Why the Bible Never Tells Us That Jesus Laughed

I was in the house of a Christian friend many years back and as he showed me the various pictures of Jesus that his wife and he had put up over the years, he showed me one of Jesus laughing and told me of all those pictures, that was his favorite. He thought my response was a bit strange when I responded by asking him if he knew that the Bible never speaks of Jesus laughing. We had a short discussion over this and he stated that he was sure Jesus laughed. Yes, I agreed that day, that certainly there were times of laughter in the earthly life of Jesus. Today, I am certain that Jesus did laugh, after all, like us, He was a human that experienced all the emotions we do. But I suggest that there is a reason why we can find no narrative in scripture that depicts a laughing Jesus.

Scripture does say that God laughs. But when God laughs in the Bible, it is a laugh of derision.

Psalm 59:8
But You, O LORD, laugh at them; You scoff at all the nations.

Am I saying laughter is wrong? No, absolutely not. Though scripture does not say this, I actually believe that God has given us a sense of humor along with the ability to laugh, as a blessing to help us enjoy life and even at times, to carry us through times of suffering. Solomon tells us that there is “a time to weep and a time to laugh.” It’s clear in some of the stories of Jesus, that He had a sense of humor.

So, what’s my point? My point is simply this; The Bible does not show us a laughing Jesus because that is not the primary understanding of who Jesus is, or maybe better says was, as He walked this earth, that the Holy Spirit wants us to have.

This morning I was reading from a book that is a compilation of talks given by the great preacher, Charles Spurgeon, that reflect on communion with Jesus. In this message is a reminder of why our main thoughts of the emotional state of Jesus in His time on earth, doesn’t give us a picture of a laughing Jesus. Spurgeon speaks from the text of the great Book of Isaiah, chapter fifty-three. Let us take a look.

Isaiah 52:13-15
 Behold, My servant will prosper, He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted.  Just as many were astonished at you, My people, So His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men.  Thus He will sprinkle many nations, Kings will shut their mouths on account of Him; For what had not been told them they will see, And what they had not heard they will understand.

Isaiah is speaking of Jesus. These scriptures, though they speak of the Gospel, the good news of salvation to us, ought to break our hearts. Though one day Jesus will be lifted up and greatly exalted, before we can see that day He had to be lifted up on a cross to pay the cost of our sin. Before the good news of the Gospel could be our gain, Jesus had to suffer in a way no man has ever suffered. Isaiah tells us that “His appearance was marred more than any man And His form more than the sons of men.”

But even worse than that, Jesus suffered something He had never experienced in all of eternity; He had to be separated from God. Mark recorded the desperate cry of Jesus as He paid the ultimate price for us.

Mark 15:33-34
 When the sixth hour came, darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour.  At the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, "ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI?" which is translated, "MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAVE YOU FORSAKEN ME?"

This is the darkest day, the darkest moment of time ever in history. God forsake Jesus. You see, this is the price of our sin. Every time we covet something that isn’t ours, we offend the very holiness of God. Every wayward glance at another woman not our wife, every unkind and hurtful word we speak to another person, every time we worry, and every time we simply ignore what God called us to do, we deserve to be forsaken by God. Listen to how the burden of our sin affected the Lord Jesus as He lived out His time on earth again as Isaiah tells us.

Isaiah 53:2-3
For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.  He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.

This is Jesus, the very Son of God, King of Kings, the one who left the glory of Heaven where He eternally dwells with God. Despised and forsaken of men. One from whom men hide their face and esteem Him not. It gets worse.

Isaiah 53:4-6
Surely our griefs He Himself bore, And our sorrows He carried; Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, Smitten of God, and afflicted.  But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed.  All of us like sheep have gone astray, Each of us has turned to his own way; But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all To fall on Him.

Why is Jesus described a man of sorrows? Spurgeon reminds us that we esteemed Him not. We turn to our own way and esteem Him not. He was crushed for iniquities. Our sins did this.

Let us turn to the New Testament now and see that He was a man of sorrows.

Mark 3:5
 After looking around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart.

Mark 6:6
And he marveled because of their unbelief.

Mark 8:12
And he sighed deeply in his spirit.

Unbelief and hardness of heart brought Jesus distress. His own friend and disciple would betray Him. But the truth of the matter is this; our sins took Him to the cross. Our hard hearts and our unbelief crucified Jesus.

Solomon also said this in Ecclesiastes 7:3
Sorrow is better than laughter, for by sadness of face the heart is made glad.

James expanded on it in James 4:9
Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom.

Wow. That seems depressing, doesn’t it? But before I close I want to remind you that Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3:4 that “there is a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.”

But before we laugh, we must weep. Before we dance, we must mourn. We must remember that it is our sin that made Jesus a man of sorrows.

What do we do?

Every day we have life we must weep over our sins and mourn the very existence of them. Then we confess them, we repent of them, and we cry out to Jesus for mercy and grace. Then and then only can we laugh and dance.

Spurgeon wrapped up his talk saying this, “If we were astonished at the marring of His face, we shall be much more astonished at the magnificence of His glory.”

Let us remember our Lord Jesus. Let us be astonished at His glory. But let us never forget that we made Him a man of sorrows.