The funny side of JC

One would think that the whole Bible is a sombre book to read but as I have found, Jesus could be quite funny. I was no short of laughing when I re-read a passage of scripture in the New Testament (Matthew 14:15-21).

The passage defies basic logic and almost absurd. It was right of the disciples to tell Jesus to send the crowd of approximately five thousand men not including women and children to go home and find something to eat themselves. What was Jesus thinking really? There they were, in that middle of nowhere with His twelve disciples and the multitude. I don’t think anyone thought they were going out for a picnic! Then you read Jesus saying to his disciples, “All the people can stay, go and feed them“. No wonder ‘they’ have to talk him thinking that in numbers they may be able to persuade the Master. Majority usually wins, and really, who in their right mind would feed such numbers with 5 loaves and 2 fishes?!  I thought to myself, 'Well, to feed the disciples, I supposed each fish can be cut out into 6 parts not including Jesus, as He may opt to fast.  Too bad for whoever gets the tail and half of the head of the fish, the bread should at least make up for it'. 

As I kept reading the passage, there is not even a small hint of Jesus trying to be funny. Then I imagine the disciples saying perhaps not explicitly, "Um, Master Jesus, we only have 5 loaves and 2 fish! Seriously?!“ Jesus with a straight face then says, “Bring them here to me”.  Wow! What powerful words! I feel my skin tingle as I imagine Jesus saying it.

I sense that Jesus wants us to use what we already have, no matter how petty and insignificant it may appear or illogical at most times. He takes whatever we have into His hands, blesses it and makes it abundant, overflowing, and outpouring to others in need, both blessing the giver and the receiver.

And so at the end of the passage we find the disciples taking twelve baskets, one for each of them to pick up the left-over of that meal that wasn’t even enough to feed thirteen of them to begin with.  Miraculously, at the end they, after Jesus had blessed the only thing they had, ‘all ate and was filled’.