Skip to content Was Jesus funny? Jul 10 · 1 hr 6 min ...more
Was Jesus funny?
July 10, 2023 · 1 hr 6 min
Is the Bible funny? Did Jesus ever crack a joke? In this throwback from 2009, you'll be taken on a survey of humor throughout the Bible in a sermon unlike anything you've ever heard.
Series Mark Driscoll Audio July 10, 2023 · 1 hr 6 min · Mark Driscoll Audio
Is the Bible funny? Did Jesus ever crack a joke? In this throwback from 2009, you'll be taken on a survey of humor throughout the Bible in a sermon unlike anything you've ever heard. ...more Show the full description Show less Is the Bible funny? Did Jesus ever crack a joke? In this throwback from 2009, you'll be taken on a survey of humor throughout the Bible in a sermon unlike anything you've ever heard.
Series Mark Driscoll Audio
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With Pastor Mark, it’s all about Jesus! He is a spiritual leader, prolific author, and compelling speaker, but at his core, he is a family man. Mark and his
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0:00 Well, howdy. It's Ashley Chase here, the executive director of Real Faith Ministries, which I get to run with my parents, pastor Mark and Grace. If you want to be the first to receive exclusive content and updates from0:10 Real Faith and my parents' bible teaching, you can text REAL to 99383. You'll get ebooks, sermons, videos, and more sent straight to your phone every week to keep you from sliding into0:22 heresy and apostasy. You're welcome. That's REAL to 99383. And if you're strengthened, encouraged, and built up by my parents' teaching, consider partnering with us at real faith dot com. Every dollar you give reaches0:33 100 people with the gospel. And as our thanks to you, we'll send you an ebook of Pastor Mark's systematic theology, which is called Doctrine. It's all about Jesus. It's an incredible resource, whether you just met Jesus0:43 or you've known for a long time, and we hope it answers some of your questions. Again, just give a gift at real faith dot com, and we'll send you a copy.0:49 Good to see you all. We are doing a series, Religion Saves and 9 Other Misconceptions. Tonight, we're doing humor. It's gonna be fun. And, I'll tell you how we ended up with this series. Normally, go right through books1:00 of the Bible, but as I was teaching through first Corinthians a while back, realized that that church had written a lot of questions to their pastor Paul, and then his letter was a series of1:12 answers to their questions. So I thought, well, wouldn't it be fun to do that in our own days? So we posted it on the website. We got 893 questions. Most of them were terrible. Some were pretty good. We have 51:24 and a half thousand comments. About half of them were, that's not nice. Don't say that. And then, we have 343000 votes, and we've taken the top 9 questions, and we're doing them as1:36 this, religion saves series up until Easter. Last week, we dealt with, the number 9 question, birth control, where I showed you the Richard Simmons photo, if you don't remember. That was the highlight. This1:48 week, we're doing question number 8, which is humor. Next week, we'll do question number 7, which is predestination. Why does God choose some people for heaven and not others? Duck, duck, damn. Kind of1:59 game that Calvinists love to play. Additionally, the following week, we'll do question number 6, which was sort of a grab bag question for me. What part of Christianity do I still find most difficult2:11 to believe? After that, question number 5, which is sexual sin. How do you overcome sexual sin? Question number 4, faith and works. Do we save ourselves? Does God save us? Do we work together with God?2:23 How does that work? After that, question number 3, we'll deal with dating and courting and dorting. All of those, together. And then number 2, the emerging church. And question number 1 will be, worship and2:35 the regulative principle. As always, we're audio and video capturing everything. It's all online for free, but you get what you pay for. You could find it at, that was supposed to be funny. You guys are gonna be rough2:46 crowdics here how this is gonna go. Marshall church dot org, iTunes, YouTube has it all. You can go to MySpace, Facebook, blast away comments if you want a place to comment and2:58 discuss the sermon. And, 1 other thing I'll make note of at our 8 30 PM service, the final service of the day, we allow people who come to do text message questions. Last week, we did it for the first time. It went3:10 well. So we've, taken that, put the answers to the questions that I have no idea what's coming. Just answer them on the fly after 6, 7 hours of preaching. So it gets a little exciting. We put those online as well, and3:21 you can find those at marshhill church dot org and at at YouTube. So that being said, we'll get to the question in just a moment, but I'll share with you tonight's lovely t shirt. It was sent to me by a podcaster. It3:32 says, God save me from your followers. So this is a good 1. I like this 1 a