sermonette: 'I Was Only Joking!'

James C. Stoertz
Given 01-Nov-25; Sermon #1844s; 15 minutes

Description: (show)

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Turn with me if you would to Psalm 26, 18 to 19, and some people are already saying aha. Because you have it memorized. People like playing pranks on one another. We set someone up, make something seem true, and then enjoy a little fun when they fall for it. We cultivate the personality traits, shall we say, of pulling someone's leg. Having a little joke, deliberately misstating or deliberately misunderstanding. The goal is ostensibly to create a little camaraderie. We may we may befriend someone in a flirtatious way for a ball or wink, trifle or tease. It's intended as a friendly gesture. Over time, behavior like this becomes well refined and practiced to the point that with the right enunciation and seriousness we can convince someone of almost anything absurd. Then like fly fishing, once you have them on the hook, reel them in, then you gently release them saying, I was only joking. So what about Proverbs 26, 18 to 19? Let's read that. Like a madman who throws, this is verse 18, like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death. is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, I was only joking, pretty straightforward. Over the years this proverb though has haunted me. It's a blunt thing when we apply it to ourselves, we can always justify that we are doing it the right way. So this must mean someone else. Let's dissect it starting with words and grammar that's the the fun and easy part. For me, maybe not for you, we will see. We may be familiar with the term chiasm. We've heard about it a number of times lately. It's a literary device involving a reversal or mirroring structure in in a paragraph or in a book, and we can see it in numerous places in the Bible, for example, Psalm 64, all of that's aayasm or the whole book of Esther, even the statement from Jesus Christ in Matthew 19:30 is achiasm, but many who are first. Will be last and the last first, so they are reversed front to back. EW Bullinger writes that in addition to chiasm, there are 216 other literary devices used in the Bible. It'd be fun to study every one of them. Another of these is anastrophe. I bet Richard has. And this will help us to better get a grip on Proverbs, anastrophe, A N A S T R O P H E. get a better grip on Proverbs 28:26, 18 and 19. Anastrophe is where words are rearranged from their natural order. This is done to create emphasis or rhythm or stylistic effect often in poetry and prose. If we say failure is the greatest teacher, we may find it useful and possibly memorable, but what if Yoda says it? The great teacher failure is should have a better Yoda voice before I do that. That word reversal is a perfect anastrophe. William Shakespeare follows gingerly in Yoda's footsteps. In Hamlet, neither a borrower nor a lender be. We still use that today. And many other things we can see an atrophy throughout the Bible, many, many, many places. For example, instead of saying the poor in spirit are blessed. To be in the beatitudes Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are those who mourn, blessed are the meek. By using anastrophe to put reverse those sentences and putting blessed at the front of each beatitude, the phrasing becomes a hammer on an anvil. Accentuating the divine favor of blessing. We will use anastrophe in just a moment. But Proverbs 26, 18 to 19 where we started. It's all one sentence, as most of the Proverbs are. So we will break it into 4 parts. One, like a madman. At first glance, this appears to be about someone else. We're not a madman. The subject madman is someone who is angry, aggressive, mad, or has dark or devious intent. So this seems to be a warning to us about others who act deranged, but I warn you that we are already off on the wrong foot. Madman is not the subject of this sentence. This sentence uses an astrophy by moving the word like to the beginning. We can rephrase this proverb without changing its intent by saying the man who deceives his neighbor. And says, I was only joking, is like a madman who throws firebrands, arrows, and death. Now, the sentence loses its emphasis. The subject is more obvious and it's easier to relate to. The subject is the man, and it could well be us now. In addition, in using anastrophe, Proverbs 26:18 to 19 is a simile. It says like, it's got a like in the middle of it. When those two are used together, it's called a fronted simile. A regular simile uses the phrase A is like B. A fronted simile says like B is A. Somewhat like a Yoda is. In fact, our Yoda quote did not have like in it, so it's a fronted metaphor. Got that? We'll get on beyond this in a minute. We undid the fronted part of the problem in order to determine the real subject, but I'm sure God intends us to see the emphasis on Madman, and that's why it was up front. OK, what about the second part? Who throws firebrands, arrows, and death. This too is a neat tool. This is called a triplet. Triplets add emphasis and rhythm. The rule of three, it's called, it's a common writing principle which says that groups of three are the most satisfying and impactful groups for someone to read. Think of the 3 Musketeers or the 3 blind mice or the um Goldilocks and the 3 bears or even Shadrack, Meshach, and Abedniko. 