Introducing Elton Trueblood’s The Humor of Christ

I introduce you to a little classic that has shaped modern reflection on the humanity of Jesus—Elton Trueblood’s slender but provocative book The Humor of Christ, first published in 1964. It is one of those books that seems almost obvious once you’ve read it, but startling the first time you encounter its claim.

Trueblood begins with a simple observation:

our usual picture of Jesus is far too solemn.

The Jesus many Christians carry in their minds is a figure of unbroken gravity—gentle, yes, compassionate, yes, but rarely, if ever, smiling. For centuries, he has been portrayed with a kind of pious stillness, a seriousness bordering on melancholy. Trueblood argues that this portrait is not only incomplete; it is in many ways inaccurate. It tells only half the story.

The Gospels, he insists, reveal a teacher whose speech is full of wit—

irony, exaggeration, playful reversal, sharp satire, and a kind of moral mischievousness that both surprises and awakens. Jesus uses humor not as ornament, not as entertainment, but as a fundamental tool of revelation.

Trueblood’s thesis is not that Jesus was a comedian.

His thesis is that Jesus was fully human, and therefore fully capable of using humor to teach, to heal, and to confront. Humor, Trueblood says, is a sign of mental and spiritual health; to deny it to Jesus is to diminish his humanity.

Let me give you a few of his examples.

Trueblood points us to Jesus’ hyperbole, the exaggerated images meant to provoke a smile. Consider the man with a beam in his eye lecturing his neighbor about a speck. Or the camel lumbering through the eye of a needle. Trueblood says, “No one who hahttps://vimeo.com/1138182376?fl=ip&fe=ecs ever seen a camel can hear that without at least a grin.” These are comic images with serious intent, designed to awaken moral clarity through surprise.

He also highlights Jesus’ irony—“Those who exalt themselves will be humbled,” or “You can discern the weather but not the signs of the times.” The humor is not mocking, but revealing. It exposes the slippery logic of human pride. It frees the listener to see themselves more honestly.

Trueblood notes Jesus’ satire as well—sharp, prophetic moments like calling the Pharisees “whitewashed tombs” or “blind guides.” In these cases, Jesus is using the ancient tool of the Hebrew prophets: a cutting image meant not to destroy but to reform, not to humiliate but to awaken.

But perhaps the most beautiful insight in Trueblood’s work is his treatment of parabolic humor—the surprising, almost mischievous reversals at the heart of Jesus’ stories: the tiny mustard seed becoming a tree, the widow wearing down a judge, the shepherd leaving ninety-nine sensible sheep for the one unruly wanderer, the prodigal son discovering that grace runs faster than shame.

According to Trueblood, these flashes of humor are windows into the kingdom of God. They reveal the great reversal at the heart of divine life: the last becoming first, the small becoming great, the lost being found. Humor becomes a theological instrument.

Trueblood is careful to say that Jesus’ humor is always morally serious. It is humor with a purpose. It is never cruel. Never cynical. Never flippant. It is the humor of a teacher who loves his students enough to tell them the truth in a way they can bear it.

And this leads to Trueblood’s pastoral point, which I think is worth repeating for us today:

When the Church forgets that Jesus was witty, we risk losing something central to Christian life—joy, playfulness, humility, and moral clarity.

Humor helps us hold our convictions without pomposity. It helps us see ourselves truly. It keeps our faith supple rather than brittle.

What Trueblood offers is not merely a new way of reading the Gospels; he offers a new way of imagining Jesus, one that expands our understanding of his humanity. A Savior who laughs—not at us, but for us—draws near in a way a somber Christ never can.

So as we continue our study of Jesus’ teaching, I invite you to read the parables, the riddles, the sharp sayings, and the pointed questions with new eyes. Look for the grin behind the words. Listen for the gentle irony. Notice the comic exaggerations. Let Trueblood help you see the humor that has always been there, hidden in plain sight.

It does not trivialize the Gospel.

It makes the Gospel human.

And in doing so, it makes the Gospel whole.

Link to video

________________

For more on Jesus' sense of humor.

Link to a review of the book.


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