lot. People send me shirts. I get them from all over the world. If you send 1, make it a large, not in a pastel color, and I don't wear used3:44 clothing. That's gross. So, it's vintage. No. It's used. Somebody else sweated in it. That's weird. I won't do that. So I'll go ahead and pray, and we'll get to work on tonight's question.3:56 Good to have you all with us, and I'm looking forward to it. Father God, I thank you that I get to teach the Bible. I thank you because I have as much or more freedom and as much or more fun than any other preacher in4:08 the world. God, as we study tonight, we come acknowledging we are sinners, and as sinners we do some silly things. We believe and say some silly things. And God, I pray by your grace, we would not overlook all4:19 of the rich comedic material in our lives, that we'd learn to laugh with you and laugh at ourselves, grateful that our righteousness is a gift from Jesus. And as a result, we should take him seriously but4:31 not ourselves. So God as we study, we ask for your Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us, as we ask for a good sense of humor in Jesus name. Amen. Well, here's the question that, people voted on. Why do4:43 you, meaning me, you'll notice this is all very personal. Apparently, people got their feelings hurt. I always say there's 2 kind of people, people that have been offended by me and people that don't listen to me. Those4:54 are the 2 categories. Why do you make jokes? Well, because it's funny about Mormon missionaries, homosexuals, trench coat wearers, which if you put those together, that would be funny like a gay trench coat wearing5:05 Mormon kid on a bike. That would be hilarious. Single men. Well, why not? They're so silly. Vegans, emo kids, and then expect these groups to5:17 come to know God in the same sermon. Well, the truth is we are trying to put the fun back into fundamentalism. That is our secondary mission in addition to pointing to Jesus. So I do make fun of all kinds of5:29 people. I make fun of rappers with grills and spinner rims and girlfriends in clear heels who make their living 1 dollar bill at a time. I make fun of indie rockers who drive little mopeds5:41 and wear all black and smoke American spirit cigarettes and wear those little pants with the the the the really close brought in pegged legs like the eighties girl5:53 pants. You guys are so cute. I make fun of homeschoolers. I make fun of homeschool moms who wear denim jumpers, and and it's like a6:05 uniform. I also makes fun of public schoolers, and that's the easiest because they can't spell so they won't blog about it. I make fun of all kind. I make fun of Calvinists. I6:16 make fun of Armenians. I also like to make fun of vegans, but vegans take it very seriously. Every time I promote bacon, I do often, because I love bacon. Bacon's wonderful. And6:28 and then the vegans get really upset. Like I had a guy not too long ago and he say, you cannot promote bacon. I said, why not? He said, you will die if you eat bacon. I said, I know.6:40 I will die and go to heaven full of bacon. That's awesome. What's wrong with that? I believe in the resurrection of the dead. I'll be fine. So we do have a lot of fun6:52 and of course we make fun of Mormons. How can you not make fun of a religion that when you get saved they give you under britches? I mean that's funny. I tried so hard this week online to order a pair of Mormon7:04 sacred under britches. They're like a onesie with a trap door. They're all I'm not even making this up. But they're so serious about it. You can't find a pair. So I was unable to locate7:16 a pair. Was gonna wear them over my jeans and t shirt. And if you can I mean, we tried and you need like a special card to get them from the temple, and we tried all kind of stuff? No success. If you7:28 have 1, send it to me and maybe I could use it in the future sermon. Thank you, Jesus. The question is, is it biblical? Does the Bible have any humorous parts? Is there any comedy in there? I'll I'll start7:39 by quoting the dictionary of biblical imagery. It's a great theological resource. It says this, the Bible the Bible is predominantly a serious rather than a funny book. Yet, it would distort the7:51 Bible to suppress the humor that is present. Arranged on a continuum that ranges from the least intellectual. Think slapstick humor, 3 Stooges, Beavis and Butt Head, Johnny8:02 Knoxville, or not. But those are examples. To the most intellectual, irony and wordplay. Right? That would be British comedy. Some are like, I don't get British comedy. That's because8:14 barely they're very smart and subtle. Think, Stephen Colbert. Think John Stewart. A little more thoughtful comedy. We could say that the humor of the bible tends toward the8:26 subtle. It goes on to say that the whole bible is in 1 sense a comical arrangement. The overall plot of the bible is a u shaped comic plot. The action begins with a perfect world8:38 inhabited by perfect people. It descends into the misery of fallen history and ends with a new world of total happiness