Did Jesus have a sense of humor? There’s no record in the gospels that Jesus ever laughed or cracked a smile, yet he was a master at employing irony in his teaching parables. The very idea of removing a speck from your neighbor’s eye while you have a log in your own eye is downright comical. No one could rival Jesus’ wit and biting satire.
Some people regard humor as unbecoming to God. The first instance of laughter in the Bible occurs when an angel appears to two centenarians, Abraham, and Sarah, announcing that they will have a baby. They react to the news with laughter. God tells them that the baby will be called Isaac, which is the Hebrew word for laughter. They will be reminded of their laughter whenever they call their son. God will have the last laugh.
American novelist Frederick Buechner traced his interest in Christianity to a sermon by George Buttrick in which he said that Christ is crowned in the hearts of believers “among confession and tears and great laughter.” It was the phrase “great laughter,” Frederick said, that caught his attention and held it. It’s a custom in Greek Orthodox churches to gather the day after Easter to tell jokes. The most extravagant “joke” of all time took place on Easter Sunday. Against all odds, Jesus won a decisive victory over the powers of sin and death. Jesus’ resurrection represents the ultimate practical joke played on the devil. God has the last laugh.
Peter Lombard (1079-1142) wrote a Good Friday hymn, “Alone to Sacrifice Thou Goest, Lord,” in which he invites believers to share in the anguish of Christ’s sacrifice, which culminates in “the laughter at Easter Day.”