John 8:1-11
Did you know Jesus was something of a mirthlologist?
I can see your brains scanning for some understanding of what a mirthologist or what mirthology is. If coming up blank, no worries. You probably haven’t read the article I read several years ago, the one authored by a Ph.D clinical psychologist who identified himself in this way. His medical practice specialized on the impact of mirth – that is, of humor -- on the human condition. More specifically, on how humor can help make a crisis more manageable and help lead to a positive outcome.
I suspect many of you have experienced the tension-diffusing power of humor, especially if I happened to be with you at a tense time. And wouldn’t you say comedians are most successful when their routines are all about life’s messy relationships and realities?
Timing is everything in comedy and for anytime a bit of humor is offered up. Doctor Mirth made this very clear in that article I read, stating that “the timing of humor for those who are immersed in the crisis must be chosen carefully” because it can be “a welcome diversion and stress reliever or it can alienate, antagonize and hurt.”[i]
Good timing in particular context is quite important when venturing to label Jesus as some sort of mirthologist. It helps us to consider whether we can read any degree of humor into his caregiving, his radical teaching, or, dare I say, whether there was anything hysterical about his preaching.[ii]
I find this morning’s lesson from John’s Gospel a rather good case study for this consideration. This striking and well known scene from Scripture is more than just a harsh, narrow lesson about what happens when a long-standing moral code gets broken. It is ultimately about liberty and justice for all in Jesus Christ. It is a declaration of independence from old laws that fail to hold lawgivers accountable for socially oppressive ways and for their own moral failings.
In the rather frightening scene, we see a woman who had been found guilty of a moral and social crime punishable by the death penalty. Stoning was the means of execution. We also find an epic clash between Jesus and the Jewish authorities that rendered this verdict and were ready to deliver it. The clash came not in the form of high powered holy rhetoric, or in a physical coming to blows, but in what can be interpreted as Jesus delivering one supremely well timed and heavenly zinger.[iii]
Let’s use our Holy Spirit infused imagination to enter the scene. Let’s zoom our sight in on the stones scrunched in the hands of the would-be executioners, held there with self-righteous rage and a desire to debunk any authority belonging to Jesus. Even more then following through with the punishment they intended to deliver that day long ago, the Pharisees had also set out to entrap Jesus. Their duty that day was to defend the old law, the old ways at all costs, especially the punishment prescribed in Leviticus 20:10. Would he dare speak against this supremely authoritative Law of Moses that summoned the deadly punishment for the woman’s alleged crime? Would he dare defend the woman by standing in her place and radically receiving the stones as his own? If yes to either question, they knew the problem of Jesus stirring up rebellion against them would be quickly resolved.
What did Jesus, our Rock, the one who later could not be entombed in death by any stone, do? How did he deliver his verdict of divine judgment? With supernatural sensitivity to the entire scope of the crisis, he first refused to speak on the matter. He bent down instead and started scribbling something in the sand that no biblical scholar has ever figured out. I get a chuckle when I picture Him hunched down like a child innocently, happily drawing lines while his adversaries practically dance with anticipation of nailing him. Not what they expected whatsoever. So they kept demanding he speak to the situation they assumed they had in hand. Eventually, Jesus stood straight up and instead of debating, he delivered his holy zinger – “Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Zing! We can imagine comically stunned looks on the faces of the Pharisees while a small curl of smile was on Jesus’ face (and perhaps the woman’s face too!) Then Jesus physically punctuated the zinger by hunching back down and returning to his scribbling.
The Pharisees, of course, had immediately realized they were just as guilty as the one they had shown up to condemn. So they went home one by one, humbled by the all-encompassing justice of Jesus – the new law that insisted all matters of sin would be interpreted through his word and his punishment alone.
As for the previously condemned woman, she no doubt was filled with eternal relief to see her executioners depart. And in this relief, Jesus literally stood by her, confirming that He had pardoned her through His holy intercession. The scene ends with her having been liberated in order to humbly and happily start life over rightly loving the Lord her God.
We can wonder if she realized the all-encompassing judgment and justice of Jesus had also given the Pharisees an opportunity to start over. Earl Palmer, author of the book, The Humor of Jesus, makes the good point that Jesus’ zinger also protected them from doing more harm to their souls than they already had.[iv]
The just judgment and justice of Jesus levels the playing field. Everyone is guilty of sin in the sight of God. And absolutely everyone has the opportunity to experience liberty and justice and the pursuit of happiness through Jesus’ interceding grace and mercy. In our lesson, great moral sin stands even with narrowly interpreting the Scriptures in order to self-righteously entrap someone. Sin is sin, and everyone is offered the liberty of living more righteously through an honest relationship with Christ our Lord. To quote Earl Palmer again, Jesus made use of humor to teach justice in order to “clear the air and to encourage us to see into ourselves and our motives and to look closely at our freedoms and at our captivities.”[v]
We should not forget to examine our freedoms and captivities as we enjoy our 4th of July celebrations. When Richard Henry Lee of Virginia brought a resolution to the Continental Congress on June 7, 1776, it was a resolution to declare the United States free from old, oppressive British law. Three days later, Thomas Jefferson was appointed to write an appropriate document for this occasion, the document adopted weeks later on July 4th as our Declaration of Independence.
We are both citizens of the United States and citizens of the kingdom of God. As such we cherish liberty, freedom, happiness for all. So we honor Jesus for leading the revolution to set all humanity in solidarity with God and one another. He did so without the use of cannon balls and bayonets. He instead used such radical means as humorous timing to diffuse and redirect crisis in the life of one individual as well as in an entire historic community of faith. And we honor our founding fathers, with a special nod to John Witherspoon, the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence, and a Presbyterian one at that.
So if you have a chance to gaze upon fireworks tonight, tomorrow, or sometime soon, or even to reflect on ones you viewed in the past, I also call on you to see faithworks. See how faith in Jesus leads to radically inclusive liberty and justice for all! Amen.
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