Get Microsoft Word Viewer 2003
 Concord Trinity Podcast Feed (Podcast Instructions)

Jesus' sense of humor

SIMPLY JESUS: Jesus’ Sense of Humor

Text: John 1:43-51

March 26, 2006 

      These guys are, unfortunately, famous.

      So tell me:

      Can you imagine Ayatollah Khomeini starting a speech with, “Did you hear the one about…”?

      Can you imagine Bin Laden starting a terrorist staff meeting with, “Knock, knock…”

      It is absolutely impossible to imagine either of those guys cracking a joke.

      If they ever did, it would either be inappropriate or not funny. But if they did, their listeners would laugh—or else.

      Billy Graham’s wife, Ruth, expressed it very well when she said:

A sense of humor is the balance wheel of life. Have you ever met a fanatic with a sense of humor?

      I haven’t.

      Yet, sometimes we unconsciously put Jesus in the “fanatic” camp.

      It’s difficult to imagine him telling a good one…or kicking back and laughing until he cries.

      Remember the way he was portrayed in those awful Hollywood movies about him? I don’t recall him ever laughing in any of them. The directors painted him as some other-worldly guy in white with an etched-in-stone serious expression on his face.

      It’s like this picture of Jesus from The Greatest Story Ever Told.

      Wow, I’d like to invite that guy to a party.

      It seems natural to think of a picture like this.

      You don’t think of portraits like these:

      I believe that Jesus enjoyed a good laugh.

      He was a lot funnier than we think. Maybe our problem is that we’re so serious that we don’t see the humor in some of the things Jesus said and did.

      Take, for example, today’s story.

Here’s the background.

      A man named Philip has just become a disciple of Jesus. He’s excited, so he runs and tells his friend, Nathanael:

      “I’ve just met the Messiah, the chosen one from God! He’s Jesus, son of Joseph, from Nazareth!”

      And remember Nathanael’s wonderful, open, faith-filled response?

      With a Southeast Missouri drawl he says,

      “CAN ANYTHANG GOOD COME FROM…NAZARETH????”

      He responds to Philip’s excitement with a prejudice. Evidently Nazareth had a bad reputation. It was an unsophisticated, out of the way place. It had a Gentile population, and the Jews there were viewed as less than fully righteous.

      Who knows why Nazareth was looked down upon? What we do know is that the first words we hear out of Nathaneal’s mouth are bigoted.

      The name “Nathanael” in Hebrew means, “God has given.”

      But I think it really means, “Redneck.” [I can say that—I’m from P.B.!]

      And now the story gets interesting.

      Nathanael, prejudice and all, gets into his pickup, the one with the shotgun rack and the rebel flag in the back window. He drives out to where this “Messiah from Nazareth” is. He has a few choice questions to ask the Nazarene.

      When he arrives, he gets out and slams the door—but not before he puts in a plug of Red Man chewing tobacco.

      He looks pretty determined as he walks up to the Master. He points his finger at Jesus as if to say something, but first has to spit out a little tobacco juice. As he does this, Jesus interrupts.

      "[Behold,] a genuine son of Israel—a man of complete integrity."

      Now, what do you make of that comment by Jesus?

      Traditional commentators—that is, professors in seminary who don’t get out too much [my prejudice]—will explain it this way:

[Nathanael] was a Jew, a descendant of the patriarch Jacob, fearing and serving God. He was sincere and upright. [Jesus is giving him] a most honorable testimony. How happy would it be if he, who knows the hearts of all as he did that of Nathanael, could bear the same testimony of all who profess the religion of the gospel!

      (Barnes' Notes) 

      Wait a second. Nathanael had just slammed Jesus. He had demonstrated a type of prejudice that’s still rampant in the Mideast today. What’s more, he probably has a little dribble of tobacco juice at the corner of his mouth. Do you really think Jesus is blessing him?

      No, I think a better understanding is this:

      Jesus is kidding him; he’s teasing him, joking with him. He is saying the exact opposite of the way the guy is. He is saying such an absurd comment that it’s funny.

      Here’s Nathanael—a man Jesus knows has just insulted his character—and Jesus says, “Behold, a man who is pure!”

      That is funny.

      It’s like me saying about my golf buddy John Warhoover, “Behold, a good golfer.” What makes that statement funny is that you know it’s not true. Or me saying about Tom Correnti, the manager of our softball team, “Behold, a good athlete.” It’s not true, and that’s what’s funny. [Guess I’ll be batting 10^th this season…]

      I’m kidding them. Maybe it’s a guy thing, a guy way of saying, “I like you.”

      Could that really be what Jesus is doing?

      Get out of your mind the first picture of Jesus from The Greatest Story Ever Told—the eternally serious one, the portrait of a guy who needs Pepto-Bismol. Instead, remember the laughing Jesus, who could joke with and enjoy people.

      Jesus kidded Nathanael.

      But the humor of Jesus doesn’t end here. There’s more in the story.

      Nathanael doesn’t know what to think.

      Here’s this guy, whom he’s never met before, smiling and saying that he’s a man of integrity.

      He could be defensive and say, “What do you mean by that?”

      But there’s something about Jesus that’s engaging, intriguing.

      So Nathanael plays along.

      You can imagine him smirking a little bit when he responds,

      “How do you know about me?” It’s almost like he’s responding in a joking manner himself: “Yep, that’s the way I am, all pure and virtuous. Stranger, how do you know me?”

