The Humor of Jesus Christ

Is religion only serious business? Should there be no joy or laughter in church services? Do religious people take themselves too seriously? We begin here a new series of articles on this interesting subject.

by Randy Stiver

Would the great Messiah laugh at a good joke? Did He laugh like regular folks when He walked on earth? Chances are, if you're like I was, you've never given the humor of Christ serious thought!

But we can learn a lot from laughing, especially laughing with Jesus at what He found funny. Odd thing is, He was often laughing at you and me and everybody else because of the fickle foibles of human nature. One writer contends: "The widespread failure to recognize and to appreciate the humor of Christ is one of the most amazing aspects of the era named for Him. Anyone who reads the Synoptic Gospels [Matthew, Mark and Luke] with a relative freedom from presuppositions might be expected to see that Christ laughed, and that He expected others to laugh, but our capacity to miss this aspect of His life is phenomenal" (Elton Trueblood, The Humor of Christ, p. 15).

So what type of humor did Christ use? One type is hyperbole (pronounced hi-PER-bo-lee). It is exaggeration for effect—making an extravagant statement or figure of speech not intended to be taken literally. Examples include: "If I've told you once, I've told you fifty thousand million times—don't exaggerate!" "I'm as hungry as a horse!" "He's as strong as an ox," or, "He's as smart as an ox"—oops, that's an oxymoron, which is a sort of paradox. We'll save that for later.

Jesus Christ loved good hyperbole. In His famous Sermon on the Mount He wove a marvelous extravagance: "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother's eye" (Luke 6:41-42).

Wait a minute, He said a plank in your eye—a plank! Don't read it in an over-serious monotone. It's true, but it's very funny too. Let me paraphrase: Why are you focused on the tiny speck in your friend's eye when you can't see the telephone pole in your own eye? Just imagine a cartoon of a person with a telephone pole protruding from his eye—and him trying to remove the speck from a friend's eye. Ha!

Makes you think, doesn't it? It's so easy to find fault with others, but so hard to see our own personal and obvious faults. Before we try to change others, Jesus tells us to start overcoming our own faults.

This can be a bitter and embarrassing pill to swallow at times. But can't you just hear His wry and gentle laughter encouraging us to follow His example and do the right thing? You've got to love Him. His humor is funny and His teaching profoundly accurate. Let's do what He said! VT