Gallows Humor

Here is my message from Maundy Thursday. The text was Romans 8:18-25, 31-39:

In the remarkable documentary Capturing the Friedmans, director Andrew Jarecki tells the story of the Friedman family of New York who get caught up in the preschool child molestation prosecutions, or we might say persecutions, of the 1980s. The father, Arnold, and later his son, Jesse, are both arrested and plead guilty to the charges that are made against them. But, the film does a great job in exploring the idea of justice and truth, and how the criminal justice system doesn’t always seek those things, and more importantly about the stories we make up and tell ourselves to justify the positions we have taken, even if the evidence doesn’t actually match what we say. But, there is one scene in the documentary, which consists of home movies the family took about their lives during this time, that hits home for today. Just before entering the courthouse for sentencing, the brothers are all standing outside the courtroom joking around with each other. The prosecutors witnessed this activity happening from a distance and said that it just proved their guilt, because if they were innocent they would not have laughing before this serious event taking place. In other words, their view of the issue impacted how they saw and interpreted what was happening. But in response to that accusation, one of the brothers said obviously the prosecutor had never heard of gallows humor, the humor we have when things appear desperate or even hopeless. The humor we have at times when we have to laugh otherwise we would have to cry.

Since today is also April fool’s day, it got me thinking about that film and the idea of humor in dark situations, and it made me wonder if there was any gallows humor on this night in Jesus’ life. On the surface it doesn’t appear to be so, it’s all pretty serious, at least according to our accounts.  And yet, I have to imagine that there had to have been something happening, not only because we tell jokes in situations like this just to cut the tension, but also because of the traditions of Judaism, after all it’s not like Jewish comedians are a rare thing. I think some of this comes about, and the plethora of Jewish comics, comes about because there is something about suffering that leads to humor. I think that’s why there is such a strong comedic tradition in black culture in our country as well. Suffering leads to humor. If you look at the background of many comedians, not all, but many, you’ll find some tragic events that have occurred in their history that have led them to tell jokes, because the alternative was to break down. Stephen Colbert’s father and two brothers were killed in a plane crash and he said it became his job to make his mother laugh. Indeed, the whole reason Jarecki came upon the story of the Friedmans was because he was doing a documentary on children’s party clowns in New York City, and David Friedman was one of the best. Suffering leads to humor.

And yet, we don’t often think of that when it comes to the church. Perhaps it’s because as Voltaire said, “God is a comedian playing to an audience who is afraid to laugh,” an idea we’ll explore more on Sunday. And we don’t think of it when it comes to our own suffering either, at least not initially. In Paul’s statement earlier in Romans, he says that suffering leads to perseverance and perseverance leads to character and character leads to hope, and hope does not disappoint. Paul does not say that suffering leads to humor. Perhaps this has something to do with Paul, as he never strikes me as the humor filled type of guy. And yet, I have to think that hope and laughter are tied together, because if you have no hope than what’s the point of laughter? Can you even laugh without hope? I think that’s when you just have to break down and cry. But, when you have the belief that things can only get better, because they can’t possibly get worse, then you can find humor in the situation. You can begin to appreciate gallows humor and laugh in the face of despair. And perhaps that is what Paul is saying in the section from Romans we heard tonight.

Paul says that our current sufferings are nothing compared with what is to come, which is not more suffering, but the glory of God being revealed to us. And so we wait in what? In hope. In hope that we will be set free from the bondage of decay and be set free in God’s glory. That we moan in the labor pains of the moment awaiting the birth of what is to come. Now, I’ve not seen a woman in labor pain laughing, perhaps some do, but laughing after the birth, laughing when the baby is placed in their arms, when they see for the first time what the suffering has led to, that certainly does happen.  When the new mother sees hope realized, hope fulfilled, and once it’s fulfilled, then it’s not really hope anymore, and yet that hope still brings laughter.

And so, I have to imagine that as Jesus and the disciples gathered on that last night, on this night, that there had to have been at least one joke that was told. That in a group of 13 guys there had to be at least one guy who was always telling jokes, who knew just the right thing to say to bust everyone up. Perhaps it was Thaddeus who was the humorous one, or at least he is the one with the most humorous sounding name. But, someone had to have said something to break the tension as the night went on and accusations began to fly, but as hope was also provided. Because what Paul tells us is that nothing can separate us from the love of God. “For I am convinced,” Paul says, “that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Nothing in all of creation, not even saying blasphemous things like there had to be a comedian at the last supper, can separate us from the love of God, and we see that at this table.

I say this every Maundy Thursday, but I am always amazed that all of the disciples are at the table when Jesus passes around the bread and the cup. All of them are there. He doesn’t tell Judas to go do what he has to do and then pass the bread. He doesn’t say to Peter, you’re about to deny me, you’re not worthy to be here. He doesn’t say to Thaddeus, you think this is something to joke about and kick him out. They are all there to received God’s grace. They are all there to hear about the forgiveness of sin. They are all there to participate in the same sacrament that we participate in today. They are all there to hear about the hope to be found in Christ Jesus, not just to be told, but to witness the love of God in action. They are all there because there is nothing in all of creation that can separate us from the love of God, and to hear about the hope we find in Christ, and it is in hope that we are saved.

Today is opening day for the Major League Baseball season, the greatest sport there is, and it is the day in which hope springs eternal. The day in which every team likes to say that this is their year, that they have a shot at winning it all. It’s not true, but you can say it because at the beginning of today every team had exactly the same record. Hope springs eternal, and yet for many of these fans the suffering is not too far away, and with it will come the jokes about how bad their teams are, because suffering does lead to laughter, after all, you can’t spell slaughter without the word laughter, although as far as I can tell in some quick research there is nothing actually etymological between the two.  But that is all tied up in hope. If you don’t have any hope then laughter doesn’t work, as Steve Martin said, his doctor told him he had some good news and some bad news, and the good news was he was soon going to have a disease named after him.

Despair and laughter go together, but only if hope is present, which is certainly the case because while Paul might say that no one hopes for what is seen, we, as Christians, do in fact hope for what we know is there. The power of love, the power of grace, the power of forgiveness, even the power of laughter, because we know how the story ends, because death does not have the final word. God has the final word. So, do not despair, instead, laugh in the face of death because God has told the greatest joke the world has ever heard, a topic for another day, because there is nothing in all of creation that can separate us from the love of God. Nothing. For God so loved the world that he sent his only son to save the world, to suffer death, even death on a cross, to laugh in the face of despair and to give us faith and hope and laughter and love. I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.