Does God Have a Sense of Humor?

Recently I was asked if God has a sense of humor. That’s a no brainer, I thought. After all, He placed me (a Vikings fan) in the midst of you (a bunch of Bears fans). That irony is funny!

Bad pastoral jokes aside, I think it is fair to say that God does have a sense of humor. But not necessarily in the way most people think of humor. After all, most people look at a certain situation in their life that is full of humor or wit or irony (like the football situation pointed out above) and conclude that God, with His sense of humor, arranged for things to happen this way. The problem with this type of reasoning, however, is that we have no way to verify such a hypothesis. If God hasn’t revealed something explicitly, who are we to put words and ideas in His mouth?

That being said, there are two reasons why I believe God does have a sense of humor. First, Holy Scripture speaks of God’s laughter in some places and alludes to what must be divine humor in other places. Three times the psalmist tells of God’s laughter and each instance connects God’s laughter with the folly of unbelievers:

“He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.” [Psalm 2:2]

“But the Lord laughs at the wicked, for He sees that his day is coming.” [Psalm 37:13]

“But You, O LORD, laugh at them; You hold all the nations in derision.” [Psalm 59:8]

God is indeed merciful. He “desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). But when unbelievers mock Him as if He doesn’t exist (atheism) or as if He is not the one and only true God (false religion), He laughs at their folly. This is undoubtedly wrapped up in His divine justice.

God’s actions sometimes allude to a divine sense of humor. Consider the example of the Children of Israel taking the Ark of the Covenant into battle against the Philistines as a good luck charm (cf. 1 Samuel 4—5). Because of their rebellion, the Israelites were defeated and the Ark was captured and carried off and placed into the Philistines’ temple beside the golden idol of their false god Dagon. When they came into their temple the next morning, they found Dagon lying face downward before the Ark (i.e. prostrating before the Ark in acknowledgement that the LORD is the one and only true God). So the Philistines took Dagon and put him back in his place. When they came into their temple the next morning, they once again found Dagon lying face downward before the Ark, with Dagon’s head and hands lying cut off on the threshold (i.e. a god with no head is no god at all, and a god with no hands cannot give anything to his people). I find these events humorous, for they show us in no uncertain terms that God does not tolerate false gods before His face. That is, after all, the First Commandment!

The second reason centers on the good gift of laughter, which, with joy and gladness, God gives His people. The psalmist speaks about the laughter the LORD will give His people following the restoration of Zion—His Church (Psalm 126:1-3). One of Job’s friends comforted him, saying: “He will yet fill your mouth with laughter” (Job 8:21). Wise King Solomon writes: “There is a time to weep, and a time to laugh” (Ecclesiastes 3:4). Jesus Himself gave us this beatitude: “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh” (Luke 6:21).

Laughter—godly laughter—is a good gift from God. The problem with so much of our laughter, however, is that it centers on sinful things. For example, we have a tendency to laugh at crass or crude jokes or at the expense of others. That type of laughter is not godly. It is sinful. May our gracious Lord keep us from this type of laughter and humor.

So, yes, God does have a sense of humor. But don’t take it upon yourself to define what that sense of humor is. We are only given glimpses of it in His Word. Do rejoice that God has instilled in human beings the virtue of godly humor and laughter. It is indeed a wonderful gift from our Creator!

This article appears in my congregation’s July 2010 newsletter.

The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist

June 24 is the day the one holy Christian and apostolic Church commemorates The Nativity of Saint John the Baptist.

St. John the Baptizer, the son of Zechariah and Elizabeth, was born into a priestly family. His birth was miraculously announced to his father by an angel of the Lord (Luke 1:5-23), and on the occasion of his birth, his aged father proclaimed a hymn of praise (Luke 1:67-79). This hymn is entitled the Benedictus and serves as the traditional Gospel Canticle in the Church’s Service of Morning Prayer. Events of John’s life and his teaching are known from accounts in all four of the Gospels. In the wilderness of Judea, near the Jordan River, John began to preach a call to repentance and baptismal washing, and he told the crowds, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” (John 1:29). John denounced the immoral life of the Herodian rulers, with the result that Herod Antipas, the tetrarch of Galilee, had him arrested and imprisoned in the huge fortress of Machaerus near the Dead Sea. There Herod had him beheaded (Mark 6:17-29). John is remembered and honored as the one who with his preaching pointed to “the Lamb of God” and “prepared the way” for the coming of the Messiah. [Source: Treasury of Daily Prayer]

Prayer of the Day:
Almighty God, through John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, You once proclaimed salvation. Now grant that we may know this salvation and serve You in holiness and righteousness all the days of our life; through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.

Hymn:
We praise You for the Baptist,
     Forerunner of the Word,
Our true Elijah, making
     A highway for the Lord.
The last and greatest prophet,
     He saw the dawning ray
Of light that grows in splendor
     Until the perfect day. [LSB 518, stanza 18]

The Sin Against the Holy Spirit

How should the Christian understand the following words?

