Joy to the World is probably one of the most sung Christmas carols of all time. It is one of the Christmas biggies when it comes to carols; up there with Away in a Manger and Hark the Herald Angels Sing. And the one about the reindeer with the nose problem. Often it is the closing number for the big public carol events: it finishes the night with such a high note of joy.

And the theme is terrific: joy to the world. The song and musical score promise what we all want – the warm embrace of everyone everywhere. All will be right with the world. For a king is coming. 

           Joy to the world – let the earth receive her king. 

           Let every heart prepare him room!

           Heaven and nature sing!

And we know the King in view is not Prince Charles III. I mean he might be a nice guy and all, but the spiritual realm of the heavens and the fishes of the deep blue sea aren’t bowing down to him. The King is, of course, Jesus Christ. The true King of all creation is coming to bring about his rule. That’s what Joy to the World is all about. Jesus’ coming.

Isaac Watt’s Biblical Theology is at work. He read Psalm 98 in light of Jesus Christ. The Lord reigns and all the world celebrates. When? With the coming of Jesus! This is Isaac’s answer, which is, the Bible’s answer.

But here is what is weird but true. There is a verse that constantly gets dropped. The song only has 4 verses but verse 3 is constantly dropped. I read it on Wikipedia so it must be true…

But you know what, it is true. At least on many of the public recordings I could find. I googled joy to the world and listened to a lot of versions of Joy to the World. The first version on Youtube had verse 3 included (yay!). But after that…Mariah Carey, nope. Pentatonix, nope. Buble: nope. Live at the Helix in Dublin, an absolute banger, but nope. Some interesting weird collected music youtube channels: nope. And even a really famous Australian church: verse 3 nope (Hillsong, seriously!) 

If Joy to the World is the most sung Christmas Carol of all time then this verse is the most dropped verse of all time!

Here is the offending verse 3:

No more let sins and sorrows grow

 Nor thorns infest the ground;

 He comes to make His blessings flow

 Far as the curse is found (on repeat!)

But here is the thing. Missing this verse is destroying the whole point of the song. The song has been disembowelled and there is no point in singing it. None. 

Think with me. You decide you need a new car. Why do you get a new car? Because the old one has got issues! No, one ever has said ‘Okay, I’m going to buy another car. And I want it to be exactly like the one I’m replacing including the problems.’ We get new cars because we need things to change. 

Or, what about when we vote in a new Prime Minister in Australia. We Aussies usually vote the old one out because we’ve gotten unhappy with him or her. Now, imagine the new guy or girl comes in and they don’t do anything different. They don’t change a thing. How long would they last? We’d be like ‘What is the point of you?’ ‘Why did we vote you in at all You’re out!’

Verse 3 is the change we need when Jesus comes. If Jesus comes as King of the world and sin still slays, sorrows still scar and thorns rip and tear us in every sphere, then what is the point of Jesus coming at all? There is no point. 

The irony here is that Christmas itself proves the existence of sin, sorrow and stabbing thorns. Yes, it can be a wonderful time together. But isn’t it true that in every family, everywhere there is heartache through broken relationships? People who can’t talk to each other. And can’t even be in the same room together. There are missing loved ones through illness, sickness and even death. And do we think that all the wars and crime will stop around the world even on Christmas day? Nope!

Jesus coming as a King who doesn’t deal with sin, sorrow and the stabbing thorns is a useless change of captains on an already sinking Titanic. 

But, Jesus will come to change the world for the better. In fact, for the best. So let’s sing joy to the world with verse 3. 

That’s right, I said will come. For I think the song probably isn’t about Jesus’ birth at all. But his return. The second coming is on view. (Here’s a link to a Gospel Coalition article that argues that). I find this idea persuasive because when you hit up Psalm 98 you discover these last lines: 

Let the rivers clap their hands,

                       let the mountains sing together for joy;

9          let them sing before the LORD,

                       for he comes to judge the earth.

           He will judge the world in righteousness 

                       and the peoples with equity.

This is why when we look around there is still a shocking volume of wickedness, woe and waste. What the song and Psalm promise hasn’t happened yet. Yes, Jesus’ first coming was to deal with sin. He did this by dying on the cross and taking the punishment we deserve. He is subduing sin and sorrow and ripping out thorns one heart at a time. 

But as the book of Revelation and other Scriptures make uncomfortably clear is that his second coming will be one of judgement! When Jesus returns he’ll return as the King. The slain lamb who sits on the throne will rise to judge the world and end all sorrow, burn all the thorns and slay all who have not bowed to him. And all the sabre rattling and sabre swinging will be over, forever. The nations will come under his rule, whether they like it or not. And those in the dust of death will rise again for death will be no more. This is what will happen when the earth receives her King. 

And so then, every heart must prepare him room! Hmmm. That does sound a bit like an English understatement doesn’t it? Other things in our hearts ought to shuffle over a bit to make sure they have space for him. But you get the point from the rest of the song. All saved humanity will be singing the exaltation of Jesus and all of creation and the spiritual realm will be on backing vocals when he returns. We better get prepared. When Jesus comes the second time where ever sin and the curse live they will be hunted down and slain. 

So then, we can see the problem with ditching verse 3 of Joy to the World. It implies that either there are no problems in our world. Or, that when Jesus turns up nothing will change. Or, both! As long as verse 3 is missing we should strike Joy to the World from our Christmas playlists.

We need the joy of Jesus coming. And we ought to sing Joy to the World with verse 3. For this is when there will be true joy for the world. Not at Christmas, though that is joyous. But when Jesus comes for when he comes he will utterly vanquish from the world all that robs the world of joy: sin, sorrow, swords and stabbing thorns.