Humor is something relatively unique to us as image-bearers of God in creation. Animals tend not to have a sense of humor. As Terry Lindvall writes, “Animals lack that sense of incongruous. Woodpeckers don’t do knock-knock jokes. Monkeys don’t human around. No chicken laughs when another asks him why the human crossed the road. And other chickens don’t crack up when one chicken steps in chicken … stuff.”[3] Our sense of humor comes from being made in the image of God who laughs.
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Learning To Laugh
[1] Humor is a funny thing. It is altogether familiar yet also mysterious. What makes us laugh? Why do we find things funny? There are academic fields of study dedicated to discovering what makes things humorous. These academicians even have a journal entitled International Journal of Humor Research. No joke. Just thinking of a room full of academicians studying jokes and such to discover what makes them funny is … well … hilarious. Analyzing jokes and explaining punchlines kills the joke. In the off-Broadway play, Freud’s Last Session, Freud quotes American humorist E. B. White’s classic aphorism about humor: “Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the purely scientific mind.”[2] Hopefully, exploring a bit of what it takes to have a sense of humor won’t kill it.
Mr. Beam, Ophthalmologist
The most well-known, weaponized phrase used against Christians by non-Christians and other Christians alike is, “Judge not” (Lk 6.37; Matt 7.1). Any time someone’s actions are called into question as being sinful, the broad sword “judge not” is wielded in the fashion of William Wallace fighting the English. The attacker must back down. He doesn’t stand a chance. How could he? These are Jesus’ own words being recited as a command to his followers.
But is Jesus saying that we are not to judge anything at all in anyone else’s life? Hardly. Within the context of Luke’s account, Jesus calls his disciples to see the difference or judge between those who are “blessed” and those who are under “woe.” He goes on to speak of people as trees who are known or judged, by the fruit they bear. Disciples of Jesus will be able to judge people as good or evil by their words and actions.
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Wise Laughter
Author Remy Wilkins teaches at Geneva Academy
His first novel is available from Canon Press
We are made to be happy. Created to enter into the eternal joy of God, our whole being inclines to that end, but the fallen world has put forth barriers and by our own sin we bar ourselves from that endless delight, and death blinds us to that reality. Yet laughter breaks through.
This tendency for all things to bend to joy is seen in memory. Nobody in recalling an injury feels its pain again, but at the slightest invocation of a joyous event laughter spills out. Pain is forgotten yet joy soars on, achieving greater heights at each remembrance. Faith and hope join hands in laughter, for it is a bold declaration that though this world is fraught with terror, evil and ills yet we can delight in it because we know its comedic end.
Laughter is a powerful weapon. It is a divine act and a powerful contrast between Yahweh and Allah, who does not laugh. But for all that is praiseworthy in laughter there is the laughter of fools that should give us pause. What is the difference between foolish laughter and the laughter of the wise? (more…)
On Crude Humor
Author Remy Wilkins is a teacher at Geneva Academy.
His first novel Strays is available from Canon Press
“You wouldn’t hit a man with glasses would ya?”
“No, of course not. I’d hit him with a bat.”
In our culture of frivolity it is tempting for Christians to think that solemnity should be our defining attribute. The coarseness of the world impedes us from enjoying an y sort of sexual or bodily function jokes because we do not want to be guilty of approving that which is sinful. Even though we know that the bed is undefiled and the body is good, and are therefore free to enjoy those aspects of life in humor, we are stunted in our ability to appreciate them due to the folly and poor taste of our age.
So while we are not to be characterized by coarse jesting, we must learn to distinguish jokes that laud wickedness (the ribaldry forbidden in Ephesians) from those jokes that merely highlight the glorious and comedic world. We cannot merely clam up and play it safe, throwing out the good jokes with the bad. If we are to be characterized by joy then we must be leaders in laughter, but Humor is not a tame lion. It is invasive, subversive and mysterious. It is hard to determine where it is anchored, whether it mocks or praises, and what it is standing with or against.
For this reason many hedge their laughter, guard their mirth like an untrustworthy servant. There is a temerity that would rather not laugh at something funny than to laugh at something sinful. So how can we train our minds to laugh wisely? (more…)
