There are two occasions recorded in the gospels when Jesus weeps. The first is standing at the tomb of his dear friend Lazarus. Even though Lazarus is about to be raised from the dead, Jesus sees how grief-stricken the crowds are, and he is moved to tears. The second is when Jesus is approaching Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. He sees the Holy City and cries over it, because he knows that it still doesn’t recognize “the things that make for peace.”

We know that Jesus wept; but did he ever laugh? The scriptures do not specifically mention such a time. Indeed, in the 11th century, John of Chrysostom insisted that the serious nature of Christ’s ministry actually prevented him from “engaging in moments of humor or frivolity.” The Second Council of Constance in 1418 took it one step further, declaring that “any minister or monk who spoke jocular words that might provoke a congregation to laughter would be subject to eternal damnation.”

Ouch. If that’s true, then I’m in a whole heap of trouble!

Frankly, I don’t think John of Chrysostom or the Council of Constance could have been more wrong. If you ask me, the Bible is filled with humor. Think of the story of Abraham and Sarah, for example. They are both getting up there in years, when an angel informs them that they had better check out whether Medicare has a maternity plan, because they are about to have a baby. According to one account, Abraham laughs so hard he literally falls on his face. In another version, Sarah is the one who giggles herself silly. But of course, it’s God who has the last laugh, because when the child is born, Abraham and Sarah are instructed to name him Isaac, which is the Hebrew word for “laughter.”

Consider some of the analogies that Jesus used. Can’t you imagine him chuckling out loud when he speaks of people with a two-by-four in their eye trying to remove a speck of sawdust from their neighbor’s eye? Can’t you see a wry smile on his face when he describes how the Pharisees and scribes “strain out a gnat, but swallow a whole camel”?

Garrison Keillor of “Prairie Home Companion” fame argues that Jesus had a wonderful sense of humor. “He gave his followers a satiric sense of the world, and allowed us to laugh at our own foibles and pretensions, thus transforming the pain involved in ordinary life into a state of gracious joy.”

Think of it this way. What parent doesn’t love to hear their children laugh? Well, how much more so does God take delight in those times when we are delighted? St. Francis of Assisi perhaps said it best: “Leave sadness to the devil. The devil has reason to be sad!”