Holy Humorists

I should probably say Jesus but if asked about my favourite character in the Bible, I’d probably say Jonah or Elijah. Jonah, most likely.

He’s just funny.

Consider this. You are a prophet. One day you receive this word to go tell some people that they were going to burn. You don’t want to do the job but you’re kind of married to it. So you try to do the “follow the spirit but break the letter” kind of deal and you get up and set out, seemingly obediently. But you shift routes because you figure God thinks you’re on the mission; so you’ll do some mission… just not that one.

But your employer is all-knowing. So God creates an obstacle so you have no choice but to do the OG mission. Resigned, you say fine, I’ll go do it. And you finish the mission.

Suddenly, you feel really important and great that you have done what God asked you to do, the fact that you’ve actively strayed from the mission in the first instance completely slipping your mind by now. So you get up on a hill and set yourself down where you could best view the city burn.

Meanwhile, the people you’ve just condemned decide to sincerely repent so God forgives them. And then you get really angry about it because you’ve missed a great show that God had, in your reckoning, promised you.

I don’t know – Jonah is amusing and at the same time, not too amusing because in his life, I see a pattern I am all too familiar with. My own, if I was being too subtle.

As for Elijah, he is just the stuff that heroes are made of, all that dry humour and everything. Probably Marvel.

A major drama queen, I like that he gets hangry too. At one point, he threw a tantrum at God asking God to just off him and God had to tell him to just go take a nap and eat something. Which he did and he felt tons better.

Elijah has one of the strongest personalities in the Bible. He is a bit violent, yes, but he does it with flair. His introduction is abrupt and his departure is enigmatic. He is sarcastic and snarky, but also his faith is unshakeable.

Elbert Hubbard, I heard, had said that it is counter-productive to take life too seriously because you’re never going to get out of it alive. Even when things get very serious – like Jonah’s doomsday message or Elijah’s constant war with other gods – there is a way to consider situations without losing your head over it. I am hopeful to navigate through this life even just okay.