A Humorous Reading

This last reading comparing the Gospel to a comedy gave me such great things to think about, and reflecting about how true the analogy really is, once you can successfully define "comedy" In Shakespeare, a comedy means that everyone will get married by the end of the play. On TV, it's often identified with content we classify as "dirty". But comedy is truly defined as "unexpected", just as we talked about in class today.

God has a sense of humor

There seems to be so much to talk about when it comes to this topic! While I could spend an extraordinary amount of time highlighting all the different forms of humor, something I had never thought about was how the Gospel could be considered a comedy. It's easy to just say that the entire life of Jesus was filled with unexpected events, from how he was born, to how he treated people, how he died, and surely the way he rose from the grave. It's harder to admit how unexpected it all was when you listen to it yourself, knowing the ending. Is it possible that the greatest story ever told can be diminished because we know it so well?

Our class conversation today also included some great definitions of good and bad readers. As he was going through that list comparing the two sides, I identified more and more with the bad reader side. Part of that I feel is because I'm generally not a reader—reading isn't an activity that I do just to pass the time. One thing that struck me was the idea of reading once, or over and over again. It's something that I've been told countless times growing up in the church when we talk about the importance of Bible study. The significance of this truth amazes me, and it applies to many things. Each time you re-read, re-watch, or re-listen, you can pick up something else to reflect on—and it even applies to the Gospel.

I don't know what else to say without sounding like a preacher (although a really good preacher would draw a relationship between two ideas in an unexpected way to seem extra profound), but this is something that I personally need to keep in mind while reflecting on old stories.