There is a deep humor and profound mischief in the Christian message that is often overlooked.

Part of what makes a joke work is an element of surprise. First, we are given a premise or set-up. For example, “Why did the nose stop going to school?” Then, the punchline takes us in an unexpected direction: “He was tired of getting picked on.” The premise sets up our expectations and the punchline subverts them.

Practical jokes work in much the same way. When I was young, my dad (a pastor) and his friend (also a pastor in a nearby town) got into a battle of practical jokes. One time while we were out of town, the friend and his wife filled our yard with lawn ornaments dressed in Hawaiian shirts and filled the showerheads in our house with packets of Kool-Aid. My mom was a little bit startled but soon began to laugh when she saw purple water coming out at her!

Sometimes we laugh at the surprises of life itself. Maybe you expected to fall on your face, but the punchline is that things turned out okay.

There’s a scene at the end of the Lord of the Rings movies where the main character Frodo is reunited with all his friends – Gandalf, Merry, Pippin, Sam, and the rest – after a long journey that nearly killed him. There are very few words in the whole scene. Instead, the scene is full of laughter. I suspect that they all believed they would die and never see each other again, but the surprising punchline is that they are alive and together. They expected tragedy, but they found comedy.

This scene is an image of heaven for me. When I imagine seeing my grandparents again, I wonder if before any words are spoken we will simply laugh at the joy of it all.

The pastor and novelist Frederick Buechner in a chapter on the comedy of the gospel says, “The tragic is inevitable. The comic is unforeseeable.” Growing old, getting sick, accidents, mistakes, sin, war, and death – that’s the tragic. That’s the inevitable. But new life, forgiveness, healing, wholeness, peace, and resurrection – that’s the comic. That’s the unforeseeable. These things may even seem impossible.

I think this is what makes God such a good comedian. All things are possible for God, so God is the master of surprising us with the impossible. God brings life out of death, forgiveness out of sin, holiness out of sinners, friendship out of enemies, hope out of despair. God brings something out of nothing and all we can do is laugh.

Take, for example, the story of the birth of Isaac to Sarah and Abraham (Genesis 21:1-8). Sarah was in her nineties. Abraham was near 100 years old. It seemed inevitable that they would never have children. But then an angel of the Lord shows up to say the impossible would happen: Sarah will give birth to a baby boy just as God had promised long ago.

Maybe we understand why Sarah began to laugh: “God has brought laughter for me,” she says. “Everyone who hears will laugh with me” (Genesis 21:6). And they named the baby Isaac, which means “laughter.”

Perhaps God’s greatest joke, however, is Easter itself. The women who went to the tomb expected the inevitable – they expected to find Jesus dead and buried. But here’s the punchline: God had done the impossible. God had pulled life out of death like a magician pulls a rabbit out of a hat. Jesus is alive!

This is why many churches celebrate Holy Humor Sunday the first Sunday after Easter. Early Christians like Gregory of Nyssa and Saint Augustine described Easter as God’s great trick or practical joke on the devil. Sin, death, and the devil are the butt of this joke.

To slightly adjust one of my favorite hymns: “Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth, how can I keep from laughing?” May God surprise you with humor and bless you with laughter.

 

Note: This post originally appeared in the Brodhead Free Press and the Independent Register as part of their weekly “Pastor’s Corner” column.