He is Laughing at Sin’s Expense
Does God the Father have a sense of humor? But of course, He is the creator God, and humor in one sense is merely a reconciliation of irony with truth. And He authored truth.
Jesus used irony in his ministry, and one example comes in the gospel of John chapter 9 with the story of the blind man. The blind man says to the Pharisees who harangue him, “That is remarkable indeed! You do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes.” (Jn 9:30) When it comes to what’s revealed by faith, who is blind in this instance, truly? The blind man clarifies to them what they should know (being knowledgeable in the Jewish faith): “Never before has anyone heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, He could not do anything like this.” (Jn 9:32-33) Jesus later himself leverages the irony for the sake of truth by saying, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind may see and those who see may become blind.” (Jn 9:39) They then continue, foolishly and blindly, to take the bait: Some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard this, and they asked Him, “Are we blind too?” “If you were blind,” Jesus replied, “you would not be guilty of sin. But since you claim you can see, your guilt remains.” (Jn 9:40-41)
Does the Holy Spirit use irony? I can’t see why not, particularly in the path of discipleship where we can see ourselves through a lens of humility and constantly in His care. This past weekend our church concluded a 7-week teaching series spending one week on each letter from Jesus through the apostle John to the 7 churches in the book of Revelation, chapters 2 and 3. The last letter was addressed to the church in Laodicea (Rev. 3:14-22). The contents of this letter give us the familiar reference of being lukewarm in faith and thus fit for being spat out. “Would that you were either cold or hot!” (v 15)
Here’s where I think God is laughing with me, and certainly not at me.
I began three new classes for this semester yesterday. Intro to Apologetics, Old Testament Survey, and New Testament survey. The first assignment for this week in New Testament survey is to read a case study example and form an argument based in biblical interpretation to support or deny a hypothetical claim.
Well the case study, hypothetically, involves a Bible Study group, gathered at a coffee shop, where in this instance they are discussing this exact passage about the church at Laodicea with the dispute being the best interpretation of reference of being hot or cold, lest the believers be spat out for being lukewarm.
The fictitious Bible study has some named main characters, a main one being a guy named Daniel. Daniel has some pretty strong thoughts in his interpretation of this passage, in fact based on a loose interpretation of the passage that avoids some reasonable historical theological analysis.
The irony being, the Lord led me to a church in this season, headed by a pastor named Daniel. Pastor Daniel has strong thoughts about the Bible as well, but contrast to the case study’s Daniel, he stresses exegesis so that the context can be a tool to ripple the significance of Jesus’ words today.
Pastor Daniel’s central take on this passage regarding hot or cold was that from their point of origin they represented utility. So “cold” is not necessarily absent the Spirit, and “hot” is not necessarily on fire for Christ. Rather, how useful are we willing to be to the Lord as he exclaims in verse 15? Refreshing and quenching like cool, or soothing and cleansing like hot. Lukewarm serves no purpose and in this story accrued elements of the world that fouls the taste, enough for reported visitors to Laodicea to be made sick by the lukewarm water they imported via aqueduct into their rich city.
That the Lord knew I’d embark on an M.Div. pursuit, register for these classes in this first semester, be brought to a new church where to be preached to about this passage by a faithful pastor through a berean approach to the Bible, so that I’d be well-informed when tasked to articulate an interpretive point of view on this topic… this is His irony. It is not a coincidence. I find the Lord is laughing not at my expense, but that of sin because His words are being revealed to me through earnestness for the sake of others being no longer blind.