and the conquest of evil. The book of Revelation is the story of the happy ending par8:50 excellence as a conquering hero, that's Jesus, defeats evil, marries a bride, that's the church, and lives happily ever after in a palace glittering with jewels. The bible uses the word laugh, laughter and9:02 derivatives thereof more than 200 times. It uses the word joy and derivatives thereof more than 40 times. And what has happened sadly is that the bible has been too often handled by9:13 religious people who take thick coats of varnish and lacquer over the Bible, and take out all of the humanity and the silly stories of what people sinners do like us on the earth.9:25 The result is that, Ecclesiastes 3 4 is overlooked which says, there is a time to laugh. That there is a time to laugh, and the bible is filled with points at which9:37 we must laugh. The bible includes comedy in forms such as situational comedy. We'll deal with these tonight. Satire, sarcasm, irony, and whole books of the bible such as Amos9:49 are funny. They're they're comedic in nature. Very little is written on this theologically. 1 pastor named Douglas Wilson has written an interesting book called the serrated edge. I think it's a10:01 Trinitarian defense of sky lurking is what he calls the subtitle. And here is what he says, that that usually biblical and Christian comedy attacks religious people. Because here's the problem with religious people.10:12 They're just too serious. They're just furrowed brow, pointy finger, all dressed up, judgmental. They're just no fun at all. And so the best thing you could do is make fun of them because they're a joke.10:24 And they don't know that, but they're hilarious and making fun of them does 2 things. It helps them come to repentance seeing that they're a joke, and it helps other people who would follow them because they're so10:36 convincing, because they're so committed to not follow in their foolish lifestyle. So he says, rightly, the prophet Jeremiah attacked idolaters. The Lord Jesus attacked the self righteous Pharisees. The10:48 apostle Paul attacked the Judaizers. Irenaeus attacked the Gnostics, and Luther attacked the papists. We'll start with the old testament. Does the bible have any humor in it? Or is that just10:59 not appropriate for religion? We'll start in Genesis, the book of beginnings, where all things begin including good comedy. And the book starts, fairly early on with a guy marrying his sister, which is really funny11:11 unless you're from Kentucky and then it's a little too close to home. But it is kind of peculiar. And then it moves along. God floods the earth, kills everyone except for a family headed by a man named Noah. They climb11:21 into an ark. Upon exiting the ark in Genesis 9, there's this really funny little story where Noah gets drunk and passes out naked in his tent. I mean, the whole book is a hillbilly redneck saga11:33 par excellence. It's like all of Genesis takes place in a trailer park. It's absolutely mesmerizing. I preached the book a while back. If you were here, you know, it's filled with redneck comedy. And, and Noah gets11:45 drunk, passes out naked in his tent like a hillbilly redneck on vacation. And when I see it, I see a guy not with a tent, but blue tarps. I see a guy in swim trunks and cowboy boots, drunk on11:56 moonshine with a John Deere cap, sitting around playing Texas Hold'em with his uncle daddy eating Hot Pockets. That's just how I see it. Or like that. That's kinda how I see12:08 Noah. That's kinda how I see Noah. It is kinda funny that after God kills everyone, the 1 righteous guy gets drunk, passes12:19 out naked in his tent, obviously with a NASCAR tank top on. Moving right along through Genesis, we then get to a guy named Jacob. His name means trickster. He's a con man. And so he goes to this12:31 well in Genesis 25, and there is a beautiful young lady named Rachel. He's really interested in her. So he does this Herculean feet, taking the lid off of the well so she could have water. Normally, would take12:43 a whole host of men, but he sort of shows up, stretches out, gets on his tank top, you know, oils himself up like a bodybuilder. Here we go baby, fresh water. Lets her into the well, and then he rushes up12:55 and kisses her like he just won the Nextel Cup, and he's on the stage with the trophy girl. So then she brings him home to meet her daddy who is named Laban, and this guy is an absolute varsity con13:07 man. And so much of the ensuing chapters of Genesis is Laban tricking the trickster all the way to the point where he makes Jacob work for 7 years to marry the lovely Rachel.13:19 He gets married, wakes up the next morning, rolls over, and he's not sleeping living married to Rachel, but instead lazy eyed Leah.13:31 True story. He just freaks out. You kinda hear Homer Simpson just explode from the bible. And and what happens is, he was supposed to marry Rachel, but the trickster13:42 dad swapped out women on the trickster. So he married lazy eyed Leah, the sister, had to work another 7 years to marry Rachel. The