Did Jesus laugh?

One of the things about Eastern Christian spirituality that many Westerns (and for that manner, Easterners) don't understand is that the life of the Christian is spent weeping far more than it is laughing. In fact, laughing was actually considered sinful in the earliest spirituality. Jesus most certainly spent no time laughing. This comes as a surprise to those of us so acquainted to laughing but in fact, there is precedent to establish this. St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite, warns us:

Fear lest, when you laugh, the Master, who blesses those who lament, but deplores those who laugh, be angered; for lest the Devil, discovering your effusive laughter, cause your soul to lose fear of God and to forget what is profitable to you. (Christian Morality, Discourse VII citing St. John Chrysostom's That an Ascetic Should Not Engage in Buffonery)

At first, it seems like only a specific type of laughter is condemned in the ancient writings but there is actually something much more spiritually enlightening about this that can be further expounded on in the iconography of the Church. Laughter distracts us from the mission that we are in which is one of constant spiritual combat against the passions. A soldier ought not laugh during battle. A soldier's mission is to fight. He has no time for laughing. If he were to laugh on the battle lines, the enemy would quickly pick out his weakness and lapse and strike him more easily than had he not been laughing. The basic message is when we're at war with Satan, there ought to be no screwing around! There may be certain times of spiritual enjoyment and great joy in this life that we can reflect on but to break out in laughter is a sign of a drunkard!

He tells us how St. Basil's Ascetical Constitution teaches that an ascetic should not utter levities and imposes the penalty of not receiving antidoron on a monk who does. There, we see that a monk cannot even receive the holy bread that has not been sanctified and handed out after the liturgy. If this is such a "natural thing" that we can speculate that Jesus laughed, then how is it that such a penalty can be imposed upon a monk? It is clear that there is something spiritually detrimental to laughing. St. Nicodemos cites St. Gregory the Theologian: "Laughter meriteth laughter from those of sound mind; all laughter, forsooth, but especially the meretricious sort."

We see in Scriptures four different accounts of the Lord weeping. Once when He raised Lazarus from the dead. Once when He walked into Bethlehem on Palm Sunday. Once when He bore witness that one of His disciples would betray Him. And once in the Garden of Gethsemane when the time of His suffering was drawing near. Not once is it recorded in Scriptures of Jesus ever laughing. Indeed, He declares, "Woe to those who laugh!" (Luke 6:21, 25) There is a time for mourning and there is a time for laughter (Eccl. 2:2). But the time for laughter has not come. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall laugh. This should not be concluded that laughter then is for now for the Beatitudes give us an eschatological expectation. We shall laugh in the coming Heavenly Kingdom. Not now. Listen to Holy Father Abba John Climacus:

In your heart be like an emperor, seated high in humility, commanding laughter: "Go!" and it goes; and sweet weeping: "Come!" and it comes; and our tyrant and slave, the body: "Do this!" and it does it. (The Ladder of Divine Ascent, Step 7)

Laughter may be a small sin but the more we guard against the small sins, the more we are able to guard against the larger sins. For we shall always be on the lookout to guard against these larger sins as we know what great spiritual damage they can bring to us but how we tend to overlook the small sins! If we can guard even against these tiny sins, we shall overcome all sin.

When I was younger and was a Protestant, we would find it reasonable to speculate on the infant Jesus and how He allegedly cried and laughed and did all sorts of things that a baby would be expected to do. But the problem is that there is an assumption we held to as Protestants. Namely that the Virgin Birth was otherwise an ordinary birth without anything else theologically significant about it. How wrong! The Virgin Birth of Christ was the restoration of an Edenic conception and birth. It was birth pains that came after the first sin! It was defects that came after the first sin. Jesus was born the way that Adam and Eve were originally created to have children! It would behoove us to dispel these images that the infant Jesus held any of the defects of an infant born under the stain of original sin.

Finally, in iconography, do you see the moods on these icons? They are, for the most part, expressionless. They portray neither anger, laughter, sadness, or any other emotion. They are icons of the Holy Ones who have been made perfect like Christ so it is fitting they show the arms they took up in the battle against the Evil One. They are stoic, like soldiers, showing no emotion during the heat of the battle. May they pray for us and shelter us from the Evil One!