For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. [Hebrews 6:4-6]

What follows is an explanation of these words, drawn from Holy Scripture and enlightened by much more learned theologians than myself!

For starters, this passage reminds us that believers can fall away from the faith. “Once saved, always saved” is false doctrine. Jesus Himself teaches this in the parable of the Sower and the Seed (cf. Luke 8:13).

This passage speaks about believers—those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, shared in the Holy Spirit, and tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come—who have fallen away. The Greek word parapipto, translated here as “fallen away,” is used only here in the New Testament. It means to fall to the side, to fall completely away. This is not Joseph’s brothers’ jealous actions, King David’s adulterous affair, or Peter’s threefold denial. It is a complete, absolute, and final rejection of Jesus Christ.

According to the author of Hebrews, it is impossible to restore such believers who have fallen away again to repentance. Such words place this type of falling away into the category of the sin against the Holy Spirit. Jesus teaches:

“Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.” [Matthew 12:31]

“But whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” [Mark 3:29]

Saint John the Apostle also speaks of this sin against the Holy Spirit:

If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life—to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for that. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that does not lead to death. [1 John 5:16-17]

The author of Hebrews later writes:

For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses. How much worse punishment, do you think, will be deserved by the one who has spurned the Son of God, and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has outraged the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, “Vengeance is mine; I will repay.” And again, “The Lord will judge his people.” It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. [Hebrews 10:26-31]

The sin against the Holy Spirit is the complete, absolute, and final rejection of Jesus Christ. In this life, we are not to judge if a person has committed this sin. Only God, who knows the heart, can judge this. We are to call sinners—all sinners—to repentance.

Simply put, the Church’s mission is always to make disciples, to baptize, to teach, to call to repentance, to pray, to encourage, to admonish, and so forth. In any and every situation, in one form or another, the Church is continually calling sinners to repentance. This is true of unbelievers who have never known Christ, Christians who confess Christ, and former Christians who no longer believe in Christ. Repentance and faith in Christ is the sinner’s only hope!

If anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. [1 John 2:1-2]

The Lutheran Study Bible contains an excellent article entitled “Sin That Leads to Death” that is worth reading. It is found on page 2181.

Martin Luther writes:

Some think that these words are spoken by the apostle about those who in any way have fallen into sin. … That repentance remains for those who have fallen is clear, in the first place, from what the apostle Paul says in 2 Cor. 12:21-22: “Lest perhaps … God should humiliate me … and I should mourn over many of you who have not repented of the … fornication.” … In like manner he instructs Timothy and Titus to use the Word of God with gentleness (cf. 1 Tim 3:5; 2 Tim 2:25; Titus 1:7f; Titus 3:10), in hope that in some way the godless and heretics may be converted. Indeed, if there were no repentance, the entire Epistle to the Galatians would amount to nothing, since it is not the so-called actual sins that are censured in this epistle but the greatest sin, namely, the sin of unbelief, because of which they had fallen away from Christ to the Law. Thus we read in the Old Testament that the very saintly David fell three times and rose again just as often. In like manner the brothers of Joseph, although they were fratricides, were restored through repentance. And lest the heretics reason captiously that their opinions are in accord with the New Testament, behold, Peter, along with all the apostles, fell from faith; and they all fled. Yet they were restored. Therefore one must understand that in this passage the apostle is speaking about the falling of faith into unbelief. … Accordingly, it was the need of the primitive church that compelled the apostle to speak so severely against those who had fallen. Here there was danger not only with regard to the changing of morals after faith had taken root but more so with regard to the newly planted faith itself. [Luther’s Works, AE 29:181-183]

Another commentary notes:

In the earliest tradition, especially in the Latin West, and among rigorists like the later Tertullian, the sense of Hebrews 6:4 that it is possible to repent from sins after baptism was taken literally. Gradually, however, the tradition interpreted this text to mean that baptism, with its symbols of crucifixion, death and life, was a once-and-for-all event that was unrepeatable. Thus, according to Ephrem, while baptism cannot be repeated, the door of repentance is always open to the penitents. Repentance is always possible, however, because what is impossible with humans is possible with God. There is always hope of forgiveness (Ambrose). Origen compares those who need to repent after apostasy to Lazarus in the tomb, who needs to hear the voice of Jesus to live again. Chrysostom is most concerned that this passage not become an occasion for Christians to become judgmental, and he defines what it is to be a saint: Every believer is a saint in that he is a believer. Faith makes saintship. In fact, Chrysostom argues that everyone in affliction needs help; we are not to become judgmental and overly curious about the state of a person in need. The person in need is God’s, whether he is heather or Jew; even an unbeliever in need still needs our aid. Repentance, like baptism, signifies rising from spiritual death to new life (Origen, Chrysostom). [Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Hebrews, NT X:83]

Finally, this passage does not deny Christ’s objective justification of the entire world. He died for all people. Thus, there is salvation for all people in His name!