whole thing is a comic ruse. It's it's subtle13:54 irony. And if you continue in the Old Testament, then you get to the book of Exodus, where Moses goes up on the mountain to talk to God, get the 10 commandments. While he's gone, he left Aaron in charge, the first14:04 priest, his dear brother, to watch over the people. He takes all the plunder and gold and jewelry from Egypt. They melt it down. They create a what? A golden calf. They parade around it and worship,14:16 and Aaron tells them, worship this idol. This is the God who delivered you from Egypt. Moses is up on the mount with God. God tells him, look, you better go down there. People lost their mind. It's going really bad. He14:27 comes down. He goes to Aaron, and and you gotta get the subtlety in this. He goes to Aaron. He says, Aaron, what happened? Here's a huge golden idol. Here are Aaron's exact words from14:39 Exodus 32 24. Quote, they gave it to me and I threw it in the fire and out came this calf. Right? It's like a dad walking in on his high school14:51 daughter with her boyfriend. They got no clothes on and they're like, we don't know what happened. We were talking and all our clothes fell off. I got no idea. We're victims. The belt's15:02 defective. You know, I mean it just it's funny. The bible also includes something that the dictionary of biblical imagery calls scatological humor. I've been accused of15:14 this, and it's biblical. Scatological humor, for those of you who are publicly like, scatological. Poopy comedy. That's what it is. Scatological humor. And I'll give you a couple examples of scatological humor in the Old15:25 Testament. 1 is with 2 guys, Eglon and Ehud. You remember this? How many of you remember this story? It's in Judges chapter 3. It says that, there's a guy. His name's Ehud. He's a left handed southpaw assassin.15:38 Right? He's Jack Bauer. It's what he is. He can kill anybody. And so he decides he's gonna go and he's gonna kill king Eglon who is called quote, this is your bible says, a very fat man. End quote.15:50 That's not funny. It is. Maybe you need to hit the treadmill, but it's still funny. He's a very fat man. So he goes in, the left handed assassin does to the very fat king, and says, I want you to release all your16:01 security detail. I need to meet with you in private. I have a word from the Lord. So everybody leaves, and he pulls out a sword, and he stabs the king right in the middle, and the bible says he was so fat that the fat16:11 covered the whole sword and went all the way up the guy's arm who stabbed him. That's a lot of fat. Right? Some were like, that's gross. And kind of funny. Kind of Monty Python funny, if you think about it.16:23 It kind of sounds like a Monty Python skit. And what happens then is he hit an intestine and slit the intestine. And when you hit the intestine, what comes out? All the feces. And it just poured out of this very fat man,16:34 which means there's a lot in there. Now what happens is, the the left handed assassin, the southpaw assassin, he escapes, and the security detail for the king are outside of his chambers,16:47 and they start to smell something really funky because he slid in the intestine, and they don't know that he got killed. They think instead he's having like a bad chalupa post experience. You know what I'm talking about?16:57 Oh, it's Taco Bell. Just give him a while. He'll be alright. And they wait and wait and wait, but the scent is so bad. Eventually, they break in and they see the king dead and his intestines just emptied themselves all17:06 over the floor. And it's kind of funny, unless of course you're the king. If you move on to, Ezekiel 4, there's another occasion for scatological humor. This is 1 of the more peculiar conversations in17:18 the bible. I'm not even making this up. Ezekiel 4, God comes to Ezekiel and says this, I want you to go to the bathroom and I want you to stack up all your feces and I want you to cook over it.17:33 That's different. Right? I mean, you'd all agree with me. You're like, I didn't get that in Sunday school as a kid. That was not my memory verse. Yeah. They skipped that 1. Because they know you'd go home and poop and17:44 light it on fire and tell your mom I'm biblical. I got a verse. So so then Ezekiel this is so funny. Ezekiel starts negotiating with God. Now17:56 I would have argued for takeout. You know, or I would have argued for wood. Here's what Ezekiel says. God, instead of my feces, can I cook over, cow feces? God's like,18:08 yeah, I'm cool with that. So that's the compromise. What a weird negotiation. I would like to negotiate what kind of feces we cook over. Is it just18:20 me? Or that's different. Right? I mean, okay. Fine. I'm having fun. Tough crowd. We'll keep going on. Oh, here's 1 of my favorites, Elijah. God loved this guy so much. He took him18:32 right up to heaven. He didn't even taste death. Enoch and Elijah, the only 2 guys in the Bible didn't taste death. God loved him so much he took them right to heaven. Here's here's the situation. There was a cult in that18:41 