How apt is the poem:

Laugh and the world laughs with you;
Weep, and you weep alone.
For the sad old earth must borrow its mirth,
But has trouble enough of its own.

—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1855-1919)

The world needs more of the right kind of joy. Fairy tales, representing many cultures, are mostly gruesome tragedies—too few happy endings, too few peals of laughter, too little joy.

Communism, Nazism and any extreme nationalism all have the same failing, as do the world's most prominent religions—including Christianity and Islam. Too many of their leaders take themselves far too seriously.

Frequent humorless religious extremes have arisen throughout history: the Spanish Inquisition, Hindu thuggee murder cults, Islamic terrorism. It's the big "I" problem.

Take yourself too seriously for whatever reason and you degrade yourself into an arrogant fanatic—with eyes only for "I, me, my, mine."

Notice the ultimate arrogance of Lucifer:

I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit in the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High. (Isaiah 14:12-14).

I! I! I! Can't you just see the devil at his demonic political rally? All his hordes of darkness chant: Hail the leader! Hail the Leader!

But look where he has led mankind since the snake oil deal he offered Eve in the Garden of Eden! His fundamentally humorless, ego-centric arrogance has spawned the world's perversion, hatred, war and misery.

Oh, there is devilish laughter, of course—at the suffering of others and toward the ridiculing of the divine. Solomon called it the "laughter of the fool" (Ecclesiastes 7:6).

What the world really needs now is a Messiah with mirth, a supreme, spiritual leader who rates joy near the top of character traits, laughs heartily and can be witty. One who takes truth seriously, but is not egotistical.

You know what's exciting? Jesus Christ is that Messiah of joy—and of all else that is good and right. Most people only think Jesus wept (John 11:35). He did, of course, but He also used a pun when He called four fishermen to follow Him: "Follow Me and I will make you fishers of men" (Matthew 4:18-22).

He used hyperbole (exaggeration for effect) when he said, "And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye?" (Luke 6:41). Imagine a plank in your eye! That's exaggeration—effectively employed.

Most of the world is blind to His humor as the insightful Elton Trueblood pointed out: "The widespread failure to recognize and to appreciate the humor of Christ is one of the most amazing aspects of the era named for Him… We are so sure that He was always deadly serious that we often twist His words in order to try to make them conform to our preconceived mold. A misguided piety has made us fear that acceptance of His obvious wit and humor would somehow be mildly blasphemous or sacrilegious. Religion, we think, is serious business, and serious business is incompatible with banter" (The Humor of Christ, 1964, p.15).

Serious business! Yes indeed! Nevertheless, the number two character trait generated by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit—listed right after "love"—is "joy" (Galatians 5:22). What a cheerful revelation!

Jesus had a very positive outlook on life. He explained part of His mission as, " I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly" (John 10:10, emphasis added).

If we just knew that the true Messiah laughed, smiled and used puns with His friends and followers, then maybe we could relate that much more to Him. If we just knew that He's not at all like the harsh, self-righteous, merciless, arrogant religious and secular dictators of world history, ancient and modern. If we just knew all that, we could like—and be like—such a Messiah.

Yes, this sad, old, lonely, weeping, troubled world desperately needs the Messiah of mirth. And He says, "…be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). If He can do it, so can you.