32
FEATURE
STROPPY PROPHETS
Some of the characters God chooses to use give us all hope. Take Jonah, for example( no please, take him). Called by God to preach in Nineveh, he runs in the opposite direction. Well, we’ ve all felt like that. Finding himself able to sleep on a ship about to break up in the midst of a violent storm, he’ s blamed by the crew because he’ s been daft enough to tell them he’ s running away from God.‘ What should we do?’ they ask.‘ Chuck me overboard,’ he replies,‘ it’ s all my fault.’
To be fair to the crew, they’ re reluctant and ask God not to hold them to account for tipping Jonah over the side. Jonah, bless him, is swallowed by a giant fish( type unspecified).
You know the story – Jonah delivers God’ s message, the people turn from evil, then Jonah has a strop and sulks. We then get the comedy of the vine that dies, and after a bit more drama-queenery, God teaches Jonah a valuable lesson. Unforgettable.
JESUS AT THE MIC
We can only skim the surface in this brief article, but the humour of Jesus is a massive topic all on its own, and one of the most helpful books I’ ve found is Elton Trueblood’ s The Humor of Christ, a slim volume written in 1964 and most recently reprinted by HarperSanFrancisco in 1990.
He argues that recognising Jesus’ wit and humour is essential for understanding some of his teaching, and seeing how this helped him communicate with his disciples and the wider population.
Jesus often uses an apparent contradiction or paradox to make a point, to connect with his audience, often with a humorous metaphor or image( eg the blind leading the blind in Luke 6:39).
Trueblood also points out that Jesus used the ridiculous for good reasons:
c easy to remember c likely to be passed on like a good joke
‘ Easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of God’( Mark 10:25) – whatever your view of the Jerusalem gates explanation to this reference, it’ s a surreal image that would have left his hearers chuckling and repeating it to their neighbours.
‘ Do not cast your pearls before swine’( Matthew 7:6) – flinging your best jewellery in front of a bunch of farm animals who were considered unclean to start with would have been a hilarious and shocking image for his audience.
YOU GIVE A TENTH OF YOUR SPICES – MINT, DILL AND CUMIN. BUT YOU HAVE NEGLECTED THE MORE IMPORTANT MATTERS OF THE LAW – JUSTICE, MERCY AND FAITHFULNESS.
PUNCHLINES WITH PURPOSE
Jesus uses humour to reveal truth, not just to get a laugh – as do the best of modern-day comedians. Humour disarms, and sometimes it’ s opening people up for a knockout blow.
He also makes regular use of irony. When Jesus calls the fishermen Simon and Andrew he promises‘ Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men’( Mark 1:17). It’ s a surreal image Eddie Izzard would be proud of – kind of a play on words, but using the timehonoured comedian’ s ploy of giving something familiar an unexpected twist.
There’ s also a hefty dose of irony at work when Jesus names Simon‘ Peter’ or‘ the Rock’, saying his Church will be built on him( Matthew 16:18). The unpredictable, excitable and unstable Simon looks like the last character you’ d choose for your foundation stone, as he goes on to deny Christ three times.
But Jesus is proved the correct judge of character ultimately as Peter becomes the real rock of the Early Church. His nickname may have seemed like a bit of a joke initially, but Jesus’ banter had a purpose – to see him become the man he was made to be.