I was surprised to read of the English and Wales Cricket Board’s apology for its joke about The Ashes responding to Pope Francis’ social media post on Ash Wednesday. He said how ‘The Ashes’ remind us of our identity, put us in our place, smooth the rough edges of our narcissism, bring us back to reality, and make us more humble and open to one another. Pope Francis concluded, “None of us is God; we are all on a journey”. To which the EWCB joked on social media – now apologised for and deleted – “Even the Pope loves the Ashes”. (For non-cricketers, The Ashes is the name given since 1882 to the cricket tests between England and Australia.)

I was surprised because I didn’t expect to read such a thing and my first thought was that the Pope had died and there were allusions to cremation and the burning of papal votes for the successor. Ok, my mind goes to weird places. It was only in reading more that I discovered the context. And there’s a part of me that does go ‘poor taste’ but also there’s a part of me that goes ‘that is humorous – especially if the Board had included a winking emoji and offered the Pope some tickets to the next Ashes series on his recovery!’. (That’s what I would have done I think.)

Like beauty, humour is in the eye or ear of the beholder. When discussing comedy, it is often said that good humour ‘punches up’ to those who have power or privilege or both – it’s the court jester type of thing from bygone eras – but humour is sarcastic or cruel when it ‘punches down’. Attributed to Charlie Chaplin is the sentiment, “My pain may be the reason for somebody’s laugh. But my laugh must never be the reason for somebody’s pain”. We get the picture I’m sure.

I’ve often wondered how much God and Jesus laugh. God’s laughter, by definition, is ‘downwards’ and while he can laugh at humanity’s pomposity and stupidity (Psalm 2:4; Psalm 37:12,13) we might imagine with a sad irony, because we also know that God rejoices and delights in his people (Psalm 147:11, Psalm 149: 4; Zephaniah 3:17) and Jesus said that he came that we might have life and have it to the full or abundantly (John 10:10) and I simply can’t imagine all this without smiles and laughter. The Bible declares to me not a remote God but one who comes close to us – especially when we focus on Jesus – so I definitely imagine Jesus was smiling and laughing as he blessed the little children!

One of the understandings of the atonement – why Jesus had to and did die on a cross – is that the Devil didn’t see the resurrection coming – he was so focused on winning, destroying Jesus. C S Lewis captures this very well, in my opinion, in ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’ and the interactions between Aslan and the White Witch. Evil has a blind spot. Hence Paul wrote to the Colossians, ¹³ And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with [Jesus], having forgiven us all our trespasses, ¹⁴ by cancelling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him (Colossians 2:13-15 ESV). This Jesus has the last laugh!

Of course, we should be careful about our humour! In my musings now, I’m smiling as I type as I imagine God smiles, rejoices, delights, laughs more than we imagine. Joy is such a rich part of life. My imagination has God laughing with me rather than at me and always with love!

GS