Exhortation-God Laughs

This is Holy Week, a week in which we remember many important events from our Christian history and the life of Jesus.

First of all, today we remember and celebrate the triumphal entry, the fact that Jesus is King, not just of heaven but also of earth. The day comes with high hopes but the week seems to lead on with tragedy looming. But is it tragedy or comedy?

The arrest on Thursday after Jesus eats with the twelve, one of them betrayer. Tragedy shapes up and thickens or is Jesus working a Divine Comedy, fattening up the adversaries for the fall, the last laugh, the cosmic, gotcha!

The trial. A trial? Can you call it that? But no, God is working a stage and all the world’s characters are merely players.

The execution of Jesus on the Cross. If the rulers of this world had known what God was doing, they would not have killed the Lord of Glory? Why? Because He was good? No, because God was laughing them into derision through the cross.

The darkness when the Light is taken from the Earth. But a new day is dawning, one that will rise and shine brighter and brighter until a full day.

The death of Jesus, the hope of Israel. The death was necessary and had to be. Jesus had even made some simple attempts at explaining it but not in such a way that His disciples ever figured it out. It is almost as if God is trifling with our emotions so that our tears of sorrow will turn into peals of joy.

The sorrow of lost hopes and failed loyalties, the ignorance and unbelief of the apostles.

The despair of Saturday, sad, heavy hearts. A good plan gone awry.

The doubtful wondering about Jesus and who Jesus thought He was. Gloom and despair.

An empathetic God watching like a mother watching her two year old search for her on the next aisle at the department store. The child is frantic. The mother is empathetic and amused at the same time. The child is lost. The mother is in complete control. A tragedy to the child. A comedy to the mother.

The resurrection with all its glory, making sense of all the senseless failures of the week. The joke is out. The Lord is alive.

The tragedy takes a turn and all the players bow with smiles and the crowd is relieved. The mockery of Jesus is turned into God's mockery of unbelief, His mockery of rebellion and of lost hope.

And God laughs.