Showmanship!

It’s not the number of balls the juggler uses; it’s the way he uses them.

Just goes to show what you can do with three tennis balls and probably the best music the Beatles ever wrote.

It also goes to show the difference between humans and every other life form on earth. Only we could do anything even remotely like this.

CHT to the reader who e-mailed!

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live."

54 thoughts on “Showmanship!”

  2. Do you think that if we went back in time to the year 30 AD and handed Jesus three juggling balls, that He could perform this act without practice?

  5. That was just AWESOME!
    Love the Choreography!
    How he was able to actually match the moods of the beautiful Beatles music with that of his juggling!
    That takes a lot of effort, concentration, endurance and, not to mention, BALANCE!

  7. All things either come from God or the Devil.
    Rock?
    Lets do an old SAT question:
    gregorian:God :: : Satan
    Lets go.

  8. Do you think that if we went back in time to the year 30 AD and handed Jesus three juggling balls, that He could perform this act without practice?
    Things like these is what made me not like the Passion movie. A severe lack of compenetration of who Our Lord is. Imagine the most serious saint, and then Our Lord being the seriousness.
    The most majestic king, and Our Lord being MAJESTY.
    How can we imagine Him as a jumpy little kid?
    Do you think He came to this world to act like a clown?
    I can not even think of Him saying a joke. Not that it is wrong, it is just not Him.

  9. Some Day,
    I can not even think of Him saying a joke. Not that it is wrong, it is just not Him.
    I agree. I heard a priest offer a reflection the other other day that Christ did not waste a single word, did not speak a single word without effect. Since God’s Word is, in essence, effective, I find it easy to agree with that statement.
    And I would extend it to his actions as well; that all of his actions were measured, and none of them were without effect.
    I can’t necessarily imagine him juggling or telling a joke, but I believe that he would only do so with a purpose.

  11. Someday,
    HE was/is like us in every way but sin. And HE was/is the perfect human being, possessing every emotion in perfect balance. HE knew what people were thinking in their hearts. He knew if someone would respond better to instruction with sympathy, or fear, or levity etc.
    There are many things you will have to learn about people if you want to be a priest, young man. There are no cookie cutter people out there, each one is unique and requires a different way to reach him/her. Not all people will listen to a lecture, some need instruction with a joke to have an emotional tie to the information to remember the fact.
    Could HE juggle? Would HE juggle? Remember also that HE did so many things that all the books in the world could not hold them all. The things written in the Gospels were written that we might come to believe in HIM.
    A different comment. I bet the real fun was watching the juggler come up with the routine!

  13. It is interesting to note that neither Scripture nor Tradition (to my knowledge) contains any reference to Christ laughing, telling a joke or having a sense of humor.
    Are we supposed to glean anything from their rather notable absence?
    At the same time, I agree with you Dr. Eric, that humor is often the most effective way for us to reach people. St. Thomas More is one great example.

  14. You folks are debating whether it would be fitting for Jesus to juggle, when God the Father set all the stars and planets and galaxies in the universe whirling and twirling in complicated patterns? Juggling, like the other arts, is an act of subcreation!
    But of course Jesus wouldn’t juggle tennis balls. They weren’t period.
    Hammers, planks, saws, normal kids’ balls of the time, fish, or loaves of bread, however….

  15. Actually, I think the scriptures support Jesus having a sense of humor. He uses a great deal of hyperbole, which is a close neighbor to humor.
    Remember the “which of you would give your son a snake if he asked for a loaf (or something like that)”. The removing a splinter from your neighbor when you have a plank in your own. Both of these are pretty funny if you think about them. Building a house on sand, using old wineskins for new wine, etc.
    I think that in compiling the gospels, much of Jesus’ humor was not included because it was not central to the needs of the Church.
    It would be nice to get Jimmy’s take on this in one of his posts.

  16. Getting back to the juggler, his name is Chris Bliss and he also does a juggling routine to “Stairway To Heaven.”
    An accomplished juggler indeed, but also an incredibly sharp-witted political satirist.
    I would urge anyone to see his show if he ever comes to town.
    And, as Father Mulcahy once said on MASH, “Humor too, is one of His creations.”