day, a false religion. They worshiped a God called Baal. Okay? So these these prophets of Baal are against the prophets of God, and they're outnumbering and and absolutely opposing18:53 the prophets of God. So, they set up the equivalent of an old testament octagon. And what happens is the prophets of Baal show up, and little Elijah shows up to defend the God of the Bible, and they're gonna have a God19:04 showdown right there. And here's what he says in first Kings 18. Elijah says this, or we read rather, and at noon, Elijah mocked them. And this is a big deal. This pay per view,19:16 and there's live blogging, and the media's there. And he gets up, and he mocks their God, and he mocks their religion. And you know, you don't think that's a big deal. But imagine, you know, a Muslim who's down on his,19:26 you know, prayer cloth or on his rug praying to Mecca. You come up and and make fun of him. You know? Or a Buddhist who's got his, you know, his, you know, heel behind his ear to pray.19:38 They were like, doesn't that hurt? You know? What is it? Are you like an antenna? I mean, what you know, make a little fun with him. And at noon Elijah mocked them saying cry aloud for he is a God.19:50 Either he is musing or he is relieving himself. Oh, know why your God can't show up and fight my God. He's sitting on his throne.20:02 He's he's on the toilet. He'll be here later. It's a real bummer when your God eats cheese. It gets all bound up like that. It makes them late for appointments. He's mocking their religion. That's what he does.20:14 How about, this 1, on Isaiah 44. That's funny. God mocks this guy who gets a piece of wood. He gets a log, and he decides, this half is good for20:26 firewood, and since I got an A in wood shop, I'll carve this half into a God that I can worship. And God mocks this guy like, wow. What great skill. I mean, only a real genius would know20:38 which half of the log was firewood and which half was God. I mean, it's just a it's a total mockery.20:44 Alright, guys. Pastor Mark here letting you know about the latest book, New Day's Old Demons. It's a prophetic word against pathetic wokeness. You guys understand exactly what I'm talking about.20:55 Hopefully, it is on sale. If not, it's coming out very, very soon. Would appreciate your prayers as we punch a lot of people and things in the mouth. And if it's21:04 a help, get a copy. How about this 1? You guys read the book of Job? There's some funny stuff in Job. I mean, not if you're Job. But there's some funny stuff. Right? He he21:16 his kids die. He loses everything. He breaks out with sores. He's sitting there scratching his, you know, itchy body with shards of clay. The only person that doesn't die is his wife, and that wasn't really a gift.21:28 She's no help. Curse God and die. Thanks baby. That's huge. That's great help. Thanks Barnabas. What an encouragement you are. And and what happens is his buddies, who I think are first year bible college students, keep21:39 showing up wanting to debate systematic theology with him. And if you don't get the irony, you miss the point of Job. It calls them his friends and his comforters. And these guys have21:50 Kevorkian bedside manner. They're not comforting at all. And then the the book near the conclusion, I think it has a funny part, where God shows up in Genesis or in Job 38 rather, and says to22:02 Job, because Job's getting a little whiny at this point, gird your loins. I'm gonna talk to you like a man. Which literally means put a cup on. And that's God. God is telling22:14 a guy, I'm gonna kick you right in the middle. You got about 30 seconds to get that cup on. And then he goes into a series of 80 questions about science beginning with, where were you when I laid the22:25 foundations of the earth? And Job said, I got it. I tap out. Tap out. Tap out. He taps out right there. Very smart. And the whole thing is a little bit ironic and sarcastic. How about the book of Proverbs? Any22:37 of you seen that occasionally Proverbs makes fun of people? How about the sluggard? Which is a guy who is an image bearer, but is devolving, going backward on the evolutionary chart to being a slug. That's what a22:49 sluggard is. It's just a lazy guy. We call them single white guys who live with their mom in their pajamas, sleep between Star Wars sheets, and blog about how the world should be as part of the pajama hadeen.23:00 Sluggard. Sluggard. Says this about the sluggard in Proverbs 19 24. The sluggard buries his hand in the dish and will not even raise it to his mouth. It's mocking a guy who's23:12 sitting there watching the sci fi channel all day because it's the trekking marathon, and he's got a, you know, a bowl of guac and a bowl of chips, and he takes the chip and puts it in the guac and23:24 just doesn't have quite the ambition to get it to his mouth. That guy. The guy who's so lazy, he orders pizza and leaves the door unlocked. And when the delivery boy comes, he's like, come in because he's too lazy to get23:36 up and go to the door to get the meal. That guy. And also