~ A God of Humor ~
This
Series ~ This
series of posts looks at some of the many attributes of God. Generally, we move in alphabetical order.
Introduction ~ We
often do, and should, read the Bible with reverence. However, that does not
mean we should not appreciate the humor of the Bible—much of which we miss
because of cultural changes.
Scripture ~ “Mark 3:16-17
lists rather formally the names of the apostles: ‘And so He appointed the
Twelve: Simon, to whom he gave the name Peter, James the son of Zebedee and
John the brother of James, to whom he gave the name Boanerges or “Sons of
Thunder”…’ Can you just picture Jesus actually calling them that? There is
a reason for that nickname, though, as in their fervor they are unhappy with a
man using Jesus’s name to heal the sick and they zealously try to stop him
(Mark 9:38-40; Luke 9:38-39).
“They show the same zeal
in a passage which soon follows in (Luke 9:53-56), where the brothers want to
call down fire upon a Samaritan village for refusing to welcome Jesus. There is
a certain innocence about the directness of their apparently youthful response,
but the very idea of Jesus hanging such a nickname on them, one rooted
well-enough in reality to appear in Scripture, puts Christ in a much more human
light than the austere, thoughtful, driven, combative, instructive, and
empathetic Christ who dominates the Synoptics and our own concepts of the
Lord.” —Humor in the
Bible).
Quotes ~ Consider
a few quotes from G.K. Chesterton.
“There
was one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our
earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth.”
“The Bible tells us to love our neighbors, and also to love our enemies; probably because generally they are the same people.”
“If there were no God, there would be no
atheists.”
“It is absurd for the Evolutionist to complain
that it is unthinkable for an admittedly unthinkable God to make everything out
of nothing, and then pretend that it is more thinkable that nothing should turn
itself into everything.”
And Steve Wilkens has written: “As I read theology through the lens of
humor,” he writes, “I discovered that I don’t just love God. I like
God.”
~ Robert
Lloyd Russell, ABUNDANT LIFE
NOW blog.
~~~~~~~~~~~
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