The Comedy of the Resurrection

From my paper...

The Gospels are serious, but seriousness does not exclude the expression of joy or the use of humor. A better understanding of life, self, and God can be attained when a person is able to recognize humor in the Bible. Trueblood notes that new possibilities in understanding and applying the teachings of Jesus exist when the reader can understand that Jesus was not always serious (96). Jesus looked at his disciples and the multitudes, a group of people who needed grace, and said, “God blesses you who weep now, for in due time you will laugh.” (Luke 6:21, NLT).

Jesus knew that the end is not weeping; the end is laughter. Frederick Buechner writes of the humor of Jesus, “Nobody claims there’s a chuckle on every page, but laughter’s what the whole Bible is really about” (Peculiar Treasures 173)

History’s great comedy is the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In the early Greek Orthodox Church, the day after Easter, the people gathered to tell jokes and funny stories. The jokes and stories were told to celebrate the practical joke that God played on Satan. Satan thought that he had conquered the world, but on the third day the tomb was empty and Christ had risen (Demaray, Laughter, Joy, and Healing 35; Hyers, And God Created Laughter 25). The comedy of the Bible, specifically the story of Jesus Christ, is found in the fact that liberation and laughter come through God’s victory in Jesus Christ (Oden 405-06).