April Fools’ Birthday

“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Everyone has probably sung this little ditty after an insult, or had it sung to them after insulting. We know the song is not true. Words do hurt. Words do bite. That’s why we sing the song as a balm to soothe our pain.

Insulting is the lowest form of humor. Only stupid people find it funny. Cronies who are incapable of anything but grunting and guffawing when their bully leader puts others down.

From the beginning, Christians have been regularly insulted. When we respond badly to this teasing, we pattern our response with the same lowbrow idiocy. “Your mother’s a &%^$&!”. “Oh, yeah. Well your mother’s a *&*@$$!”

Unfortunately, this level of discourse is modeled by our politicians, podcasters, apologists, and online opinions posters today. It seems everyone is becoming a troll, showing how moronic our humor has become. For even a billy goat can outwit a troll. The Bible speaks to this in Proverbs when it says, “Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him.” (26:4). Don’t fight trolls by becoming a troll. Fortunately, there is a better way for Christians to respond.

Proverbs also goes on to say, “Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.” This is the way of the jester. Unlike the troll, the jester has wit. And unlike the troll, the jester can laugh at himself. When the jester is called the town fool, he doesn’t fight back with, “Oh yeah, well you are….”, instead, he embraces it. “I am the town fool. I wear that as a badge of honour.” This has been the jesting way of the Christian from the beginning.

Take the term “Christian”. We read in Acts 11:26 that Jesus’ followers were first called Christians at Antioch. Many historians suggest that the term was likely coined by outsiders as a sarcastic and derogatory label to mock believers for trying to be “little christs”. How did Jesus’ followers respond? They accepted the name with pride.

This is also the approach the apostle Paul taught us to take. He knew how Christians were viewed by outsiders, and he encouraged Christians to seize onto that as part of their witness. Listen to him writing to the church at Corinth:

Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.^[1]

In other words, God purposefully went out of the way to choose the foolish, weak, lowly and despised things of the world. So, when someone tells you that this is who you are, you can simply respond by telling them that you already know this. In fact, in the same letter Paul goes even further and says, “When we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world.”^[2] This is our testimony. Again Paul writes, “We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings. We are fools for Christ.^[3] We really are the town fools/jesters for Christ. So, instead of getting defensive. Embrace it.

The earliest discovered piece of Christian art comes not from a Christian, but from someone mocking a Christian. It is a piece of graffiti, done by a troll, worthy of a bathroom stall. It depicts Christ with the head of an ass, crucified on a cross, with a figure at the foot of the cross looking on. Then the inscription reads, “Alexamenos worships his god.” Whenever I look at this piece, I’m moved. Not because it is a good work of art. The art is crap. But then, Alexamenos is being the “crap” of Christ, and his testimony lives on 1800 years later. I proudly stand with him as my jesting brother in the faith. I can’t wait to meet him one day. As my colleague Dr. Sieberhagen reminds us, “Jesus is the world’s supreme fool bearer. Christ bore intense mockery and ridicule, knowing that the power and wisdom of God was a work through his shame. All Christians are called to profess the folly of the cross.”^[4]

The way of the fool, of turning insult into honour, has been the Christian way for centuries. Methodist, Puritan, Pietist, Baptist, are all insulting names that were given to Christians over the years. We’ve simply embarrassed them. We even print the names on our buildings. I love the irony of that. We’ve done the same with terms like Jesus Freak and Bible Thumper.

In his commentaries, and in his Table Talk, Martin Luther often made remarks about how Satan would mock, name call, and accuse him for his sins, with the hope of bringing him to despair. Luther’s retort to the devil was simply to tell him that he wasn’t telling Luther anything he didn’t already know, and that his accusation actually comforted him because it reminded him of Christ’s purpose.^[5]

In the same way, John Newton and John Bunyan both boasted over the title of being “the chief of all sinners.” But Paul already said that about himself. This has always made me wonder, how can all three of them be the chief of all sinners? Two of them must be lying. But then that only adds to their level of sin, getting them closer to the position of chief of all sinners. I’m confused. But I’m also a fool for Christ.

That’s why April 1 is the perfect day for this post. Unlike some, I don’t have a conversion day. So, I claim April Fools as my second-birthday-born-again-conversion-date! For, I too am a sinner (though probably not the chief), but also fool enough to trust in Christ to take care of that. So Happy Fools Day to me! 

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^[1] 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, NIV.

^[2] 1 Corinthians 4:13.

^[3] 1 Corinthians 4:9-10. Italics mine.

^[4] Sieberhagen, Thomas. Christian Characters in American Films and Television, Chapter 5.

^[5] And the devil finds it really annoying when he is reminded that he is helping Jesus.