There was a bit of a dust-up on social media this week when Crisis Magazine ran an essay condemning The Chosen for portraying Jesus as a joke-cracking, regular guy. Amongst the devout some were scandalized, pointing out that never once in the Bible does Jesus say anything humorous. On the other side were those applauding the effort to make Jesus more relatable to the contemporary audience.
This much we can say with confidence: Whether or not Jesus was himself comedically inclined, He certainly wasn’t opposed to people having a good time. Let’s not forget His first miracle, the very beginning of His public ministry, the first step he took to the Cross, was the turning of water into wine at a wedding feast.
However, like any good father, Jesus wants us to have fun without having so much fun that we get ourselves into trouble, particularly spiritual trouble.
Sarcasm, for instance, is a type of humor I indulged in my entire life, until finally coming to understand that sarcasm is a terrible sin, because behind sarcasm lies contempt. Sarcasm expresses scorn toward and causes pain in its victim — certainly something most displeasing to God.
Monty Python, perhaps unwittingly, perfectly (and hilariously) revealed the damage caused by sarcasm in less than a minute:
Any humor that mocks or scandalizes or offends cannot be consistent with the command to love thy neighbor.
For me this is a difficult truth, because I’m naturally inclined to see humor, or at least search for it, in practically everything. And yet it’s not hard to see that the world would be a much better place if spiritually damaging humor did not exist. This kind of humor numbs us to the pain and suffering of others, and creates division, whether or not those things are intended.
An excellent model for virtuous humor is G. K. Chesterton. He poked fun at people and everything else under the sun in a very general way, and only got personal when he was talking about himself. Here are a few examples among tens of thousands.
“I’ve searched all the parks in all the cities and found no statues of committees.”
“We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next door neighbor.”
“Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel.”
“The only way of catching a train I have ever discovered is to miss the train before.”
“I regard golf as an expensive way of playing marbles.”
Humor executed in Chestertonian fashion is instructive and makes us see things from a new angle, thus broadening rather than shrinking us, lifting our spirits rather than pecking away at our spirit.
Since Chesterton delivered humor with love, with love it was received. He so disarmed people with his humor that even his intellectual adversaries admired and loved him. In more recent times, Ronald Reagan — the only U. S. President in my lifetime who had a great sense of humor and knew how to use it — often used humor to disarm opponents and win people over to his point of view.
As illustrated in the video, Reagan, in the spirit of Chesterton, used humor to get points across that would be difficult for people to accept if delivered in a serious or moralizing tone. Today, in our pride, we have become so sensitive to criticism that we cancel comedy even when it is used to instruct or encourage healthy debate or inner reflection. An inability to appreciate humor is as spiritually erosive as humor that hurts rather than heals.
On the subject of healing, relieving tension is a spiritually profitable way to use humor; people who do so are much beloved. It’s is a tricky skill to master, however. Watch this Frasier clip from the 2:30-mark to the three-minute mark to see what I mean:
Jesus tells us that his burden is light. We can use humor to lighten burdens, too, in our own small way. But over the course of a lifetime, in this one small way we can bring a small but much-needed joy to more people than we can count.
But back to the question of whether Jesus had a sense of humor. We know that He came into time with a nature fully divine and fully human, and it would seem that humor is a fundamental part of human nature. This is not conclusive proof, but it is interesting to note that in science fiction, androids, robots, and other forms of artificial life are almost always portrayed as lacking a sense of humor, and this humorlessness is a defining characteristic of their non-humanness. Alien races in science fiction possess all sorts of non-human and human characteristics, but rarely are aliens funny — as if science fiction creators, perhaps the most imaginative of all artists, cannot imagine anyone other than a human having a sense of humor, or what an alien sense of humor might look like.
In Star Trek: The Next Generation, Data is an android crew member of the Enterprise whose primary desire is to become more human and less of a machine. In one episode, Q, an omnipotent, god-like character, gives Data a taste of what he desires. See what Q does:
This is only my opinion and not supported by Scripture or Church teachings that I know of, but I think Jesus, being fully divine and fully human, has a supernatural sense of humor. When He was here on earth, His business was of a supremely serious nature and may not have been inclined to manifest his sense of humor. But perhaps in Heaven, where all is well, He will share with us his infinite humor — a thought that brings much joy to my soul encourages me to pray for salvation.
Reflection
- Am I hurting myself by consuming the wrong kind of humor?
- Am I sorry for having offended others trying to be funny?
- How can I use the gift of humor to help people?
