Humor in Preaching: Using Examples to Illustrate Biblical Truth
Scripture employs humor, irony, and vivid illustration throughout its pages, establishing a precedent for preachers who use similar devices to clarify truth. The biblical parable itself functions as "a placing beside, a comparison, a similitude, an illustration of one subject by another" [1], demonstrating that God's revelation often arrives through concrete, memorable images rather than abstract propositions. When Christ taught, "without a parable spake he not unto them" in certain settings [9], he modeled a pedagogical method that engages the imagination alongside the intellect.
Biblical Precedent for Illustrative Teaching
The Scriptures themselves contain moments of surprising levity and ironic contrast. The name Isaac means "laughter" [3], commemorating both Sarah's incredulous response to God's promise and her subsequent joy: "God hath made me to laugh," she declared, using the term to express "such pleasure or happiness as almost suspends the reasoning faculty for a time" [7]. This suggests that laughter can accompany genuine spiritual experience. Even God's own communication includes ironic judgment, as when Proverbs depicts divine mockery of those who reject wisdom: "I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you" [4]. The rhetorical force of such passages depends on their jarring contrast with expected solemnity.
The Function of Illustration in Proclamation
Effective preaching requires more than doctrinal accuracy; it demands clarity that penetrates the hearer's daily experience. Christ's parables ranged from "the shortest proverbs" to "enigmatic maxims" and "metaphors expand[ed]" into narrative [1], all serving to make abstract truth concrete. Matthew Henry observes that Psalm 37 functions as "a sermon, and an excellent useful sermon it is, calculated not... for our devotion, but for our conversation" [8], indicating that biblical instruction often targets practical application through accessible language.
Humor and illustration serve this clarifying function when they expose the absurdity of sin or the surprising nature of grace. The preacher who describes human rebellion as preferring "the creature to the Creator" [6] employs a rhetorical contrast that sharpens the hearer's perception. Similarly, when explaining that "the devil begets none, nor does he create any; but whoever imitates the devil becomes a child of the devil by imitating him" [5], the preacher uses vivid distinction to prevent theological confusion.
The danger lies not in using humor or illustration, but in allowing them to eclipse the biblical text itself. Ecclesiastes warns that laughter can be "foolish" and joy empty of "use" [2] when disconnected from truth. The preacher's examples must illuminate Scripture rather than replace it, ensuring that the congregation remembers the biblical principle rather than merely the anecdote.
Sources
- Smith's Bible Dictionary “Smith's Bible Dictionary: Parable — (The word parable is in Greek parable (parabole) which signifies placing beside or together, a comparison, a parable is therefore literally a placing beside, a comparison, a similitude, an illustration of one subject by another.--McClintock and Strong. As used in the New Testament it had a very wide application, being applied sometimes to the shortest proverbs, (1 Samuel 10:12; 24:13; 2 Chronicles 7:20) sometimes to dark prophetic utterances, (Numbers 23:7,18; 24:3; Ezekiel 20:49) sometimes to enigmatic maxims, (Psalms 78:2; Proverbs 1:6) or metaphors expand”
- Ecclesiastes “Ecclesiastes 2:2 (BBE) — Of laughing I said, It is foolish; and of joy--What use is it?”
- Hitchcock's Bible Names “Hitchcock's Bible Names: Isaac — laughter”
- Proverbs “I also will laugh at your disaster. I will mock when calamity overtakes you; -- Proverbs 1:26”
- 1 John (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on 1 John 3:8: He that committeth sin is of the devil--in contrast to "He that doeth righteousness," Jo1 3:7. He is a son of the devil (Jo1 3:10; Joh 8:44). John does not, however, say, "born of the devil." as he does "born of God," for "the devil begets none, nor does he create any; but whoever imitates the devil becomes a child of the devil by imitating him, not by proper birth" [AUGUSTINE, Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John, Homily 4.10]. From the devil there is not generation, but corruption [BENGEL]. sinneth from the beginning--from the time that any beg”
- Genesis (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Genesis 3:13: beguiled--cajoled by flattering lies. This sin of the first pair was heinous and aggravated--it was not simply eating an apple, but a love of self, dishonor to God, ingratitude to a benefactor, disobedience to the best of Masters--a preference of the creature to the Creator.”
- Genesis (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on Genesis 21:6: God hath made me to laugh - Sarah alludes here to the circumstance mentioned Gen 18:12; and as she seems to use the word to laugh in this place, not in the sense of being incredulous but to express such pleasure or happiness as almost suspends the reasoning faculty for a time, it justifies the observation on the above-named verse. See a similar case in Luk 24:41, where the disciples were so overcome with the good news of our Lord's resurrection, that it is said, They believed not for joy.”
- Psalms (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Psalms 37 (introduction): This psalm is a sermon, and an excellent useful sermon it is, calculated not (as most of the psalms) for our devotion, but for our conversation; there is nothing in it of prayer or praise, but it is all instruction; it is "Maschil - a teaching psalm;" it is an exposition of some of the hardest chapters in the book of Providence, the advancement of the wicked and the disgrace of the righteous, a solution of the difficulties that arise thereupon, and an exhortation to conduct ourselves as becomes us under such dark dispensations. The work of the prophet”
- Matthew (Nonconformist/Puritan) “Matthew Henry on Matthew 13:24: In these verses, we have, I. Another reason given why Christ preached by parables, Mat 13:34, Mat 13:35. All these things he spoke in parables, because the time was not yet come for the more clear and plain discoveries of the mysteries of the kingdom. Christ, to keep the people attending and expecting, preached in parables, and without a parable spake he not unto them; namely, at this time and in this sermon. Note, Christ tries all ways and methods to do good to the souls of men, and to make impressions upon them; if men will not be instructed and influenced by ”