Sense of Humor

Do you think Jesus –or God for that matter– has a sense of humor? Well, How could “the joy of the Lord be our strength” if the Lord is seldom joyful?

You learn a lot about an artist by the work he or she leaves behind: Consider the whimsy of Chagall shimmering through his paintings, or the radiant genius of Van Gogh. The personality of the artist leaks through their work. The same can be said of God. He reveals himself through His creation, Nature.

Watch two chipmunks chase one another at breakneck speeds, and jumping and tumbling like little miniature Hollywood stuntmen. Ever seen polar-bear cubs hurl themselves down snowy hillsides headfirst and upside down, just for fun? Or dolphins romping in the bow-wake of a boat, cavorting, leaping into the air and spinning!

Who made puppies so cute and impish, loving to snatch your slipper and race around the house with you in tow? Who created all these playful creatures with their humorous antics and actions? I would say all God’s creatures, his works of art, provide an insight into the personality of God and Jesus.

Perhaps you did not make that connection when you have seen something in Nature that made you laugh. – That you were meant to laugh, and it was God who making you laugh, and laughing along with you. Once you make that connection, you know something very important about Jesus.

He created laughter! Laughter is from God. This one quality alone might save us from the religious veil that forever tries to come in and cloud our perception of Jesus. So, as to the question: Does Jesus have a sense of humor? Definitely!

A careful reading of the Scriptures shows that Jesus employed humor in his ministry. His zingers about people who strain out gnats and swallow camels. He said it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. He said some people are more concerned over the speck in their brother’s eye than the plank in their own. Such incongruities would prompt a laugh.

Can you fathom a master story teller who never used humor? Can you picture Jesus changing water into wine to keep a wedding party rolling and never cracking a smile? Or can you imagine Him going to dinner and never laughing?

Think also of the crowd he dined with. Some rabble-rousers earned Jesus a reputation as a drunkard and a glutton, and it wasn’t because they served water and crackers! This was a wild group, and surely such a crowd got rolling in laughter from time to time, if only from the joy they were experiencing being with Jesus.

P.S. – Now ask yourself, “Is this the Jesus of my church, and my group of friends?”