mocks the sluggard in Proverbs 22 13. And that is the guy who's a sluggard, but he's always got a good reason. He's very creative with his23:47 excuses. The sluggard says, there's a lion outside. I shall be killed in the streets. This is the equivalent of a musician who's living with his girlfriend, freeloading off his girlfriend. Every day she wakes him up at23:59 the crack of noon and says, why don't you go get a job? And he says, there's terrorists out there. I could die. What do you call a musician without a girlfriend? Homeless. Moving right24:11 along. Oh, that's funny. In the morning, they're all like, You're all like, I play guitar. That's not funny. Yes, it is. Yes, it is.24:23 Does it Ladies, have you read Proverbs to see that it also makes fun of some women? Because it does. What what does it say that the nagging wife is like? A dripping faucet, which would be24:35 really funny if she was nagging because the faucet was dripping and the husband wasn't fixing it. That would be super funny, unless you're the husband. And it also says in Proverbs, it's better to live where, men, than24:46 in a house with a quarrelsome, contentious, nagging wife? On the roof. And you just think of that. Can you imagine driving home tonight, and you're going through the neighborhood, and you see a bunch of tents24:58 up on the roof of all the houses in your neighborhood. Guys out there with Coleman lanners, and, you know, cooking hot dogs and playing Texas hold them in folding chairs. Say, what happened? Just being25:09 biblical brother. Just being biblical. Just driving me nuts. How about this 1? Proverbs 11 22. Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman without25:21 discretion. A beautiful woman with no modesty, decency, or propriety is like a pig with jewelry. Alright? It's just not fitting. I often ask the question, okay. So why25:33 are you dating her? And the answer is she's hot. My answer is always so's Hell. Hell. Think it through. Think it through. Think it through. Run Forrest, run.25:49 Can she read? Does she have a bible? Is she finished rehab? You gotta do your homework. Does he do this all the time?26:02 Yes. That's why they have the security. Alright. It says repeatedly in the Bible that God mocks people. I'll give you 3 examples. Psalm 3726:13 13. The Lord laughs at the wicked for he sees their day is coming. Psalm 2 4. He who sits in the heavens laughs, the Lord holds them in derision. And Psalm 59 8, but you, O Lord, laugh at them. You hold all the nations26:25 in derision. Alright. Old Testament, God made fun of people. New Testament, is there any source or reason or example of comedy, humor in the New Testament? Sure. We'll start in Colossians 4 6. Let26:37 your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt so you may know how to answer each person. Some people, you gotta talk real gracious. Some people, kinda salty, is what they need.26:49 Examples include Paul in first Corinthians 1 4, writing to a jacked up church. Right? 1 guy's sleeping with his mom, everybody's like, it's an alternative lifestyle. I don't know what the problem is. We'll get him a27:01 float in the parade. Know what I mean? Come on. I get paid the same either way. I don't care.27:15 I mean, we need the seats. So anyways, we'll free some up. Anyways, they're also getting drunk at communion. They got all kinds of jacked up problems. So Paul pays them a backhanded comment in first Corinthians 1 4. He27:26 says, I praise God for all the grace he's given you. Which verse is like, thanks. Hey. Hey, that's not nice. It's like saying you're smart for a dumb guy. You're like, ew. Hey. Because you only get27:37 grace when you sin, so the more grace you get, the more sin you get. So I get it. I know. We'll pray for you. How about this 1? There's 2 funny occasions where people get locked out of church. 1 is acts 12 where Peter27:48 gets locked outside of a church prayer meeting. Do think it's funny like, hey, guys, come on. I wrote the bible. I'm good at this. Let me end up praying. The other one's Revelation 3 20, which everyone jacks27:59 up. Behold, I stand at the door and knock, says Jesus. And if you'll answer, I'll come in and eat with you. And every evangelist with the altar call at the rally says, and if you today, Jesus is knocking at the door of28:10 your no. He's that's not what he's talking about. It's a church that's having a potluck and won't let Jesus come to it. So he's outside trying to break in and knocking on the door. Hey. It's me, Jesus. You might have28:20 read my book. Can I come in and have, some food? Jesus gets locked out of the potluck. And it's kind of a funny picture, but the truth is some churches in the effort to be tolerant and diverse and inclusive of everyone28:31 don't have room for Jesus because he and the lesbian Buddhist pastor don't see eye to eye on stuff. How about this 1?28:43 Galatians 5. This one's the best. This one's the best. Now what happens in Galatians is this. There's a church in a town called Galatia, and they've been infiltrated by some false