The Rogue
Like the rest of the world, I’m horrified at the Charlie Hebdo shootings in France. Gunmen killed twelve people because the humor magazine posted supposedly offensive cartoons of Mohammed. People have reacted to the horrific events with outrage and holding up pens to show their solidarity with those slain on the alter of free speech.
This is all very good. Certainly, those who write or create art shouldn’t be cowed by the barrel of a gun. Terror can never dictate what we can or cannot say. We must fight those who wish to silence the free flow of ideas.
However, so far, people aren’t realizing it’s not the disdain for free speech that motivated these maniacs to gun people down. No, these gunman have a serious theological problem that dictated their actions.
Many religious people think that God takes everything seriously and doesn’t like jokes. In fact, they believe that silly cartoons can somehow offend His honor. This belief leads them to think they must shoot (either literally or metaphorically) people who seemingly mock God.
A true understanding of God must include a theology of humor. Humor is a huge part of the human experience. It’s how we have a good time, love others and deal with the absurdities of life. Sometimes, our humor often mocks the things we hold dear. Good mockery helps us examine ourselves to see if something we hold sacred is really sacred or if it’s just our own self-centeredness. It stands to reason that if God exists (I believe He does) He created the world to reflect His very nature. As a Christian, I believe God uses humor (often sarcastic and mocking in tone) to make His points.
There is no greater proof of that then the center piece of the Christian story, the crucifixion.
In the ruins of Palatine Hill in Rome, a curious piece of graffiti was discovered. It depicts a man at the foot of a cross where a figure with a donkey head has been crucified. An inscription under the picture reads, Αλεξαμενος ϲεβετε θεον, or Alexmanos worships his God.
Some ancient humorist drew a cartoon to make fun of Alexmanos’ (whoever he was) dedication to Christ. In other words, it was Roman smack talk against the Christian faith. He was trying to be like the cartoonists of Charlie Hebdo. This person couldn’t understand (like most of the Roman world) how Christians could worship a crucified man. It was vile, repugnant and worthy of ridiculing satire.
What the artist didn’ t realize, is that he(or she) wasn’t in on the greatest joke of all time. The Crucifixion was God’s joke on Himself and the World. St. Paul makes this clear when he tells the Colossians in his letter to them that, “Christ triumphed over the dark powers of this word by exposing them to ridicule on the cross.” The force of the Greek phrase here means, essentially, Jesus stripped them naked and laughed at them. You might say He snickered at their….you know….
In other words, the death of Christ was God’s joke on the powers of the world. For all their might, for all their power, for their supposed control over everything, a man nailed to a tree beat them. It’s absurd. It’s crazy. It’s good for a laugh of dark irony.
I’ll even take it a step further. On the cross, God laughs at Himself. When you take Christian theology to its ultimate end, God sacrificed Himself to Himself to satisfy the debt of sin. It’s an obvious case of irony.
This is one reason I’m a Christian. God doesn’t need me to defend Him from stupid cartoons that mock Him. He doesn’t need me to defend His honor when people try to laugh at him. Why? He already had the last laugh on the cross. Jesus’ supposed weakness is the ultimate HA! It’s the joke that makes all attempts to mock it silly. It’s very hard to really mock a joke.
You see, the Devil and people take themselves very seriously. Lucifer wanted to be God. He wanted to be the most important thing. So do most of us, if we are honest with ourselves. When we follow this sort of devilish thought pattern, there is very little room for laughter in our lives. We hate it when people make fun of things that are close to our hearts.
Sadly, this belief gets amplified in religion. Religious people, my fellow Christians included, think that when someone laughs at sacred things, they are somehow demeaning God. Therefore, these self important folks often, at best, try to brow beat with a a sour sermon that no wants to hear. At worst, they take a gun to the offending party, just like they did in France.
Beware of the religious person who has no sense of humor, because they aren’t following God. They have an overinflated sense of themselves and their theology is grossly deficient. Their insecurity can grow to deadly proportions. The gunmen of France, the bombers of abortion clinics, and the 9/11 attackers, I would guess, didn’t have much laughter in their lives. Even worse, they project their lack of humor on to God. This gave them the right, they probably felt, to do whatever despicable act comes into their minds. In this case, it was to destroy the very image of God in their fellow human beings.
I can’t speak to Muslims. They must police their own. However, I can challenge to my fellow Christians to let the events in France be a warning. When we take ourselves too seriously, and think we have to defend God from humor, we forget the heart of our faith is the joke of the Cross. When we do that, we lose the very heart of God Himself, and lose all sense of divine joy that comes from the Ultimate Joke
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