  17. I think Jesus had a sense of humor. He was like us in all things but sin.
    Besides, those who think God doesn’t have a sense of humor ought to take only one look at the duck-billed platypus.

  18. 10 thumbs up from us!
    That was pretty awesome indeed!
    We went to that Chris Bliss one, and he isn’t very family friendly with his language or…well.
    I much rather like this one than Chris. Chris is very conceited.

  19. Correction…we like CHRIS BLISS not Jason Garfunk or whatever.
    We meant JASON was the conceited one NOT Chris Bliss

  21. Another aside:
    Side 2 (before CDs and IPODs) of Abbey Road is the best thing that the Beatles ever did.

  22. While I definitely dislike the whole “Jesus was a party animal” or “Jesus is my homeboy” stuff I think it is going too far to deny that Jesus would have had a sense of humor or tell jokes of any sort.
    He was totally human, and humans have a sense of humor. He was also God, the inventor of humor. Both point toward him having a very good sense of humor, and the ability to be quite the comedian if he so chose. Of course he would do it tastfully, in a way that helped his message and helped people respect him.
    By the way, I have read and heard several places that for the time some of Jesus’ teachings, like the woman who searched for a small coin and then threw a party to celebrate when she found it which must have cost way more money or the log in the eye image, were shockingly humorous.

  24. Re: Jesus and a sense of humour.
    1. Jesus is God.
    2. God inspired the Book of Jonah.
    Now read the 4th chapter of Jonah and complete the reasoning!

  25. I got chills. I feel like I want to go curl up and stare at the wall for a while. That was incredible.

  26. the act was good but I was surprised that what is apparently Jimmy’s favorate Beatles song I have never heard before.
    It’s on Abbey Road; it might be my favorite Beatles album, but they span such different styles during their career that it’s hard for a fan like me to compare and pick favorites, really.

  27. “Besides, those who think God doesn’t have a sense of humor ought to take only one look at the duck-billed platypus.”
    You beat me to it! I actually have a stuffed platypus on my nightstand to help me meditate on the Glory and Mystery of God. Not kidding!
    Well, it WAS on my nightstand…until my ferret adopted it as its child and started taking it to bed to cuddle with during sleepy time. I figure it’s fitting that one of God’s jesters adopt one of God’s jokes! 😛

  28. I think we tend to miss the humour in Jesus’ parables because of the intensely serious and reverential environment in which most of us first encountered them. There is a book called The Humor of Christ, by Elton Trueblood, which makes a reasonable case. I thought Trueblood weakened his argument by claiming too much, for some of his examples are not particularly funny at all; but there is at any rate an argument to be made.
    When I look at the planets we have discovered in other solar systems, and how difficult it appears to be to maintain a stable planetary system like ours, I can only say that God is a juggler who puts Chris Bliss in the shade. Though Mr. Bliss is certainly a marvel.

  29. I’m at work right now, and a little distracted, but I seem to remember Chesterton having something to say about Jesus and a sense of humor. As with almost all of Chesterton’s stuff, it was pretty good.
    Anybody out there know what I’m thinking of?
    Where’s Dale Alquist when you need him?

  30. To add to the discussion, here are Jimmy’s previously expressed thoughts on Jesus with a sense of humor.

  31. “There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when he walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth”
    G. K Chesterton
    The final sentence in the book, Orthodoxy.

  33. Jimmy wrote: “It also goes to show the difference between humans and every other life form on earth. Only we could do anything even remotely like this.”
    Once again, Jimmy’s narrow speciesism gets the better of him. Why, don’t you know, science has proven that monkey’s use a stick to get bugs for munchin’ on. It’s only a matter a time till we discover ballet scores written by walruses.