      And that’s the response Jesus is waiting for. Can’t you imagine Jesus really smiling, leaning forward, and saying,

      “Because before Philip came to tell you about me, I saw you under the fig tree.”

      Imagine Nathanael’s reaction. He was by himself under that fig tree. What kind of man is this man Jesus?

      His mouth drops open. His eyes widen. 

      Imagine also Jesus’ reaction. He can’t contain himself any longer, and he laughs—laughs from the belly.

      The second way we see Jesus’ humor is this:

      He surprised Nathanael.

      You know, one sign of a good sense of humor is the ability and desire to surprise someone. 

      It’s like this.

      Two hunters are out in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The other man pulls out his phone and calls emergency services.

      He gasps to the operator: "My friend is dead! What can I do?" The operator in a calm, soothing voice replies: "Take it easy. I can help. First, let's make sure he's dead."

      There is a silence, then a shot is heard.

      Back on the phone, the hunter says, "Ok, now what?"

      That was voted the world’s funniest joke a while back.

      Why is it funny? Because you’re surprised.

      You don’t expect the ending.

      And Nathanael wasn’t expecting the ending.

      “I saw you under the fig tree.”

      After picking up his jaw, the man could only reply, probably with a smile on his own face—“Rabbi, you are the Son of God—the King of Israel!”

      And Jesus, wiping a tear out of his eye from all the laughter, says, “Now you believe, eh? You’ll see greater things than this. Come on, follow me!”

      You know, the Master was a master of adjusting his conversation in order to speak to a person. To some people, he was straightforward: “Peter, Andrew, James, John—leave your nets, follow me, and I will make you fish for people!”

      But his call of Nathanael started with a gentle teasing, then a “Surprise!”

      Nathanael was hooked from that moment on. He never returned to his pickup. He never bought another pouch of Red Man in his life.

      If you read the Gospels looking for it, you’ll discover that Jesus surprised people quite a few times. He enjoyed it. He enjoyed seeing their reactions. But he especially enjoyed the fact that when the shock wore off, the people drew even closer to him. Because that was his purpose in surprising them—he was showing them affection, and inviting them to be themselves around him.

      We need to hear the humor behind the story of Jesus’ encounter with Nathanael. We need to hear Jesus’ humor, period.

      You and I, as we follow Christ, can take ourselves way too seriously.

      We can naturally focus on how we can’t measure up…on how we’ve failed…on how we lack faith…on how we don’t understand. We beat ourselves up. Our discipleship becomes a litany of failures and “Sorry, Lord.”

      Repentance is good and necessary.

      BUT…

      Sometimes we need to stop dwelling on how we don’t measure up.

      Sometimes we need to see how Jesus accepts us as we are, as he smiles that warm, engaging smile.

      We need to see this side of Jesus. He enjoys, enjoys, enjoys, and loves us—just as we are. His playfulness is redeeming. His playfulness invites us closer to him. His sense of humor can dry the tears on our face, and make us laugh again—laugh even at ourselves.

      Let me give you two examples of how redeeming “holy humor” can be.

      One was from a woman named Elizabeth Green. These are her words:

      A few years ago, I confided to an old friend that I was feeling disappointed in my progress in life….I had been a successful student, the valedictorian of my h.s. I had seemed destined to do great things. Yet here I was nearing 40 with no books written…[nothing accomplished]. Had I been wasting my life? “After all,” [I whined to my friend], “I had always been told that I had such promise.”

      “Well, if it helps at all,” my friend replied, “I never saw it.”

      Surprisingly, his teasing, delivered with deadpan sincerity, did help…He helped me laugh at myself by mocking the whole idea of ‘promise.’ Trusting his friendship, it was safe to smile at my imperfections…Our exchange was a profoundly liberating and healing experience.”

      [Weavings, 7-8/04, "Teasing and the Gentleness of the Christ," pp. 31-35]

      She goes on to link this to the times Jesus kidded people—such as his response to Nathanael, “Behold, a man of complete integrity.”

      Here’s another example of how humor, rightly placed, can be liberating, and why Jesus used it.

      When I started seminary in Atlanta, Georgia, I was scared to death.

      I was in a strange city, and didn’t know a soul. I was wondering if I could make the cut in seminary. My first class didn’t help.

      It was Early Church Fathers. It was an advanced class. I was in it because I’d majored in religion in college. But entering the classroom, I felt so intimidated. There were all these doctoral students, talking easily with one another. Some wore jackets with patches on the sleeves. They all looked so smart, so cool.

      The professor, Dr. Gonzalez, comes in. He sets down his briefcase, and the first thing he says is this:

      “Do you know why the Medieval Period of history is often called the ‘Dark Ages’?”

      We all looked at each other. There had to be some deep, intellectual answer to this.

      He went on,

      “The Medieval Period is call the Dark Ages…because it had so many ‘knights’ in it.”

      With that he smiled a broad smile and said, “Gotcha!”

      And I exhaled and relaxed. I was put totally at easy by that simple, corny joke. Maybe I could make it in seminary, after all.

      And Jesus said to Nathanael—“I saw you under that fig tree. Gotcha!”

      Jesus. The man who laughed more than we give him credit for.

      Tonight, as you lie in bed, talk to him. Confess as seriously as you want; be honest with him…

      Then hear him saying, as he did in John 6:37—“Whoever comes to me I will never cast out…” Then imagine him adding with a wink and a smile, “…even if it is you!”

      That addition isn’t in the Bible.

      Maybe it should have been, don’t you think?

NRSV