When you think of Jesus what is the first picture that comes to mind?
Jesus sternly rebuking the Pharisees?
Jesus seriously teaching the disciples?
Jesus weeping?
How about Jesus laughing?
Jesus hanging out with the disciples having fun. Do you ever have that image of Jesus? I believe that we have characterized Jesus as a serious, angry, sad and moody fellow who glided majestically wherever He went. OK I may have overstated that a bit, but the point I want to make is that most times we never think of Jesus as a fun loving, happy, humorous guy who liked to hang out with people. Truth is, He was attending weddings, eating with “sinners,” living life with twelve rough and tumble guys who probably like to joke and tease each other. Do you think He was apart from them when they were joking, silently disapproving of them? I don’t think so. I think Jesus knew how to have fun and He was a jokester as well. He liked a good pun like the rest of us. Let me give you two examples.
Mark 7:24–30 (NKJV) From there He arose and went to the region of Tyre and Sidon. And He entered a house and wanted no one to know it, but He could not be hidden. 25 For a woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard about Him, and she came and fell at His feet. 26 The woman was a Greek, a Syro-Phoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. 27 But Jesus said to her, “Let the children be filled first, for it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” 28 And she answered and said to Him, “Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs under the table eat from the children’s crumbs.” 29 Then He said to her, “For this saying go your way; the demon has gone out of your daughter.” 30 And when she had come to her house, she found the demon gone out, and her daughter lying on the bed.
Does that story ever bother you? I would be bothered by it if I did not believe that Jesus was having a bit of fun with the woman. If you don’t look at it that way what you see is Jesus being mean and prejudiced towards someone who is not Jewish – the opposite of everything He stood for. The only explanation that is congruent with who Jesus is, was that He was having some light-hearted fun with the woman, knowing full and well that He was going to answer her request. I imagine a twinkle in His eye and a smile at the corners of His mouth as He says, “Hey it is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the little dogs.” And the woman sensing the moment, and that Jesus was having a little fun, answers in a cheeky, smart aleck-y way as well. “Yeah, but the little dogs get the little crumbs…”
I think that when she answered, He threw His head back and laughed, probably even said, “Good one!” and then responded, all while smiling, “Get out of here, your daughter is delivered!”
Jesus laughed.
The other story is another of my faves because I love a good wordplay and Jesus was a master at it.
Matthew 23:24 (NKJV) Blind guides, who strain out a gnat and swallow a camel!
The entire discourse where Jesus is correcting the Pharisees, He uses such incredible wordplay. He talks about cleaning the outside of the cup but leaving the inside all cruddy and dirty, yuck! He talks about the tombstone being all nice and whitewashed but the tomb being filled with dead, rotting flesh - I can smell it! But the imagery of the gnat and camel is not only effective wordplay it is smart and funny. How many of us have ever seen a bug in our coffee cup and thrown it away or made sure we got it out. Drinking a bug, ewww, gross right? But imagine drinking a cup of coffee with a bunch of camel hair like a coating of cream on the top and we don’t think a thing of it. A gross kind of funny, but the word play is “punny.” Literally in Aramaic he is saying…
“You filter out a galma (gnat) but you gulp down a gamla (camel)!” Nice! Jesus Himself was probably thinking at that moment with a little smile on His face – “Nice one!”
Jesus laughed and He laughed a lot. I gave you two examples of so many more that can be found in the gospel accounts if you have an understanding of a Jesus who loved humor. Laughter is a part of the human existence – God created us with a sense of humor, and He designed us in such a way that humor helps us, it is healthy for us. I have included a few jokes for you today so that you can laugh and have a moment of healing and health. Be Christlike and share the joke with others – help them to smile or at least help them to groan with a smirk on their face!
"What did Baby Corn say to Mama Corn?" "Where's Pop Corn?"
"Have you heard about the chocolate record player? It sounds pretty sweet."
"My wife said I should do lunges to stay in shape. That would be a big step forward."
"I only know 25 letters of the alphabet. I don't know y."
"I don't trust those trees. They seem kind of shady."
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