At the end of “Orthodoxy”, Chesterton wrote:
“There was something that He [Christ] hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth.”
But in “Reflections on the Psalms”, Lewis wrote:
“He [Christ] preaches but He does not lecture. He uses paradox, proverb, exaggeration, parable, irony; even (I mean no irreverence) the ‘wisecrack’.”
Lewis does not indicate what kind of “wisecrack” Jesus made. My candidate for this is when He called James and John “sons of thunder”. And their “thunderousness” was subsequently confirmed when they asked Christ to send down lighting on a town that did not believe in Him. Are there other examples of Christ’s wisecracks or “mirth” in general?
Dimitry
“Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. Love does not demand its own way. Love is not irritable, and it keeps no record of when it has been wronged. It is never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Love will last forever.” (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8)