I have a breakfast Bible study every Friday with a group of men from my church. Today we were studying Matthew 8. As I read my portion of the chapter aloud, I found myself asking, as I often do, how did Jesus say this? For instance, in verse 22, Jesus said, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead." Did Jesus say this in a profound somber voice? Did he say it with exasperation? Did he say it with a mischievous grin and a wink of an eye? I kind of like the possibility of the last option. It fits my template of Jesus as a captivating winsome person.
I raised this issue, and the conversation around the table turned to the question of whether or not Jesus used humor. Granted, we don't find any quotes from Jesus that start with, "Okay, two Rabbis walk into a bar, and the first Rabbi says…" We are looking at a different culture. What would Jesus' humor look like if we saw it? We know Jesus was always hanging out at weddings and parties. In Matthew 11:19, Jesus said he was accused of being a party animal. "Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners." His first miracle was changing the water into wine to keep the party going.
Years ago, I read a little book called The Humor of Christ by Elton Trueblood, which I believe has been out of print for a few years. He gives several examples of ironic statements Jesus made and parables he told that would have been quite humorous to his audience. I was especially drawn to Trueblood's analysis of the following passage:
Matt 15:21-28 NRSV
21 Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. 22 Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, "Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David; my daughter is tormented by a demon." 23 But he did not answer her at all. And his disciples came and urged him, saying, "Send her away, for she keeps shouting after us." 24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." 25 But she came and knelt before him, saying, "Lord, help me." 26 He answered, "It is not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs." 27 She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." 28 Then Jesus answered her, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." And her daughter was healed instantly.
If we take Jesus' demeanor to be in earnest, it raises troubling questions. It would be in stark contrast to how he dealt with similar situations throughout the gospels. Was Jesus genuinely contemptuous of this gentile woman in need?
A common teaching method by rabbis involved bantering back and forth with a student. The rabbi would make a false or misleading statement. This was to test the student to see if he understood the situation well enough to give a corrective comeback. Trueblood suggests that this is precisely what Jesus was doing here. If so, it makes this passage truly remarkable because he was instructing a woman and a gentile woman at that!
Imagine Jesus striking an exaggerated pose, looking down his nose at this woman. Then in an exaggerated tone of voice meant to mimic an exalted rabbi, he said, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." The woman doesn't miss a step with her witty comeback. Then Jesus responds, possibly chuckling with satisfaction, "Woman, great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you wish." If the reality was something like this, Jesus was far from expressing contempt. He healed the woman's daughter and elevated the woman's status above the cultural standard for her ethnicity and gender. I don't suppose there is any way to know what happened here, but the explanations I have heard seem to raise more questions to answer. Why are we so reluctant to believe that Jesus may have been a funny guy?
I have not taken the time to really look into the humor of Jesus the way I want to. So I have ordered two books by Earl F. Palmer, The Humor of Jesus: Sources of Laughter in the Bible and Laughter In Heaven: Understanding The Parables Of Jesus. If anyone else has some suggestions, I would love to hear about it.
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