God: The Object of Praise, Not the Object of Jokes

“And I was ravished in spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as it had been of a trumpet, Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, that first and that last: and that which thou seest write in a book, and send it unto the seven Churches which are in Asia, unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and undo Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

Then I turned back to see the voice that spake with me: and when I was turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks, And in the midst of the seven candlesticks, one like unto the son of man, clothed with a garment down to the feet, and girded about the paps with a golden girdle,

His head and hairs were white as white wool, and as snow, and His eyes were as a flame of fire, And His feet like unto the fine brass burning as in a furnace: and His voice as the sound of many waters. And He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth went a sharp two edged sword, and His face shone as the sun shineth in His strength.

And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead…”~Revelation 1:10-17


[Preface: Sometimes I tend to skip quotes when reading a page of text. If you are like me and you skipped the above quote, please go back and read it, for it is the very Word of God.]

I wonder what your reaction to reading that passage is. For myself, I am stricken with terror and awe. It is not a bad kind of terror, but the kind that one knows when your mother calls you in from play and you know you’ve done something wrong, or when the principal calls you into his office over the intercom and you know you’re busted. It is that kind of a terror times about a million. It is the terror of knowing that there is a God who is perfectly holy, holy, holy and that one day I, a wretched sinner, will stand in front of Him claiming nothing in myself, worthy of utter destruction, pleading for His mercy and grace.

The passage also inspires a kind of awe; a wonder and love at a God who I know is completely holy and just, yet at the same time a loving Father who gathers His sheep to Himself and clothes them in splendor, in the very righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This morning I saw a t-shirt which featured two stick figures. One was a stick figure with horns and was labeled ‘Satan.’ The other was a bearded figure labeled ‘Jesus.’ Underneath ‘Satan’ it said “Satan is bad.” Underneath, the ‘Jesus’ figure it said “Jesus is good.” Underneath both figures it said “Be like Jesus.”

I saw the shirt and immediately this passage from Revelation burned like a hot iron into my head. Half of me wanted to take this shirt, rip it off the individual and commit it to the flames (wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could do this to all the sins of our lives, those little darlings of the flesh we so eagerly cling to), the other half of me restrained itself and said it probably wasn’t the best approach.

What is so frustrating is that this individual does not recognize how unfunny, how inappropriate, how horrible a shirt like this is. I am ready to say that this shirt is just downright sinful. I don’t know how anyone could read a passage like the one above and claim a belief in a Lord Jesus Christ who at every moment sustains the entire cosmos by His Word, and then degrade Him to a stupid stick figure. We are talking about Almighty God revealed in Jesus Christ who humbled Himself and became man and suffered the most horrible death on a cross to redeem the lives of His people, and we have made it into a joke to be slapped on a t-shirt alongside a figure of Satan.

Satan, that fallen angel who rebels against the Almighty, who, everyday causes the people of God torment, persecution, evil beyond words. His principal task is to persecute the Church and win souls unto eternal damnation and you have made him a little, goofy figure with horns. Satan is no laughing matter. We are in a spiritual battle that is real, as real as the keys on this laptop, as real as the computer in front of you, as real as the flesh on your bones. He is not just “bad,” he is the epitome of rebellion against God.

I cannot stand crap like this. It is crap; these shirts that say “Jesus is my homeboy” or make Christ to be some comical figure which everyone can appreciate. He is the Lord of our lives and without Him we would suffer the eternal torments of hell. Apart from our hearts being “idol factories” who consistently make the God of our salvation into something He is not, this is the lowest of the low. Jokes about God are no laughing matter. I am not saying that God does not appreciate laughter or our good times, but He is a jealous God who is unfathomably holy. To lower Him to a stupid comic on a shirt is not only a violation of His expressed will, but it degrades His holiness. God will not be mocked. He will not be made the object of our gags and jokes.

This is a shirt that I would expect some middle school kid who doesn’t know any better to wear, not someone who is near adulthood and knows (or should know) what Scripture says about Jesus Christ. It shows a low level of maturity, and an even lower level of spiritual maturity. I wish the Church today would put its childish ways behind it, and begin acting like biblical Christians.

God is not the object of our jokes; He is the object of our praise and worship. He demands this because He is a holy God, not some slapstick comedian we can pat on the back and have a laugh with. The Apostle John saw Him and fell at His feet as if he were dead. It is to this we are called, fear and trembling, not childish humor when speaking about God and what He has revealed in His holy Word.