  34. Yes, “Abbey Road” is truly a great album. Between this song and the Sun King anthology (not to mention great singles like “Here Comes the Sun” and “Something”, I would dare say “Abbey Road” is better than “Sgt. Pepper”.
    As for Jesus’ sense of humor, Jesus is God, and God created the platypus. Tell me that’s not funny! Also, to have made those guys his Apostles… I rest my case.
    Chesterton’s thing about Jesus’ mirth is a great end to “Orthodoxy”, especially where he says that shedding tears was more human than the ability to laugh and joke. C. S. Lewis also mentioned that we have pictures of Hitler and his minions laughing – that does not mean they were all that human (or humane).
    Here is the last paragraph from Orthodoxy:
    Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian. And as I close this chaotic volume I open again the strange small book from which all Christianity came; and I am again haunted by a kind of confirmation. The tremendous figure which fills the Gospels towers in this respect, as in every other, above all the thinkers who ever thought themselves tall. His pathos was natural, almost casual. The Stoics, ancient and modern, were proud of concealing their tears. He never concealed His tears; He showed them plainly on His open face at any daily sight, such as the far sight of His native city. Yet He concealed something. Solemn supermen and imperial diplomatists are proud of restraining their anger. He never restrained His anger. He flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple, and asked men how they expected to escape the damnation of Hell. Yet He restrained something. I say it with reverence; there was in that shattering personality a thread that must be called shyness. There was something that He hid from all men when He went up a mountain to pray. There was something that He covered constantly by abrupt silence or impetuous isolation. There was some one thing that was too great for God to show us when He walked upon our earth; and I have sometimes fancied that it was His mirth.

  35. The comic, Gallagher, has a line about God’s sense of humor: “God made flying squirrels. Why? So they could swoop down on unsuspecting acorns?”

  36. He made the camel, too, which has been described as “a horse designed by a committee”.
    And Labrador retrievers, too. When I tell mine she’s silly, she looks at me as if to say: “I’m a Labrador retriever; that’s my job.”

  37. Esquire,
    Thanks for the JAO reference on humor. I think Jimmy’s on the pro-humor Jesus side.
    Roger and Jamie Beu,
    While I love Chesterton and the quote is nice, I think it actually supports the contrary position. It says that God has lots of humor, but hid it while He walked the Earth.
    Some posters argued that Jesus is never recorded as having laughed in the Gospels, ergo he had no sense of humor. This is a specious argument. By this argument, Jesus never had to eliminate waste either, which is obviously not true. The Gospels also record almost no descriptive information about Jesus. Read the last two sentences of the Gospel of John and you see that there were many things about Jesus not recorded. If a detail was not relevant for the salvation, it was unlikely to have been recorded.

  38. Curious,

    Some posters argued that Jesus is never recorded as having laughed in the Gospels, ergo he had no sense of humor. This is a specious argument.

    Now you’ve got me curious. Who made that argument?

  39. FWIW:
    Well, Jesus displayed a sense of humor when he spoke of James & John as the “Sons of Thunder,” after they wanted to rain down fire from heaven upon the unrepentant villages, didn’t he?
    I think that if Jesus never displayed a sense of humor, then EITHER he is not fully human OR we humans should never use humor, since it would be contrary to the character of God.

  40. One More Thought:
    Someone said “the act was good but I was surprised that what is apparently Jimmy’s favorate Beatles song I have never heard before.”
    I don’t know if Jimmy would agree, but I absolutely agree with a former poster who believes Abbey Road, Side 2 is the BEST of the Beatles.

  41. Curious,
    Your read on the Chesterton quote is right on the money. Thanks to Jamie Beu for providing more. I hesitated for a moment in quoting the end of the book, Orthodoxy, because it feels a little like giving away the surprise ending of a fine suspense thriller. You miss out on all that had been developed throughout the entire book. Chesterton is so quotable; yet the richness of his thoughts are very difficult to convey in just a sentence or two.

