Not my best joke

Ever think of something as a joke, but then realize later that it’s no laughing matter?

Much of my early career was spent working in a pharmaceutical laboratory, performing tests on tablets and capsules to demonstrate that the medicine we produced was acceptable for people to use.  Given the nature of the work and especially the chemicals we used, the normal lab attire was t-shirt, jeans, leather-topped shoes, lab coat, and safety-glasses.  There was no reason to wear “professional” clothes, because the laboratory environment made it too easy to ruin them.

Eventually, I took a desk job within the department, working on investigations for any unexpected testing result generated.  While I still interacted with the other chemists, I was no longer the one performing the tests.  I also attended various meetings with management from other departments.  As you can imagine, the t-shirt and jeans attire was no longer acceptable.  Instead, business casual became the norm – dress shirt, slacks, and dress shoes.

I enjoyed the position, and I was good at my job.  But like all working environments, it wasn’t perfect.  There were inconsistent expectations about when a shift started and when a shift ended.  This would often lead to animosity between management and those who reported to them.  The need to release product to customers was unending, so there was a constant pressure on the department to make sure we were doing our best to fill the orders.  We would frequently make jokes about us “slaving away” for the company or being “chained” to our desks.  But we were just dealing with normal work-stuff, really.

One morning, while I was getting ready to head into the office, I picked up my dress shoes and quipped, “Well, time to put on the shackles”.  I chuckled at my own joke as I put my shoes on.  Thinking nothing of it, I went about my day.  The next day, I made the same joke and laughed to myself again.  This went on for a few days.  One day, after getting home from work, I equated taking my dress shoes off with “taking off my shackles” – therefore being able to relax and do as I please.

This internal joke routine continued on until a few weeks later, I realized that my attitude toward my shoes and my job had taken a dramatic downward turn.  I resented having to put my shoes on and go do my job, and taking off my shoes had become the part of my day I looked forward to the most.  Thinking about this, it dawned on me just how influential a little grumbling – even a joking grumble – had become.

The apostle Paul warned the believers in Philippi about such thinking:

Philippians 2:14-16
Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may be blameless and pure, children of God who are faultless in a crooked and perverted generation, among whom you shine like stars in the world, by holding firm to the word of life.

If we allow grumbling and arguing to seep into our mindset, we lose access to everything God has in store for us as one of His children.  God wants us to be without fault or blame.  He wants us to shine and stand out as one of His kids in the world. 

But there is no family resemblance when we grumble or complain.  Honestly, we look more like the rest of the world when we do that.

There’s a lot of talk these days about “being your authentic self” or “getting your shine on”.  And there’s nothing wrong with that, provided you know what your authentic self is like and how you’re supposed to shine.  We’ll be able to do so when we stop with the grumbling jokes and hold firm to the word of life.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Pause on prayers and regrets

There’s a running joke in Christianity that says you should never ask God for patience, because if you do, you’ll hit every red light, you’ll be late for everything, and no one will behave like you expect them to.  “Ask God for patience,” you’re warned, “and you’ll regret it!”

But have you ever asked God for something and later regretted asking Him?  Maybe you asked God for something, but you never received it, so you felt guilty for asking in the first place.  It could have been a relationship with who you thought was “The One”, that “perfect” job opportunity, or public recognition…and they didn’t turn out the way you wanted. 

There’s a flip side to this also – what if God answers your request, but not in the way you were expecting? 

My wife is a good example.  When our boys were young, rambunctious, and not yet in school, my wife was struggling.  She knew that she needed to carve out time for herself.  She wanted to spend that time with God.  But little boys do not make it easy to schedule quiet time.  So she prayed about it, asking God to help her find/make/squirrel away some time where she could read the Bible, pray, and just breathe for 15 or 30 minutes.   

God answered her prayer…but He did it in a way that neither of us anticipated.  During one doctor appointment, she described her struggles and how she was feeling – and, based on their discussion, the doc diagnosed her with Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).  At the time, we lived in a very cloudy city that didn’t get much sun throughout the winter months.  So her doctor prescribed blue light therapy, meaning that she had to sit with a blue light to help with her mood and sleeping patterns.  Suddenly, she had 30 minutes to kill every morning as a blue light box shined across her face.  She got the result she asked God for, but certainly not delivered in a manner she would have chosen.

