DID YOU HEAR THE ONE ABOUT. . . ?

Is there humour in the Bible? It is certainly not a book of jokes; in any case humour doesn't travel well, especially across the centuries. Humour depends on things you don't have to explain. If you have to explain why something is funny it usually isn't. The British pride themselves on their sense of humour; to call someone ‘humourless’ is a big criticism. But I suspect that other nations say the same about themselves. Humour is often a way of coping with difficult situations and there is never any shortage of those wherever you are. In the days of the Cold War two dogs met on the Polish-Czech border going in opposite directions. ‘Why on earth do you want to come to Czechoslovakia (as it was then)?’ said the Czech dog. ‘Because I'm hungry. I want to eat. But why on earth do you want to come to Poland?’ said the Polish dog. ‘Because I want to be free. I want to bark!’ was the Czech reply.

So what about the Bible? I can't imagine that Jesus held huge crowds spell-bound with his preaching without a word of humour. Sometimes it was just the sort of exaggeration any of us might use to get our point across. So he says ‘Don't judge others. Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your neighbour's eye when you have a great plank in your own eye? First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your neighbour's eye.’ Often he would tell stories, some perhaps which were based on things that had happened locally, gossip going round the market-places of Galilee. People may have recognised, for example, the rich man who invited all his friends to a great banquet, and later sent his servant to tell them it was all ready so they were to come. But for some reason they didn't want to, and started making feeble excuses: ‘I've just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’ You can imagine Jesus' hearers chipping in with the answer: ‘Well, go and see it tomorrow!’ Another said ‘I've just bought five yoke of oxen, and I'm on my way to try them out’. (‘The oxen won't run away – they'll still be there tomorrow!’) The third one didn't even ask to be excused, but said ‘I have just got married, so I can't come’. (‘Bring your wife!’) The uproarious story ends with the rich man sending his servant to invite all and sundry in their place, ‘the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame’ – just the people most in need of a good time.

Perhaps the real reason why we miss the humour in the Bible is that there is something deeper than laughter there. What runs deeper than laughter or a smile is Joy. Joy lasts longer than the laughter at a joke. ‘There is joy in heaven over one sinner who repents’, says Jesus. God calls us to a feast of joy. In Jesus God met with the worst that can happen to us and beaten it, so even when everything seems to be going wrong we know that at the heart of things there is joy. And that's the best of jokes because it's true!

Christopher Lamb

The theme is “Harvest”. The preacher at the 5.30 service on Sunday will be the Rev'd Keith Berry-Davies, Chaplain to the Sealed Knot. He and others will be in full 17^thC dress see page 5.

We are Macmillan (article on page 8).