Tom Mullen begins his book, Laughing Out Loud and Other
Religious Experiences with this story. An engineer, a psychologist,
and a theologian were hunting in the wilds of Northern Canada. They
came across a isolated cabin, and decided to check it out. When no
one answered their knocks, they tried the door and found it open. It
was a simple two room cabin with a minimum of furniture. Nothing
was surprising about the cabin except the stove. It was a typical pot
bellied cast ironed stove, but it was suspended in mid air by wires
attached to the ceiling beams.
The psychologist was the first to speculate on this strange location
for a stove. He said, "It is obvious that this lonely trapper, isolated
from humanity, has elevated his stove so he can curl up under it and
vicariously experience a return to the womb." "Nonsense!" Replied
the engineer. "The man is clearly practicing laws of thermodynamics.
By elevating his stove he has discovered a way to distribute the heat
more evenly throughout the cabin." "With all due respect,"
interrupted the theologian, "I'm sure that hanging his stove from the
ceiling has religious meaning. Fire lifted up has been a religious
symbol for centuries."
As the three debated their theories, the trapper returned, and they
asked him immediately why he hung his stove by wires from the
ceiling. He said, "Because I had plenty of wire, but not much stove
pipe." The answer to many mysteries is much simpler than we think.
Reading commentaries on the book of Ecclesiastes is often like
listening to those three hunters speculate about the stove. They come
up with complex and confusing theories to explain this book, and the
theories are more difficult to grasp than the book itself. The simple
and obvious, and commonsense approach is the best. All we have to
do is recognize that Solomon is simply telling us how he really felt. He
is not saying he should feel this way, or that it is good to feel this way,
but that it is how he really felt. He had himself a ball, and laughed his
head off, and then he examined the experience afterward, and he
concluded that laughter, like the rest of the pleasures of life, is of no
use.
You do not need any complex theory to explain this. It is simple.
He is depressed because laughter and pleasure are merely passing
experiences, and they are not permanent, and so they do not fill the
human need for the eternal. The merry monarch found his mirth of
little worth, and it left him melancholy. This is no surprise, for we
have all had that kind of experience where after a good time we
become to some degree depressed simply because the laughter
doesn't last, and the pleasure of it does not persist.
This is an universal experience, and that is why it is in the Bible. It
good for all of us to know that even the man with everything goes
through the same experience we do. This releases us from the burden
of envy where we think we could escape this type of feeling if only we
were somebody else, especially somebody with everything life can
offer. It also releases us from the burden of loneliness when we feel we
have emotions that the rest of the human race does not have. Paul
said in I Cor. 10:13, "No temptation has seized except what is common
to man."
What the Bible teaches is that the common man is the only kind of
man there is. Solomon was so great, wise, and unique in many ways,
but he was still a common man. That was the kind of man Jesus
became as well, for there is no other kind, and he entered into the
same temptations and the same feelings that we all experience. "He
was tempted in all points like as we are, yet without sin." Jesus
understood what Solomon was saying in this book. He had plenty of
good times and laughter, but he also knew its limitations, and he
endured the experience of depression, and was a man of sorrows and
acquainted with grief.
Solomon was right, for laughter is not enough to give life ultimate
meaning. But it is, nevertheless, a vital part of the meaningful life.
Solomon is himself one of the key authorities in the Bible for
supporting the value of laughter. Why then, if he sees the worth of
mirth, does he stress the worthlessness of it here? It is because, like
all other values of life, if they are sought as goal of life, and one
becomes as obsessed with them that they push God into a secondary
position, they become sources of sickness rather than health, when this
happens, as it did with him, then it is true as he says in 7:3, "Sorrow is
better than laughter." Jesus confirmed this when He said, "Blessed
are those who mourn." In James 4:9-10 we see Christians who have
gone off the deep end in their search for pleasure, and they urged to,
"Change your laughter to mourning, and you joy to gloom. Humble
yourself before the Lord and He will lift you up."
