THE comPASSIONate humor OF THE CHRIST

Prelude:

As Jesus grew up into His ministry He became well acquainted with Scripture and would most certainly be familiar with the passages of scripture that talked about the Exodus in which mixed multitudes accompanied the Israelites out of Egypt and sojourned with them(Exodus 12:38, Numbers 15:16). No doubt he read from the scroll of Isaiah (ch.56) where salvation for foreigners is clearly mentioned.
But what Christ had to work with was a culture steeped in ethnocentric religion. The Israelites of the time had perverted Scripture so much they believed salvation was exclusive for themselves, not that their "chosen race" status was to bring light to all nations. Jews did not interact with Gentiles unless it was necessary. Killing a Gentile (foreign dog) was no great crime for an Israelite of the time. To turn a blind eye to a foreigner, even in a life-threatening situation, was common practice (which explains why the story of the "Good Samaritan" shocked Jesus' audience). Christ had to keep pounding the idea that God loved more than just Israel(John 3:16) into the thick-headed Jews over and over again throughout His ministry. In Luke 17 He encounters ten lepers. After they all receive healing only one returns to give praise to God... "this foreigner?"(v.18) as Christ points out to those around Him.

Perhaps one of the humorous passages of scripture is Mark 7:24-29

Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. And when He had entered a house, He wanted no one to know of it; yet He could not escape notice. But after hearing of Him, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately came and fell at His feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of the Syrophoenician race. And she kept asking Him to cast the demon out of her daughter. And He was saying to her, "Let the children be satisfied first, for it is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." But she answered and said to Him, "Yes, Lord, but even the dogs under the table feed on the children's crumbs." And He said to her, "Because of this answer go; the demon has gone out of your daughter."

Haha! Did you get it? Do you see the witty banter in the passage? Do you see that Jesus and this women are having a laugh at the expense of the ethnocentric Jews? Not many people do. In modern times we've been trained up to think of Christ as "Gentle Jesus, meek and mild." But the "seeker-friendly jesus" who panders to and seeks favor with every man is an invention of culture and not the Jesus of Scripture. Christ was not crucified for appealing to the fragile sensibilities of fallen man but rather offended and openly mocked (Psalm 37:13)the practices of religious types (i.e. scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees) so much that they determined to kill Him.

Christ didn't spend all day just droning on about precepts as some pastors do. He wasn't crucified for boring people to death as a sallow stoic. He delighted to see the faith in those who were created in the image of His Father. He liked to party with sinners because He enjoyed giving mercy to those who would accept it (Luke 7:34).