A while ago, a friend invited me to go and watch Joseph and his Technicoloured Dreamcoat.
It was at a small theatre in Camps Bay and I was quite excited, not really knowing what to expect. I had never seen it before, so I was unsure whether this would be a ‚religious‘ piece or not. It was not. But that doesn’t mean it was bad. I actually really enjoyed it. God was nowhere to be found in the plot of the story, but the singing, dancing and colourful costumes made for a really entertaining display. I particularly liked the part where Joseph was bought by the tap of a coin pouch!
Afterwards I was left thinking about the way this very well-known story might be seen through a humorous lens. And whether there are other texts that could be seen in the same way. Can we read the Bible and find a little humour in its words? God created us, after al and laughter is part of what He made.
The story of Joseph is one we think we know well. A favourite son, a colourful coat, jealous brothers, a pit, slavery, prison, and eventual triumph. We’ve heard it so many times that we sometimes forget to notice how absurd it actually is.
His brothers were grown men, shepherds, sons of the patriarchs and yet on seeing him coming across the field, their first instinct is to kill! Not a stern word, not a complaint to their father. No straight to murder.
Reuben, the reasonable voice, convinces them not to kill their brother, and so Joseph is thrown into a pit while his brothers sit down for a bit of lunch. It all sounds almost too casual for what is actually happening. And then, just by chance, here comes a caravan heading to Egypt, offering a convenient financial reward for the disposal of their brother.
As the story goes, later, in prison, Joseph correctly interprets the dreams of two fellow inmates. One will go free, one will be executed and Joseph is right on both counts. Surely now he’ll be remembered? Two years of silence say otherwise.
There is something almost comic in how the story keeps escalating, keeps collapsing, keeps turning, until it lands exactly where God intended all along. The joke, if you will, is on everyone who thought they were in control. If Joseph’s story is comic in its structure, then 1 Kings 18 is comic in its dialogue.
The prophet Elijah faces off against 450 prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel. They call on their god from morning until noon with dancing, shouting and yet getting no answer. And Elijah, watching this spectacle, cannot help him thought, or busy, or travelling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.“
The Hebrew of that passage is even more pointed and one of those possibilities is that Baal has simply gone to relieve himself, to do a number one or two!
This is not accidental. This is a prophet of God using sharp, pointed humour as a theological weapon. The absurdity of idol worship is exposed not with a lecture, but with a laugh. And then Elijah quietly repairs the altar, prays a simple prayer, and God answers with fire.
The humour and the holiness sit right next to each other and neither diminishes the other.
Holiness and humour right next to each other. Not something you hear everyday. Some of you might remember what happened at our joint church service, right in the holiest of our religious gatherings. We were standing at the Holy Communion table. The bread was served and the moment was filled with a sense of divine presence.
Then I told those around me to go and sit down, forgetting that the wine still needed to be served! You should have seen the expressions on the faces around me. I couldn’t help but laugh. And then everyone around me laughed as well.
In that moment, maybe the holiness was lost for some but for me, I felt that Jesus was smiling down on us. Holiness, not destroyed by humour, but held gently within it.
Maybe we have been too serious with our Bibles. The stories were always this funny. After all, God named a baby Izaac „Laughter“ and has no problem with his prophet mocking false gods on a mountaintop.
A community that can laugh together is a community that trusts one another and trusts God. That is no small thing. The Bible’s humour is not a distraction from its holiness,it is part of it. And that is an invitation: to read with a little more delight, and to worship with a little more joy.
Schalk Treurnicht
