Explaining the Stand-Up Portion of a Sermon

In the sermon this Sunday I use humor to make fun of religious legalists and their silly hats, poorly placed signs, shocking racism, and stunning lack of irony. I do this, of course, to expose the legalist inclinations we all have; what Martin Luther called "the default mode of the human heart." The reason legalism is so insidious and repugnant is that, at its core, it is about us, our team, and our works instead of Jesus. No one, no denomination, and no team is immune from the temptation to pursue their own esteem, righteousness, success, comfort, or power instead of Jesus’ glory and righteousness. So, in this latest sermon we have a good laugh at a lot of religious silliness, and then turn the tables on reverse legalists, who laugh at legalists only to become a new form of legalist. Historically, humor has been a great gospel weapon. One of my heroes, the renowned Reformed Baptist preacher Charles Haddon Spurgeon, said,

I do not know why ridicule is to be given up to Satan as a weapon to be used against us, and not to be employed by us as a weapon against him. I will venture to affirm that the Reformation owed almost as much to the sense of the ridiculous in human nature as to anything else, and that those humorous squibs and caricatures, that were issued by the friends of Luther, did more to open the eyes of Germany to the abominations of the priesthood than the more solid and ponderous arguments against Romanism. . . . "It [humor] is a dangerous weapon," it will be said, "and many men will cut their fingers with it." Well, that is their own look-out; but I do not know why we should be so particular about their cutting their fingers if they can, at the same time, cut the throat of sin, and do serious damage to the great adversary of souls.

In my book Religion Saves, an entire chapter is devoted to the subject of humor in the Bible. I explore many of the examples of scathing humor used by the Old Testament prophets, Jesus, apostles, and some significant Christian leaders in church history. I also give the following ten reasons why I believe humor is beneficial.

1. Jesus Christ laughed, and Christians are supposed to be like Jesus and thus laugh. . . .
2. Religion is the great enemy of the gospel because it seeks to replace the gifted righteousness of Jesus Christ with some other human work. Therefore, poking fun at the silliness of religious people and their sources of sinful self-righteousness serves both them and others who are prone to follow in their example. . . .
3. Too many people take themselves too seriously and God too lightly. Subsequently, like those who rebuked Jesus for not washing his hands but had no problem murdering him, and the homosexual pastors who are more offended by rock worship music in church than their sodomy, the far too serious among us need to be made fun of as a prophetic gift of being awakened from slumber.
4. Nearly everyone makes fun of other people, though not often in public as preachers do. Instead, they post anonymously on blogs and Web sites, send nasty anonymous letters to their church, and gossip behind people’s backs so that they can continue to present a holy face in public. Yet, by suffering the blows of sharp comedic criticism, those who make fun of others are often tenderized, becoming more compassionate toward people they would otherwise speak ill to or of.
5. Some things are a joke, and to treat them seriously would be a sin, but turning them into a joke keeps them from being legitimized. For example, anyone who takes seriously a religion with its roots in Utah (Mormonism) or Pittsburgh (Jehovah’s Witness) is doing a disservice and wasting a lot of comedic material. . . .
6. When all else fails, and the feces and fan have interfaced, all you can do is laugh it off. On this point, Proverbs 14:13 says, "Even in laughter the heart may ache, and the end of joy may be grief." Life in a sinfully crooked, fallen, jacked-up world is incredibly painful and filled with overwhelming heartache and pain, especially for pastors. . . . Sometimes the only way to keep from putting a gun in your mouth while mumbling Lamentations is to find something funny in it all and laugh through your tears.
7. Nehemiah 8:10 says, "The joy of the LORD is your strength." Too many Christians are spiritually weak and sickly, but their souls would be built strong through regular, deep belly laughs. . . .
8. Cultivating your sense of humor heightens all of your other emotions. The person who can laugh deeply is passionate enough to also weep deeply. Those who bottle up their emotions in a Spock-like existence display little if any of the characteristics of their passionate God, who both laughs and weeps. . . .
9. Laughter is sometimes an act of faith, in that it enables us to rise above the pain of the present while we await the coming kingdom, where there are no tears.
10. Humor is a missiological ministry tool that is necessary for successful evangelism in our culture.

[1] Charles Haddon Spurgeon, "The Uses of Anecdotes and Illustrations," in Lectures to My Students (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1954), 389. [1] Mark Driscoll, Religion Saves: And Nine Other Misconceptions (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2009), 62–63.