Strange question to ask, I know. But… if you know me at all, well… it’s not really that strange.
I was walking through my Abide devotional and the voice behind the app asked me to visualize Jesus sitting next to me. So, I moved my feet off the footstool and asked Jesus to sit in front of me so we could have coffee together. I was picturing his laughter. His joy. And that’s when the thought popped into my head….
I bet Jesus made poop jokes.
Sometimes I think it’s so easy to have this idea that God is just some serious being in the sky who is watching us with His sceptor in hand, just waiting for us to mess up so He can strike us down. Or that He crosses His arms shaking his head in such disappointment at us. I think this is especially easy to do if we’ve grown up with a Father who did those things. Often times we related God to our earthly Father and we hit this barrier of understanding true relationship with Him.
God sent himself to this crazy world in the form of man, Jesus, to teach us otherwise. To show us just how much He wanted a relationship with us. Nothing about that has changed today.
So, where do the poop jokes come in?
Think about it for a second. When Jesus picked the 12 disciples, He knew what He was getting into it. He chose these guys, knowing He was going to spend the next 3 years teaching them, training them, equipping them, challenging them, and setting them straight on multiple occasions. Most of them weren’t educated. They were just these rough-around-the-edges dudes doing their own thing until one day Jesus came through and rocked their worlds.
Peter was a fisherman. I bet before He met Jesus he cussed like a sailor. That didn’t all just go away when He started walking with Jesus. It went away over time, as He was discipled. The Lord worked on his heart and his mouth. And Peter literally started the church. God knew what He was doing when He picked Peter out of the crowd, despite his roughness.
James was a fisherman. Some say John was a young boy when Jesus picked him, but it’s reported he was a fisherman, too. Imagine the examples he grew up around before Jesus. Andrew was a fisherman. Some say Bartholemew was the only one born of noble birth, royal blood. The other James, brother of Jude, also believed to be the brother of Matthew the tax collector, probably grew up around some crooked schemes. Judas, of course, was known as the betrayer. He was a thief, even while walking with Jesus and the disciples. It doesn’t say much about what Jude did before he met Jesus. Matthew, or Levi, as he was also called, was a tax collector. He ripped people off everyday and went home and had dinner without conviction, until he met Jesus. Philip was likely a fisherman, too. Simon the Zealot isn’t given much description, except that he was a Zealot. There isn’t much said about Thomas prior to hanging with Jesus, but we know after that he was a pessimist.
[ctt template=”3″ link=”a6edo” via=”yes” ]Did Jesus make poop jokes? I bet He did.[/ctt]
The moral of the story… none of these guys had their stuff together, except Jesus. They slept around fires with one another. They cooked fish with one another. They argued about who was closer to Jesus. They were manly men who burped, farted, and constantly were trying to one-up another. And because Jesus was fully man, I bet he had gas. I bet every conversation they had wasn’t about the Kingdom. I bet they talked about fishing and who’s turn it was to make dinner, and poop jokes. Because they were all human and they had a sense of humor. They were friends. They were brothers.
For some of you, reading this freaks you out. How dare I put the Jesus and poop in the same sentence. Why would anything about that be funny? Honestly, I’m not writing it to be funny. I’m writing it because it’s a legit thought. It’s a reminder that Jesus wants relationship with us. He wants to laugh with us. Talk with us. Be with us.
Yes… Jesus wants relationship with us. He wants relationship with YOU, my friend. He wants to laugh with YOU. He wants to sit with YOU. He isn’t distant. He isn’t waiting to punish you. He desires to love you, if you’ll let Him.
Let’s not put God in a box. It’s possible He still thinks poop jokes are funny.