7-30-12<\/p>\n
\tDoes God have a sense of humor? Speaking personally, I get grouchy whenever I hear the lame responses like, \u201cJust look in the mirror!\u201d or \u201cCheck out the platypus!\u201d These lines are facile and obvious \u2013 but they are also spiritually offensive. God created you; He created the mirror; and He even created the platypus, according to His will. Humor is a matter more serious than glib wisecracks.<\/p>\n
\tWhether God has a sense of humor is to some people an open question, but ultimately a silly question. Existentially, God has a sense of humor since senses of humor exist in the world. How it is manifested is a bit problematic \u2013 something to add to your long list of \u201cquestions to ask the Lord on your first day in heaven.\u201d <\/p>\n
\tIn fact there are few biblical instances of God laughing. When He does, it\u2019s usually in derision: laughing contemptuously at the wicked or the condemned. Returning to the existential, it is not intellectual presumption to assume that if Jesus wept (see the shortest verse in Scripture) He surely must have laughed too.<\/p>\n
\tBiblical examples of laughter are few and far between, although we don\u2019t need a description of God actually being mirthful (the Chortling Bush? ) to know that humor has a place in His plan. Consider:<\/p>\n
\tJesus saying, \u201cLet the dead bury the dead\u201d \u2013 a sarcastic challenge to one\u2019s perception.<\/p>\n
\tSimilarly, Jesus\u2019s almost visual depiction of the contrast between a speck in one person\u2019s eye and a log in another\u2019s \u2013 exaggeration to make His point.<\/p>\n
\tJesus, again: In the middle of a scathing tirade, He resorted to a ridiculous allusion to paint a contrast, when He compared people\u2019s hypocrisy to someone who strains a gnat out of a cup, but is willing to swallow a camel.<\/p>\n
\tThe Savior\u2019s nicknames for His disciples \u2013 Peter the Rock, a pun; \u201cSons of Thunder\u201d \u2013 reveal a playful use of humor.<\/p>\n
\tThe writer J C Lamont has speculated on the humor in the biblical account of God appearing in some human form and wrestling with Jacob\u2026 and resorting to sneakiness to win! He bested Jacob in the area of his putative strength, which is not only a just result, but a humorous ending to that significant chapter in Jacob\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
\tCartoonist and educator Mark Dittmar sees a graphic use of \u201cblack humor\u201d in Paul\u2019s criticism of Judaizers in Galatians \u2013 in effect, \u201cWhy stop at circumcision? Let them castrate<\/em> themselves!\u201d<\/p>\n \tMark\u2019s wife Lynn can\u2019t resist seeing humor in God speaking through Balaam\u2019s ass \u2013 choosing a most ridiculous vessel when something less startling would have sufficed.<\/p>\n \tWe cannot ignore examples of laughter in the Bible \u2013 Abraham\u2019s barren wife laughing when she received the news that she would conceive\u2026 and her son\u2019s very name, Isaac, meaning \u201claughter\u201d in Hebrew.<\/p>\n \tAs I recalled nicknames of the Disciples, my mind raced to some prominent names in the church. Is there humor here? \u2013<\/p>\n The first Chief Rabbi of the modern State of Israel, a dignified Torah scholar, nevertheless was named Rabbi Kook;<\/p>\n The most respected Archbishop of Manila, who, after his elevation by Pope Paul VI, and (as is customary) using his last name in his new title, was Cardinal Sin;<\/p>\n Is there any humor in the fact that one of the most corrupt and licentious of popes \u2013 fathering two illegitimate children \u2013 was Pope Innocent VIII?<\/p>\n In American Evangelicalism, one the cheeriest uplifters and bearers of glad tidings in his crusades was nevertheless named Moody;<\/p>\n At a time when the public was skeptical of televangelists congenitally having boasted and swaggered, there was Jimmy Swaggart;<\/p>\n At a time when the public is skeptical of television ministries\u2019 obsession with money, a prominent TV preacher is named Creflo Dollar;<\/p>\n At a time when the public is skeptical of ministries\u2019 ethical standards \u2013 whether donors are being swindled \u2013 there is the popular (but very ethical) Chuck Swindoll;<\/p>\n At a time when the public is skeptical of television preachers making questionable claims and popping off on every subject, there was Pastor Peter Popoff.<\/p>\n \tAs it is written, you can\u2019t make this stuff up.<\/p>\n \tMany are the attributes of God and the names of the Christ in the Bible, and on posters sold in Christian bookstores: Alpha and Omega; The Arm of the Lord; The Author and Finisher of Our Faith; The Faithful Witness; The Good Shepherd; The King of Kings; The Lamb of God; Lord of Lords; Messiah; Prince of Peace; Bright and Morning Star; Balm of Gilead; Our Passover; Rock; Rose of Sharon; Wonderful Counselor; Son of God; Savior. And so on. But one of the most essential often is overlooked \u2013 \u201cessential\u201d because it reflects the Essence of Christ.<\/p>\n \tFriend.<\/p>\n \tWe have become conditioned by generations of paintings and movies and Sunday-school lesson-sheets that portray Jesus as everything from grim to moon-faced mystical to well-coiffed and white-bread. But if Jesus could weep, He surely smiled. And if He loved His friends, and strangers, enough to figuratively climb up on the cross to suffer and die\u2026 certainly He cared enough to be a friend, in the best senses we can think of.<\/p>\n \tWe should know the Jesus who smiled, who laughed, who connected with people by a soft word and perhaps a joke, who put His arm around someone in good humor. He was more than familiar with the first verse of Proverbs, chapter 15: \u201cA soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.\u201d He was a Man of Sorrows, the Bible tells us, and therefore humor must have been a special language to those who identified with Him in sorrow.<\/p>\n \tJust as using \u201cAbba\u201d (in effect, \u201cDaddy\u201d) as another name for God that allows a greater intimacy, let us all see Jesus more often as Lord and Savior\u2026 and Pal. He IS a friend like no other.<\/p>\n + + +<\/p>\n If Jesus is our Holy Friend, then the comforting old hymn \u201cWhat a Friend We Have in Jesus\u201d can occasionally be a little more informal, a little more accessible to us! Here is a Dixieland-Rock-Funk (OK, you come up with a better category) version by the great Bart Millard, moonlighting from MercyMe.<\/p>\n