John 21: 1-14

The Last Laugh

2000 years after the Crucifixion, the historicity of which is never in question, the Resurrection can still provoke argument, discussion, belief and disbelief. Did it happen, did it not? When we say we believe in it what exactly are we believing? What is indisputable is that those who were closest to Jesus reached a point where they had 'an encounter with the living Christ', marked in many different ways, unusual, unfamiliar, untraditional, but fundamentally with a new appreciation of his presence in their daily life. For example, believing in the impossible (the empty tomb), learning to identify him in new forms of existence (the appearances), ordinary every day experiences (Emmaus) and the capacity to embrace 'health, love and laughter' — moments when God suddenly appears in all his glory and you realise you nearly missed him (Palm Sunday).

In Hugh Walpole's Herries Chronicle Vanessa has a strong streak of the gypsy and at an early age falls in love with Benje, a kindred spirit. With every attempt to marry thwarted she goes off and marries respectability. When the marriage fails she go back to Benje, they set up house and have a child, but gypsies being gypsies, and Benjie difficult and unreliable, life is always tortuous. Asked by a friend why she loves him so much she says,  'Oh I don't know but  . . .  I can see his jokes . . . Benjie and I find one another amusing. We are comic to one another.'

If Trevor Dennis wondered whether 'chaos was shaken into order by the gale of God's laughter', Norman Habel wonders whether God ever paused 'to laugh with all of us' and Harry Williams describes the Laughter of Heaven as 'the Delectable Mountain experience', reflecting Bunyan's Pilgrim's first glimpse of the Celestial City. Neither Vanessa nor Benje would have put it like that but in their jokes and laughter were they experiencing something akin to it?

If you see a connection between them, the life, love and laughter reflected in the ministry of Jesus and the Laughter of Heaven, time to crack the Easter Egg and have a good laugh. If you don't, crack the egg anyway and enjoy the chocolate, but keep your eyes open for your own resurrection experience.

 © Alec Gilmore 2018                     Home