teachers called Judaizers who28:55 say to go to heaven you need to believe in Jesus and be circumcised, obviously if you're a male. Okay? Circumcision began with Abraham, who though he was a very old man circumcised himself, which is funny unless29:07 you're Abraham. At circumcision, you want me to what? To go to heaven? I mean, is it nice? Is it worth it? You know, like so. Circumcision, for those of you who don't know, is29:18 where you take, the male appendage and you cut some skin off. And you know what solid guys are like, I don't like where this is going. I don't care what the point is. This is not funny. Move right along. It is funny.29:30 We'll get there. So what happens is, they're saying Jesus plus equals salvation. Jesus, taught and Paul echoes that Jesus plus anything ruins everything, because all you need is Jesus. Not any religious work, not any29:41 effort of your own self, not any good thing you do. It's all the good that Jesus does for you. It's gifted righteousness, not earned righteousness like religion teaches. And so what happens is this church is divided.29:53 There are Gentiles who are not circumcised. There are Judaizers who are, and they're fighting over whether or not you have to be circumcised. And I'm I'm even not sure how they check this. Right? I mean, is there like a30:03 greeter at the door like, Gentile, you sit over here. You know, like, just just the whole just the you know you know what I'm saying? It's like, who enforces this? Like, what poor deacon drew the30:15 small straw and got this job? Oh, man. I'm always a circumcision checker. I hate this.30:27 And so what happens is Paul writes a letter to the church, and they all get together, and the pastor reads it, and it's sort of tense in the air, and the Jews and the Gentiles are divided. Here's what he says in30:37 Galatians 5 11 and 12. But if I brothers still preach circumcision, why am I still being persecuted? In that case, the offense of the cross has been removed. I wish those who unsettled you would30:48 emasculate themselves. This is a cut off your pickle joke. Alright. This is Larena Bobbittism. That's what it is. Doh. Every guy's like, oh,31:00 come on, man. Okay. Now here's what he's saying. He's it's a reductio ad absurdum. It's a logical argument where he's saying, well, if you think you guys are really holy because you cut a little skin off your pickle,31:10 well, then just go varsity big boy and cut the whole thing off and be super duper holy. Now this being read in a church by the pastor when this is the debated31:22 issue, I'm sure all the Judaizers are like, that is not funny. I am not eating a hot dog ever again just in protest. And I'm sure the Gentiles are like, that's funny. Give us more of those. How long is this letter? We31:34 can do this again? And he's making fun of religious people who take themselves seriously and take God too lightly and wanna add things to Jesus that are not31:45 appropriate. Some of you would say, but I thought we're supposed to be loving. That doesn't seem very loving. What is very funny, you could check this in Galatians 5. In the next few verses after the cut off your pickle31:55 joke, what he says is, we are to love 1 another like Jesus commanded. And you're like, what? Cut off your pickle for the love of and I love32:07 you. You know, it's a very but what this means is we need to define love biblically, not by hallmark, and also, it's not just love for those who are religious, it's love for those who32:19 would be tempted to follow them. And by making fun of religious people, we show them what a joke they are. And additionally, we discourage others from following in their example. That leads to perhaps the most important32:29 point. Was Jesus funny? Did Jesus have a sense of humor? Was was he more like Spock? Was he just always serious and logical walking around with syllogisms? You know, is that how32:41 Jesus was? And if you think about it, Jesus' job before beginning his public ministry was as a carpenter. He's a construction worker. He's hanging out with fishermen and blue collar guys for 3 years. Much of their life32:52 is spent walking around and camping. I don't know about you guys, but you tend to get 12 blue collar guys together, and eventually somebody's pulling a finger, somebody's telling a joke. You know what I'm talking about?33:03 To be fully human, Jesus would have had to have had a sense of humor. But the sense of humor that Jesus had is often totally overlooked. 