  42. See humor is not bad when in someway it elevates us to God. Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING must have a purpose in relation to God. Now humor is something that is many times not elevating, but rather drops a conversation. But not always. And I don’t mean that the only good jokes are religious in nature, but just like a good meal, a gathering can elevate to God, it must be done so with that purpose.
    But what comes to mind is vocation. Our Lady is called in some psalms terrible and like an army in war march. But, she is never depicted like St. Elias killing 300 pagan priests or St. James killing the muslim invaders, no Her role is to demonstrate God’s mercy and His maternal nature.
    (yes, the maternal instict is a reflection of God’s “maternal”love for us.)
    So we don’t depict Her like that. Yet, other saints we might. We don’t put St.Dominic Savio with a skull in his hand, but St. Francis we do.
    Why?
    Because it is a vocational thing.
    Now Our Lord’s vocation was a serious one. Not that sainly seriousness is without joy, but with a perfect equiliberium. But Our Lord is the Equiliberium. And His vocation did not entail to do something that is more of a lower vocation
    ( inferior does not mean bad or silly, just that God created proportionate and harmonious differences)like a street performer.
    Like I said in parenthesis, there is nothing wrong with juggling, so long as it is in harmony with your vocation. You would not ask the Pope to scrub toilettes, nor a waitress to right the Summa. And like I said before, nothing wrong with a street performer, in fact I know a story of one who desired nothing but to be able to perform before the Divine Child, and die in His gaze.

  43. Greetings Esquire,
    Now you’ve got me curious. Who made that argument?
    I guess curiosity is contagious! I was originally responding to the posts of Some Day and YOU around 4 PM yesterday.
    I just can’t imagine a human being whom you’d want to spend time who did not have a sense of humor. It would be so heavy all the time. Noone would be able to stand it after a while. That’s not my sense of Jesus in the Gospels. People wanted to be with Him, to bring their children to Him. That’s not to say He was a partyer, juggler or Jim Carey.

  44. Wait a minute Curious, Our Lord did not suffer all the prosaic things of our daily lives because of the Original Sin. He choose to have a vulnerable body, which is a miracle in itself, as He masked the effects of the Beatific Vision, which is a glorious body. He unmasked it in Mt. Tabor in the Transfiguration, and when passed through the angry mobs trying to kill Hime before it was time. I believe it was Bl. Anne Catherine that said when He sweated, it was a perfume.
    Now I don’t think the other thinks were present in Him. In fact I cut it off now not to even be tempted of thinking Our Lord suffering the full effects of Original Sin. This does not break the He was like us except in sin, because this would be the consequence of sin.

  45. Curious,
    I recall saying that it is difficult for me to imagine Jesus telling jokes or juggle. It is. I didn’t say he wouldn’t; in fact, I allowed for the possibility that he would because I said that if he did, it would have been for a purpose.
    But whether or not he told jokes or juggled is to me a different thing altogether than whether or not he had a sense of humor.
    And even that is a different thing than being “heavy” all the time. I know plenty of people who are an absolute joy to be around, even though I’ve never heard them tell a joke (and never seen them juggle).
    My larger point was that whatever he did was measured, and not wasted.

  47. I know plenty of people who are an absolute joy to be around, even though I’ve…never seen them juggle.
    Can you provide a source for this statement? I find it questionable, at best.

  49. Esquire writes:
    I know plenty of people who are an absolute joy to be around, even though I’ve…never seen them juggle.
    Smoky writes:
    Can you provide a source for this statement? I find it questionable, at best.
    Some Day writes:
    Are kidding me Smoky?!
    You agree with Esquire’s statement? You mean you’ve actually met REAL people who can’t juggle and yet are a joy to be around?
    Maybe I need a paradigm shift, but I thought the two were inseparable.

  51. The idea that Christ never laughed, and had no sense of humor, is a very large part of the plot of Umberto Eco’s fantastic novel The Name of the Rose. Many arguments both for and against this position can be found there. Highly recommended!

  52. The idea that Christ never laughed, and had no sense of humor, is a very large part of the plot of Umberto Eco’s fantastic novel The Name of the Rose. Many arguments both for and against this position can be found there. Highly recommended!

  53. This is older than the internet… while the act is good and impressive, his moves rarely match the song well, it seems more like a coincidence than anything.
    (arrived via StumbleUpon)

Comments are closed.