The Bible makes it clear that there is a time to stop horsing
around and having a good time, and get down to the serious business
of living for a purpose in God's will. Those who never do, never
discover the full value of joy and laughter. So what we see in Solomon
is both sides of the coin. We see the futility of laughter, and the
fruitfulness of laughter. In 3:4 he says there is a time to weep and a
time to laugh. Both are good and valid. Since we have been looking at
some heavy subjects in our study of this book, I thought we should
look at the lighter and brighter side, and reap some value from-
I. THE FRUITFULNESS OF LAUGHTER.
In Pro. 17:22 we read the most famous biblical precept on the value
of laughter. Solomon there says, "A cheerful heart is a good medicine,
but a downcast spirit dries up the bones." Laughter is the lubrication
of life that keeps us from drying up and grinding to a halt. Drain your
life of humor, and it is like draining your car of oil. You will not get
far before you lose power and lock up the engine. Laughter keeps the
engine of life running smooth. It allows us to keep making progress
down the road to God's goals.
What a blessing is the sense of humor for releasing of tension in
times of stress. I visited Vern Miller before his by-pass surgery. His
room mate Virgil was facing the same surgery. There was tension as
they faced the unpleasant prospect of being cut open, but they were
easing the friction by using the oil of laughter. Together we were
experiencing healing by anointing the whole situation with the oil of
gladness. It was good medicine. The doctors have to take out the
whole vain in the leg for the by-pass. Vern was having five by-passes,
and the other man only three. So he commented that he could use the
extra he would have left over for bait. I could see the potential for his
practical mind, and I encouraged him to write a book on tips for what
to do with your spare parts.
Vern then told of another man who was going into surgery at the
same time as he was. He said I am assuming he has a different
surgeon, or maybe mine is ambidextrous, and will be doing one with
each hand, and he stretched out his arms to illustrate. We had a good
laugh. Sure, it was nonsense, and just a way to escape from the
tension, but that is what medicine is for, and that is what laughter
does. I do not take aspirin because I like the taste, but to escape the
pain of a headache. Laughter can help us escape also, and it even
tastes good. The point is, laughter is appropriate even in the most
serious times because it is a medicine, and it lifts and lightens the load.
It is God's most natural drug. Thank God for laughter.
Sometimes when life is on a disaster trail, and everything seems to
be going wrong, you can be suddenly touched with a sense of humor,
and it is like a shot in the arm to revive your spirit. Bonhoffer, the
theologian, who died in Hitler's concentration camp could write,
"Absolute seriousness is not without a dose of humor." Abraham
Lincoln was able to survive his responsibility through the Civil War
because of the aid of his sense of humor. Sometimes his cabinet felt his
humor was out of place, but he replied, "Gentlemen, who don't you
laugh? If I didn't laugh with the strain that in on me day and night, I
should go mad. And you need the medicine as much as I do."
Laughter is a life saver to many in times of unusual stress. My father
lived in pain for many years and said that his sense of humor was the
only thing that kept him from taking his own life to escape the pain.
Laughter can be life saving medicine.
Jesus said that we should face life's worst without letting fear
dominate us. He said do not fear those who can kill the body, and that
is all they can do. He made it sound like martyrdom was a minor
matter. After they kill you, he is saying, the matter is out of their
hands, and so don't worry. This can only be experienced by those who
have a sense of humor, and who can laugh even at death. You have to
be able to see beyond death, and see the joke involved in men thinking
they can win by killing you, when all they do is send you into the
presence of Him who has the keys of death, and who has a mansion
waiting for you to enter and enjoy forever. They think they are
robbing you of life, and what they are doing is sending you to the
ultimate life of joy.
Faith in Christ and a sense of humor go hand in hand. Eugene
O'Neill portrayed this in his play Lazarus Laughed. He had Lazarus
say, "I heard the heart of Jesus laughing in my heart, and I laughed in
the laughter of God." the crowd joined Lazarus in his happy mood
and laughed with him, for the fear of death had been conquered. The
play comes to a climax with Caesar threatening Lazarus with death. It
was a joke to him, and he responded like a grandpa responds when his
4 year old grandchild threatens to pound him into dust. He laughs, and
he dies laughing. It is the laughter of God when we laugh at the
absurdities of life.
