A Playful Jesus

Today, I traveled to Austin to sit in on a continuing education class on Bowen Family Systems.

Today's topic was playfulness and it's application to bodily and organizational health.  A corollary to the class was the unhealthiness of seriousness which tends to pervade most of our institutions.  To bumper sticker the class today, we were asked what it would be like if we could instill a sense of playfulness in our congregations and what effect it would have on their overall health.

Toward the end of class, some folks dared to ask whether or not Jesus was playful.

I responded, "If you look carefully in Scripture, I believe you can find it quite easily."

I'm serious (pun intended) about that comment.  I believe that Jesus wasn't serious all the time.  I believe that being fully human, He enjoyed laughter, playfulness, and those human activities which bring a smile to our collective faces.

Think I'm way off base?

Consider the following story in the book of Luke chapter 10:

¹⁷The seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!” ¹⁸He said to them, “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. ¹⁹See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. ²⁰Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”

First, read that passage in all seriousness and see if you can make good sense of it.

Then, read Jesus' comment about watching Satan fall like lightning with a grain of humor.  See if it makes more sense that way.  (I'm indebted to my Greek professor in college Dr. Peter Ansorge for opening my eyes to this possibility.) 

In your's truly's estimation, reading that sentence with humor makes an awful lot of sense.  Jesus is basically making fun of his disciples' awe and wonder in their defeat of demons saying this stuff isn't all that important.  What's really important is that their names are written in heaven.  Again, my take on this story, and I could be completely wrong. 

But I don't think so.  I think Luke is purposely capturing a bit of humor from the Master.

Sometimes, I think we miss this.  I think we believe Jesus is deadly serious in all that He says and does, but what if He laughed and told jokes and danced and smiled.  What if Jesus went through life with a sense of humor.  What if He went about the serious business of saving the world with a smile and sense of pure joy deep within Himself?

Could our congregations emanate such joy if we accepted such a picture of Jesus?  Could our congregations become places where this joy is palpable in the midst of a world where ideology divides, angers, and corrupts? 

I can hope, can't I?