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Did Jesus have a sense of humor?


OLAM Dad

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I'm not aware of anywhere in scripture where Jesus was depicted as either joking or being sarcastic. Why is this? Is it just because the scripture writers stuck just to the facts or did Jesus just not have a sense of humor?

While I agree that his 'mission' was one of the utmost seriousness, I've got to believe that he had moments of levity, even after His public ministry started.

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Thy Geekdom Come

He may have been sarcastic, depending on your definition...He called Herod "that fox" and I'm sure that must have gotten a laugh.

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I'm not sure what he meant when He told Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan".

I don't think he was being sarcastic and I'm certain Peter didn't find any humor in it.

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Thy Geekdom Come

[quote name='OLAM Dad' date='Jan 30 2006, 12:11 PM']I'm not sure what he meant when He told Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan".

I don't think he was being sarcastic and I'm certain Peter didn't find any humor in it.
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I think that was serious. "Satan" just means "emeny" or "opponent" in Hebrew...it was a reference to Peter's getting in His way.

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[quote name='Raphael' date='Jan 30 2006, 11:15 AM']I think that was serious.  "Satan" just means "emeny" or "opponent" in Hebrew...it was a reference to Peter's getting in His way.
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I agree. So... any humor or sarcasm?

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Thy Geekdom Come

[quote name='OLAM Dad' date='Jan 30 2006, 12:30 PM']I agree.  So...  any humor or sarcasm?
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Well, as for His private life, we can't really know. But there seems to be in the saints a certain chuckle of joy in their writing whenever they speak of holy things...I think Jesus probably had a bit of that at times, like when He proclaimed the Beatitudes...you can imagine Him smiling and being light-hearted in a way that seems more purely humorous than joke-telling or sarcasm ever even approach.

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Ash Wednesday

There is one part in the bible where he comes up and asks his desciples if they've caught any fish yet. (Before he performs the miracle of the multitude of fishes in the net)

An old priest I knew suggested that Jesus may have been giving them a little bit of a ribbing because of course they didn't catch any fish, and he knew it.

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A lot of Jesus's wordplay comes in the form of puns and hidden meanings. If you catch them and understand them, you might see some humor.

As a side note, Jesus surely had to have a sense of humor (maybe not like Life of Brian, but whatever). We know, and John tells us, that the Gospels aren't the full life of Jesus. I am pretty sure Jesus sleep/ate/walked/fished whatever for quite some time that wasn't recorded. The Gospels contain what the Evanglisits thought was required to be written down and passed on to us. Jesus most likely was a kid for more then a few months but reading the Bible you don't pick up on that,etc. It is like if I were to write a book about Jane Austen I wouldn't spend a whole lot of time talking about things that aren't important. But the key thing to recall is that they did occur, some non-Catholics refuse to admit that anything that isn't recorded in the Bible isn't allowed to be speculated. There was a huge deal about The Passion of the Christ because it shows Christ talking to Mary and working on a table, all extra-biblical. It is very likely that could have happened and there is no reason to denounce it as lies because it didn't occur in the Gospel.

And I think the Virgin and Christ were joking during that sence, something about the heights of the chairs.

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[quote]Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian. And as I close this chaotic volume I open again the strange small book from which all Christianity came; and I am again haunted by a kind of confirmation. The tremendous figure which fills the Gospels towers in this respect, as in every other, above all the thinkers who ever thought themselves tall. His pathos was natural, almost casual. The Stoics, ancient and modern, were proud of concealing their tears. He never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city. Yet He concealed something. Solemn supermen and imperial diplomatists are proud of restraining their anger. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple, and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell. Yet He restrained something. I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness. There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some 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.

--GK Chesterton, "Orthodoxy"[/quote]

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This may be silly, or just plain wrong, but during the wedding when Mary informs Jesus that they are out of wine (because she knows he can provide more) he responds by saying it isnt his time. As far as I know hes referring to his death on the cross.

Everytime i picture that scene I cant help but think Jesus is kinda joking around a little. I dont think Mary had any idea what his death would be, and how through the Eucharist Jesus would infact be an endless source of "wine". So its almost like a tongue-in-cheek- kinda thing, where if it was filmed Jesus would totally look right at the camera (to the audience, to us) and say what he said. cuz we get it.

and Mary would look sorta perplexed and the audience would chuckle "haha oh Jesus"

:P:

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