The moment in Scripture that we’re going to pause on was filled with tension and sorrow.  Jesus was slowly dying as His naked, beaten body hung from the cross.  For the handful of followers who watched, it must have been gut-wrenching to see Him like that.  Among those who were brave enough to risk being seen there, Matthew noted the following:

Matthew 27:55-56
Many women who had followed Jesus from Galilee and looked after Him were there, watching from a distance.  Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of Zebedee’s sons.

This may seem like an odd moment to pause on, but we need to focus in on the unnamed woman who is listed last: the mother of Zebedee’s sons.  Both of her boys – James and John – were Jesus’ disciples.  And not just any disciples, but they were also part of Jesus’ inner circle, typically mentioned as Peter, James, and John.  Yeah, those were her boys.  They were among the first disciples chosen and they had followed Him everywhere.  Their mother also believed that Jesus was the promised Messiah.  But as she watched her Messiah slowly die on that cross, how could her mind not flashback to this recent scene?

Matthew 20:20-23
Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons approached [Jesus] with her sons.  She knelt down to ask Him for something.  “What do you want?” He asked her.

“Promise,” she said to Him, “that these two sons of mine may sit, one on your right and the other on your left, in your kingdom.”

Jesus answered, “You don’t know what you’re asking.  Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?”

“We are able,” they said to Him

He told them, “You will indeed drink my cup, but to sit at my right and left is not mine to give; instead, it is for those for whom it has been prepared by my Father.”

Whoever sat at a ruler’s right hand held the top position, while the ruler’s second in command would sit at his left.  In effect, the mother was asking Jesus to ensure that her boys were placed in the top spots in His kingdom.  Notice that Jesus did not rebuke her for asking, nor did he reprimand James and John for desiring those positions.  However, all three of them were unaware of what such lofty positions would cost.

In Scripture, to drink from a “cup” is figurative for following a divinely appointed path or outcome, in the form of a blessing, wrath, punishment, or, in Jesus’ case, His upcoming suffering.  While Jesus could not promise the top positions, He warned the brothers that to have an opportunity for that honor, they must be prepared to suffer as He would soon suffer.

After their meeting, the other disciples found out and were not happy about the mother’s request:

Matthew 20:24-28
When the ten disciples heard this, they became indignant with the two brothers.  Jesus called them over and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those in high positions act as tyrants over them.  It must not be like that among you.  On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be your slave; just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.

The path to greatness is paved with service to others.  Jesus will rightfully rule in His kingdom because He suffered the most and served the most.  The seats at His right and His left have been prepared for those who similarly serve.  There is nothing wrong with desiring the high positions in Jesus’ kingdom, but those seats come at a high price – a “cup” of suffering service.

Back at the cross, what was James’ and John’s mother thinking about?  How did she feel, watching Jesus die, knowing that after her petition, Jesus said her boys would drink from the same cup?

Did she regret her request?
Did she desire to somehow protect her boys from the same horrific path?
Did she still trust Jesus when He said that being great actually means sacrificially serving others?

Those are good questions for us to wrestle with, as well.

Keep Pressing,
Ken

Jesus told jokes

I’m not really sure why, but most – if not all – of our descriptions of God have an ominous, somber, super-serious tone.  We imagine God sitting in Heaven, looking down on Earth, being constantly disappointed.  Worse yet, we think that God is always mad at us…with an itchy trigger finger to punish us the moment we step out of line.  To even think of God having a sense of humor or even comedic timing?  Yeah, right…

When we look at Jesus’ ministry, we do see times that He doled out just punishment (John 2:13-22), but we don’t see Him walking around as a grouchy sourpuss ready to flame-spray all the bad people.  Instead, He’s often charged with being a “friend of sinners” and one who “eats and drinks with sinners” – those who were seen as low-brow and low-class in Jewish society.  If Jesus was as pious and solemn as our modern depictions go, I can’t imagine Him being invited to many parties…let alone being called a partier’s friend.  When you enjoy a meal with others, there are stories told, jokes made, and much laughter.  “Stoic Jesus” would have been left alone in a corner somewhere…instead, the “sinners” knew who He was and often invited Him in.

