Christ the Comic

My Christian friends and I tend to forget what a funny guy Jesus was. We forget that he laughed, told funny stories, and expected others to laugh with him. When we focus on his sacrifice for us, we may dismiss his human nature.

Consider his first miracle. We know he turned water into wine, but we sometimes forget how much wine he made. There were six giant cleansing jugs of water, 25 gallons each, turned to 150 gallons of wine. Imagine the party that followed…. How can you hear that story without laughing?

One problem with understanding Christ’s humor is that we weren’t his original audience. We don’t know now what they knew. And we’ve heard his stories so many times; it’s easy for the humor to get lost. Consider the parable of the mustard seed. We all know the moral: “From small actions great things can grow.” ’Nuf said. Except….

Actually mustard seeds are not that small. I pickle cucumbers every summer using mustards seeds. I know there are many smaller seeds. And the mustard plant is a scrub, not a tree. At best, it might grow ten feet tall. That’s hardly a sequoia or a cedar or an oak. Plus, in Jesus’s time as now, mustard was considered an invasive weed. Nobody planted mustard seeds, just like today nobody plants dandelions or poison ivy.

Remember, Jesus’s audience was filled with ordinary people, fishermen and farmers. They knew that mustard grew everywhere and anywhere. The idea of planting the seed to produce a bird sanctuary would have made them laugh. Why would anyone do something that stupid…?

I read about a small congregation with a community garden. To honor this parable, they planted mustard in a corner of it. Then they spent the rest of the summer doing battle with the mustard plants to keep them from taking over. In the fall, with some relief, they plowed the plants under. They were finally rid of it. Until spring when the mustard took over the entire garden. So when Jesus said to the people “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed,” what his audience heard was “The Kingdom of Heaven is like an invasive weed. Once you let it into your yard, it takes over everything.” That’s funny, but also hauntingly true.