before He had fed thousands of men, plus women and children, with only a few fish and a couple loaves of bread. After a full day of teaching, with evening approaching, the Lord astounded His disciples by refusing to send the multitude home hungry; thus, the miracle of the “feeding of the 5,000.”
Immediately after that, Jesus told his apostles to get into a boat and go to the other side of the lake where He would meet them; He himself found a quiet place to pray on the mountain side, the crowd having gone to their homes for the night. As the disciples began to row toward their intended destination, a squall on the small lake suddenly met their rowing efforts with fierce opposition. Sometime between 3 and 6 a.m., getting nowhere on the lake, the apostles saw what appeared to be, and indeed was, Jesus walking on the water! He strode effortlessly toward the boat and said, “Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.” (Mark 6:50) And, as He got into the boat, the wind ceased. Mark gives us as a “footnote” that the disciples were “sore amazed…for they considered not the miracle of the loaves: for their heart was hardened.” (Mark 6:51,52) It had only been a few hours between the miracle of the feeding of the thousands and the incident on the lake; yet, in that short time, the men who were to become the foundation upon which His church would be built had allowed their hearts to hardened, all because of a storm on the lake! And, do we not do the same? From a miracle on a mountain, to a storm on the sea of life, we can so soon forget the promise of His presence: “Lo, I am with you alway.”
The third time Jesus said “be of good cheer” is recorded in John 16:33. It concludes His upper room teaching when, in a most intimate setting with the eleven, Jesus instructs and prepares His apostles for His going to the Father. He then prays the prayer that we read in John 17, during which He acknowledges that Christ’s followers would face tribulation in a world that would hate them. In this context, Jesus said, “These things I have spoken unto you, that ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” Paul would later affirm that this was a “peace that passeth all understanding.” (Phil. 4:7)
Three times in the gospels, then, Jesus said, “Be of good cheer.” Once, because of the pardon He gave to a sinner whose sins had just been forgiven; then to the disciples who were calmed by His presence in a storm in a rowboat on a lake; and the third time to His disciples as He prepared them for coming tribulation with the assurance of peace that would be theirs so that they could be of good cheer because He had overcome the world!
His pardon, His presence, His peace: all reasons to “Be of good cheer!”
There is, by the way, one other time Jesus bid an apostle to “be of good cheer.” Paul, the apostle born out of due time, had just about been torn to pieces before an angry mob when he had been detained while on his way to Jerusalem. Alone at night, he was probably wondering to himself if he should not have heeded the warning of his friends who had tried their best to dissuade him from going to Jerusalem. (Acts 21:10-13) But on that dark and lonely night, Jesus “stood by Him, and said, ‘Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome.’” (Acts 23:11) His promise was all that the apostle needed to assure him that he would not be alone—ever.
His pardon, His presence, His peace and His promise—all cause for “good cheer,” then and even now. So, my friend, no matter how hard the winds of adversity blow; no matter how stiff the opposition becomes, or how dark and lonely the night in your corner of God’s world: “Be of good cheer.” He is with you, He has overcome the world, and “this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” (I John 5:4)
“In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: (the Septuagint rendering: “Be of good cheer”) and to Zion, Let not thy hands be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty: He will save, He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love, He will joy over thee with singing.” (Zeph.3:17)
YOU and GOD 