Laughing Outside the Box

Jesus was funny.

If you don’t believe me, take a look at Earl Palmer’s The Humor of Jesus. He told jokes, made puns, got the crowd to giggle.

The September Reader’s Digest issue devoted to humor helps explain that. It appears that humor helps people remember things – students exposed to humor in the classroom retain lessons longer.

And people exposed to humor think outside of the box easier than those that aren’t.

One test they ran went thusly: A person is given a box of thumbtacks and a lit candle. The task is to attach the candle to a corkboard without spilling any wax.

Some of the subjects were exposed to humor just prior to the assignment; others were not. Those exposed figured out how to do it – the unexposed couldn’t complete the task, continuing to try and stick tacks into a candle clearly too big for tacks.

(Can any of you figure out how to do it?)

So it makes sense that Jesus would use humor, especially when trying to get people to start thinking outside the box.

Got an enemy? Love ‘em.

Want to be first? Go last.

Want to lead? Serve.

Want to be top guy in the kingdom? Be as humble as a child.

Want to be wealthy? Give everything away.

Don’t have any money? Tithe.

Worried about the world? Think on the kingdom.

Wanna live forever? Well, there’s this little thing called the cross…

Yeah, Jesus was funny.

Just my thoughts,

Sean