Matthew 9:23-26

Posted by DJL on Jul 1, 2014 in Daily Bread | 0 comments

When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute-players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread throughout that district.

Why do they laugh?

Is it because they don’t understand? Sometimes the feeling of not understanding what is going on, of being out of our depth, is rather uncomfortable, even unnerving. And one way we cope with the discomfort of not understanding is to laugh, either a nervous laugh betraying our discomfort or an overly boisterous laugh that is meant to convey confidence.

Or is because they don’t believe? Sometimes when we run into another’s belief system, one that differs from our own, we use laughter not just in self-defense but in attack, mocking the beliefs of others and in this way artificially bolstering our own.

Or is it because they find the idea of raising a dead girl to life funny, perhaps out-and-out ridiculous. If so – and this is where I tend to land – then their laughter may have a certain hilarity to it. Perhaps they found the idea so ridiculous that their natural sensitivities to the family suffering a mixture of anguish and hope were swept aside by the sheer ludicrousness of Jesus’ declaration.

There is a surprising amount of laughter in the Bible. Or maybe I should say that people laugh at the most unusual of times. Not just when some joke is told or something funny happens, but often in response to the promises of God. And so Sarah laughs when God tells her, a ninety year-old barren woman, that she will have children, and in this scene the mourners and friends gathered around the deathbed of this little girl laugh when the God’s Messiah promises new life.

Perhaps we’ve become so accustomed to loss, disappointment, and death that God’s promises of blessing, abundance, and life can only seem out of place, odd, ridiculous. I find it instructive that the name of the ancient Christian hymn, “O Joyous Light of Glory” – Phos Hilaron – contains within it the root of our word “hilarious.” There is something hilariously joyful and joyfully hilarious about God’s promises, for they always surprise us, bring us up short, and cause a deep and life-giving laughter to erupt, first in doubt, then in wonder, as God shows up where we least expect God to be in order to pull us through death into new life.

Prayer: Dear God, thank you for surprising us, for upsetting our expectations, for living beyond our limitations, and for making audacious and even ridiculous promises that cause us to laugh, first in doubt and then in gratitude. In Jesus’ name, Amen.