When I was about thirty years old I made my first visit to Disney Land—as it was called then. I had an epiphany when I was coming down from the Disney “Tree House”: “All of this is the result of creative imagination. My second grade teacher was stern when she would say, ‘Don’t sit there, just looking out the window—you need to do your work. An idle mind is the devil’s workshop!”’ She gave me a jump-start on the Protestant Work Ethic. At the tree house I remember saying to my self—”That teacher was wrong: CREATIVE IMAGINATION IS A GOOD THING!”
A Sometime Interview Between Danny,The “Straight Man,”
And Tung-in-Cheek, Famous Old Chinese Biblical Scholar.
( Continuing with Imagination—just for fun!)
INTRODUCTION
DANNY: Thank you for giving us time for an interview. You are such a famous old Chinese Biblical Scholar, I feel I should address you as “YOUR IMMENSENESS!”
TUNG For you, I am Tung.
DANNY: Tung, you appear to be quite old.
TUNG: Although I continue to look good, I am very old. :
DANNY: How old are you?
TUNG: Old enough to be a retired, ancient Chinese Biblical scholar of considerable renown whom you wish to interview.
DANNY: Where did you do your graduate work?
TUNG: At the University of Modern Antiquities.
DANNY: I understand that you have made a serious study of humor in Biblical times.
TUNG: If you were taking a test, you would now have one right! Humor is an extremely serious subject. Some of my discoveries are actually being released right here for the first time in the history of the world. Most everyone will be truly astonished at these astonishing astonishments. My research now being revealed for the first time is in five categories:
1) An “early writer” of the Bible. 2) Jesus’ outstanding contributions to humor. 3) Proverbs as ancient humor.
4) Babylonians as some of the funniest people in the world.
5) How you can make the best use of this timely research “just for fun.”
I only have time to address the first two!
SECTION ONE
DANNY: Tell us about the person you refer to as an “early writer of the Bible.”
TUNG: The name of this early writer of the Bible cannot be spoken. He started writing the Bible when he was very young, in the year 598 ½ B. C. You should feel a close kinship with him because he was in the 4th Century B. C. right where you are in relation to the 21st Century A. D.—just about ready to bust wide open a totally new millennium. I wish I could say his name, but I don’t dare speak it. If I did, you and I would die, and we don’t particularly want that to happen, do we?
DANNY: Has your ancient Biblical research been hard for you?
TUNG: It has been hard and tough! Of course, there are reasons for that. You may have noticed that the ancient Hebrews numbered things backwards. The fifth century came before the fourth century, which came before the third century, which came before the second century.
It would take no less a person than Jesus to get the numbering straightened out, so it ran from first to second, to third, and so fourth.
But even Jesus couldn’t correct the Hebrew practice of writing everything backwards—from right to left instead of from left to right, like the rest of us write.
I wish you could have known the ancient Hebrews. They were something else! I’ve never told this before, but I discovered that they did five other things backwards. Unfortunately, I don’t have time to give a full report of the five things right now.
Section Two
Jesus’ Outstanding Contribution to Humor?
DANNY: What did you discover about Jesus’ contribution to humor?
TUNG: You may think that Jesus was not the funniest person who ever lived. But do not rush to
judgment without being prepared for judgment. If you are not careful, Jesus will slip up on
your blind side with His humor, as he sometimes did to others.
I am not saying that Jesus was a comedian, or even that he was as funny as those hilarious
Babylonians.
But except at the very end, those closest to Jesus frequently saw a curl in his lip. Remember that John said in 11;35, “Jesus wept.” John wouldn’t have mentioned this unusual occurrence if it had not stood out so prominently.
Jesus, also, said some humorous things:
At Pentecost he said that the people were not drunk because it was only 9:00—they hadn’t had time to get drunk.
He gave a new twist to that old Babylonian joke about the camel: “. . . camel through the eye of a needle,” etc.
And Jesus SAW some thing that were humorous:
The sophisticated Zacchaeus perched on the limb of a tree.
What he said about the new wine.
The look on the man’s face as he was let down through the rooftop.
The glee on Peter’s face when he walked on water—and the shock on his face as he
was going under.
The vivid contrast between Martha and Mary.
Mary’s concern that after three days Lazarus had begun to smell.
Jesus also savored humor from within.
I can almost hear him quietly chuckle as the sea became calm. . .
As the officer’s child got up and went out to play. . .
As Peter’s mother-in-law asked for something to eat. . .
The way the people responded after he told any number of parables.
Any of these situations could have made him chuckle inside.
These times, and others, make me think of the “laughing Jesus.”
When we wish to get in touch with the fullness of Jesus, we must make room for his humor. Jesus’ humor was perhaps one of the frequently, overlooked reasons that people loved him so much. His humor was likely one of the many reasons that children were attracted to him.
Interviewed by
Danny E. Morris,
Professor Emeritus,
Various Universities.
