The humor of Jesus is not like that of many comedians today, whose monologues are full of coarse language and perverted jokes. (Although, I must admit, Jesus does tell a few “bathroom humor” jokes.)
But in general, the humor of Jesus is rich, deep, insightful, and most of all, intentional. His humorous stories and witty remarks were always for the purpose of making a point, and getting people to think about what they believed.
Jesus was no serious, dour-faced, religious teacher who never smiled and looked down his nose at those who did. I believe one reason Jesus attracted the crowds He did is because of the sparkle in His eye, and the constant half-smile which hinted at a secret joke only He knew.
The Humorous Stories of Jesus
I did not realize this about Jesus for the longest time, but when I first began to understand the humor of Jesus, I soon realized that in the Gospels, Jesus is telling a humorous story on almost every page.
No, His stories will not cause you to burst into uproarious laughter. His stories are like banter among friends, or the humor of a political cartoon that takes a humorous jab at an opponent. The humor of Jesus is probably closer to what we would call wit, satire, and irony.
When understood, the humor of Jesus rarely makes you laugh out loud, but you might smile, or even chuckle, when you see His point. That’s Christ’s type of humor.
One of the sources that helped me discover the humor of Jesus is a little book by Elton Trueblood called The Humor of Christ
Elton says in the preface to his book that the idea that Jesus was humorous came when he was trying to have family devotions one night.
His eldest son was four years old, and Elton was reading to them out of Matthew 7. As he read along, feeling very serious about the weighty subject matter of that portion of Scripture, all of a sudden, his young son began to laugh.
Elton says he tried to shush his son, and admonish him against laughing at Scripture. His son objected, “But Dad, the picture is funny!” Elton says he looked down at what he had just been reading and saw that in fact, his son was correct. The image that Jesus had painted with words was indeed preposterous. It was the image of a man with a trunk of tree sticking out of his eye, trying to remove a speck of sawdust from the eye of a friend. The very idea is ludicrous (The Humor of Christ
Don’t Be So Serious!
Most of us adults have learned that Bible study is a serious matter, that God is up there with His arms crossed making sure we don’t get out of line, and that Jesus spoke some very weighty words so we need to get down to business and learn them.
Elton’s child did not know any of this nonsense, and so when he heard a funny story, he laughed. Elton says that event got him started on the study of the humor of Christ. He says the more he studied, the more humor he found. Elton says,
There are numerous passages in the recorded teaching which are practically incomprehensible when [the humor is ignored].
Another author who has also noticed The Wisdom & Wit of Rabbi Jesus
An occupational hazard of any witty speaker is that hearers may suppose that what was said with tongue in cheek represents the humorist’s viewpoint (p. 33).
And if an audience can misunderstand witty comments that they hear, written wit from another time and culture and language are even harder to discern.
Nevertheless, understanding the words of Jesus in the Gospels will be much easier if we presuppose that Jesus may be telling a humorous story to poke fun at the religion and theology of His day, rather than the traditional idea that a dour-faced Jesus is telling a serious story about how to live and behave to truly be His follower.
Whenever you come across a difficult teaching of Jesus, it can often be sorted out rather quickly if you consider the laughter factor. When the teaching is taken seriously, it doesn’t make sense. But when you imagine the sparkling eyes of Jesus and the hint of a smile on his lips, with the disciples winking at each other and elbowing each other in the ribs, the passage will often make much more sense.
Reminds me of Steve Brown’s “Now you think about that” series, the story of the church that put lemon juice in the communion cups because it made them look holy. I think i used to go to that church.
Was that the place where smiling was a sin? I think I went to the same place 😉
Jesus was anointed with the oil of joy, more than his companions. Joy makes me throw my head back and laugh. I think Jesus did this a lot.
You’ll never win a laughing contest with Jesus.
Yes, Jesus was full of joy and laughter. Even creation is full of humor, if you know how to look for it.
Ever see a platypus? That’s proof rigth there of God’s humor 😉
Yep. That was one of the things I was thinking of.
Yesterday I watched five hummingbirds battle over who gets to drink the sugar water from our hummingbird feeder. It was so comical. They were actually body-slamming each other.
I also think of the underwater world. With Sea Cucumbers and sea anemones, the Lord was probably having a ball. 🙂
Jesus can do anything or can He?
Jesus was on His way to the temple He met a blind man who called on Him to give him sight. Jesus touched his eyes and gave him sight
Jesus walked further and a crippled man called on Him to restore his body. Jesus by the word of His mouth He was made whole
Jesus went a little further and met a deaf man who asked Him to restore his hearing. Jesus touched is ears and was healed
Jesus got to the temple a man was crying on the steps Jesus asked him “what’s wrong I know I can help you haven’t you heard of me I am Jesus.”
The man replied; “Jesus, I have teenager’s”
Jesus sat down and cried with him
Humor existed since the beginning of time. I can imagine this conversation; “Why is Peter walking with a limp?” James responded; “Jesus put a pebble in his sandal to teach him humility,” and they laughed.
Combining two different issues: humour of Jesus and bonners in the bible here
In Mat 19 we have Jesus appeal to creation mandates for marriage, and therefore presumably the cultural mandate to fill the earth that the Jews understood to entail the obligation to get married and at least try to have one male and one female child. And the life-long obligations to stick with your spouse. The disciples reject this entirely by saying if divorce is not available, it is better not to marry.
Now a lot of commentators think Jesus is backing down with an exception allowing divorce for sexual immorality and also an optional marriage teaching. However it doesn’t fit the pattern of the exchange for Jesus to back down and give concessions.
So, the eunuch saying … don’t you think this is to have a joke at the expense of his faithless disciples? OK, you don’t want to accept marriage as God set it up? Well the eunuchs born that way and those made eunuchs by other men are exempt from the requirement to get married and have children, so, therefore you must have decided to become ‘eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’ so line up and I will cut off your genitals! Who’s first?!
But somehow the humourless church soon thought that Jesus was teaching about not getting genitals cut of but commending the voluntary choice to reject the creation commands by staying unmarried with genitals intact.
I am not sure what you are talking about. It sounds as though you are saying Jesus supported castration? I read, convincingly, somewhere that the word used for eunuch refers to several things including homosexuality.
God is love and Jesus is God. What is love without laughter and joy? It seems very Anglo-Saxon kind of question to ask if Jesus had a sense of humor- kind of ridiculous like arguing about how many angels can stand on the pin of a needle. Of course Jesus had some kind of sense of humor, most people do, and if you didn’t it would make him a very cold person. Most cultures around the world value laughter and fun very highly and as a given. Of course, Jesus had a sense of humor. It makes me look at the ‘if your right hand offends there – cut it off..” story differently.
Do we miss the joke by taking Scripture too seriously?
I just finished Dr Bradford’s ‘Joseph in John’s Gospel, Judas and Jewish Jokes’ commentary on John. It’s great! Full of Jewish humour.
I saw it at Templehouse-publishing
Well written and insightful! I’m taking excerpts (with credit to Jeremy and the web site) to give my 17 year old granddaughter for her Jesus Camp Palanca.