1 man who does not see33:15 Jesus as funny is a man named GK Chesterton. He's a great author. He wrote an amazing book called Orthodoxy, but he ends that book with this statement. There was some 1 thing that was far too great for God to show us33:27 when he walked upon the earth, and I have sometimes fancied that it was his mirth. Says you know, as we read the bible, we learn a lot about Jesus. The 1 thing we don't see him do is laugh or tell a joke. The creeds even33:38 follow this like the Nicenean apostles creed. They say that Jesus Christ was born of the virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate and died. They say nothing about his life. Just skip his his life on the earth as33:50 a fully God, fully man person all together. Additionally, others have followed in that example, and it includes early films like the 19 27 film, King of Kings, 1 of the first movies made34:02 about Jesus by Cecil B. DeMille, who wasn't about Christian. But in that movie, Jesus comes off superhuman, like he has an aura, a glow about him. Like he's radioactive. Like he lived34:14 in Hanford or something for too long. And and you could tell it's Jesus in the movie. You're like, oh, which one's Jesus? Well, glowing 1. You know, the 1 who's glowing. But that's not how Jesus really looked. He had no34:26 beauty or majesty in him. Nothing in his appearance that we would be attracted to him, Isaiah the prophet declares. But that picture of Jesus sort of floating around, just telling syllogisms, stroking his beard,34:38 imitating Spock, and glowing like a nightlight, is sort of the predominant thinking that has, led to much misunderstanding about Jesus' humor. There are now 17000 books34:49 about Jesus in the Library of Congress, and in so far as I have found, there's only 1 about Jesus sense of humor. It's a great understudied aspect of Christian theology. It's called the35:01 humor of Christ. It's by Elton Trueblood. It's a great little book. He's actually a good author, But it's almost well, it's more than 40 years old, so it's been a while. Here's what he says. There are numerous passages35:12 which are practically incomprehensible when regarded as sober prose, but which are luminous. They're illuminated once we become liberated from the gratuitous assumption that Christ never joked. Once we35:24 realize that Christ was not always engaged in pious talk, we have made an enormous step on the road to understanding. Goes on to say elsewhere, Christ laughed and35:36 he expected others to laugh. A misguided piety has made us fear that acceptance of his obvious wit and humor would somehow be mildly blasphemous or sacrilegious.35:48 I get accused of this all the time. Religion, we think, is serious business. Right? Think pointed finger. Think furrowed brow. Think serious religious types. Religion, we think,36:00 is serious business, and serious business is incompatible with banter. The, dictionary of biblical imagery likewise says, if there is a single person within the pages of the bible that we can36:12 consider to be a humorous, it is without a doubt Jesus. Jesus was a master of wordplay, irony, and satire, often with an element of humor intermixed. Here's why we miss36:23 sometimes the humor of Jesus. And the funny parts in the gospels. 1, we become overly familiar. Sometimes you have heard the bible story so often, you kind of miss the crazy, shocking,36:35 funny, human, earthy, silly parts of it. Secondly, the centerpiece of Christian theology is the death of Jesus on the cross, where God substituted36:46 himself and died to pay the penalty for our sins so that we might have salvation. But that can so dominate that Jesus life is again seen little more as not sinning to prepare himself to die, not living as a human being36:58 with friends in a sense of humor. And you know what? As you read the Bible, Jesus gets invited to a lot of parties, weddings, house parties, meals. His critics accuse him of being a drunkard, a glutton, and a friend of37:09 sinners, which is untrue. He didn't drink too much, he didn't eat too much, and his friends were pretty crazy. But he's still friends with crazy people like me, and we're all grateful that Jesus is willing to hang out37:19 with people as jacked up as we are. And the religious people couldn't understand. They're like, you know what? All the sinners invite him to their house to have dinner and be their friend. There must be something wrong37:29 with him. No. Maybe he was really fun to hang out with. Maybe the true mark of a Christian is someone you would eat chicken wings with, and shoot pool with, or throw darts with, or go to the game with, not just if they37:40 can exegete the Greek text and beat you in Bible jeopardy like some Sunday school jerk. Perhaps. I would offer that as a prayer request. But but maybe the true mark of a mature Christian is someone37:52 that is actually kind of fun to hang out with. Now they love God, and they love you, and they tell the truth, but Jesus was that guy people love to hang out with him. And we tend to overlook that because religious people38:03 tend not to focus on it. And thirdly, there's cultural distance between the days of Jesus 2000 years ago, and our present culture. And how many of you have learned that culture is really the container for38:14 comedy? Right? I mean, how many of you have watched British comedy and you're like, I don't know what is so funny. Well, it's because British people have a different culture. And how many of you have been to anotherShow more
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Mark Driscoll
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