Scripture Reading: Luke 20.20-26

Good Morning.

"Is is right for us to pay taxes to Caesar or not?" Yet another ploy of the Jewish leadership to trap Jesus with a question that would land him in trouble with the authorities--this time, a political question. (Realize that the whole aspect of the currency was offensive to the Jews because the coins had the graven image of the Caesar on them, which was against their interpretation of Exodus 20--Thou shalt make no graven images, so it is interesting that this was the button they chose to push that day with Jesus) But Jesus could assess their ulterior motive in asking such a question, and responded by saying, "Show mw a denarius. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?" "Caesar's," they replied. "Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." 'Foiled again,' they thought, and walked away. Can't you just see Jesus chuckling to himself as they walk away? You know they're thinking, 'if nothing else, the guy is brilliant; we keep trying to trick him into saying the wrong thing, but he outsmarts us every time!'

Let me ask you a question. . . do you think of Jesus as having a sense of humor? Come on, admit it, most of you don't. After all, what He came to do was quite serious business! What He taught about was serious, too. . . however, Jesus was a masterful storyteller, and as such, He would never have bypassed humor as a means to reach his audience. Unfortunately, we see Jesus through our austere glasses, reading dialogue from pages of Scripture that He would have originally spoken in Aramaic, translated into Greek, and then to English; translation alone may dilute the meaning's full personality punch, not to mention that we do not have the benefit of hearing his tone of voice, the expression on His face, or the glint in His eye. (brown eyes, you think?)

"Do you think Jesus had a sense of humor?" I asked the two late-20 something handsome young men in the coffee shop, busily working on their laptops. . . and both their heads came up and with quick replies, said, "yes, of course." "Why?" I asked. "He needed it in His business, and besides, there is humor in every day of life." Taking it in, I went back to typing on my own laptop, and thought if someone were to pin me down on that question, I would say 'yes'--but initially, I might be a little hard-pressed to explain why I thought so. He didn't start his messages with humorous little ditties, nor does Scripture quote him as telling 'why did the donkey cross the road?' jokes. Some might say, 'well, the Bible doesn't talk about Jesus laughing, so I don't know about his sense of humor--it also doesn't record when He used the latrine or washed his hair--do you think He didn't do those? Of course, He did! The humor of Jesus is subtle, nearly imperceptible at first glance. However, He had an incredible way with irony, wit and the use of word plays. Take the above line--Then give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's. Brilliant! (have you ever noticed the Brits use that word frequently? I think it punctuates a topic beautifully) A little eight-year old was being read to by his dad from the seventh chapter of Matthew's gospel. Dad was reading along quite seriously when his son began to snicker and then broke out laughing. The boy laughed because he saw in his mind the preposterous picture of a man with a big beam in his eye trying to find a speck in another person's eye. The little fellow understood perfectly that the human eye is not large enough to have a beam in it and the idea struck him as ludicrously funny. His dad, so familiar with the passage, failed to respond to humor in an unexpected place. That's the point, isn't it? We are often so familiar with Jesus' illustrations in his teaching that they do not elicit even a smile. 'Camel through the eye of a needle? 'Straining a gnat and swallowing a fly? Word pictures extraordinaire. . . Jesus used humor not to get laughs, but to inform and communicate spiritual truths effectively. Hey, do you think we could reset our minds to approach Scripture with fresh eyes? Maybe by taking ourselves a little less seriously, lightening our spirits, and reading anew, we might catch a lot more of Jesus' personality. . .

"The personality that emerges from the Gospels differs radically from the image of Jesus I grew up with, an image I now recognize in some of the older Hollywood films about Jesus. In those films, Jesus recites his lines evenly and without emotion. He strides through life as the one calm character among a cast of flustered extras. Nothing rattles him. He dispenses wisdom in flat, measured tones. He is, in short, the Prozac Jesus. In contrast, the Gospels present a man who has such charisma that people will sit three days straight, without food, just to hear His riveting words."* What image of Jesus did you grow up with, or have you erroneously held onto?

Humor celebrates the goodness of God, don't you think? My purpose in helping us see Jesus' sense of humor is not to cast him as the "funny guy", but rather to help us see the joy-full essence of Him; maybe in discovering this aspect of His divine brilliance, we might come to Him with renewed joy and laughter in our hearts. Christians are called to be joy-filled people. . .

I wish you joy unspeakable and a smiling heart today,

Christine

*Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew - a phenomenal read, a 'must have' for your library