Sarcasm in Scripture

In general, I try to tell our people to be nice. I often say that we, as the people of God, must not mock, make fun of, or be harsh toward those with whom we disagree. And, in general, I believe I’m correct.

However, not every example in Scripture of the dealings of men of God with those who oppose God is nice and friendly. In fact, there are some that are downright sarcastic. There are some instances in which biting humor and mockery are part of the words of men of God to show the folly of idolatry.

Remember the story of the prophet Elijah on Mount Carmel? There 1 prophet of God faced off against 450 prophets of Baal. The challenge was simple: first one to get his deity to send fire down from heaven wins. Elijah let the prophets of Baal go first. They danced, chanted, and even cut themselves to try to get their false god to answer. Baal did not answer, because he is no god.

Look at how Elijah then mocked the prophets of Baal. This is actually pretty funny.

1 Kings 18:27 – And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.”

This is not nice. Elijah points out that their repeated chanting is not reaching Baal. Then he offers four alternatives. Perhaps Baal is really thinking about something hard, and so he cannot answer. Or, (my personal favorite) perhaps he is on the toilet and cannot be disturbed. Or perhaps he is away on a journey and has not made it back yet. Or perhaps he’s taking a nap and you guys need to yell even louder to wake him up.

What do we do with a story like this? First, I have to personally pull back my sweeping statement about always being nice.

There are some situations in which the people of God are not called to look at the ways of the world and pretend they are logical, sensible, acceptable alternatives. Sometimes people may actually cross the line into the ridiculous, and we should not pretend they have remained with the sane.

But, I would also encourage us to be very careful with the use of sarcasm. Like righteous anger, righteous sarcasm may exist. However, it is far more likely that you and I will go to sarcasm too soon or cross the line into cruelty at a time when it is not at all righteous. We need to be very cautious as we speak and as we joke. It is far too easy to let our humor feed our pride, to let our joking mask our gossip, to let our laughter accompany our grumbling complaints. It is far too easy for us to hurt others in a way that does lasting damage when we think we are funny.

So, I cannot say that sarcasm is inappropriate. But be really sure you know what you are doing. Be really sure that your motives are not dishonorable to the Lord. Use humor, when appropriate, to point out the ridiculousness of certain things that dishonor the Lord. But as you do so, be wise and careful not to begin to feed your own pride and selfishness.