In Ps. 2 we see the folly of man as he plots to overthrow the plan of
God and take over the universe. Verse 4 says, "The one enthroned in
heaven laughs." God has a sense of humor, and it tickles him to
laughter to see puny men develop such delusions of grandeur. It is like
a gnat organizing his fellow gnat to take over a tank. You get the same
funny sensation when a small child in rebellion decides to defy the very
powers that gave him life and sustain his life. The most Godlike
response you can have to those deluded by their pride is to laugh. In
Ps. 37:12-13 we read, "The wicked plot against the righteous and
gnash their teeth at them; but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he
knows their day is coming."
Oswald J. Smith, the great preacher and hymn writer, puts the
scene in poetry.
Methinks I hear God laugh, so let them rage.
He'll hold them in derision till the day
He rises in His wrath, and in His hot
Displeasure, vexes those who vainly seek
To tear Him from His throne for judgment set.
What folly if a sparrow hurl itself
Against a locomotive in its pride,
Expecting thus to check it in its speed!
As little hope have they who mock at God.
Is life a joke? Yes it is when man takes himself so seriously that he
thinks he can make it meaningful without God, and so sets out to
dethrone God. It is good for us to step back once in awhile, and see the
dark side of man from God's perspective, and join Him in a good
laugh. Some people think the tower of Babel was where Solomon kept
all his wives, but what it is, is a monument to man's silliness. He
thought he could build a tower to the heavens and become a power
that was supreme. It was the Lucifer approach to life that says, I will
exalt myself to the throne of the universe. The funny thing about life is
not the psychotic who thinks he is Napoleon, but the normal people
who think they are God. History makes all of man's pride a laugh.
One of the ways you can divide up the human race in two camps is
this: Those who laugh at God, and those who laugh with God.
Jesus was a man of sorrows, but Jesus was also the Son of God, and
the express image of the Father. In Jesus we see the same sense of
humor that we see in the Father. Jesus saw the comical, the absurd,
and the ridiculous side of life. We are so brainwashed into thinking
that Jesus was always serious, and even sad, that we miss all of His
humor. We refuse to give Him the balance life in our thinking, and by
so doing we rob the only truly ideal man of what is vital to that ideal,
and that is a sense of humor. Most students of the life of Jesus see it,
but it is seldom stressed, and the result is that most Christians do not
recognize the sense of humor in their Savior.
G. Campbell Morgan, that prince of expositors, sees it in the most
serious of setting even. After the resurrection when Jesus is walking
with the two on the road to Emmaus we see Jesus in this very serious
setting playing the game of hide and seek with His disciples. Morgan
comments, "There is a tender and beautiful playfulness in the way He
dealt with these men. Humor is as divine as Pathos, and I cannot
study the life of Jesus without finding humor there."
Tennyson said humor is generally most fruitful in the most solemn
spirits, and, "You will even find it in the Gospel of Christ." Elton
Trueblood in his book The Humor Of Christ gives numerous
illustrations. We will look at just a few. Jesus had a lot of fun with the
humorless Pharisees, and often described them in ways that would
make the people chuckle. In Matt. 15:14 He calls them blind guides.
The very concept is ridiculous. Who would ever have confidence in a
blind guide? Imagine a sign on the entrance to a cave that says, blind
guides available-reasonable rates. Jesus says, when the blind lead the
blind they both fall into a pit. Such is the folly of the Pharisees and
their followers. Follow me and I will make you fishers of men was the
message of Jesus. Follow them, and you will be pit filler.
This form of humor was typical of Jesus. He described them in all
kinds of humorous ways. They kept the outside of their cups shining
and spotless. They were germ free, but inside they neglected to clean,
but let that fill up with cobwebs, dirt, and dead flies. They would
choke on a gnat showing that they were super fussy with minute details
of the law, but then they would swallow a camel, hump and all, without
batting an eye. That means they could by-pass the major purpose of
the law if it was in their self-interest.
