More TV Vicar?: 5 ways Jesus Christ gives modern stand-ups a run for their money

 ‘It is a test of a good religion whether you can joke about it.’

— G.K. Chesterton

1. Being offensive

Jesus knew all about how to offend people and used it to great effect. Nearly all of his offensive comments are against not ‘the sinners’ as one might expect, given the way people have preached fire and brimstone over the years, but against the religious leaders of his day – the Pharisees who placed intolerable burdens on the

people:

‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. So you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.’ [Matthew 23: 27–8]

There is a whole list of insults in Matthew chapter 23, it goes on and on and even to the untrained eye it is obvious that Jesus doesn’t think much of these so-called religious teachers. Jesus’ statements are so incendiary that the disciples have to take him to one side to tell him he is being too rude: ‘Then the disciples approached and said to him, “Do you know that the Pharisees took offence when they heard what you said?” ’ [Matthew 15:11]

2. Telling funny jokes

Jesus uses hyperbole almost as much as Simon Cowell does on the X Factor. He regularly used ridiculous images to get his point across – and also, to get a laugh! Where? Well he describes the mustard bush as the ‘largest of all trees’ (which even we in the modern world know is patently not true, but it was a long time before I realised that Jesus is being intentionally funny). He says that it is harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. For centuries people have tried to figure out what he meant, where, in reality, he was describing something amusingly impossible to say simply that – it’s impossible for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. It’s a comic image to put across a point, not anything more complex than that. Gerald Arbuckle says: ‘In first century Palestine people would have most likely laughed at many of Jesus’s intentionally ridiculous illustrations, for example, the idea that someone would have lit a lamp and put it under a basket, or that a person would have built a house on sand, or that a father would give a child stones instead of bread.’ We miss most of this because, as Revd Daniel J. Herrington, an expert on the New Testament says: ‘Humour is very culture-bound. The Gospels have a lot of controversy stories and honour-shame situations. I suspect that the early readers found these stories hilarious, whereas we in a very different social setting miss the point entirely.’

There we are: Jesus was hilarious.

3. Giving nicknames to his mates

Jesus had a self-picked gang of friends in the disciples. As in any group of friends, he gave some of them nicknames – most famously, of course, Peter whose original name was Simon. Peter means ‘rock’ (after Jesus names him he goes on to say that Peter will be the ‘rock’ on which he builds his church). The more I read of the gospels the more I think this was probably quite an ironic nickname. Peter is the one who always jumps in (sometimes literally – see Matthew 14:29 and John 21:7) with two feet. He’s reliable, but not in a good way – you can rely on Peter to get it wrong. Not a rock-like quality. It’s testimony to both Jesus’ sense of humour and also his faith that Peter would make it in the end (even after denying him three times) that he gives him this nickname. An encouragement to us all! Jesus also nicknames the brothers James and John (sons of Zebedee – no, not that Zebedee) the Sons of Thunder. The mind boggles as to this one, but I guess they argued a lot or maybe they were just really loud, or maybe Jesus is even referring in this epithet to their pushy mother? Then, some of the others also had nicknames. There’s another Simon – but that one is nicknamed the Zealot (that could probably be translated as terrorist today) and poor Thomas (as in doubting) is simply known by most of his friends as ‘the twin’ (Didymus in Greek) – which any identical twin could sympathise with. When I list the nicknames like this you can almost hear the banter amongst these young men.

4. Sticking it to ‘the man’

Some of the most controversial comedians of the last few years have been famous for challenging the government and other authority figures – Alexei Sayle, Ben Elton (in the 1980s), Bill Hicks, Tim Minchin, Mark Thomas… Jesus gives these guys a run for their money too. He shockingly describes Herod, the puppet ruler of the Jews, as a fox:

At that very hour some Pharisees came and said to him, ‘Get away from here, for Herod wants to kill you.’ He said to them, ‘Go and tell that fox for me, “Listen, I am casting out demons and performing cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I finish my work. Yet today, tomorrow, and the next day I must be on my way, because it is impossible for a prophet to be killed away from Jerusalem.” ’ [Luke 13:31–3]

It is, ultimately, what leads to his death, directly challenging the religious authorities of his day that they’ve got it wrong about God – and then being executed by the pagan Roman authorities for stirring up dissent. You can’t get much more ‘sticking it to the man’ than that.

5. Being satirical

Not only did Jesus offend the sensibilities of the religious leaders and insult the politicians, he also engaged in powerful satirical acts, most clearly in his ‘triumphal entry’ into Jerusalem. The Romans were big fans of triumphal entries – soldiers would return from battle in a grand procession of war horses, weapons and chariots – perhaps headed by Caesar himself or a local ruler – into the city. It was a show of strength, a show of the dominance of Pax Romana – the ‘peace of Rome’ – a way to keep the people in fear of those who ruled them. Around the time of Passover, in Jerusalem, Pontius Pilate (the Roman leader) probably would have arranged just such a triumphal entry to assert Roman authority at a time when the city would be full of pilgrims celebrating their most important festival. And what does Jesus do? He conducts his own ‘triumphal entry’ but not on a war horse, on a baby donkey, a colt. This is a challenging satirical act. The people shout out praise to Jesus, as they might have been paid to do to the Romans. They lay down palm branches. Perhaps the reason the crowds were so supportive of this act of Jesus was because they could see how satirical it was – they wanted to join in this mockery of Roman authority. You can infer this because the Pharisees tell Jesus to stop the people shouting out for fear of Roman reprisals [Luke 19:40]. There is something of the political cartoon or spoof YouTube video about Jesus’ ‘triumphal entry’. It seems, then, that Jesus was also a satirist.

So next time you’re watching a stand-up comedian, and you have a sharp intake of breath at a comment about a politician or religious leader – think how those early multitudes might have responded in a similar way to Jesus and realise that they’re only copying the Master.

This is an excerpt from More TV Vicar? Christians on the Telly: The Good, the Bad and the Quirky by Bryony Taylor, available now in paperback and eBook priced £9.99.