3 is the number of finality and judgment. Three righteous patriarchs before the flood. Three annual feasts, 3 days and 3 nights in the grave. So this is on purpose. The choice of what three words is significant as well. What about the result of throwing firebrands, arrows, and death? This seems a little overly dramatic. But it's much more likely to be referring to the response that is elicited in the neighborhood than it is to the action itself. These objects, firebrands, arrows, and death, represent chaos, pain, and destruction. In this context, the madman is oblivious to the effect of his actions. The madman may be deceitful, in which case you could attribute the results to his own selfishness. Or he could be trying to be funny. In which case his humor could potentially be distorted by misunderstanding and confusion. In either case, the results are unknown, entertaining at best, but more likely damaging, humiliating or destructive to his reputation. And you see what I did, there is another triplet there. The third part of this proverb is the man who deceives his neighbor. This could refer to either accidental or deliberate deceit. The word deceives should cause us all to cringe anyway. It's a it's breaking the ninth commandment. There really is no excuse for the behavior, only repentance. In fact, while this phrase says neighbor, it sounds pretty unfriendly. And seems more like the neighbor who you have already defriended, possibly through your through our off jokes, assumptions or misunderstandings. They may not get our humor, they may not get our sarcasm, and they may not even get our friendliness at all. The 4th part That last little bit and says I was only joking. This is what we could call weaseling. Are we trying to get out of a mistake or were we intending to say this all along? Does it really matter? Perhaps we should have started with this so that the intention was clear, but then we've lost our surprise, haven't we? Nevertheless, we've already deceived our neighbor in the same sentence. Why on earth would he believe us when we use this excuse? There is a psychological phenomenon, and I think we've talked about this before, the Cassandra complex. Taylor Swift wrote, recorded a song last year titled Cassandra. Many of you probably know that about how she tells the truth, but no one believes her. Cassandra is a figure in Greek mythology. She's the daughter of Priam, the king of Troy. The God Apollo curses Cassandra to always tell the truth, but no one believes her. This is the punishment meted out to one who is not trusted. Trust is is difficult to build and must be meticulously stacked block upon block, day upon day. One misstep in trust and all that building must start over again. Even when we quickly and honestly say I was only joking, there is a good chance that our neighbor is left feeling like a fool. If it happens often, the neighbor may start expecting deceit. That's the definition of mistrust. This proverb is generally thought to be about someone who did something stupid and then once they realized it, they avoid an apology by making light of it or making it appear to have been intentional like a trifling or tease. The solution that would be to apologize and repent, but there is more to it. A person who does this is compared to a madman who is careless, chaotic, and causes destruction and pain even when it's by accident. It's actually less about physical things and more about meaning and intent. The subject of this proverb is a normal man, and the deceiving may be completely unintentional. So, we may all, or certainly as graybeards may be familiar with some historic examples. You know I was going to go there. I'm going to give you two. In 1170, King Henry the Second of England was frustrated with church reforms being done by Thomas Beckett. He was the Archbishop of Canterbury, and King Henry, out on a hunting trip with his closest buds, some of his knights, sarcastically grumbled, Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest? It's a famous quote, but it was meant as dark humor, not a literal order, at least according to Henry. King Henry said he was being sarcastic. Four of the knights interpreted the sarcasm as a royal directive and rode immediately to Canterbury Cathedral to do what they thought he wanted. They hacked Beckett to death at the altar on December 29th. The assassination shocked the Catholic world, which was most of the world at that time. sparking riots, excommunications across England, and a near rebellion against Henry, the Pope took advantage of Beckett's martyrdom to solidify authority over England. The authority lasted until Henry the 8th. Many of you may know that story, but that's 360 years later. A story we may not be so familiar with is the match that lit the first Jewish Roman war and led to the destruction of the second temple in 70 AD. Josephus tells us what he thinks in the Jewish war that he wrote in his defense, Jose Josephus was on the scene. He lived during that time. He was a general fighting for the Jews in Galilee until his surrender, and after that he served as a mediator and translator between the Jewish rebels and the Romans during the siege of Jerusalem, so he had firsthand knowledge. His story goes like this. Those of Jerusalem We're marking the full moon in celebration of the Passover. We're pretty familiar with that, probably not understanding the volatility bubbling under the surface between Rome and Judea, a Roman soldier standing up on the parapet lifted the back of his tunic and mooned the whole crowd. Not appreciating the humor, the Jewish people started throwing rocks and rioting. The Roman military violently overreacted as usual. The temple at Jerusalem was destroyed by firebrands thrown into the temple by unruly Roman soldiers. Some of the leaders of the Jews were dropped by arrows. Josephus claims that 1.1 million people died in the siege. Can anyone say firebrands, arrows, and death? If you like to play pranks or frequently have to defend yourself saying I was only joking, you have some calamitous company. Sarcasm is a form of this pranking. We say something while we actually believe something else, but some people can be so subtle with sarcasm that their words are believed rather than the underlying criticism. God is not pleased by this behavior. There are 7 things God hates. A proud look, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that are swift in running to evil, a false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among his brethren, that's you all probably know Proverbs 6:16 to 19. 4 of these things are produced by one who deceives his neighbor and says I was only joking. Playing pranks can be one type of humor, but I recommend against it. It's not a thing to get good at. King David said in Psalm 1017. He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house. He who tells lies shall not continue in my presence. When we see this behavior in others, we ought to forgive rather than taking offense. I picked out this proverb because it caused me to flinch every time I read it. I do not intend to do it anymore. What about you?