Jesus pictured the Pharisees seeking sympathy in the pity party
method of looking dismal and pathetic because of their supposedly
sacrificial fasting. Jesus said that His followers were to have nothing
to do with such sad sack piety. They were to anoint their heads, wash
their faces, and look presentable rather than laughable. Jesus had a
sarcastic wit that has tickled me many times. My favorite, is in John
10:31-32 where we read, "The Jews took up stones again to stone
him." This sounds like a serious situation doesn't it? It is no time for
wise cracks, but Jesus responds, "I have shown you many good works
from my Father, for which of these do you stone me?" Jesus never did
any bad works, and so He knew they had to be stoning Him for some
good work that He did, and He was curious as to which of His
kindnesses it was that provoked them to such hatred. Jesus, just like
His Father, saw the absurdity of man's folly, and the utter
ridiculousness of his rebellion.
Jesus came that we might have life and have it abundantly. He
came that we might be reconciled to God and experience life in its
fullness, and enjoy all that He has made, and especially the gift He has
given uniquely to man-the sense of humor. Animals do not have this
gift, for it is part of the image of God given only to man. Helmut
Thielike, the greatest German preacher of modern times, said of
Christians, "When they lose their sense of humor it is nothing less
than a denial of their Lord."
What use is laughter Solomon asks, and the answer of the centuries
is, it is our link with our heavenly Father that lifts us above the mere
earthly to the heavenly perspective. Those who see the humorous built
into life by God enjoy life so much more. I certainly enjoy being a
grandfather more due to the constant laughter that comes from
children. Many great Christians point to the animal creation to show
God's sense of humor. Dean Inge in one of his many books wrote, "I
cannot help thinking that the Creator made some animals and some
human beings just for fun. The elephant, the hippo, the baboon with
blue cheeks and scarlet stern are not ugly. They are figures of
comedy. Why should not the deity have a sense of humor?"
I personally feel that children are the greatest proof of God's sense
of humor. To me they are God's clowns in the circus of life. And they
add more laughter than all the comedians combined. Just the
otheriew of God to the world, and a view that is not consistent with
God's revelation of Himself.
Take Devorah Wigoder for example. She rebelled against her
Christian heritage and married a Jew. In her book Hope Is My House
she writes, "To me, one of the most disappointing aspects in the life of
Jesus was his lack of humor." What a shame that her Christian
heritage never exposed her to the truth of Jesus' sense of humor. If she
was only an isolated case, we could brush it off as of no consequence,
but she is not. As I study the lives of people who have rebelled against
the Christian faith, and have become skeptics and cynics, and even
atheists, I discover that they see no humor in the Christian faith. A
writer for Christianity Today for many years confirms this when he
writes, "I have learned that too many Christian people and
organizations can't laugh at themselves. They take themselves too
seriously, and this makes them stuffy. Some people are not serious
enough about humor and this makes them shallow."
The Christian who does not develop his sense of humor will not
likely be an attractive person to the world, like Jesus was. He could fit
into most every social situation, and bring joy to the guests because
He was ever ready with a story or some humor. One of the best things
we can have up our sleeve is a funny bone. Charles Aked said humor is
a gift of God, and, "A face as long as a fiddle and a voice like that of
an alpine crow will not be imputed to us for righteousness." Solomon
said there is a time to laugh, and the time to do it is when you want to
make clear to a sad and hurting world that in Christ there is really
something to laugh about, for in Him life's blessings become all the
more enjoyable, and life's folly's become all the more ridiculous. Both
good and evil become causes for laughter in Christ. Tragedy and tears
are only for time, but in Christ laughter is forever. Martin Luther
said, "If you're not allowed to laugh in heaven, I don't want to go
there." He knew he was safe, for he knew of the laughter of God, and
of the laughter of Jesus. If you do not, then you need to take laughter
more seriously and learn to pray-
Give me the gift of laughter, oh, I pray,
Though tears should hover near;
Give me the gift of laughter for each day,
Laughter to cast out fear.
