The New Testament contains no report altogether about Jesus laughing or smiling during his ministry in the Jewish homeland Palestine of the first century C.E. This results in the boring Christian Scriptural depiction of Jesus as too serious a man having no time to laugh and smile.
People say that a very serious man usually will have a short lifespan. Factually, Jesus died when he was still young. His enemies hated him because he was too serious in his intention to establish the sapiential political kingdom of God in the Jewish land being occupied by the Romans.
On the picture above, the Balinese artist I Gede Sukana Kariana, of Den Pasar, Bali, Indonesia, depicts Jesus as widely smiling with children surrounding him. Sukana Kariana writes, “In the Bible there is no explicit mention about Jesus smiling. This is a mystery for me so I must find out by more carefully searching in the Bible. Laughing is a natural expression of human beings, to express their joy from the bottom of their heart. Jesus as a human being must also have emotions like other humans. He lived his life as a normal human being. Although there is no explicit record in the Bible about how Jesus smiled and laughed, but when He met many children, I am convinced that Jesus smiled and made a joke with the children.”
People say that a very serious man usually will have a short lifespan. Factually, Jesus died when he was still young. His enemies hated him because he was too serious in his intention to establish the sapiential political kingdom of God in the Jewish land being occupied by the Romans.
On the picture above, the Balinese artist I Gede Sukana Kariana, of Den Pasar, Bali, Indonesia, depicts Jesus as widely smiling with children surrounding him. Sukana Kariana writes, “In the Bible there is no explicit mention about Jesus smiling. This is a mystery for me so I must find out by more carefully searching in the Bible. Laughing is a natural expression of human beings, to express their joy from the bottom of their heart. Jesus as a human being must also have emotions like other humans. He lived his life as a normal human being. Although there is no explicit record in the Bible about how Jesus smiled and laughed, but when He met many children, I am convinced that Jesus smiled and made a joke with the children.”
On the picture above, Jesus is laughing and simultaneously winking his right eye with his right hand holding a book of Charles Darwin entitled On the Origin of Species 2 and his left thumb being pointed upward. Clearly, through his body language, Jesus is suggesting you to read the book and stating that Darwinian biological evolution should seriously and happily be accepted by Christians.
Fortunately, Christians still have an extracanonical gospel named the Gospel of Judas in which Jesus is more than once depicted as laughing while being together with his disciples. This is the good news; but the bad news is that here, in this apocryphal gospel, Jesus’ laughter is depicted as being cynical.
In Christian Christological thinking Jesus is viewed almost entirely as the suffering Messiah who died ignominiously on the cross allegedly in order to save humanity from God’s punishment passed due to their own sins.
A death on the cross and sinful humanity that must be punished are a ‘dark theological language’ which is counter-productive indeed to any effort to build a happy and healthy society. To make it functional, Christian soteriology of the cross should in the first place make people view themselves to be utterly powerless in developing their own moral virtues; we say, it demoralizes people. In reality, every human being has the cognitive capacities to live a life morally and greatly.
Christians, therefore, are in serious need of a religious figure like the Budai, the Laughing Buddha (Chinese: 笑佛), also popularly known in English speaking countries as the Fat Buddha.
Fortunately, Christians still have an extracanonical gospel named the Gospel of Judas in which Jesus is more than once depicted as laughing while being together with his disciples. This is the good news; but the bad news is that here, in this apocryphal gospel, Jesus’ laughter is depicted as being cynical.
In Christian Christological thinking Jesus is viewed almost entirely as the suffering Messiah who died ignominiously on the cross allegedly in order to save humanity from God’s punishment passed due to their own sins.
A death on the cross and sinful humanity that must be punished are a ‘dark theological language’ which is counter-productive indeed to any effort to build a happy and healthy society. To make it functional, Christian soteriology of the cross should in the first place make people view themselves to be utterly powerless in developing their own moral virtues; we say, it demoralizes people. In reality, every human being has the cognitive capacities to live a life morally and greatly.
Christians, therefore, are in serious need of a religious figure like the Budai, the Laughing Buddha (Chinese: 笑佛), also popularly known in English speaking countries as the Fat Buddha.
Believed as one incarnation of the eschatological Maitreya Buddha, Budai is often depicted as having the appearance of an amply proportioned bald man wearing a robe and wearing or otherwise carrying prayer beads. He carries his few possessions in a cloth sack, being poor but content. Budai in folklore is admired for his happiness, cheerfulness, laughter, plenitude, and wisdom of contentment.
One belief popular in folklore maintains that rubbing Budai’s belly brings wealth, good luck, and prosperity. Buddhists are very lucky to have Budai, the laughing holy man who can make them laugh and delighted.
Despite the fact that Jesus possibly never laughed in his lifetime, you Christians should laugh cheerfully in order to make Christianity a peaceful rather than a frightening religion due to its dark theological language. I do believe that in His ministry to share God's compassion dan mercy with many people, Jesus of Nazareth must have been smiling and laughing.
