You Gotta Be Joking!

When we “explain” a joke, we run the risk of ruining the punchline and the joke.

At the risk of ruining the joke, I will “explain” the jokes in today’s Gospel.

At the heart of Jesus’ parables are jokes with punchlines. A farmer wonders how he got a harvest when he did nothing. If someone had told him this would happen, he would have said, “You gotta be joking!”

A tiny mustard seed produces a great shrub. “You gotta be joking!”

Jesus’ parables portray what God is doing through him. They always surprise us with the unexpected, like the punchline of a good joke.

The Bible is the story of God offering one hilarious punchline after another, always surprising people with undeserved love.

We might wonder, “You gotta be joking!” But God is utterly serious about surprising sinners with love.

Therefore, we live with a holy sense of humor always looking for the punchlines and the mustard seeds, where God unexpectedly blesses us. No joke!