Luke and the Jokes of Jesus
Jesus was a Palestinian Jewish tradesmen, Luke was an educated Greek doctor. No wonder they had different senses of humour. This blog will recount some of Jesus’ jokes, and why Luke did not get it.
Toilet Humour
Mark 7.1-22
There is one debate between Jesus and the Pharisees that Luke doesn’t even mention, though it comes in Mark and Matthew. Did he leave it out because he was embarrassed/disgusted by it? It’s where we see Jesus’ rough peasant humour at work. He would have done well in a Northern stand up comedy club. Jesus is having a discussion with ultra-orthodox Jews who keep all the kosher food laws. He says, “It’s not what goes into you that makes you dirty, it’s what comes out of you that does that.” You can just hear the raucous laughter of the crowd. In Matthew, the disciples ask Jesus “Don’t you realise that the Pharisees offended by what you said?” Of course they were! But Jesus is using a Zen technique for getting people to look below the surface. He says, “Are you also so dim? Food can’t make you dirty, it just goes through you into the toilet. What defiles you are the thoughts that come out into words and actions, like lust, stealing, murder, envy, pride, folly etc.”
A Disgusting Parable
Luke 13.20
‘What should I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour until it was all risen.’
What’s shocking about that? First, it was a lot. Enough bread for three households. Because each batch of dough and yeast had to be kneaded – hard work – and had to be of a size that a woman could knead with her hands. So here a woman is kneading three batches, making perhaps six or nine loaves in total. The problem is with the yeast.
Yeast is what you had to clear out at Passover. Not a crumb could remain. And so it became a symbol of uncleanness. In a letter to Christians in Corinth Paul writes, “Let us celebrate the festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
So to talk about the kingdom of God in terms of yeast was to introduce a real ‘yuck’ factor. A bit like saying, “The kingdom of God is like dung – spread it around and it’ll help things grow.”
The Crooked Accountant
Luke 16.1-13
If there was ever any doubt about Jesus’ sense of humour, it is put to rest in the story of the Crooked Accountant (or Dishonest Steward). Luke clearly didn’t understand it and it has been an embarrassment to preachers ever since. They miss the fact that is an absolutely classic joke. Here it is, brought up to date, but sticking closely to Jesus’ word, apart from the punchline which I have added to.
There was this business owner. Doing quite well, because he had an excellent accountant on his staff. This accountant knew all the tricks of the trade, how to increase the business’ profits by adjusting prices, or to how to show a loss for tax purposes. But he got greedy and started using his know-how to cream off some of the profit for himself on the side. But the owner got suspicious, and though he’d got no actual proof, decided to take action. He called the accountant into his office and said, “Jones, you’ve done some good work for me in the past, but some things have come to light, and frankly, I can’t trust you any more. I’m going to let you go, as of today. I’ll pay you a month’s salary in lieu of notice. And I am calling in the auditors.”
The accountant went back to his office feeling crushed and terrified. “What am I gong to do now?” he thought. “No-one’s going to hire me without a reference, and I sure as hell won’t get one from him. I can’t do manual work, and as for going on the dole, that would be just too shaming.” He then had a flash of inspiration. He got on the phone to one of the firm’s suppliers – he certainly didn’t want to leave a trail of emails behind him – and said, “Hello, Jim, listen, I can do you a bit of good if you want. You know we’ve just supplied you with 500 widgets – You’ve got them, good, good – well, here’s the deal. If you change your paperwork your end to read three hundred, and I do the same our end, we can split the profit 50-50. Yes?”
Jones spent the afternoon phoning nine or ten customers and suppliers. At the end of the day he packed all his personal effects into his briefcase and said a satisfied farewell to his old place of work.
Of course, as a result he wasn’t short of offers of work, mostly on temporary contracts, but no less profitable for that. He was walking down the street so lost in thought contemplating these various offers that he didn’t see his old boss walking in the other direction until he literally bumped into him.
“Jones,” his old boss said, “I’ve found out the little game you played on your last afternoon with me. All I can say is that you are a thorough rogue, a thief, a cheat. But I must admit you are clever with it. I think we should team up again. If you come back, I’ll double your salary.”
Well, what’s the moral in that?
Jesus delighted in populating his stories with disreputable characters. But the point is not their amorality. Here the point is, it’s not enough just to be good. You need to be intelligent as well. Or, “the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the children of light.” Or, if you see disaster is coming, do something about it!
But this moral was not enough for Luke. He added on three other morals which actually have nothing to do with the original joke.
a) Make friends using unrighteous wealth now so later you will have friends in eternity.
b) If you are trustworthy in small things, you will be trusted with big things.
c) You cannot serve God and wealth.
They do not follow on from the original joke at all, but then I don’t think that Luke got the joke.
The Corrupt Judge
Luke 18.1-8
There was this judge in our town, see. Clever man, knew the law. Not religious, not anyone’s toady. Didn’t kow-tow to anyone. But always out for the main chance. The only way you got a slot in his courtroom was if you greased his palm. So the only people who got any kind of justice were the nobs.
Anyway, there was this woman. Her husband had died and she had had no kids. All alone in the world. Except that when her husband died, he left her a nice little farm on the outskirts. Beautiful! But not really. Straight after the death, even before the days of mourning were over, the neighbour moved the boundary stone, and sent his ox and plough to take over half the land – the best half naturally. What could one woman do against that? When the widow went to see him and threatened to take him to court, he laughed in her face. “Good luck! What have you got that will persuade our judge to help you?”
Fuming, the woman went to the judge’s house and banged on the outer gate. A servant opened the gate, took one look at her simple dress and sneered, “His honour’s not in. Go away.” She sat down against the wall opposite and after a couple of hours the judge came out. She rushed to him to explain, but he brushed her aside, saying “See me in my courtroom.”
But when she went there she was told that there were no vacant slots for a year. Next day she was outside the judge’s house again, and again tried to speak to him. She also waited for him outside the courtroom in the afternoon. And the next day. And the next day. And the next.
Eventually, the judge said to himself, “I’ve got no truck with God, and have no regard for anyone in this town. None of them are worth the time of day as far as I’m concerned. But this blasted widow, she is so persistent, she’ll end up giving me a heart attack. I’d better let come into court. I know what it’s about. She’ll get what she wants and I’ll start sleeping soundly at night.”
The moral? Don’t you think that God will answer the prayers of his faithful ones who cry out to him day and night. Yes, he’ll respond swiftly!
Jesus had no doubts about God’s willingness to answer. Luke was not quite so sure. ‘Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart.’ In fact, the whole point is that God is not like a corrupt judge, but that ‘he will quickly grant justice to them.’
This is what I think, anyway. What do you think?
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