While that’s an indirect proof of Jesus’ use of humor, there are other examples found in Scripture.  I think we miss them because most of the time when we read the Bible, we’re looking for serious, life-changing truths…and we gloss over the tangible descriptions of everyday life.

The most obvious joke Jesus told was illustrating the hypocrisy we often have in our relationships.

Matthew 7:3-4
Why do you look at the splinter in your brother’s eye but don’t notice the beam of wood in your own eye?  Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the splinter out of your eye,’ and look, there’s a beam of wood in your own eye?

As a skilled speaker/teacher, Jesus would have paused to let the absurdity of the situation play out in their minds.  If you have a beam of wood sticking out of your head, how in the world are you able to see the splinter in another’s eye?  And then you offer to “help” them with their issue…but when you get close enough to reach their eye, they are taken out by the beam sticking out of your head.  Ironic situation, meet slapstick comedy.  Or to put it in a more modern setting: imagine going to a blind optometrist.  How helpful would the appointment be if he can’t see the letters either, let alone walk around the exam room without crashing into everything?  How funny would this be to watch as an SNL skit?

Jesus also used humor to chastise those who were “religious” but also full of themselves.  While reprimanding the Pharisees, He said

Matthew 7:23
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!   You pay a tenth of mint, dill, and cumin, and yet you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy, and faithfulness.  These things should have been done without neglecting the others.

In all honesty, Jesus could have stopped there.  Instead, He furthers His point by using this humorous illustration:

Matthew 7:24
Blind guides!  You strain out a gnat, but gulp down a camel!

Both gnats and camels were considered “unclean” in the Mosaic Law.  Neither should be eaten.  There is some evidence that the very pious would run their wine through a strainer in order to make sure that no gnats or bugs had landed in their drink.  Jesus’ contention is that the scribes and Pharisees have been missing the point of the Mosaic Law.  They’ve been “majoring on the minors” so much that while they scrutinize everything for a gnat out of place that they miss the fact they were willing to eat an entire camel!

Although there are other ironies and humorous stories I could reference, in this last Scripture example, I can envision Jesus using “air quotes” as He talked.  The day after feeding 5,000 men (plus the women and children present), many of those who ate the loaves and fish tracked Jesus down.

John 6:26-27
Jesus answered, “Truly I tell you, you are looking for Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate the loaves and were filled.  Don’t work for the food that perishes but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal of approval on Him.”

They worked to find Him – not because they realized that the signs/miracles Jesus performed demonstrated He was the promised Messiah – instead they spent their energy to seek Him out for another free meal.  When Jesus pointed out their true motivations, they keyed in on the word work in relation to eternal life and performing miracles for themselves:

John 6:28
“What can we do to perform the works of God?” they asked.

They were asking how they could earn up enough favor with God so they could manifest their next meal.  Sounds familiar, right?  “If I follow the rules, give to the synagogue, do the right sacrifices, God will give me stuff…right Jesus?  Just tell me all the good things I need to do to earn the outcome I want.”  They also thought that there were many things they needed to do, since they asked about works – plural.  Jesus’ reply is tongue-in-cheek, correcting their use of the plural works and pointing them to the air quote singular “work” they would need to do to obtain eternal life:

John 6:29
Jesus replied, “This is the work of God – that you believe in the one He has sent.”

Just like they missed the point of the miracle – it was evidence that Jesus was the promised Messiah – they also completely missed that eternal life was something He would give you.  You can’t do enough works to earn a gift…eternal life is a gift free of charge, no “work” necessary…you only have to believe in Jesus for it.

Remember, when you read stories in the Bible…these aren’t made up fairy tales, they actually happened.  The people in them didn’t know the next verse, they simply lived it out.  Of course, there were serious moments, but there were also times of fun, laughter, and joking.  Some jokes were even told by God Himself.

Keep Pressing,
Ken