Sarcasm, and the Savior, and Civility

I've been taught we should liken the scriptures to ourselves. I've also been told that the answers to all life's problems can be found in the scriptures.

So, I scurry off to the scriptures to solve this latest dilemma: Should I be allowed a little sarcasm in discussing public affairs? (Actually I don't just now scurry to the topic; I have been thinking about these things for some time.)

I'm partially of the mind I should be allowed some sarcasm. After all, a little sarcasm is nothing but a little rebuke and a little rebuke is sometimes in order.

But, what I write below in this post may lead you to conclude I shouldn't be so inclined to sarcasm, but rather should maintain a no-sarcasm-allowed approach.

I'll tell you, part of the reason I want to be allowed some sarcasm. In the post on this topic a couple days ago, I offered two examples, one with a little sarcasm, and the other stripped -- best I could -- of any sarcasm.

I judged that the first example was more persuasive. I was trying to persuade my reader that we should allow more immigrants in -- and I judge that first example made a stronger, more succinct argument. I do believe we should be allowed -- and are right to want -- to make as strong of an argument as possible. Sometimes (maybe most times), that does cause a little offense. Making a point can cause offense as it suggests the other person is wrong -- and no one likes being wrong. So, they are offended.

So, where to draw the line?

Turn your little fingers over the pages of the Old Testament, coming to I Kings 18, and have before you the story of a prophet who sarcastically taunted the followers of Baal as they tried to call down fire from heaven. The prophets of Baal were having little luck, and the scripture tells us:

"And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked."

He mocked them, he taunted them, and he was very sarcastic. Hardly, civil. Hardly civil, at all.

But, despite this example, I hesitate to fully conclude I should allow myself to mock, taunt and be sarcastic.

And, that even after I remember the Savior called some "a generation of vipers," and others "whited sepulchres." Name calling, you say? Perhaps. And, I think of Him tossing the moneychangers out of the temple, telling them they had made it "a den of thieves." That, too, is a little sarcastic.

But, there are other examples to consider, examples where the Savior could have been sarcastic, but opted to not be. My favorite story of Christ being an example to us, in how we should treat others, comes not from his mortal life, but from an event yet to take place. The story comes form Zechariah 13:6.

At the Second Coming, the Jews will meet Jesus, and see the pierce marks from His being nailed to the cross. Now, these are the Jews, the people who crucified Him. He could bear a little anger toward them. If it were us, perhaps if we were asked where the marks came from, we might reply. "O boy, go figure," or "Get a clue." Maybe we would ask back, "Oh, like you don't know?" or crack back that drawn out "Hel-lo" we so love to use.

But when Jesus is asked, "What are these wounds in thine hands?" He answers, "Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends."

Not uncivil at all. Not sarcastic. Not taunting. Not mocking. Instead, His very words offer friendship.



Turn your fingers to another scripture, this one in Mark 2. When they brings one sick of palsy to Him, Jesus sees they have faith that the man could be healed. But, instead of immediately healing him, Jesus says, "Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."

Of course, the scribes are outraged. "Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?"

Jesus could be more in-your-face in how he replies. He could say, "Good point. Exactly so, So, I'll now heal this man and you will know I am, indeed, God"

Instead, He leaves it to them to figure out that He is, indeed, God. Watch how instead of being sarcastic, or even being so direct as to be overly affronting, He instead softens it. He reasons with them, instead of putting them in their place.

"And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?


"Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?

"But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)

"I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house."

You and I? Would we have been tempted to add a jab? Like, "That quite clearly should show you who I am"?